PSYC 333: Feb. 3-5. Episodic and Semantic Memory

• Define semantic and episodic memory

episodic: able to recall memory of specific experiences semantic: general knowledge of the world, said to be assimilation of episodic, forming general understanding i.e. semantic memories.

• Describe the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

o a bunch of related words with a really related one missing, and people will fill in the missing word filling in = falsely recognizing a word, activation is the same as one that was present

describe the multi-property appraoch

o explain specific patterns of deficits based on the properties that they share o sensory properties: visual, auditory, tactile, taste o functional taste: e.g. chair entity property: sits there at certain angles, functional property: used to sit

Do we need episodic memory to retrieve memories?

NO

Do we need episodic memory to create new memories?

YES

why are schemas important for learning new concepts

• schemas help us learn new concepts because you do not need to start from scratch every time

what are two disorders of concept and schema based memory? briefly describe each

1) Semantic Dementia • Impairment in meaning of words and objects • Good executive functioning 2) Fronto-temporal Dementia • Attentional deficits and poor executive functioning

subjects with anterograde amnesia that results in episodic impairments often have trouble forming new semantic memories • But other patients do not show semantic deficits

:D

• Describe Collins & Quillian's Hierarchical Network Model, the predictions that the model makes, and the evidence that the model is not correct

Hierarchical Network Model o concepts we have are organized in a strict hierarchical network o e.g. animal→ ideas along with it, sub categories of different types and their characteristics; exemplars: also have their own properties • we should be able to verify a sentence more quickly if the distance between items on our network is smaller • e.g. a canary has skin will take you longer to verify than saying a canary is yellow -- Evidence that this model is not correct - too rigid, needs flexibility - -this model has nothing to do with how familiar things are or how prototypical things are

• Describe Craik & Lockhart's Levels of Processing approach to memory i.e. what are the depths associated with visual, verbal and semantic memories, and the challenges with the approach

Levels of processing • recall is best when we process more deeply --> the way in which the material is processed determines its durability in LTM Shallowest: visual i.e. letter case of written word 2nd, phonological: verbal, sound of word, does this word rhyme with this word 3rd, semantic meaning, i.e. does this word fit into a sentence - Challenges: What is depth? the processing is not Serial, rather it is parallel: i.e. everything is done at the same time

What is a frame?

a schema that does not have a time course: i.e. the food cooked by your mom when you go home

• Describe the general pattern of episodic and semantic memory in patients with amnesia and the exceptions to the general pattern

amnesia patients: general patterns episodic impairment: difficulty making new episodic and new semantic memories, no difficulty in retrieving old semantic memories things start in episodic and move to semantic. -- Exceptions to general pattern > HM: could not create new episodic or semantic memories, could however develop new implicit memories >Jon: anoxia; amnesia yet because of the early nature of his incident, was able to maintain excellent semantic memory capabilities

• Describe Loftus' study with paired categories and initial letters and what it tells us about how we organize information

categories refine searches, increasing the rate at which we can retrieve relevant information. I.e. fruit-p, fruit is a category refining our knowledge of fruits, and p refines that category even further. P-fruit, p is a much broader category, less coherent and manageable than the other way around.

what is anterograde amnesia

developing new memories is dysfunction

• Describe Paivio's Dual-coding hypothesis and what it tells us about episodic memory and meaning

dual-coding: double-encoding of a word in memory --> i.e. cat, encoded verbally as a word, and visually as a furry cute and friendly animal/pet. The word cat is easier to remember than is the word dissent, that generally is only encoded in one type of memory, that is Verbal. --> well-learned language habits facilitate memory for things that we associate meaning with.

• Discuss the evidence from amnesia that episodic & semantic memory are separate systems

in patients with retrograde amnesia, typically what is seen is deficiency in either semantic or episodic

• Describe the key difference between sensory-functional theory and the multi-property approach

in terms of recognizing dysfunction - sensory-functional: general term - multi-property: specific deficits, shared patterns become important • e.g. trouble remembering vegetables and not kittens, you probably have trouble with the shared properties of vegetables that don't have to do with kittens

Describe the sensory-functional theory

o Living things: stored by their sensory properties o non living things: stored by their functional properties

• Describe the study by Carmichael et al. and what it tells us about bias in episodic memory, especially at encoding and retrieval

presenting sufficiently ambiguous stimuli (looked like two different verbal labels) to use for subsequent recall; when subjects were asked to draw items from memory, they were sufficiently influenced by the label they were given. --> *Bias occurs at retrieval, as a function of the undue influence of the label during verbal task* --> retrieval load was lessened due to recognition rather than recall-->the appropriate information was stored and encoded, it was at retrieval when the verbal task influenced the retrieval by recognition.

what is retrograde amnesia, and what is typical of this type of amnesia, unlike anterograde amnesia

remembering old memories typically just one of either semantic or episodic, i.e. SELECTIVE DEFICITS unlike anterograde, where they typically are not separate, i.e episodic usually effects semantic

• Describe the basic premise behind Transfer Appropriate Processing and what it tells us about LoP

retention is best when encoding matches retrieval; i.e. study for a multiple choice test by doing multiple choice questions; study for an in class essay by writing in response to relevant prompts

• Discuss Collins & Loftus' Spreading Activation Model and the evidence for it

• Flexible system based on semantic distant Accounts for two issues presented by the hierarchical network model • Takes into account typicality and familiarity -- --> Ask question about red, then ask question about cherries, much quicker to answer question about cherries due to related activation • take jumbled words, precede them with semantically related word, or unrelated word, much faster to unjumble word when preceded by something related

describe the theories behind depth in levels of processing

• deeper processing involves a more elaborate code --> easier to retrieve something that is more elaborate i.e. more connections, more ways to retrieve it. E.g. if one connection is dmaged or lost, then other connections can be used in lieu of the lost one.

• Describe Endel Tulving's differentiation between episodic and semantic memory

• episodic: accessing *specific memories* located at a particular point in time --> "mental time travel", reliving certain experiences, as well as the capacity to travel forward and anticipate future events • Semantic: generalized knowledge of the world: consolidation of several episodic memories to form a generalized knowledge of the world

• Describe the study conducted by Clayton & Dickinson and what it tells us about episodic memory in non-human animals

• how to tell if episodic memory exists in animals --> blue jays: love meal worms, but will eat peanuts if nuts aren't available --> put either food in tray, hide tray for x period of time, and present tray to jay to see if they would retrieve their favourite --> immediate: went for worms --> delayed: went for peanuts as worms decay quickly

What do Schmidt and Bjork say about learning

• learning very quickly does not predict generalization --> remembers what you study, not predicting solving other types of problems • time is required for generalization