Psych 289 - Chapter 7 - Human Memory

George Miller

"The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two" - Noticed that people could recall only about seven items in tasks that required them to remember unfamiliar material; they require short term memory which constrainsconstrains people's ability to perform tasks in which they need to mentally juggle various pieces of information

Chunk

A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.

Consolidation

A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory. May unfold while people sleep.

Long-term Potentiation - LTP

A long lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway; is reproduced artificially by sending a burst of high-frequency electrical stimulation along a neural pathway; natural events produce the same sort of potential neural circuit when a memory is formed

Retroactive Interference

A memory problem that occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned information. Occurs between original learning and the retest on that learning during retention interval.

Proactive Interference

A memory problem that occurs when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information. This is rooted in learning that comes before exposure to test material.

Relearning

A memory test that requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or effort is saved by having learned it before.

Recall

A memory test that requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues. ie: essay questions, fill-in-the-blank

Recognition

A memory test that requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options. ie: multiple choice, true/false, and matching

Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon - TOTTP

A temporary inability to remember something, accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach; can be retrieved through retrieval cues

Long-Term Memory

An unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time (weeks, months or years); may be permanent due to flashbulb memories (evidence not convincing); can be organized in simple clusters or multilevel classification systems

Bartlett's work in the remembering process

Asked students to read "War of the Ghosts" twice and waited 15 minutes; subjects recalling the story tended to change details and to 'remember' elements not in the original poem at all; memory of the events of the poem were more like a reconstruction; story seemed to be stored hierarchically, as recall is often based on the direction of higher-level schemas

Semantic Networks

Concepts joined together by links that show how the concepts are related; Specific nodes represent specific concepts or pieces of knowledge; Closely related words are easy to remember, this process is called spreading activation within this.

Overlearning

Continued rehearsal of material after one first appears to have mastered it.

Massed Practice

Cramming all your studying into one 9 hour day

Narrative Methods

Creating a story that includes the words you want to remember in the appropriate order

Episodic Memory System

Dated recollection of personal experiences, like an autobiography

Self-Referent Encoding

Deciding how or whether information is personally relevant; may be especially useful in facilitating retention

Distributed Practice

Distributing your studying over three, 3 hour periods on successive days; Retention is greater

Relational Schemas

Emphasize reconstructive nature of memory. Part of what people recall is the details about the event and part is a reconstruction of the event based on their schemas.

Semantic Encoding

Emphasizes the meaning of the verbal output; involves thinking about the objects and actions that the words represent; Deep processing

Structural Encoding

Emphasizes the physical structure of a stimulus; Shallow processing

Phonemic Encoding

Emphasizes what a word sounds like; Intermediate processing

Context Cues

Facilitate the retrieval of information; Ex. Used effectively in legal investigations to enhance eyewitness recall; hypnosis can actually increase individuals' tendency to report incorrect information

Attention

Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events.

Encoding

Forming a memory code; getting information in; Ex. When you form a memory code for a word, you might emphasize how it looks, sounds or what it means Levels of processing Structural Phonemic Semantic Greater dimensions: Elaboration Visual imagery Self-referent

Baddeley's Model of Working Memory

Four components of working memory: phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, central executive system, episodic buffer

Forgetting Curve

Graphs retention and forgetting over time

Medial temporal lobe memory system

Hippocampal region is critical in role in the consolidation of memory; Memories consolidated here but then stored in diverse areas; the first area of the brain to sustain damage during Alzheimer's disease

Serial-Position Effect

In memory tests, the fact that subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle

Explicit Memory

Intentional recollection of previous experiences; Conscious, assessed directly, and can be best assessed with recall or recognition measures of retention.

Retrospective Memory

Involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information; Ex. When you reminisce about your high school experience

Prospective Memory

Involves remembering to perform actions in the future; Ex. remember to walk the dog; plays a role in everyday life; people vary in their ability to carry out prospective memory tasks; deficiency in prospective memory leads to "absent-mindedness"

Elaboration

Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding; additional associations usually help people to remember information; differences in elaboration can help explain why different approaches to semantic processing result in varied amounts of retention

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia; Ex. 25 year old gymnast who sustained a head trauma might find the prior three, seven or entire years of her lifetime erased from memory

Nondeclarative Memory System

Memory for actions, skills, and operations; Includes base for conditioned reactions based on previous learning; Automatic; Cerebellum and amygdala appear to contribute to this system. ie: contains memories of how to execute actions like riding a bike, typing, and tying one's shoes.

Declarative Memory System

Memory for factual information; depends on conscious, effortful processes; Handled by the medial temporal lobe memory system and far-flung areas of cortex with which it communicates; Involves the Semantic Memory System (general knowledge, undated) ie: recollections of words, definitions, names, dates, faces, concepts, events, and ideas

How remembering can be influenced by neutrostransmitter levels in synapses

Memory formation results in alterations in synaptic transmission at the specific sites; durable changes in synaptic transmission may be the neural building blocks of more complex memories

Dual-Coding Theory - Paivio

Memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall; imagery facilitates memory because it provides a second kind of memory code, and two codes are better than ones

Destination Memory

Memory that involves recalling to whom one has told what. Fragile because people are more self-focused on their message than focusing on encoding to whom they were talking.

Parallel Distributed Processing Model - PDP

Models of memory that assume cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks. A piece of knowledge is represented by a particular pattern of activation across an entire network. Info lies in the strength of the connections.

How retrieval failure can be a cause of forgetting

More likely when a mismatch occurs between retrieval cues and the encoding of the information you're searching for; a good retrieval cue is consistent with the original encoding of the information to be recalled; semantic cues are best if the meaning of the world was emphasized during encoding

Negative Effects of Divided Attention

Not limited to memory; can have a negative impact on the performance of a variety of tasks, especially if they are complex or unfamiliar; the human brain can only handle one attention-consuming task at a time; when people multitask, they are switching their attention back and forth among tasks, rather than processing them simultaneously, but not in others

Seven sins of memory

OMISSION 1) transience - weakness of memory over time 2) absentmindedness - failure to pay attention 3) blocking - temporary problem when we fail to retrieve a memory COMMISSION 4) misattribution - assign memory go wrong source 5) suggestibility - memory is distorted because of misleading questions 6) bias - inaccuracy due to our current knowledge on our reconstruction of the past 7) persistence - unwanted memories or recollections you cannot forget (they haunt you)

Misinformation Effect

Occurs when participants' recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information. 3 stages to studying this: 1) subjects view event 2) subjects exposed to info about event (some is misleading) 3) recall is tested to see if post-event misinformation altered their memory of the original event. This effect is very reliable in challenging validity of memory.

Effortful Processing

Picking up information because you are intentionally attempting to do so, such as when you are listening to a lecture

Atkinson and Shiffring

Proposed that incoming information passes through two temporary storage buffers before being placed into long-term memory; the three memory stores are not viewed as anatomical structures, but as distinct types of memory

Levels of Processing Theory - Craik and Lockhart

Proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes; retention of stimulus words would increase as subjects moved from structural to phonemic to semantic encoding

Information Processing Theory

Proposes that people have three memory stores: sensory memory, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM)

Working Memory Capacity (WMC)

Refers to one's ability to hold and manipulate information in conscious attention; influenced by heredity; temporarily reduced by stress; plays a role in complex cognitive intelligence

Retention

Refers to the proportion of material retained/ remembered

How hypnosis, therapeutic dream interpretation, and memories recovered before the age of three years can lead to False Memories

Repressed memories of abuse have been recovered using hypnosis, but it tends to increase memory distortions while making people feel more confident about their recollection; Repressed memories of abuse have been recovered through therapists' dream interpretation; research shows that bogus dream interpretations can lead to subjects believing that they actually experienced the events suggested in dream analysis; Recovered memories have described incidents of abuse that occurred before the victims reached age three; recollection of earliest memories don't go back before ages two or three

Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) Paradigm

Series of lists of 15 words are presented to participants. They're asked to recall words immediately. Each list has sets of words strongly associated with target word not on the list. 50% if the time thy remember the non-presented target word. This test proves it is relatively simple to get people to remember something "they're sure they saw" without actually seeing it.

Thompson's view of Specific Memories

Shown that specific memories may depend on localized neural circuits in the brain; memories may create unique, reusable pathways in the brain along which signals flow; he traced the pathway that accounts for a rabbit's memory of a conditioned eye-blink response to a microscopic spot in the cerebellum (located in the hindbrain)

Late-Selection Processing

Stimuli are screened out after the brain has processed the meaning or significance of the input; depends on the "cognitive load" of current information processing

Early-Selection Processing

Stimuli are screened out during sensory input

Retrieval Cues

Stimuli that help gain access to memories

Mnemonic Devices

Strategies for enhancing memory; engaging in deeper processing and organizing material is more crucial to everyday memory

Sperling's Study of Sensory Memory

Subjects saw three rows of letters follow by high, medium, and low tones signalled which row of letters to report; because subjects had to rely on the afterimage to report the letters, Sperling was able to measure how rapidly the afterimage disappeared by varying the delay between the display and the signal to report

The Case of H.M.

Suffered his first grand mal seizure at 16, followed by 11 epileptic seizures per week; had surgery, that inadvertently wiped out his ability to form long-term memories; short-term memory remained with no recollection of what happened after 1953 (11 seizures); his new memory lasted 20-30 seconds; his hippocampus was removed and thus attributed to his inability to form new memories

Controversy regarding Recovered Memories

Surge of recovered memories of previously forgotten sexual abuse in childhood; memory usually lacks evidence and there is no way to distinguish a genuine recovered memory from false ones; many clinicians accept these recovered memories, arguing that it is common for people to bury traumatic memories in their unconscious, many researchers point to the results of research suggesting it is easy to create inaccurate memories

Visuospatial Sketchpad

Temporarily hold and manipulate visual images; Ex. When you try to mentally map out a driving route

Testing Effect

Testing actually increases your memory; studies have shown that taking a test on material increases performance on a subsequent test even more than studying for an equal amount of time; this effect is observed in both closed and open-book exams; favourable effects on testing enhanced performance; the key is that testing forces students to engage in effortful retrieval of information and is a great memory tool

Visual Imagery

The creation of visual images to represent words can enrich encoding; visual imagery may help by creating two memory codes, rather than just one

Neurogenesis

The formation of new neurons; may contribute to the sculpting of neural circuits that underlie memory; manipulations that suppress neurogenesis lead to memory impairments on many types of learning tasks; newly formed neurons are initially more excitable than mature neurons, so they may be more readily recruited into new neural circuits corresponding to memories; provides the brain with a supply of neurons that vary in age and may somehow allow the brain to "time-stamp" some memories

Decay Theory

The idea that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time; Evidence shows this contributes to loss of info in short-term memory but not long-term.

Interference Theory

The idea that people forget information because of competition from other material; The more similar info is the more interference it causes. Two types of this: Retroactive Proactive

Encoding Specificity Principle

The idea that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code; Cues at retrieval will facilitate recall if the info about them and about their relation to the to-be-remembered words is stored at the same time as the to-be-remembered info (According to Tulving).

Sensory Memory

The preservation of information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second.

Reality Monitoring

The process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources (our perceptions of actual events) or internal sources (our thoughts and imaginations). Rich in context or easy to recall memories tend to make people infer that the actually happened. If they lack these details or are hard to recall, people usually infer they did not.

Source Monitoring

The process of making attributions about the origins of memories. Contributes to many mistakes people make in reconstructing experiences. Requires people to make decision at the time of the recall about where memories came from.

Rehearsal

The process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about information to be stored in memory.

Procedural Memory System

The repository of memories for actions, skills, and operations; Involves Episodic Memory System

Transfer-Appropriate Processing

The situation that occurs when the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measures of attention.

Clustering

The tendency to remember similar or related items in groups.

Memory

Three key processes involved: 1) encoding (info in) 2) storage (maintaining) 3) retrieval (info out)

Wilder Penfield

Triggered long-lost memories through electrical stimulation of the brain (ESB) during brain surgeries

Tulving's distinction between Availability and Accessibility

Understanding retrieval is the key to understanding human memory; the information is unavailable (no longer present in the memory system), or not accessible accessible because the cues you are using in your attempt to answer the question are not accessible (present in the memory system, but not accessible at the moment)

Implicit Memory

Unintentional retention of memories; Unconscious, must be accessed indirectly, can be best assessed with variations on relearning measures of retention.

Flashbulb Memories

Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events; not as accurate as claimed

Phonological Loop

Using recitation in short-term memory

Pseudoforgetting

When forgetting only appears to be forgetting but was actually never inserted into memory in the first place. Usually due to lack of attention.

Short-Term Memory

Working memory; A limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for about 20-30 seconds; limited capacity of 7 chunks of information

Conceptual Hierarchy

A multilevel classification system based on common properties among items.

Source Monitoring Error

An error that occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source.

Schema

An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or sequence of events.

Cocktail-party Phenomenon

Being able to focus one's auditory attention on a particular stimulus while filtering out a range of other stimuli, much the same way that a party-goer can focus on a single conversation in a noisy room.

Central Executive Control System

Controls deployment of attention, switching focus and dividing attention; Coordinates actions of other models

Hyperthymestic Syndrome

Extreme Episodic Memories; remembering every memory of your waking life

Ebbinghaus's Methods for Remembering

Gave himself nonsense syllables (like BAF, XOF) to remember; he tracked his progress on a forgetting curve; suggested that most forgetting occurs very rapidly

Semantic Memory System

General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned

Automatic Processing

Information, such as frequency of word use, is picked up without your intending to do so

Repression

Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious. Tendency to forget things one doesn't want to think about, aka "motivated forgetting."

Retention Interval

Length of time between the presentation of materials to be remembered and the measurement of forgetting

Working Memory

Limited memory storage system that temporarily maintains and stores information; provides an interface between perception, memory, and action.

Anterograde Amnesia

Loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia; Ex. The gymnast may suffer an impaired ability to remember future events, people she meets, where she parked her car, etc

Storage

Maintaining encoded information in memory over time

Acrostics

Phrases (poems) in which the first letter of each word (or line) functions as a cue to help you recall information to be remembered ("Every good boy does fine" to remember the musical scale); Acronyms is a word formed out of the first letters of a series of words (Roy G. Biv)

Retrieval

Recovering information from memory stores

Episodic Buffer

Serves as interface between working and long-term memory; allows as various components of working memory to integrate info