Exam #2 - PSY 360

What do we use neuroimaging for??

*Only to support existing research*

Long-term Memory

- Can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades

Short-term Memory

- Holds five to seven items for about 15 to 20 seconds

Sensory Memory

- Initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second. • Information decays very quickly -Persistence of vision (sparkler thing) •Holds large amount of information for a short period of time (less then 1 sec - up to 3 sec) • Collects information • Holds information for initial processing • Fills in the blank (Sperling, 1960) example Iconic and Echoic Memory

Long-Term Memory

-"Archive" of information about past events and knowledge learned -Works closely with working memory -Storage stretches from a few moments ago to as far back as one can 'remember' -More recent memories are more detailed

Interactions between E and S Memories

-Episodic can be lost, leaving only semantic Acquiring knowledge may start as episodic but then "fade" to semantic -Semantic can be enhanced if associated with episodic -Autobiographical memory: memory of specific experiences, includes semantic and episodic -Personal semantic memory: semantic memories that have personal significance -Can influence what we experience (episodic) by determining what we can attend to.

Primacy Effect

-Memory better for stimuli presented at beginning -Primacy effect gave more time to rehearse info, more likely to enter LTM

Recency Effect

-Memory better for stimuli presented at end of list -Stimuli still in STM

Serial Position

-Murdoch (1962) studied the distinction between short-term and longterm memories using the serial position curve -Read stimulus list, write down all words remembered -Memory better for stimuli presented at beginning -Primacy effect gave more time to rehearse info, more likely to enter LTM -Memory better for stimuli presented at end of list Recency effect Stimuli still in STM

Effect of Time on Memory

-Typical research findings are that forgetting increases with longer intervals from the original encoding -Remember/Know procedure (Petrican et al, 2010) Remember if a stimulus is familiar and the circumstance under which it was encountered? Know if the stimulus is familiar but don't remember experiencing it earlier? Don't remember the stimulus at all Semanticization of remote memories Loss of episodic details for memories of longago events

Coding in Long-Term Memory

-Visual and auditory encoding in short- and longterm memory -Semantic encoding in Short-term memory?

Explicit/declarative Memory:

-conscious memory -Episodic: personal events/episodes -Semantic: facts, knowledge

Semantic Memory

-facts and knowledge -Semantic does not involve mental time travel -General knowledge

Episodic Memory

-memory for personal events -Episodic involves mental time travel -No guarantee of accuracy

Implicit/non-declarative Memory

-unconscious memory -Procedural (skill) memory (riding a bike) -Priming: previous experience changes response without conscious awareness

Baddley's Working Memory Model

3 parts- phonological loop, central executive, and visuospatial sketchpad.

Modal Process of Memory

Atkinson and Shiffrin (1968) Three different types of memory: • Sensory Memory - Initial stage that holds all incoming information for seconds or fractions of a second • Short-term Memory - Holds five to seven items for about 15 to 20 seconds. • Long-term Memory - Can hold a large amount of information for years or even decades

Episodic Buffer

Backup store that communicates with LTM and WM components • Baddeley et al., 2009 • Hold information longer and has greater capacity than phonological loop or visuospatial sketch pad

Echoic memory:

Brief sensory memory of the things that we hear • Responsible for persistence of sound When someone asks you something that you missed, then they go to repeat themselves and you understand/remember. -1-3 seconds

Iconic memory:

Brief sensory memory of the things that we see • Responsible for persistence of vision

Types of LTM?

Episodic and Semantic

Separation of Episodic and Semantic Memories

Evidence from brainimaging experiments that retrieving episodic and semantic memories activate different areas of the brain

Sperling, 1960 Experiment

Measuring the capacity and duration of sensory memory • Array of letters flashed quickly on a screen (50 ms) • Participants asked to report as many as possible • Whole report method: participants asked to report as many as could be seen • Average of 4.5 out of 12 letters (37.5%) Partial report method: participants heard tone that told them which row of letters to report • Average of 3.3 out of 4 letters (82%) • Participants could report any of the rows Delayed partial report method: presentation of tone delayed for a fraction of a second after the letters were extinguished • Performance decreases rapidly

What is memory?

Memory: processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present • Active any time some past experience has an impact on how you think or behave now or in the future

Are Short-Term and Working Memory the same thing?

NO IDIOT. -Working memory involves manipulation, Short term just holds onto it for a second.

STM and LTM in the same place?

NOOOO DOUBLE DISSOCIATION.

Graf experiment (1985)

Presentation of one stimulus affects performance on that stimulus when it is presented again Texted explicit memory and implicit memory Tested three groups Amnesia patients with Korsakoff's syndrome Patients without amnesia being treated for alcoholism Patients with amnesia who had no history of alcoholism What the hell for? - I will fill this in when I figure it out.

Proof of Semantic Encoding in Long Term Memory?

Recognition memory: identification of a previously encountered stimulus -Sachs (1967) - reading passages then asked "do you remember __? etc.

Procedural Memory:

Skill memory: memory for actions No memory of where or when learned Perform procedures without being consciously aware of how to do them People who cannot form new LTMs can still learn new skills (e.g., H.M.)

Locating Memory in the Brain - Neuropsychology

The hippocampus is responsible for one's ability to encode new long-term memories Henry Molaison (H.M.) - surgery for epilepsy (Removed Hippocampus) Clive Wearing- encephalitis (Damaged Hippocampus) K.F. - brain injury in a motorbike accident (Damage to Parietal) HM & Clive - STM - Okay, LTM - Okay BUT** damaged hippocampus makes new memories impossible to store. KF- Impaired STM- Okay LTM, can make new memories.

Encoding

Visual - Short Term: holding an image still in your mind. -Long Term: visualizing what your childhood home looked like the last time you saw it. Auditory- Short Term: representing the sounds you heard in your mind just after hearing them. - Long Term: remembering a song you have heard many times before. Semantic - Short Term: placing words from a STM task into categories. Long Term: thinking about the plot of a book you read a week ago.

Visuospatial Sketch Pad

Visual imagery: The creation of visual images in the mind in the absence of a physical visual stimulus • Shepard and Metzler (1971) • Mental rotation task • Tasks that called for greater rotations took longer

Brown - Peterson Task - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial of the experiment, you saw three letters (a trigram) for two seconds. You were then given a distractor task that involved counting backwards by threes from a given number. After the distractor task, you were asked to recall the trigram. The independent variable in this experiment was the duration of the distractor task. The dependent variable is the percent correct recall of the trigram. What do we predict participants will do? Why? The graph below plots the average percentage of recalled letters in the trigrams as a function of the duration of the distractor task. You should find that the percentage correct decreases as distractor duration increases. The interpretation of the data is that the distractor task interferes with your ability to actively rehearse the trigram of letters. That is, you cannot do the distractor task and simultaneously repeat the trigram over and over to yourself. Thus, the task was thought to measure how long information stayed in short-term memory when rehearsal is not possible. The answer was not very long (on the order of 20 s or so), and so initially researchers proposed decay as an explanation: items in short-term memory decay unless rehearsed. Subsequent research suggested that the Brown-Peterson task is prone to proactive interference: doing so many trials with the same type of to-be-remembered items on every trial makes the task harder the more trials you do. For example, imagine being asked to recall types of vegetables on each trial. By the third or fourth trial, it would become quite difficult to determine whether "carrot" appeared on this trial or the previous trial. If the type of item you were trying to remember were changed (to, for example, types of animals), performance on the first new trial is substantially better even though the duration of the distractor task is identical (see, for example, Gardiner et al., 1972). How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The expected result can be found for nearly everyone, as long as the distractor task is sufficiently complicated and as long as the participant actively engages in the task. On the other hand, if the distractor task is not difficult enough to force you to really attend to it (or you do not apply yourself to the distractor task), you may be able to complete the distractor task and actively rehearse the trigram at the same time.

Partial Report - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a 3 x 3 matrix of letters for 150 ms. You also heard a tone that indicated which row to report. The tone could occur 1 s before the display of letters, or 100 ms, 400 ms, or 1000 ms after the display of letters. The independent variable is delay between the offset of the matrix and the presentation of the cue to report one row. (For the first few trials, the tone occurred before the matrix. This is reported as a delay of -1 s.) The dependent variable is the proportion of letters correctly recalled. There are two ways of scoring the data: the proportion of letters in the report which were in the indicated row and the proportion of letters reported in their correct positions. We use the former. Sperling (1960) indicated that both methods of scoring led to the same pattern of results. What do we predict participants will do? Why? As the delay increases from 100 to 1000 ms, you should find that the proportion of letters correctly recalled drops. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? This result often requires quite precise conditions (e.g., a consistent distance between your eyes and the screen) and some practice. In lab conditions, the effect is quite replicable but, due to the unknown conditions with this lab - the distance between your eyes and the display; how precise your computer or tablet is in timing the sequence of events; etc. - the effect may be minimized.

Word Length Effect - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a list of items presented one at a time in random order and were asked to recall the items in the same order in which they were presented. The independent variable is the type of material you were asked to recall: the lists could contain 1-syllable words, 2-syllable words, 3-syllable words, or 4-syllable words. The dependent variable was the proportion of items correctly recalled. The design is similar to that used by Baddeley et al. (1975), but the actual stimuli were updated using the van Overshelde et al. (2004) norms. What do we predict participants will do? Why? Performance should be directly related to word length: the more syllables in the words in the list, the lower overall performance. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The basic effect is quite robust, although there are individual differences

Memory Span - Cog Lab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a list of items presented one at a time in random order and were asked to recall the items in the same order in which they were presented. If you got a list correct, the list length increased by 1 for that type of material. If you got a list incorrect, the list length decreased by 1. The independent variable is the type of material you were asked to recall: digits, letters, or words. Memory span can be measured in lots of different ways. In this lab, the dependent variable is the length of the last list you correctly recalled. The first list of each type of item was 3 items long. The longest list that was shown was 10, so the maximum score possible is 10. What do we predict participants will do? Why? Your memory span should be highest for digits, slightly lower for letters, and slightly lower again for words. One reason may be that people are more practiced in recalling digits in order (e.g., remembering telephone numbers) than other items. There are a number of different theories, including rehearsal time and differential distinctiveness. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The basic effect is quite robust, although there are individual differences. For example, some people may not show a difference between digits and letters.

Operation Scan - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a math problem that you were asked to read out loud and then indicate whether the answer provided was correct or incorrect. You then saw a word, which you were asked to read out loud. Math problems and words alternated, until you were asked to recall the words in the same order in which they were presented. There really isn't an independent variable in this demonstration, because operation span is a way of measuring working memory performance. What do we predict participants will do? Why? Your operation span score is the sum of the sequence lengths you recalled correctly. Thus, if you recalled a list of 2 words correctly, you would add 2 to your operation span score. If you recalled a list of 6 items correctly, you would add 6 to your operation span. If you recalled only 5 out of 6 items on a 6-item list, you would add nothing to your operation span score. The first three trials were all of length 2, and were considered practice trials. Performance on these trials does not affect your accuracy score or you operation span score. The maximum possible score is 60. Most studies that use operation span require you to be at least 85% accurate on the math tasks; this indicates that you were devoting time and effort to this part of the task. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The literature on working memory capacity suggests that operation span correlates well with performance on many other tasks, including ones involving memory and attention.

Serial Position - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a random set of 10 letters drawn from the entire alphabet. Each letter was shown for 1 second. At test, you were asked to indicate which letters you saw by clicking on response buttons. This experiment used free recall: you could click on the buttons in any order you liked. The independent variable in this experiment is the serial position of the item. The dependent variable is the proportion of times each letter was recalled. What do we predict participants will do? Why? People typically recall the last few items best (the recency effect), the first few items second best (the primacy effect), and the middle items worst. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The effect is quite robust, but the exact shape of the serial position function depends on both the rehearsal strategy and the output order. For example, the most common output strategy is to recall the last few items first. If, however, people recall the first few items first, then the primacy effect is generally larger than the recency effect.

Implicit Learning - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? On each trial, you saw a red circle appear in one of four locations and were asked to press one of four keys on the keyboard to indicate the dot's location. You were asked to respond as quickly and as accurately as you could. The independent variable is whether the dots follow a pattern or not. This was manipulated between subjects: the computer randomly assigned you to a group. In the "Random" condition, the dots never follow a pattern. In the "Pattern" condition, the dots followed a pattern on all blocks except for block 5. The dependent variable was response time for correct responses. Any response times greater than 2000 ms were ignored and the response was deemed incorrect. What do we predict participants will do? Why? You should find that your mean RT decreases with each block regardless of which condition you were assigned to. This reflects basic practice with the task. However, the mean RT should decrease more for people assigned to the pattern condition than for those assigned to the random condition. In addition, there should be a difference on Block 5. If you were in the pattern condition, on Block 5, you should find a sudden increase in mean RT because that block uses a different pattern than the rest of the blocks. Block 6 goes back to the first pattern. If you were in the random condition, Block 5 uses the same pattern as in the pattern condition, but there should be no increase in mean RT because there is no learning to disrupt. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The effect is quite robust and appears even when more complex patterns are used. However, the results may be weaker or absent if the device used to measure response times is not sufficiently accurate (e.g., tablets with touchscreens).

Remember / Know - CogLab

What methods did we employ in this experiment? There were two parts to this experiment. In Phase I, you saw a list of words and were asked to make a judgment. If the word was preceded by 'Synonym' you were asked to write down a word that had a similar meaning. If the word was preceded by 'Rhyme' you were asked to write down a word that had a similar sound. In Phase II, you were shown a series of words, half of which were shown in Phase I. For each word, you were asked if it had been in Phase I. If you remembered the word as well as remembering some other aspect of the presentation conditions, you were asked to make a 'Remember' judgment. If you thought the word was on the list but did not remember the actual presentation episode, you were asked to make a 'Know' judgment. The independent variable in this experiment was the study condition, either deep (synonym) or shallow (rhyme). The dependent variable was the proportion of times the word was recognized as being in Phase I. What do we predict participants will do? Why? The expected result is that there will be a large levels of processing effect for the remember judgments, but no levels of processing effect (or even a slight reverse) for the know judgments. One explanation is that remember judgments depend on the episodic memory system whereas know judgments are not; rather, they are possibly based on a procedural memory system. An alternate explanation is that remember judgments may depend more on recollective processes whereas know judgments are based more on familiarity. How robust is this effect? Are there limits to this effect? The effect is quite robust. Other differences are found between remember and know judgments. For example, for remember judgments, performance is better for pictures than for words. However, for know judgments, there is a reversal: words are better than pictures.

Proof of Semantic Encoding in Short Term Memory?

Wickens et al. (1976) -Interference was enhanced by the meanings of words Fruit examples, then set of career examples.

Rehearsal is what?

a control process that takes place in short term memory. -repeating a phrase, grocery list, etc.

Control processes:

active processes that can be controlled by the person. • Rehearsal • Strategies used to make a stimulus more memorable • Strategies of attention that help you focus on specific stimuli

Digit span:

how many digits a person can remember. (typically 5-9)

Working Memory

limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning Similar concept to short-term memory • Baddeley and Hitch (1974) Baddley's Working Memory Model (central executive, visiuospatial sketchpad & phonological loop) • WM is set up to process different types of information simultaneously • WM has trouble when similar types of information are presented at the same time

Proactive interference:

occurs when information learned previously interferes with learning new information • Example: Your native language may make it more difficult to learn and remember a new foreign language

Retroactive interference:

occurs when new learning interferes with remembering old learning • Example: After you get a new telephone number and use it for a while, you may have difficulty remembering your old phone number

Persistence of vision:

retention of the perception of light • Sparkler's trail of light • Frames in film

Chunking:

small units can be combined into larger meaningful units • Chunk is a collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other chunks

Change Detection:

the process of identifying differences in the state of an object or phenomenon by observing it at different times. Experiments where we flipped back and forth on a picture and we stated if they were different or not.

Central Executive

• Attention controller • Focus, divide, switch attention • Controls suppression of irrelevant information • Perseveration: repeatedly performing the same action or thought even if it is not achieving the desired goal

Phonological similarity effect

• Letters or words that sound similar are confused -S and X -Think Phonetics

Word-length effect

• Memory for lists of words is better for short words than for long words (one syllable vs two syllable) • Takes longer to rehearse long words and to produce them during recall

WM & Attention

• Nelson Cowan (1988, 1999, 2005): Model focused on how working memory is related to attention and suggests that working memory and attention are essentially the same mechanism. • Other researchers (2001, 2006, 2011, 2012) have provided evidence that supports the close relationship between attention and working memory

WM & The Brain

• Prefrontal cortex responsible for processing incoming visual and auditory information • Monkeys without a prefrontal cortex have difficulty holding information in working memory Funahashi et al. (1989) • Single cell recordings from monkey's prefrontal cortex during a delay-response task

Articulatory suppression

• Prevents one from rehearsing items to be remembered • Reduces memory span • Eliminates word-length effect • Reduces phonological similarity effect for reading words Brown Peterson Task

The Brown-Peterson Task

• Read three letters, then a number • Begin counting backwards by threes • After a set time, recall three letters • After three seconds of counting, participants performed at 80% • After 18 seconds of counting, participants performed at 10% • This reduction in performance is explained by the existence of decay, which is the vanishing of a memory trace due to the passage of time and exposure to competing stimuli

Short-Term Memory

• Stores small amounts of information for a brief duration • Includes both new information received from the sensory stores and information recalled from long-term memory -The Brown Peterson Task - Short-term memory, when rehearsal is prevented, is about 15-20 seconds Proactive and Retroactive Interference. Capacity of short-term memory 5-9 items Change Detection Chunking

Phonological Loop

• The phonological loop consists of two components: • The phonological store: has a limited capacity and holds information for only a few seconds • The articulatory rehearsal process: is responsible for rehearsal that can keep items in the phonological store from decaying Phonological similarity effect Word-length effect Articulatory suppression

Ericsson's Sadistic Experiment (1980)

• Trained a college student with average memory ability to use chunking • S.F. had an initial digit span of 7 • After 230 one-hour training sessions, S.F. could remember up to 79 digits • Chunking them into meaningful units

Alvarez and Cavanaugh (2004)

• Used colored squares as well as complex objects • Used the change detection procedure Simplicity/Complexity matters.

Individual Differences in WM

• Vogel et al. (2005) • Determined participants' WM • High-capacity WM group • Low-capacity WM group • Shown either simple or complex stimuli • Measured ERP responses

Working Memory vs. Short-Term Memory

• Working memory differs from STM • STM holds information for a brief period of time • WM is concerned with the processing and manipulation of information that occurs during complex cognition