Cognition Lecture 3

Cognition Lecture 3

1. The Retrieval Process

   • Many of the failures of memory can be linked back to the retrieval process
     • Tip-of-the-tongue states
   • Retrieval - makes the target memory trace available through associations
     • Target memory trace - the memory we're searching for
     • Retrieval cues - bits of information about the target memory trace
     • Associations - bonds that link together items in memory
   • Spreading Activation - automatic transmission from one memory to related ones via associations
     • Pattern Completion - the process behind spreading activation

2. Factors Determining Retrieval Success

   • Attention to cues - reduced attention impairs retrieval
     • Fernandes and Moscovitch (2000;2003) - completing the second task reduced first task performance by 30-50%
   • Relevance of cues - encoding specificity principle
   • Cue-target associative strength - retrieval success depends on how strong the association is
   • Number of cues - access to additional cues helps retrieval
     • Rubin and Wallace (1989) - dual-cuing provides a benefit to recall
   • Strength of target memory - weaker targets are harder to retrieve
   • Retrieval strategy - organisation of materials + efficient strategy of memory search
   • Retrieval mode - frame of mind - episodic cues guide retrieval through reinterpreting stimuli
     • Herron and Wilding (2006) - episodic tasks improved performance gradually
     • Can be involuntary

3. Retrieval Tasks

   • Direct Memory Tests - ask people to recall particular experiences
     • Free recall
     • Cued recall
     • Yes/no recognition
     • Forced-Choice recognition
     • Impaired performance in amnesiacs - hippocampus
   • Indirect Memory Tests - measure the unconscious influence of experience without asking the subject to recall the past
     • Stem completion
     • Fragment completion
     • Conceptual fluency
     • Priming - recent experience with the stimulus improves performance
       • Normal performance in amnesiacs
   • Contextual cues
     • Spatio-Temporal/Environmental - location and time cues
     • Mood - emotional state
     • Physiological - physical state
     • Cognitive - collection of concepts

4. Context-Dependent Memory

   • Memory is context-dependent
   • Godden and Baddeley (1975) - material is recalled best in the environment it was learned (on land or underwater)
   • Grant et al. (1998) - participants did better when testing condition matched study condition (quiet or loud)

5. State-Dependent Memory

   • Related to internal state
   • Drunk (Goodwin et al., 1969)
   • High (marijuana or caffeine) (Eich, 1980)
   • Exercising or at rest (Miles & Hardman, 1998)
   • Disappears during recognition

6. Mood and Memory

   • Mood-Dependent Memory
     • Person's mood at encoding should match mood at test
     • Eich, Macaulay and Ryan (1994) - free recall improved when states matched
   • Mood-Congruent Memory
     • Person's mood at recall should match the mood of the item
     • Depressed individuals more likely to recall unpleasant memories

7. Cognitive Context-Dependent Memory

   • Retrieval better if the same cognitive tasks are involved
   • Marian and Neisser (2000) - memories easier to access when the language of the interview matched the language mode when encoded

8. Recognition Memory

   • Decide whether you have encountered a stimulus before
   • Signal Detection Theory
     • Judge whether seen a stimuli before - familiarity determined by strength of memory trace
     • Distractors can be familiar and overlap
     • Response criterion - items that surpass this are judged old
     • Cannot account for word frequency effect
   • Dual-Process Theory
     • Familiarity - sense of memory with no contextual information
       • Usually faster
     • Recollection - retrieving contextual details about a stimulus
       • Disrupted by
         • Divided attention during encoding and recognition
         • Damage to prefrontal cortex and age
   • Measuring
     • Remember/Know Procedure (Tulving, 1985)
       • Remember the item being presented - recollection
       • Know it was presented - familiarity
   • In the Brain (Aggleton and Brown, 1999)
     • Hippocampus - recall/recollection
     • Perihinal/entorhinal cortex - recognition and familiarity
     • Medial temporal lobe supports recognition memory