HUMAN MEMORY CH.7

HUMAN MEMORY CH.7

1. Encoding

   • Forming a "memory code"
   • Attention: focussing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events. Selective attention is critical to everyday functioning.
     • How people attend to information is the main factor influencing how much they remember.
   • Levels of Processing
     • Structural Encoding: Shallow processing that emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus
       • Ex. Word Length
     • Phonemic Encoding: Emphasizes what a word sounds like
       • Ex. Naming/Saying a word
     • Semantic Encoding: Meaning of verbal input
       • Ex. The object the word is representing
   • Levels-of-Processing Theory - proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes.
   • Enriching Encoding
     • Elaboration: Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
       • Helps to explain semantic encoding
     • Visual Imagery
       • Imagery - creation of visual images to represent the words to be remembered
         • Concrete objects are easier to imagine in comparison to abstract objects
       • Dual-coding Theory: memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes, since either can lead to recall.
     • Self-referent encoding: deciding how or whether information is personally relevant
       • Shown to enhance recall

2. Storage

   • Maintaining encoded information in memory over time
   • Sensory Memory - preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second
   • Short-Term Memory
     • (STM) - limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20sec
     • Engaging in 'Rehearsal' - process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
       • Maintenance Rehearsal
         • Maintaining the information in consciousness
       • Elaborative Rehersal
         • Increasing the probability you will retain the information in the future
     • Loss of Information due to: time related decay of memory traces, and interference from competing materials
     • Capacity of Storage
       • Number 7: Plus or Minus 2
       • Increase your Capacity?
         • Chunking: group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
     • Working Memory - limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action
       • Phonological Loop
       • Visuospatial Sketchpad
       • Central Executive
       • Episodic Buffer
       • Working Memory Capacity (WMC) - one's ability to hold and manipulate information in conscious attention
   • Long-Term Memory
     • (LTM) - unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time
     • Flashbulb memories - unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events
     • Knowledge Organization
       • Conceptual Hierarchy - multilevel classification system based on common properties among items
       • Clustering
       • Schema - organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event
         • Ex. Professor's Office
       • Semantic Network - nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts
         • Ex. Concept Maps!
         • Spreading activation Ex. bread & butter
       • Parallel Distributed Processing models of memory assert that specific memories correspond to particular patterns of activation in connectionist networks

3. Retrieval

   • Cues to Aid Retrieval
     • "Tip-of-the-tongue" is the temporary inability to remember something you know
     • Memories jogged with 'retrieval cues' - stimuli that help gain access to memories
   • Encoding Specificity Principle: Memory of Info is better when the conditions during encoding and retrieval were similar.
     • Use of 'context cues'
   • Distortions
     • Misinformation effect - when participants' recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post event information
       • 3 Stages
         • 1. Subjects view an event
         • 2. Exposed to info about event
         • 3. Tested to recall the original event
   • Monitoring
     • Reality Monitoring - the process of deciding whether memories are based on external or internal sources
       • Ex. Did i actually say this, or think I said it?
     • Source Monitoring - involves making attributions about the origins of memories
       • Error - occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source
     • Destination Memory - recalling to whom one has told what

4. Forgetting

   • Measures of Forgetting
     • Retention - the proportion of material retained/remembered
       • Retention Interval: length of time between the presentation of the material to be remembered, and the measurement of forgetting
       • Saving Scores - estimate of one's retention
     • Recall - measure of retention requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without any cues
       • Ex. Can you recall the object I just showed you
       • Ex. Essays & Fill in the blank questions
     • Recognition - measure of retention requires subjects to select previously learned information from any array of options
       • Ex. Matching, m/c, and true/false questions
       • Ex. Answers are in front of you
     • Relearning - Measure of retention requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trails are saved by having learned it before.
   • Why Do We Forget?
     • Ineffective Encoding - Something may only appear to be forgotten
       • Pseudoforgetting - Looking but not really seeing
       • Flaws in phonemic or semantic encoding
     • Decay
       • Decay Theory: Proposed forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time
     • Interference
       • Interference Theory: Proposes that people forget information because of competition from other material
         • Proactive Interference - occurs when previously learned information interferes with the retention of new info.
         • Retroactive Interference - occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned info.
         • Greatest when intervening material is most similar to the test material.
           • Decreasing the similarity should reduce interference and cause less forgetting.
     • Retrieval Failure
       • Encoding Specificity Principle - states that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code
       • Transfer-Appropriate Processing - occurs when the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention
     • Motivated Forgetting
       • Repression - keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
   • Forgetting can reduce competition among memories that can cause confusion
   • Ebbinghaus's Forgetting Curve
     • Nonsense Syllables: consonant-vowel-consonant arrangement
     • Graphs retention and forgetting over time
       • Suggested most forgetting occurs very rapidly after learning something
   • Repression Controversy
     • Did the events in this memory actually take place?
     • Skepticism
   • Schacter's 7 Memory Sins
     • Sins of Commission
       • Misattribution Suggestibility Bias Persistence
       • Memory is present, but is either incorrect/unwanted
     • Sins of Omission
       • Transcience Absentmindedness Blocking
       • Cannot bring the memory to mind

5. In search of the Memory Trace: The Physiology of Memory

   • Neural Circuitry
     • Long term Potentiation (LTP) - long lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway
       • LTP appears to involve changes in both the presynaptic (sending) and postsynaptic (receiving) neutrons in neural circuits in the hippocampus.
         • Neurogenesis - formation of new neurons
   • Anatomy of Memory
     • Organic Amnesia - extensive memory loss due to head injury
       • Retrograde Amnesia - involves the loss of memories for events that occurred BEFORE the onset of amnesia
       • Anterograde Amnesia - involves the loss of memories for events that occur AFTER the onset of amnesia
     • Consolidation - hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory
       • Hippocampal Complex is involved in the consolidation of memories

6. Systems and Types of Memory

   • Declarative vs. Procedural Memory
     • Declarative Memory System - handles factual information
       • Recollections of words, definitions, names, dates, faces, events, concepts, and ideas.
       • Controlled by the medial temporal lobe
     • Procedural Memory System - houses memory for action, skills, operations, and conditioned responses
       • Contains 'Procedures' of how to do things. Ex: Tie shoes or ride a bike
   • Semantic vs. Episodic Memory
     • Semantic Memory System - contains GENERAL knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned
       • Ex. Christmas is Dec25, dogs have 4 legs, AB is next to Sask
         • Encyclopedia
     • Episodic Memory System - made up of chronological, or temporally dates, recollections of PERSONAL experiences
       • Ex. Things you've done, seen and heard
         • Autobiography
   • Implicit vs. Explicit Memory
     • Implicit Memory - apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering
       • Type of Knowledge? Perceptual & Motor skills
       • Storage & reflex pathways? Cerebellum
       • Recall Strategies? Unconscious & Unintentional
       • NOT effected by: Amnesia, age, alcohol
     • Explicit Memory - involves intentional recollection of previous experiences
       • Type of Knowledge? Facts & Events
       • Storage & reflex pathways? Hippocampus
       • Recall Strategies? Conscious & Deliberate
       • Effected by: Amnesia, age, alcohol
   • Prospective vs. Retrospective
     • Prospective Memory - involves remembering to perform actions in the future
       • Ex. Remembering to call someone, or walk the dog
     • Retrospective Memory - involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information
       • Ex. Trying to remember a pervious lesson, or score of a game

Images and files in the map