Chapters 5, 6, 7 & 8: Memory

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Chapters 5, 6, 7 & 8: Memory

The Three Processes in Memory

memory is the most researched topic in cognitive psychology

encoding= translation of incoming stimulus energy into a unique neural code

storage= retention of encoded material OVER TIME

retrieval= recovery of stored information at a later time

Three Memory System (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)

three components: sensory memory (sensory register); short term memory; long term memory

decay from the sensory store is information being lost to the passage of time

decay from the short term memory is distraction from of the information

interference of information in the short term memory displaces the information

information can decay (loss over passage of time) from the long term memory

interference of information in the short term memory keeps information from being retrieved

two questions to consider: how much information can go into a store? how long can it last?

Sensory Memory

Sperling (1960)

he investigated the two questions listed above, in regards to sensory memory, particularly looking at iconic (visual) memory

he showed participants a 3 x 4 matrix of letters and had them report the letters:

whole report procedure is when participants had to report the entire matrix (would be able to report 4/12 items)

partial report procedure is when participants had to report any one of the matrix rows on command (4/4 items reported)

still only reported 4 items, but they had to remember the whole matrix in order to report just one row

found that sensory memory fades quickly, in about 1/2 of a second

the sensory memory holds vast amounts of information, but only very briefly (this answers the 2 questions)

Iconic Memory:

visual sensory memory (lasts about 1/2 a second)

Echoic Memory:

auditory sensory memory (lasts about 2 seconds); can be helpful for spoken and read speech

Short Term Memory (STM)

limited in capacity (less informational capacity than the sensory memory)

5-9 bits of information capacity (Miller's article on 7 +/- 2)

STM lasts less than 30 seconds

Brown-Peterson (& Peterson) paradigm (1958-1959)

gave their participants an item to remember, but then have them count backwards by 3 [eliminates rehearsal]

the memory was gone after about 18 seconds (but this process may have added interference)

information will stay in STM as long as it is rehearsed; two main types of rehearsal:

maintenance= simply repeating the information over and over

elaborative= creating meaningful connections with the information

chunking (putting info into chunks or units) helps overcome the limited capacity of STM

one can use organizing principles to combine items

S.F. (case study) memorized over 84 random digits IN ORDER (Ericsson)

showcased a quick and meaningful transfer from STM to LTM

Alternative to STM: Working Memory

Badly and Hitch (1974); alternative has 4 major components:

central executive

phonological loop (sound based/audio rehearsal)

visual spatial sketchpad (visual/spatial component of rehearsal)

episodic buffer (work table)

temporary storehouse to combine phonological loop, sketchpad, and long term memory

The Serial Position Curve/Effect

primacy effect shows that we remember the first words in a set very well (more rehearsal of the items)

recency effect shows that we remember the last words in a set very well (less decay of terms or the items are still in the STM, but this isn't as strong as the recency effect)

practical applications: you want to either be FIRST or LAST in a job interview; you can change your study order so that you can avoid forgetting middle items

Glanzer and Cunitz (1966)

in their experiment, some people were tested for a set of items immediately, some after 10 seconds, and some after 30

they found that the recency effect DECREASED over time

Long Term Memory

has UNLIMITED CAPACITY and UNLIMITED DURATION (stores all experiences, memories, info, etc.)

Main problem: information goes into the LTM, but may not always be accessible

Examples for comparison: a computer file exists, but you forgot the name; library books are in the library, but just not in the right place; "tip of the tongue" phenomenon

Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon

the information is IN the memory, but is hard to retrieve

in class, we used the example of trying to remember the names of all of the 7 dwarves (people had trouble remembering)

Types of Remembering

Declarative memory (memory for INFORMATION)

semantic memory= generic, factual information (things you learn in class: years of wars, facts, etc.)

episodic memory= memory of personally experienced events (these events are tagged by: place, time, person, emotion)

Non-Declarative memory= this is PROCEDURAL information, "how to" (riding a bike, driving manual transmission)

amnesic people typically DO NOT lose procedural memory, even if they lose declarative memory

Explicit vs. Implicit Memory

explicit= requires CONSCIOUS recollection; implicit= does NOT require conscious recollection

there is much research about this in relation to amnesic patients:

they perform poorly on explicit memory (recall, recognition tests), but not on implicit memory (word/picture fragment completion, homonym tests)

Edouard Clapaede (1911) had a patient with amnesia who would never remember him; one time he shook her hand with a thumb tack in his hand; after this event, even though she didn't explicitly remember him, but implicit memory reminded her of the pain and she didn't want to shake his hand

Causes of Forgetting

ENCODING failure (information not encoded well)

CONSOLIDATION failure (storage failure; head trauma or being black-out drunk)

RETRIEVAL failure (information is there, but can't be retrieved from memory)

MOTIVATED FORGETTING (forgetting because you don't want to remember it)

DECAY (loss over the passage of time)

INTERFERENCE (presence of other information)

Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924) wanted to determine if forgetting was more decay or more interference

they had participants study information before sleeping or being awake and the participants forgot less information en they studied before sleeping (decay--passage of time--was the same, but there was less interference)

other studies have found that a CONSOLIDATION PROCESS goes on during sleep

​​​​​​​Two types of interference:

retroactive interference= new information interferes with old information

proactive interference= older information interferes with formation of new information

What influences interference?

SIMILARITY of materials involved plays a big factor (the more similar the materials, the more likely to interfere)

the MEANINGFULNESS of "to be remembered information" (more meaningful= more resistant to interference)

Effects of Context (Two Types of Context)

external environment (encoding specificity; the room and other external factors)

internal context (physiological state--state dependent--, mood--mood dependent--, thoughts, and feelings)

Encoding Specificity

when the context is the same at testing as it was at encoding, memory is better for material

Gadden and Baddeley (1975)

Study Dry, Test Dry: 13.5; Study Wet, Test Wet: 11.4; Study Dry, Test Wet: 8.6; Study Wet, Test Dry: 8.4

Smith, Glenberg, and Bjork (1979)

subjects had two rooms to be put in: Room 1 had carpeting, posters, pictures, drapes, etc. and Room 2 had a computer lab/sound proof chamber setting

Those who studied in room one and were tested in room one remembered 18 items; those who studied in room one but were tested in room two remembered 12 items; those who studied in room one and were tested in room two BUT visualized about being in room 1, remembered 17.2 items (almost the same as ACTUALLY being in the room!)

this process is called reinstating the context

Applications: eyewitness memory (works to reinstate the context through cognitive interview, replaying what happened); remembering someone's name (trying to reinstate where you know them from); studying (imagining yourself doing readings in your living room during a test)

State Dependent Memory

Peterson (1974)

​​​​​​​Study sober, test sober: 14.86; study drunk, test drunk: 10.29; study sober, test drunk: 10.71; study drunk, test sober: 4.86

Mood Dependent Memory

Bower, Monteiro, and Gilligan (1978) hypnotized their subjects to either be happy or sad

memory was best when mood contexts were both happy, then when they were both sad; worst when contexts were switched

Baddeley (1989)

his study helped to explain the maintenance of depression and test anxiety [when you study calm and then test anxious]

Transfer Appropriate Processing= when the type of processing at encoding and retrieval are the same, memory is better

Improving Memory

spaced/distributed practice is better for information retention over the long term and massed practice is equal to distributed practice over the short term

levels of processing= shallow processing (not as memorable), deep processing (more memorable)

Generation Effect= if you generate items yourself, you will remember the information better

writing notes help you know the information better

generation tasks (antonym= HOT--C____) make items more memorable than read tasks

Hypermnesia--fill out definition after lecture on Tuesday

Mnemonics= devices that help you to remember information

Herman Ebbinghaus (1885)

studied his forgetting of perfectly practiced items; found that the rate of forgetting took the form of a LOGARITHMIC function (lots of forgetting soon after, then forgetting slowed down)

Shapiro and Erydelyi (1974) they had subjects study a series of items and they tested them after 30 seconds and 5 minutes (no rehearsal)

the participants performed better after 5 minutes!

they argued, from this study, that recall INCREASES over the passage of time (contradictory to Ebbinghaus's findings)

Reodiger and Payne (1982)

determined if time or repeated testing was critical [using repeated testing with different time delays]

used multiple tests that were staggered over an immediate, short, and long delay of testing (in order to see whether performance increased over time or testing)

results showed that memory was better over repeated testing

Hypermnesia Explanation

Two main factors involved: when items are recalled, it makes the relevant path more activated

which both speeds up retrieval for the other items and leaves time for the subject to recall other items

AND each recalled item provides additional retrieval cues (if you think of dog, you might also remember other animals that were mentioned on the list)

Practical applications: in eyewitness memory (once again, in the cognitive interview); you can use repeated testing by having the person tell the crime story again and again

Nature of Remembering

Flashbulb Memory: the idea that we can have a very ACCURATE memory of an event that you have experienced; typically an emotional or surprising moment

HOWEVER, most studies indicate that they are NO BETTER than normal memories, but people THINK that they are more vivid and accurate

Eidetic (Photographic) Memory: is a very controversial topic

most studies have evidence against--such as deGroot's with chess experts

rare evidence for--"Elizabeth" (Stromeyer, 1970) who seemed to have actual photographic memory; this phenomenon is also seen in preverbal children (Haber and Haber, 1964) (2-15%), but it is lost as language develops

Mnemonics

these are memory tools that help in remembering information (organizing information in the memory system, making the information meaningful, and assisting in retrieval)

Imagery Mnemonics

EX: visual imagery (forming a mental image of the info to be remembered)

key word method (connecting terms together with a key word)

Method of Loci/Place (this tool has you use a mental image of a place that you know very well and mentally place objects along the pathway that help you remember the information)

Organization Mnemonics

chunking (organizing large amounts of information into more manageable chunks)

Hierarchy technique (organizing by importance or category)

First-Letter technique [acronym mnemonics--HOMES to remember the great lakes; acrostic mnemonics--Every Good Boy Does Fine]

Narrative technique (when you make up stories that include the information/words that need to be remembered)

Other Mnemonics

External mnemonics (external factor that helps you remember something: tie string on finger)

Songs/Poetry (putting information to song or rhyme, in order to remember it better)

Loftus and Loftus (big name in memory research)

Elizabeth Loftus had people give analogies for memory (people answered: photograph, video, computer files, filing cabinet), BUT these analogies are WRONG

​​​​​​​Memory is Fallible= what goes in is not always the same as what comes out of the memory system

this information can be changed by knowledge, biases, attitudes, perceptions, emotion, and other information that is gained later

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Experiment 1: showed the participants a film of a car accident and asked them questions about the accident afterwards; the operative question was "How fast were the cars going when they _______ each other?" where the word was "contacted (31.8), hit (34), bumped (38.1), collided with (39.3), or smashed into (40.8)"

Experiment 2: had the same basic setup as the experiment before; 50 had the word "smashed into", 50 had the word "hit", and 50 had no such question as a control

The critical question was asked later on: "Did you see broken glass at the scene?"

Control: 12% said yes, Hit: 14% said yes, Smashed: 32% said yes​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Loftus and Zanni (1975)

this study looked at subtle question differences: "Did you see a broken headlight?" or "Did you see the broken headlight?"

participants were much more likely to say yes when the word "the" was used

Mistaken Identity

Judges and Lawyers in the US and UK were interviewed about miscarriages of justice, to which they responded "mistaken identity is responsible for more miscarriages of justice than any other factor"

Face Recognition

simple disguises can result in significant identification impairment (Cutler et al., 1987); wearing sunglasses [accuracy of identifications went up when people in the lineup wore sunglasses] (Hockey et al., 1999); covering the hair or changing it; short term changes (such as facial hair); changes in appearance from the process of aging

Effects of Race (Brigham and Barkowitz, 1978)

Good identification happens when whites ID whites and blacks ID blacks

Bad identification happens when blacks (minority) ID whites (majority) and POOR/AWFUL identification happens when whites (majority) ID blacks (minority)

has something to do with familiarity, expertise and contact with the other races [Wright, Boyd, and Tredoux, 2003]

Burgess (1997) studied whites in Florida and whites in Maine; the whites in Florida showed less evidence of the OWN RACE BIAS (not based on or influenced by racism)

Feinman and Entwistle (1976) studied integrated and segregated individuals; the integrated individuals were better at identification

Li, Dunning, and Malpass (1998) found that white basketball fans were better at identification than basketball novices

Stress and Anxiety

there is a huge difference between the conditions presented in a lab and those presented in a real life crime scene [ethical concerns won't allow us to study this in more realistic settings]

therefore, we must use less serious manipulations: Peters (1988) tested children in both a "theft/no theft" condition and a "photo lineup/live lineup" condition; results as follows:

Live/No theft= 75% ID accuracy

Photo/No theft= 83%

Live/Theft= 33% [this is the more stressful situation to be in]

Photo/Theft= 75%

Kassin (1984) studied adults and told them that they were participating in a "risk taking" study [betting/gambling task]

in this gambling task, a thief comes in and steals one person's pile of money; then both the "victim" and the "bystander" are asked to ID the perpetrator

53% accuracy for the bystander

0% accuracy for the victim ​​​​​​​

Studies of Stress

Morgan et al. (2004)investigated eyewitness memory, when exposed to EXTREME stress

their research pool consisted of soldiers in an army survival school; the recruits were put in a "POW" camp, deprived of food, and interrogated daily

The main difference between high and low stress conditions is that high stress participants were beaten in the study

Results: Low Stress (correct ID: 76%, incorrect: 12%, IDK: 12%) and High Stress (correct ID: 32%, incorrect: 68%, IDK 0%)

Target Absent/Present Lineups

Wells (1993) used a 6 person, target present lineup (correct: 54%; incorrect: 25%, IDK: 21%)

Then again had the same lineup, but the perpetrator was removed (5 person lineup) (IDK: 32% and incorrect: 68% (still pressure to be a good witness)

Participants tended to pick the next closest person in the target absent lineup

This means they made a RELATIVE and NOT ABSOLUTE JUDGEMENT

Eye tracking research supported participants looking between pictures to compare

this same pattern is seen in both target absent and present lineups

Lineup Bias can occur in two ways:

Biased Foils [we should use people that have the same verbal description as the perpetrator)

Sequential (one picture at a time and the subject says "yes" or "no"; gives a decrease in false identifications because these are ABSOLUTE JUDGEMENTS) versus Simultaneous lineup

Children versus Adult Witnesses in regards to questioning styles

leading questions can lead children to answer in an incorrect way

Weapon Focus (not paying attention to the face as much, because of focus on the weapon)

Repressed Memories

Repressed memories are typically traumatic memories that the mind blocks into the unconscious

They are typically recovered later on in prolonged therapy (therapy for things like insomnia, sexual dysfunction, low self esteem, depression, etc)

Repressed Memory Debate

Repressed memory camp: memories are repressed due to the traumatic nature of abuse and memories that are uncovered are true

False memory camp: nearly all memories are recovered in prolonged therapy and therapists may be guiding individuals to implant memories (perhaps unintentionally)

Therapist's Dilemma

What do you do if you think your client was sexually abused, but they won't admit it or aren't aware of it?

The Courage to Heal by Bass and Davis is supposed to help people with their repressed memories, but it has A LOT of potential issues:

formal training of the authors: Ellen Bass (creative writing) and Laura Davis (Journalism, Incest survivor)

Studies have linked 50% of recanted repressed memory cases to this book

the writing they use is suggestive and problematic

Secret Survivors by Sue Blume contains an "Incest Survivor Checklist

this was NOT a good list; the symptoms were wide ranging and double sided

Therapeutic Techniques

imaginistic work (mentally imagine some abuse taking place)

Hypnosis

Sodium Amytal (makes it easier to be impressionable

Journal Writing (write about real OR IMAGINED abuse incidents)

Dream Work and Art Therapy (look at symbols and indicators; PROJECTIVE TEST)

Body work

Early Memories

infantile amnesia = prior to age 5, we mostly do not have many memories

We can have fabricated memories of things that actually did happen (just our particular memories of them are fabricated)

influenced by many factors: photos and family stories

Wade, Gary, Read, and Lindsay (2002) conducted the "hot air balloon ride study"

researchers had the participants' parents give them memories and pictures of those memories

researchers used one of the pictures to doctor a photo of the participant riding in a hot air balloon (which none of them had ever done before)

50% of people who got the doctored photo remembered going on the ride

​​​​​​​Lindsay, Hagen, Read, Wade, and Garry (2004)

researchers used a class photo to reinforce a story to participants about a childhood experience of putting slime in the teacher's desk.

Those who had no class photo 25% had full memories of the FAKE EVENT

Those who had a class photo 65% had full memories of the FAKE EVENT