LTM Encoding & Retrieval

LTM Encoding & Retrieval

1. rehearsal

   • repeating information over and over
   • maintenance
     • helps MAINTAIN information in STM/WM
     • NOT an effective way of TRANSFERRING information into LTM
     • rehearsing without any consideration of MEANING or making connections with other information
   • elaborative
     • EFFECTIVE at transferring info into LTM
     • occurs when you think about the MEANING of an item or make CONNECTIONS between the item and something you know
     • starting to form connections between NEW info and ALREADY-STORED info in LTM
     • levels of processing theory
       • Craik and Lockhart 
       • memory depends on HOW information is encoded with DEEPER processing resulting in BETTER encoding and retrieval than SHALLOW processing
       • memory depends on HOW INFO is programmed into the mind
       • shallow
         • involves LITTLE attention to MEANING
         • occurs when attention is focused on PHYSICAL FEATURES (whether a word is printed in lowercase or capital letters) or the number of VOWELS in a word
         • occurs during MAINTENANCE rehearsal - an item is repeated to keep it in memory but without considering its MEANING or its CONNECTION with anything else
       • deep
         • involves CLOSE attention 
         • focusing on an item's MEANING and RELATING it to something else 
         • considering how an item might be USEFUL in a particular situation  
         • creating an IMAGE of the item in relation to another item 
         • occurs during ELABORATIVE rehearsal 
         • results in BETTER MEMORY than shallow processing 
         • involves expending MORE cognitive energy on
         • circular reasoning
           • occurs because DEPTH OF PROCESSING has not been defined INDEPENDENTLY of memory performance 
           • we can't use memory performance to determine DEPTH and then turn around and use DEPTH to predict memory performance 

2. Craik & Tulving

   • memory for a word is much better when the word is presented in a COMPLEX sentence
   • complex sentences create more CONNECTIONS between the word to be remembered and other things 
   • these "other things" act as CUES that help us retrieve the word when we are trying to remember it 

3. encoding

   • ERRORS in encoding: -failure of MAINTENANCE rehearsal -SHALLOW encoding -lack of ORGANIZATION -lack of CONNECTIONS
   • imagery
     • Bower and Winzenz (1970)
     • does using visual imagery create connections that enhance memory?
     • paired associate learning
       • a list of word pairs is presented 
       • the first word of each pair is presented and the participant's task is to REMEMBER the word that it was PAIRED with
       • another group had to form a MENTAL PICTURE of "Boat-tree"
       • participants who used IMAGERY remembered more than twice as many words 
   • self-reference effect
     • memory is better if you are asked to RELATE a word to yourself 
     • T.B. Rogers; participants are able to recall more words that RELATE to themselves 
     • words become LINKED to something the participants know well -- THEMSELVES.
     • statements that result in RICHER, more DETAILED representations in a person's mind result in better memory 
   • generation effect
     • generating material YOURSELF rather than passively RECEIVING it results in better learning and retention 
     • Slameka and Graf 
     • King-cr___; horse-sa___; lamp-sh___
   • organization
     • allows info to be accessed more EFFICIENTLY 
     • Jenkins & Russell
     • PREVENTING organization from happening would REDUCE the ability to remember 
     • retrieval cue
       • a word or other stimulus that helps a person remember information stored in memory 
       • remembering words in a particular CATEGORY 
       • APPLE is a retrieval cue for GRAPE or PLUM
       • Bower - "organizational tree"
   • testing
     • TESTING on material results in better memory than REREADING material 
     • Roediger & Karpicke 
     • testing effect
       • enhanced performance due to testing

4. retrieval

   • transferring information from LTM back into WM (consciousness)
   • most of our failures of MEMORY are failures of RETRIEVAL 
   • cued recall
     • Tulving and Pearlstone -participant is presented with retrieval cues to aid in recall of the previously experienced stimulu
     • cues are typically WORDS or PHRASES 
     • Mantyla - presented 600 nouns, asked participants to describe noun in 3 words - participants were later presented their 3 words and were asked to recall which noun they had described 
     • SIGNIFICANTLY MORE EFFECTIVE WHEN THEY ARE CREATED BY THE PERSON WHOSE MEMORY IS BEING TESTED 
   • free recall
     • Tulving & Pearlstone- participant is asked to recall stimuli
     • stimuli could be words previously presented by the experimenter or events experienced earlier in the participant's life
   • encoding specificity
     • we encode info along with its context
     • Godden & Baddeley - "diving experiment" 
     • the BEST RECALL occurred when ENCODING and RETRIEVAL occurred in the same location 
     • students do better when the TESTING condition matched the STUDY condition 
   • state-dependent learning
     • learning that is associated with a particular INTERNAL STATE such as MOOD or state of awareness 
     • memory will be better when a person's INTERNAL STATE during RETRIEVAL matches his or her INTERNAL STATE during ENCODING 
     • better recall occurs when mood at RETRIEVAL matches mood during ENCODING 
     • Eich & Metcalfe 
   • transfer-appropriate processing
     • shows that memory performance is enhanced if the TYPE of TASK at encoding matches the TYPE of TASK at retrieval 
     • Morris et al. (1977) - rhyming vs. meaning 
     • RHYMING group could recall more words than the MEANING group 
     • ENCODING and RETRIEVAL for rhyming group were based on SOUND
     • deeper processing at ENCODING does not always result in BETTER retrieval 
     • matching the coding AND retrieval tasks results in BETTER retrieval 

5. elaborate

   • thinking about what you are reading and giving it MEANING by relating it to other things that you know
   • generate and test
     • a form of generation 
     • requires ACTIVE INVOLVEMENT with the material
     • indicates what you know increases your ability to remember what you know later 
     • organize
       • take breaks
         • match learning and testing conditions
           • avoid "illusions of learning"
         • spacing effect
           • advantage for short study sessions

6. LTP

   • LONG-TERM POTENTIATION
   • enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation 
   • structural changes
   • memory = learning over time
   • MTL
     • medial temporal lobe 
     • where MEMORY occurs in the brain
     • hippocampus = IMPORTANT structure in LTM
     • Davachi
       • study designed to determine how these structures responded as the names of objects were presented in the encoding part of a memory experiment 
       • activity in the perirhinal cortex is GREATER for the remembered words than for the forgotten words
       • in the perirhinal cortex, words that generated more activity DURING ENCODING were more likely to be familiar to the participants during the RECOGNITION test 
       • what happens during encoding affects the chances that memory will occur during retrieval 
       • parahippocampal area = important for remembering SPATIAL information 
       • enthorhinal (perirhinal) area = involved with RECOGNITION memory 

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