DSE 212 Memory Revision

Renee Barclay

Key Processes in Memory

E n c o d i n gP u t t i n g i n f o r m a t i o n i n t o m e m o r y

S t o r a g eR e t a i n i n g i n f o r m a t i o n i n m e m o r y

R e t r i e v a lG e t t i n g i n f o r m a t i o n b a c k o u t o f m e m o r y

M e m o r y P r o c e s s e s

Encoding Processes

• Used to code the information acquired through the senses and to enter it into the memory system.

• Examples of types of code: visual code, acoustic code, verbal code, semantic code

Storage Processes

• Retention of coded information in the memory system as internal representations

• Examples include: images based on visual code, meanings based on semantic code, words based on verbal code, smells based on olfactory code, sounds based on acoustic code

Retrieval Processes

• Used to recover or get access to the information stored in the memory system.

• Examples of different types of retrieval:– Recognition - finding a match in memory for

something that is in the external world.. eg. multiple choice questions.

– Recall - involves searching for something stored in memory and bring it to consciousness. This may involve the use of retrieval cues.

Key Subsystems in Memory

S e n s o r y M e m o r yH o l d s u n c o d e d s e n s o r y i n p u t

v e r y b r i e f

S h o r t t e r m M e m o r yH o l d s c o d e d i n f o r m a t i o n - m a i n l y a c o u s t i c c o d e

d u r a t i o n - s e v e r a l s e c o n d s a s l o n g a s r e h e a r s e d

L o n g T e r m M e m o r y ( L T M )H o l d s c o d e d i n f o r m a t i o n m a i n l y s e m a n t i c c o d e

C a n l a s t d e c a d e s

Primacy and Recency Effects - Evidence for the distinction between STM and LTM

• Primacy Effect - The finding in memory experiments that participants are more likely to remember the first few items from a list of items.

• Recency effect - The finding in memory experiments that participants are more likely to remember the last few items in a list of items.

Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch 1974)

• Working memory - Baddeley and Hitch view STM as an active memory store holding the information we are consciously thinking about... focus of attention.

• Components of WM - Central executive, articulatory loop, primary acoustic store, visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Levels of Processing Theory

• The retention of material in memory is dependent on how deeply it is processed at encoding. Distinguishes between:– Elaborative Rehearsal - the process of thinking

about information to be remembered in terms of its meanings and associations to other stored material.

– Maintenance or Rote rehearsal - repetition– Craik and Tulving study (1975)

Craik and Tulving (1975)

• Used 3 Orienting Tasks:– Structural orienting - is word in capitals?– Acoustic orienting - does word rhyme with?– Semantic orienting - does word fit in sentence?

• Findings: Semantic orienting task resulted in highest amount of incidental learning.

Ebbinghaus (1850 -1909) - the Father of Memory Research

• Used himself as a single participant and systematically investigated recall of CVC nonsense syllables...eg. TUC, BUX

• Key findings:

• Spacing effect - the benefits of spaced versus massed practice

• Rate of forgetting is initially rapid but slows down over time. (first 24 hours most rapid)

Organisation

• When information is organised at Encoding, later recall is improved. Bousfield (1953) found S’s free recalled items in same categories - Clustering.

• Bower et. al.(1969) Hierarchical organisation of words into categories can assist memory.

Mnemonics

• Memory aids - techniques or strategies that will increase memorablity of material.

• Examples - using bizarre images, adding meaningful associations, Keywords, Method of Loci

Encoding Specificity Principle (Tulving 1975)

• Retrieval of information from memory depends on an overlap or matching of the cues that are available at retrieval with those registered at encoding.

• There may be several retrieval paths. The cognitive interview is based on accessing retrieval cues via alternative routes.

Retrieval Enhancing Techniques (Geiselman, 1984 - cognitive

interview)• Context Reinstatement

• Recalling everything

• Recalling in different temporal orders

• Changing perspective

Context Reinstatment

• Study using Deep Sea Divers - Godden and Baddeley (1975)

• Tested learning and recall underwater and on dry land.

• Findings: Environment of learning improved recall in same environment.

• No difference for recognition tasks.

Retrieval Difficulties

• Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon - the feeling that although you cannot remember something it is there stored in memory just out of reach.

• Direct access - retrieval that is effortless and occurs automatically.

• Indirect access - retrieval that involves deliberate, conscious searching of memory.

Reconstructive Memory

• Effort after meaning - Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts

• Schema - mental representations that are constructed as a result of past experience.

• Top down processing - new perceptual input is interpreted in terms of previously stored schemata.

The Pliability of Memory

• Misinformation effect - Loftus study on leading questions after witnessing a video clip.

• Use of verbs smashed, collided, bumped, hit, contacted influenced estimated speeds.

• Memory contamination - S’s reported seeing broken glass a week after when word smashed was used. (There was no broken glass!!)

Enduring Memories

• Memories of School Photographs - Bahrick et.al. (1975)

• Tested name recognition, picture recognition, name matching, picture matching picture cueing and free recall.

• Findings: Recognition and matching revealed hardly any forgetting during 35 yrs. Recognition was better than recall.

Autobiographical Memories

• Diary studies - Linton investigated her own autobiographical memory over a 6 year pd.

• Her memory for real life events faded at about a rate of 5% a year.

• Emotionality and importance ratings were not related to subsequent recall.

• Events recalled were organised according to categories and themes and chronologically with interlocking time periods which aided recall.

Flashbulb Memories• Brown and Kulik (1977) refer to flashbulb

memories as autobiographical memory for personal circumstances during which we first learn of a surprising, emotionally arousing event. - eg. the death of Princess Diana.

• Certain details are remembered: where they were, who they were with, what they were doing, who told them, how they felt, what happened afterwards.

• Two main determinants - high levels of surprise and personal consequentiality.

Retention of Autobiographical Memory over time

• Reminiscence bump - a disproportionately higher number of memories are recalled from the adolescent and early adult period compared to other life periods.

• Collective memories - memory for our past may be collectively constructed.

Atypical Memory Functioning

• Neuropsychological impairments - studies of the effects of brain injury on memory using case studies.

• Localization of function - assumes that particular areas of the brain play a key role in different functions, such as motor control, perception, memory, emotion, language, etc.

Memory impairments• Double dissociation - different patients display

converse patterns of deficit within memory function or other cognitive domains. This helps to provide insights linking damage in different areas of the brain to specific functions.

• Plasticity - the capacity for organised alteration in brain structure or function, typically to make up for a loss.. found particularly in children.

• Selective impairments - case studies of KF and HM - Warrington and Shallice, 1969 - example of double dissociation see p 147.

LTM - Episodic and Semantic Memory

• Episodic memory - a subsystem of LTM concerned with personal episodes or events which include time and place of acquisition.

• Semantic memory - a subsystem of LTM concerned with general facts or knowledge about the world. Lacking specific contextual episodes involved in original acquisiton.

• This distinction is supported by evidence from double dissociations found in neuropsychological case studies.

LTM - Declarative and Procedural Memory

• Declarative Memory = Episodic and Semantic Memory - concerned with Knowing that

• Procedural Memory - concerned with Knowing how. eg riding a bike. This type of knowledge is difficult to describe in words.

Exceptional memory• Mnemonists - individuals with exceptional

memory skills, typically exploited for performance.

• Case study of ‘S’ (Luria, 1969) - found certain strategies used:– Semanticisation - converting meaningless material into

meaningful– Association - forming associations between the

presented information and something which is memorable

– Imagery - forming an image which somehow reinforces the information to be remembered.

Biological contributions to exceptional memory

• Synaethesia - the capacity for stimuli presented in one sensory modality to evoke spontaneously experiences in another modality. For example - ‘hear’ colours.

• Some areas of the brain, notably the hippocampus, demonstrate capacity for plasticity in accomodating complex new information. This area is associated with spatial memories, eg. recalling landmarks.

Sample Part 2 Exam Questions on Memory

• Describe and illustrate with examples the broad range of methods and different kinds of data that memory research uses. (speciman paper)

• What can research teach us about how memory works? Illustrate your answer with reference to the different types of data psychologist have used. (see preparing for exam booklet)

Sample Exam questions

• ‘Memory is a constructive and dynamic system rather than a passive mechanism for recording external information.’ Discuss this claim making reference to research findings. (2005)

• Describe the key processes in memory. What have psychologists told us about retrieval processes? (2004)