EXAM 2 PSYC 4033

Prospective memory-- what is this?

ttrying to remember to do something in the future 

What are the four types of Prospective Memory?

Event based, time based, activity based, and location based tasks.

Event based

supposed to tell someone something, when you see them)

Time-based

Requires keeping track of time (e.g., attending a meeting at a specific time).

Activity based

Remembering to adjust behavior next time you do a specific task (e.g., using a different route when driving)

Location Based 

Cued by a place (e.g., remembering to grab your umbrella when leaving home).

Be able to explain the lab  task we tried to measure prospective memory.  Which part is the prospective memory part?

• Measured Depressed participants and non-depressed  

• Give you something to do and says, “when x” happens, do this  

• Ongoing task: strings of letters and say yes, it's a word or not it is not 

• However (Prospective memory): if the event is animate, you clap your hands  

• Conclusion: You get absorbed in the task and we see if you follow the prospective memories. Sometimes empathize lexical decision task sometime empathize the find the animal prospective memory task. 

Two Independent: Depressed and Not Depressed    

Dependent variables: What task you found important 

Know the prospective memory experiment that had people high and low in depression--what did the results tell us about depressed people?

Depressed people and non-depressed had the same results when getting letters. The non depressed people got the prospective memory accuracy better than depressed. Depressed people accuracy stayed the same as their lexical decision. 

The idea of monitoring as part of prospective memory ?????

Monitoring may fail if the primary task is important.   

Reasons for failure of prospective memory

habitual behavior, sleep deprvation, distractions, multi-tasking,stress,absence of reminder cue

Prospective and retrospective memory in people with OCD as compared to people without OCD--where are they different? Why might this be so?

On Time based, OCD and Schizo are worse at prospctive memory task 

On Events Based; OCD are worse on this task than Schizo on prospective memory task 

Gave a Retrospective memory tasks, it was the same for both OCD and Schizopernia partipcants  

Things you can do to prevent prospective memory failures

• Avoid Interruption 

• Use Reminder cues  

• Motivation reward 

• Form an implementation intention (when i go past the store, I will go inside and buy milk) 

Semantic memory (Chapter 9)--what is it? 

Memory for facts, knowledge you know about the world that has become generalized (not connected to a particular episode)  

Evidence from brain damaged people that it is different from episodic memory

• Damage to Hippocampus- episodic memory problems 

• Damage to Anterior Temporal lobe- semantic memory problems  

Semantic dementia--what difficulties do these people have?

Starts to lose access to what things are called and access of words

what type of damage? (Chapter 10 p. 337)

anterior temporal lobes, particularly in the left hemisphere

Three characteristics of semantic memory models need to capture--priming, category vs. attributes, typicality--what are these?

Semantic Priming – Faster recognition of a word when it is preceded by a related word.
Example: Doctor → Nurse (faster), Tree → Nurse (slower).

Superset/Property Effect – It is easier to verify that an object belongs to a category than to confirm it has a specific property of that category.
Example: "A robin is a bird" (easier) vs. "A robin has feathers" (harder).

Typicality Effect – It is easier to verify a sentence when the object is a typical category member rather than an unusual one.
Example: "A robin is a bird" (faster) vs. "A penguin is a bird" (slower).

Collins & Quillan's semantic network and cognitive economy (Chapter 18 p. 583)

A hierarchical model where concepts are organized in a network of interconnected nodes.

• Cognitive Economy – Shared properties are stored at the highest possible level in the hierarchy to avoid redundancy.

Collins and Loftus’s spreading Activiation model, Semanitc Priming 

Modification of Collins and Quillian 

Links differ in length or strength, depending on how related they are. Activation Spreads between concepts. 

Explains Priming and Typicality  

Prototype model (chapter 9)

A prototype is an average over all the members of a category you have encountered.  

Compare an item to the prototype to see if it is a member of the category  

Exemplar model (chapter 9)

You store all exemplars of a category that you have encountered. When you encounter a new item, you compare it to these stored exemplars and find the closest match. 

Note: An average is not stored 

Explains Typicality  

Hub and spoke model

Different parts of your brains, stores things about an item 

Naming objects--basic level vs. superordinate and subordinate

• Superordinate Level (Most General)

  • Broad categories that encompass a wide range of items.

  • Examples: Animal, Furniture, Vehicle.

  • Least specific, but useful for generalization.

• Basic Level (Most Common & Natural)

  • The level people tend to use most naturally in everyday speech.

  • Examples: Dog, Chair, Car.

  • Represents a good balance between informativeness and cognitive efficiency.

  • Usually the first level children learn and the one adults use by default.

• Subordinate Level (Most Specific)

  • Highly detailed, more specialized categories.

  • Examples: Golden Retriever, Recliner, Tesla Model S.

  • Requires more cognitive effort and is used when specificity is necessary.

We always choose the middle level which is the basic level always because its the best level for communication. 

How do people with different types of brain damage name things--what does that tell you about what is wrong with them?

People with Semantic Dementia, are not able to use basic level and subordinate.  They go back to the superordinate level. 

People with Aphasic Stroke, subordinate levels are used more. 

Schemas--evidence we use these;  how might they help and how might they hurt your memory?

Looking at the effect of not having cultural norm, you tend to make more disruptions towards your cultural norm. The influence of schemas (this culturally shared norm) on memory. 

If we give something different from schema, your memory won’t be as good.   (Bergman and Roediger (1999): )

War of the Ghosts

• Study on memory & schemas

• Participants read an unfamiliar Native American folk tale

• Recalled the story over time → changed details to fit their culture

• Findings:

  • Omissions (forgot unfamiliar parts)

  • Transformations (canoe → boat)

  • Rationalization (made story more logical)

  • Simplification (shorter & clearer)

• Conclusion: Memory is reconstructive, shaped by schemas.

Problems with semantic memory--e.g., semantic illusions/Moses illusion. 

Occur when people fail to notice errors in meaning within a sentence.

Ex:Answer 8 questions and write down what comes to mind, but the questions were wrong anyway .

Three possible Reasons for Semantic Illusions

• General Semantic Processing (Erickson & Mattson, 1981) → We only check if information is broadly consistent unless we focus.

• Partial Assessment (Reder & Kusbit, 1991) → We retrieve partial info; if it’s a close fit, we accept it.

• Similar Language Activation (Shafto & MacKay, 2000) → Similar words/names trigger familiar info, making errors go unnoticed.

Mnemonics

memory aids or techniques that help improve recall by associating information with easier-to-remember cues.

types of naive mnemonics

Rhymes, Acronym, songs, acrostics

Rhymes

Using words with similar sounds to make information easier to recall.

• Example: “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Acronyms

• Forming a word from the first letters of a list.

  • Example: HOMES for the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior).

Songs

setting information to a tune to enhance memory.

• Example: The Alphabet Song helps kids remember their ABCs.

Acrostics

Creating a sentence where each word’s first letter represents something.

• Example: "Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally" for the order of operations (Parentheses, Exponents, Multiplication, Division, Addition, Subtraction).

Technical mnemonics

Method of Loci, Peg word method, linking imagery, narrative story, key or link word method, number-letter recoding, name-face mnemonics

method of loci

Associating items with familiar locations to aid recall.

• Example: Placing grocery items in different rooms of a mental "house" and walking through it to remember them.

Peg word

Memorizing a set of “peg” words that rhyme with numbers, then associating new info with them.

• Example: One is a bun, two is a shoe → If remembering "apple," imagine an apple inside a bun.  

Linking Imagery

creating a vivid mental image connecting multiple items.

• Example: To remember "dog, hat, book," picture a dog wearing a hat while reading a book.

  not reliable as peg or loci

Narrative Story

Making a short story using all the information you need to remember.

• Example: If remembering "banana, car, pencil," imagine a banana driving a car and using a pencil as a steering wheel.

Key (Link) Word Method

Linking unfamiliar words to similar-sounding familiar words, then forming an image.

• Example: To remember "pato" (Spanish for "duck"), imagine a duck wearing a pot.

• great for learning vocab NOT for learning natural language

• Used typically for learning foreign languages

Number-Letter Recoding

• Converting numbers into letters or words to make them easier to remember.

  • Example: "374" → "My Red Car" (where 3 = M, 7 = R, 4 = C based on a phonetic system).

• Cannot fill word with other consonants- only vowels 

• Must memorize chart and memorize previewed stimuli 

• Most difficult  

Name-Face Mnemonics

associating a person’s name with a distinctive feature or image.

• Example: If meeting "Mr. Brown" with brown hair, picture his hair turning into a brown bear.

Technical Mnemonics work: 

1. Elaborative processing during encoding  

2. Effective retrieval cues   

Elaborative processing during encoding

1. Link to prior knowledge 

2. Link to each other  

3. Use imagery  

Effective retrieval cues 

1. Retrieval cue in the mnemonic 

2. Item serves as retrieval cue for next 

3. Retrieval cue in the context

World champions

Man with the best memory-uses the technique of loci  

• He is highly practiced, and he has 52 places to put, he corresponds the images to an number  

• Focus on something and learn how to visualize it to an image (such as trying to memorize the #4 as car, as it has four tires) 

• He turns whatever he wants to memorize into an image  

he was shuffling cards

S (Shresheviski)

• could memorize matrices of numbers highly accurantely- 20 numbers in 40 seconds, 50 in 3 minutes 

• Could memorize lengthy lists (eg 70 unrelated items) in one exposure. Could recall list years later through 

• Mental Walks on Streets of Moscow (method of loci) 

• He gets cross sensory anesthesia, if you say something, he can smell it  (Synesthesia) 

S.F

•  Increased STM digit span to over 80 after 250 hours of practice  

• Was an avid runner  

• Chunking and retrieval structure 

• Train another  

World Memory Championships (F.W.) 

• 300 digits presented per 1 Seconds 

• Must have 75 places to memorize  

Daniel Tammat

• british author, poet, and savant.

• Known for extraordinary memory, mathematical abilities, and synesthesia.

• Savant Syndrome

  • A condition where individuals have extraordinary abilities in specific areas like memory or math.

  • Tammet has savant syndrome, which gives him exceptional skills in numbers and memory.

• Synesthesia

  • Tammet experiences synesthesia, where he perceives numbers as shapes, colors, and textures.

  • Example: The number 9 appears jagged and dark, while the number 7 is smooth and round.

• Pi Recitation Record

Skilled Memory Theory

• Encode meaningfully, using a knowledge base already in LTM 

• Attach to retrieval cues, have an organized retrieval structure 

• Practice to reduce time needed to encode and retrieve  

HSAM (A.J. as an example)

highly superior autobiographical memory 

AJ first studied around 2006 

July 1^st, 1986,-”I see it all, that day, that month, that summer. Tuesday. Went with (friend’s name) to( resturant name). Days of week correct, event later verfied from her diary. 

October 3, 1987, “That was a saturday. Hung out at the apartment all weekend, weafring a sling,-hurt my elbow”. Day of week correct. Entry later verfied in diary. 

 

Face Recongition

• Super-recognizers can often recognize faces they’ve seen only briefly or even after many years, which is a far cry from the average person's ability to recall faces.

• The study suggests that SR abilities could be linked to factors like enhanced memory or attention to facial features.

• It has been hypothesized that SRs may have specialized neural mechanisms in their brain, but more research is needed to fully understand the underlying causes.

Sevens Sins of Forgetting

Transience

Absent Mindedness

Blocking

Misattribution

Suggestibility

Bias

Persistence

Transience

1. What did I do last year on this date? 

1. Bad: Weakening of memory over time 

2. Good: Set aside less useful information-more efficient  

Absent-mindedness

2. Where is my keys? 

1. Bad: preoccupied didn’t pay attention 

2. Good: if encoded everything with full attention, might be too much info 

Blocking

3. : What is the name of that actress? 

1. Bad: Retrieval failure 

2. Good: Result of a useful inhibition process that keeps irrelevant information at bay 

Misattrubution

4. I’m sure I heard that on TV 

1. Bad: Source error 

2. Good: again, less clutter, usually don’t need such details. Allows for good gist recall  

Suggesti biltiy

5. I was lost in a shopping mall 

1. Bad: Implanted memories, false recognition 

2. Good: Allows for generlization, acitvation of related concepts is generally helpful

Bias

6. Im sure I always thought she was guilty. I did great in high school 

1. Bad: 

2. Good: Allows for generalization, good mental health  

Persistence

7. I can’t stop thinking about that stupid thing I said. 

1. Ex: Traumatic memories 

2. Good: Remember things important for survival  

Hermann Ebbinghaus

1. Use self as subject 

2. Used meaningless materials 

3. Examined forgetting curve  

2. Calculated a measure called savings- looks at how much less time you must spend studying the original list to get back to one perfect reppetition 

1. Say list took you 100 seconds to learn, 100% savings would mean you didn't forget anything, 25% savings if it took you 75% to learn (75 seconds) 

Yearbook

Participants were asked to recall names and recognize faces from their high school yearbooks. The study found that recognition memory (e.g., identifying faces) remained relatively stable over time, while recall memory (e.g., listing names) declined more significantly. 

Foreign Language

This study showed that after an initial period of rapid forgetting, knowledge of a foreign language levels off in a "plateau" phase, where some information remains relatively stable for years before experiencing further decline. 

Algebra Retention

Found that retention of algebra skills follows a similar pattern: people rapidly forget unused material, but those who studied advanced math (or used algebra regularly) retained the knowledge longer, suggesting reinforcement strengthens memory over time. 

Procedural Memory forgetting

1. Continuous (riding a bike) 

2. Discrete(typing)  

1. Romano et.al (2010), hit corresponding key to type of square on a screen, over a year we show no forgetting 

Forgetting Curve

Some forgetting curves show initial rapid fall-off, followed by a period of rather stable retention 

Some domains show very little forgetting

Retroactive Interference

1. New interferes with old  

1. Learn Russian, Learn Hebrew, Recall Russian 

Proactive Interference

 

1. Old interferes with new  

Part time cuing

Giving part of the information asa cue inhibits the recall of the other information 

Study: Three oak hickory magnolia map peacan synamore birch 

Distractor test which is answer questions 

Recall-given non, three or six of the studied words, the more words you are giving, the less you recall 

Retrieval Induced Forgetting

the comparison between the two things you didn’t practice. Its show superiority for NRP compared to RP-.  

Retrieval induced forgetting exp't in addicts vs. controls

Three groups: 

Alcohol Addicts undergoing treatment (many with Disulfiram) 

Drug addicts undergoing treatment (many with methadone) 

Controls without addictions 

Conclusion: Shows that only controls show the RIF (retrieval indued forgetting) 

Directed Forgetting

1. List method of directed forgetting, either remember or forget the list. Giving two list and you have to either remember or forget the list depending on what is asked.  

2. They are asked to do free recall  

3. If I don’t make you learn a second list, you won’t forget as much.  

Think no Think

1. Study phase: learning associations between a physical object and traumatic pictures. You are shown an physical object that is the retrieval cue for a traumatic picture shown. 

2. If the object has a red square, you do supress the traumatic picture, think of somethign else. If the physical object has an green square, you think about the traumatic picture. 

3. They show you just the physical object and you just recall what you saw in the traumatic picture from just starting at the physical object. 

Retro grade Amnesia

1. lose memories from before 

1. You mostly forget, the most recent task but you have the best memory for things further back in your life, this is called Ribot’s gradient 

2. Pure retrograde amenisa: Patient CH 

1. Does great with learning new material(75^th percentile on immediate recall and 90^th on delayed recall) 

2. She doesn’t have anterograde amnesia 

3. Amnesia for autobiographical memory  

4. She had a hypoxia incident @  35 

5. She has the best memory further back and worse for the 15 years before the incident 

3. RA also occurs with electro convulsive therapy (ECT, used for depression) 

1. Lisanby et. Al 2000, effective short term 

1. The control stayed the same after treatment 

2. Depressed people had more loss in memory after giving ECT 

3. Two months after, the memories come back  

Anterograde Amenisa

2. can’t learn new information 

1. AA occurs in famous patient HM and in diseases such as Korsakoff’s syndrome  

2. HM has severe epilepsy, he had surgery in 1953, took our three thirds of his hippocampal which made his epilepsy better. However, he now has anterograde amnesia.  

1. Study 1a: famous faces: finding people famous for a short time 

1. Control group, head injured group, HM operation from 1953 

2. Further Work with H.M, word learning 

1. HM through the task of mirror tracing got better just like the control 

2. He couldn’t learn facts and stuff, but could learn procedural things  

3. Alcoholics get severe long term Anterograde (Case of Confusion) 

1. The lack of vititams from food, gives you this Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome 

1. Free recall is way lower than control 

Transient Amenisa

3. oesn’t last very long (about a day) 

1. It resolves itself 

2. A man got on a plane and he doesn’t know anything 

Psychogentic Amenisa

1. a condition characterized by a sudden and significant loss of memory that is not caused by a physical brain injury or disease 

2. John Doe, he doesn’t know where he is but he can speak four languages 

3. Types of Psychogentic Amensia 

1. Fugue: 26 yr old who reported missing, found 6 days later in Central London parl, he doesnt know why, what, and how he got there he doesn't recognize his family, 6 days later he recovers his identity   

2. Fuge followed by focal retrograde amnesia: Patient B was 28 whose amenisa commenced 10 years earlier. He had gone missing from Army training, He described awakening in a cospe of trees, walking 20 miles. 5 months later, his family visited him in the hospital, and he has not recovered his autobiographical memory.  

Clive Wearing

He could not remember something for more than seven seconds  

Amenisa is basically just having seven seconds of consciousness  

When his wife walked in the room, he knows he loves her but he doesn’t know that is his wife 

He knows how to communicate and talks very well with grammar 

He does not live with his wife  

Has anterograde amnesia with a little retograde 

He still has highly procedural memory, that is still intact, and he gets implicit memory (emotional, he can recognize his wife) 

Has impairment in episodic memory  

 

What is Korsakoff's syndrome and what kinds of memory problems do these people have

is a chronic memory disorder caused by severe deficiency of thiamine (vitamin B1), often resulting from prolonged alcohol abuse or malnutrition. It is characterized by significant memory problems, including difficulty forming new memories (anterograde amnesia), loss of past memories (retrograde amnesia), and confabulation (fabricating or inventing memories to fill in memory gaps). It can also impact the ability to recall personal experiences and events, but procedural memory may remain intact.

Methods of Autobiographical memory

• diary studies 

• Cue word (give a word and tell them to write down the first thing that comes to mind)