Psych 350: Human Memory Exam 1

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

What is Memory?

The ability to store and retrieve information across time

Who was the first person to investigate human memory experimentally?

Herman EBBINGHAUS

What did bro (Ebbinghaus) discover?

• The more time we study, the better

• Study in increments (distributed practice) instead of cramming

• If you think you know the material, keep studying (overlearning)

How do we divide up memory into different systems?

• Content learned (i.e motor skills, facts, events)

• By the brain systems responsible (ex. Hippocampus is responsible for declarative memory)

• Duration: How long is the info maintained (sensory memory, STM, LTM)

Why divide up memory into separate systems?

Because of..

• Different functional rules or principles

• Different neural bases

• Differences across species

• Different developmental timeframes

Three types of memory?

1. Sensory memory: brief, direct sensory input, transfer to STM before it fades

2. Short Term Memory (STM): what are you thinking right now

3. Long Term Memory (LTM): unconscious info that can be brought up thru retrieval

Three Stages of Memory?

1. Encoding: Processing what we think, perceive or feel into memory

2. Storage: Maintaining and Organizing info over time

3. Retrieval: Bring the previously encoded/stored information to mind

What is visual sensory memory called and how long does it last?

• Iconic memory

• Lasts for 400ms

What is auditory sensory memory called and how long does it last?

• Echoic Memory

• Lasts for 3s

Sperling’s Full Report (Iconic Memory Test)

• Participants were asked to recall letters from a grid

• Participants were able to recall 4 out of 12 letters (no specific row)

Sperling’s Partial Report (Iconic Memory Test)

• Participants were assigned to report a specific row depending on the pitch (presented after the image disappeared)

• High pitch= top row, Mid pitch= mid row, Low pitch= bottom row

• Participants were able to recall an entire row (4/4) of letters.

• ^ This holds true if the beep cue occurred QUICKLY enough

Why is Partial-Report accuracy higher than Full Report?

Participants recall seeing an entire grid but as they recalled letters, the mental image was fading away. Demonstrates how brief sensory memory can be

How do we know that Iconic Memory is purely visual?

A Partial test and whole test was used

• Visual cues such as color and location had better performance

• Cues based on sound or meaningful categories did not work

Why is Iconic memory useful?

To navigate our environment by creating smooth pictures of our surroundings

Darwin Experiments (Echoic Memory Test)

• Similar to Sperling’s experiment\

• List of 3 digits that lasted for one second

• Played form left, right and center speakers

• Partial report cue used to remember left, right or center speaker

Drawin Experiment Results (Echoic Memory Test)

Showed similar results to Sperling’s partial report but it was found that echoic memory lasts for 3s.

What is STM and how long does it last?

• STM is what is in your mind currently

• Lasts from 15-30 seconds.

• HOWEVER, it does not exceed 30 seconds unless your repeat it to yourself (aka rehearsal)

• Limited Capacity (3-7 items)

Brown-Peterson paradigm from 1970s (STM test)

1. Study Phase: Get three letters and one number

2. Retention Phase: count by 3s from the number until you reach zero

3. Test Phase: Recall letters

Brown-Peterson paradigm from 1970s Results (STM test)

The longer the delay (counting by 3s to zero from a higher number in this case), the less likelihood of remembering the information (letters in this case)

How do we measure STM capacity

• Memory Span tests

• Recency effect tests

What is involved in a Memory Span Test?

• See or hear an item: then immediate recall

• See or hear 2 items: recall

• Keep adding items in order to figure out how many items it’ll take before a person begins to lose some

• Results: 7 plus or minus 2

What is involved in Recency Effect Test?

• Person gets a list of items one at a time

• Tries to recall the items at the end

• Showed more recall for first and last few items

• Suggests that we can hold 3-4 items in our STM

Serial Position Curve

A U shaped curve. States that people are better at remembering items from the beginning of the list (primacy effect) and items from the end of the list (recency effect).

How do people overcome the small capacity of STM?

By chunking! aka grouping smaller units of words into meaningful units

True or False: Verbal material in STM is formatted differently

TRUTH NUKE

Baddeley Experiment (Verbal Material in STM)

Four groups with items to remember

1. Phonetically similar list: man, mad, cap, can, map

2. Semantically similar list: tall, huge, broad, long, tall

3. Phonetically different list

4. Semantically different list

Baddeley Experiment Results (Verbal Material in STM)

Similar-sounding words produce interference in STM. Therefore, STM uses a phonological code for words

Gateway idea suggets..

information MUST pass the STM in order to enter the LTM.

What are the limitations of the Gateway idea

• If the Gateway idea were to be true then short term memory damage should prevent info from getting to the long term memory

• Brain damaged patients with impaired STM still had their LTM fairly intact

Modern View of Memory Systems suggests that..

We need a temporary space where we can process information aka working memory.

What is Working memory?

Working memory is

• Temporary storage plus processing

What’s the evidence that storage and processing compete for Working Memory?

• Span + processing tasks showed worse performance than span tasks alone

Wilde, Strauss,\ & Tulsky, 2004 (Working Memory Span Task)

• Presented with circles

• A different circle will light up for a certain amount of times

• Participants had to click which circle lit up in chronological order or in backwards order.

Daneman and Carpenter’s word span test (Working Memory Span Task)

• Participants are asked to read a few sentences out loud

• They had to recall ONLY the last word of each sentence in order

Baddeley’s Working Memory Model Components

• Central Executive

• Visuospatial Sketchpad

• Phonological Loop

• Episodic Buffer

Info can come from

• Sensory Memory

• LTM

• Internal (Information you’ve created)

What is Central Executive in the WM model?

• The Big Boss

• Plans out how to achieve current goals

• Deletes no longer needed information

• Add new internally created information

• Connect storage systems to current goals: Grant priority to information that is most relevant (closely related to attention)

• Monitor and evaluate current performance

  
  

What is Phonological Loop

Stores verbal info in an articulatory/phonological code

• internal monologue

What is Visuospatial Sketchpad?

• The processing of visual and spatial information

What is Episodic Buffer?

• The connection between the Working Memory and Long Term Memory

• Holds current goals, plans, and info retrieved from LTM

What’s the evidence for different components in a working memory system?

• Performance declines when doing two tasks at once

• But this depends on WHICH two tasks

• Only if they use the same
  components of working memory

True or False: Individual differences in Working Memory Tests are correlated with intelligence

TRUTH SUPERNOVA

How can we tell if working memory training is effective?

1. Do people improve on exactly the task that is trained? YES

2. Do people improve on other tasks that are pretty similar (Near transfer)? PROBABLY YES.

3. Do people improve on tasks that are quite different, but thought to rely on the same underlying ability (Far transfer) ? NO CONVINCING DATA.

4. Do the trainees improve at real-life tasks, like school grades, driving, etc? NO CONVINCING DATA.

Important to note that training working memory is a controversial take but there are many claims

What is Attention? (How does it Influence Memory)

Attention is processing info

Memory is a by-product of processing – thinking and doing.

• Attention is a limited resource

• Unattended information gets weaker sensory processing than attended.

• Poor perception of unattended input

• Later: Poor memory of that unattended input

Rossiel and Scaggs 2008 (Attention)

• Students were shown altered pictures of their college campus

• “Is this scene familiar?” 97% of students said yes

• “Do you see something wrong” 80% of students said no

Poor memory for unattended information

Naveh-Benjamin & Brubaker, 2019 (Attention)

• Study Phase: words presented one at a time for 6 seconds

• Full attention group: focus on the words only

• Divided attention group: they had to press a button to indicate high, medium, or low pitch (dual task: focusing on the words and pitch)

• Intentional and Incidental study groups

• Recall the words

Naveh-Benjamin & Brubaker, 2019 Results (Attention)

Those in the direct focus intentional AND incidental groups showed significantly better performance than those in the dual task condition. This indicates that direct focus is essential for better memory.

Melton, 1970 (Benefits of Distributed Practice)

Present list of words one at a time.

• Some words occur only once, some occur twice.

• Meaning: Extra study time for repeats.

• Vary the number of other words in-between repetitions of the same word.
  • Immediate repetition = massed practice.
  • Intervening words = distributed practice.

• Recall test at end.

Cepeda et al, 2008 (Benefit of Distributed Practice)

• People study trivia facts

• Then they get to review them at a certain delay: from same day to days later

• Test at 7 days, 35 days, 70 days, and/or 350 days later

Result: Letting more time pass before re-study is better... up to a point
(about 20 days) – waiting 105 days is too long.

What is the Generation Effect

Higher accuracy for generated words

Testing Effect

Practice Tests are good for long term retention as well as delayed feedback

Roediger & Karpicke, 2006 (Taking a Test)

College students read a passage describing science experiment
Then, different groups

• Review/re-study three more times (SSSS)

• Review/re-study twice, then recall everything they can (SSST). NO feedback on this practice test.

• NO re-study, try to recall everything three times
  (STTT). NO feedback on these practice tests.

• Everyone takes a final test:
  • 5 minutes later OR
  • A week later

Provided evidence for practice test and delayed feedback being useful

Organization in Memory

We have better memory when we see the relationships between items

Bower (1969) (Organization of Memory)

• Participants were asked to remember 112 mineral names

• Had to remember in random order or organized into subcategories

• Random condition: 18% recall

• Organized condition: 65% recall

Shows the importance of memory organization

True or False: People organize material themselves, and it
helps during retrieval.

TRUEEE

Von Restorff Effect

We are able to remember the information that stands out from the background

• distinctiveness helps with memory

True or False: Sleep aids in memory consolidation

MEGA TRUE

Two forms of LTM?

1. Declarative: Episodic and Semantic

2. Non declarative (Procedural memory)

What is Episodic Memory

Memory of..

• Single Events + Personal events where time and place is relevant

“What did you have for breakfast?” Recall question

“Was CROW in the list of the words you just studied?” Recognition question

What is Semantic Memory?

• Knowledge of facts (i.e BTS debuted on June 13th, 2013)

• Time and Place are irrelevant

True or False: Connecting new episodes to existing knowledge affects episodic memory (for verbal and non verbal items)

TRUTH HYPERNOVA

• Note: It can be mostly good influences but it can also be distorted

• Leads to better memory consolidation

• Attention to meaning matters: LOP results

• Using existing knowledge to organize current material into patterns is useful

Voss and Pellerr (2007) (Test on Episodic Memory)

Let people study a large set of squiggles (random shapes)

• Task during the Study Phase: rate each Squiggle based off the meaning (does it look like a face, animal, etc)

Recognition test: Presented with new and already studied squiggles

• Squiggles higher in meaning: 82% recognition

• Squiggles low in meaning: 46% recognition

Suggests that if meaning is attached to an item/concept we will remember it better

Carmichael, Hogan, & Walter, 1932 (Episodic Memory Test)

Participants studied ambiguous figures with LABELS then recalled them by drawing them (what is remembered)

• Distortions happened during the recall test but not in the recognition test

Dual coding theory

We are able to picture the concrete word while also understanding its general meaning

• Dog: Knowing what a dog is and picturing a dog (visual)

• Freezing: Knowing the definition but also imagining the temperature (somatosensory)

• Cuy: Knowing what it is but also picturing a taste #YUM.COM (Olfactory)

True or False: Mostly, people remember the meaning of events rather than the surface form.

Ts is true!

• GIST memory is better than VERBATIM memory

Intentional vs Incidental Study

Intentional: being told there is going to be a memory test (before showing them the material)

Incidental: person isn’t told that it’ll be a memory test until they receive the material

• Intentional is better because it gives your brain time to prepare for the task at hand

Hyde & Jenkins, 1973 (Incidental vs Intentional Memory Test)

Subjects studied 24 words, then attempted to recall them.

• Different groups had different tasks during the study phase.

• Does the word contain an E or a G? yes/no

• What part of speech is it? Noun/verb/adj.

• How common is the word? 5-point scale

• How pleasant is the word? 5-point scale

• No task: “Control”

Half the subjects warned about memory test, half not

• Results indicate that intentional memory tests produce better results

What are Levels of Processing

Shallow processing: simply maintaining the knowledge of the object

• Rote memorizing is an example

Deep processing: expanding beyond the knowledge of the object by applying it, and knowing its meaning

• aka elaborate rehearsal

Intentional vs Incidental doesn’t matter, it is HOW subjects initially process the material

What are LOP manipulations of Study Tasks?

Orthographic (Shallow)

• Does the word have certain letters

• How are the letters organized?

Phonological (Medium)

• Does the word sound similar to other words?

• How many syllables?

Semantic (Deep)

• What are the characteristics of this word?

What is Self Reference?

Applying the adjective to yourself

• Aids in enhancing memory if you can apply things to yourself

True or False: Rote rehearsal is useful in keeping things in Short Term Memory

TRUEEEEE

What is Deep processing?

Whatever produces the best memory

• Difficult task: more effort = better memory
  • Difficult = more errors, longer reaction times

True or False: Orthographic tasks can be more difficult than semantic tasks, but still lead to worse memory.

TRUEE

What are Negative vs Positive Items in Semantic tasks?

Negative Item: The answer to the study question is NO

Positive Item: The answer to the study question is YES

• Semantic process is better but there is no use for negative items

True or False: Semantic tasks force you to think about what you already know about an item – and this works best for positive items

#TRUTH!

True or False: Experts only have good memory for things in their field of expertise

Yesssss #tru

Morris, Bransford, & Franks, 1977 (Experiment that Challenged LOP)

1. Study Phase: Given a set of words and questions

• ex. Rhymes with Legal? EAGLE

2. One recognition test: Pick out the words you saw before

3. A different recognition test: Pick out the words that rhyme with the words you studied

What is the difference between LOP and TAP

Levels of Processing: Only considers the encoding aspect (what happens)

• integrate current items with prior knowledge

Transfer Appropriate Processing: Considers both encoding and retrieval of information

• meaning based retrieval cues

What is a retrieval cue?

Contextual cues that are used to fish out information from your memory

• What are you thinking about

What is Priming Effect

Accuracy is higher for items that were studied earlier

What is priming score

Accuracy difference between studied words and new words

Kuo and Van Petten 2006 (TAP at Work)

One study task: Think about this object in real life, and decide whether it is larger or smaller than the computer monitor (roughly 18 x 18 inches)

• Half the objects were “large” and half “small”
  • This qualifies as a “deep” study task

Another study task: Think about this object in real life, and decide if the drawing color is a good one for that object.
• Another “deep” study task

TAP Experiments suggest that…

Results suggest

• Encoding specificity: People can learn different things about the same material depending on study task

• Transfer-appropriate processing: Better performance if memory test asks about what was actually learned

WHat is Context Dependent Memory

Better performance when study and test contexts are similar

Types of Contexts?

• Environmental (Alpha)

• Semantic (Beta)

• Pharmacological (State of mind, ex. sober vs drunk)

• Languages (Autobiographic things like “picnic”

• Emotional

Note: in these cases, we often don’t know exactly what the mental operations were, but assume that having the same context at study and test produced greater overlap than different contexts.

True or False: Environmental Context Effect is very Powerful

No no no…(False)

What are the Broader divisions of Context

Alpha: Context and Material are unrelated

Beta: Context changes the meaning of the material

Mood Congruent Memory

Better memory for material that matches your mood

Mood Dependent Memory

Better memory when mood of encoding match mood of retrieval

Mood-congruent memory (mood & material match)

1. Mood induction: Let people get into desired mood (good or bad)

2. Study words or pictures that are emotionally positive or negative

3. Test memory for the positive and negative material

4. Results that would support Mood Congruity
   • Good mood: Positive material > negative
   • Bad mood: Negative material > positive
   Some evidence that this happens, but mood-congruity effect strongest in clinically depressed people
   
   

Existence of Mood-dependent memory (Encoding & retrieval match)?

Does it exist?

• Many experiments had null results, most memory researchers were skeptical

• Eich & Metcalfe (1989) showed that mood congruity makes a difference WHEN subjects are more engaged in the encoding task

What is the relationship between Semantic and Episodic Memory?

• Initial learning happens through personal experience (episodes)

• Over time the info gathered from episodic events are organized and stored semantically

Why is temporal and spatial context of learning not part of semantic memory?

• Same info (re)experienced in different contexts

• Info may have been internally created void of external influences (ex. Jungkook is a man)

Why should we think that semantic and episodic memory are sort of separate systems?

• Certain types of brain damage create loss of stored memory

• Different types of info lost depending on the type of brain damage

What is amnesia?

• Damage to medial part of temporal lobe (hippocampus and surrounding cortex)

• Memory for events (episodes) that occurred shortly before the brain damage are impaired

• General world knowledge intact

What is Semantic Dementia?

• Damage to temporal pole (anterior part of temporal lobe)

• Deterioration of general knowledge

• Memory for personal experience (episodes) is much better

What is the difference between Semantic Dementia and Amnesia?

• Amnesiacs’ episodic memory is impacted

• Semantically demented patients semantic memory is impacted

True or False Damage in Semantic Dementia is located in the anterior temporal lobe

ts is true asf

Types of Semantic Memory Lab questions?

• Lexical Decisions: Is “tart” a word vs is “glorp” a word

• Category Decision: Is “trout” a type of fish vs is “strawberry” a clothing item

• Property Decision: Do “owls” have wings, Do “salmon” have wings

• Similarity Judgement: From 1-7 how similar are sparrows and chickens

True or False: Judgments about similarity and category membership affect decisions

TRUUUUU

Things that a theory of semantic memory should explain?

The basis for similarity judgments

• Why are TABBY & LION similar? Why are BUS & PLANE similar

Hierarchical structure of categories

• Animal —> Mammal —> Dog —> Rottweiler

• And, people’s preference for a particular level: the basic level (DOG in this case)

Typicality of the items in a categories

• Why ROBIN is a more typical bird than OSTRICH