Cognition test 2

Memory serves purpose

• Helps to create expectation

Mental process (what is memory)

• Grabbing information

• Retaining information in our mind

• Different processes that support memory 

Mental storage (what is memory)

• Retaining information in our minds somewhere

• Grabbing that information when its needed

• Storage locker analogy 

Ideal memory system

• Perfect memory where our brains act as a camera or computer

• Is that a good or bad thing 

Is the ideal memory system a good thing or bad thing?

• Bad because having an imperfect memory is helpful and can protect us 

Memory as a gateway (realistic memory system)

• Not everything we experience is retained

• Some is discarded

Memory as a workspace (realistic memory system)

• Multiple components and functions important to memory 

• Somethings we experience but not paying attention to

Memory consists of multiple stores

• William james 2 systems

  • Primary memory 

  • Secondary memory

Primary memory (william james)

• Short term (lasts a few seconds) and hold information in the conscious state

Secondary memory (william james)

• Longer term (potentially unlimited duration) and brought to consciousness if desired

Ecoding (functional components of memory)

• Taking in information from the world to your memory 

Storage (functional components of memory)

• Holding, maintaining, retaining information

Retrieval (functional components of memory)

• Finding, assessing, bring the information back our of memory 

three stage model of memory (atkinson and schiffrin)

• Input → sensory memory→ short term memory (rehearsal)→←long term

Visual sensory memory

• Iconic memory

• Very brief memory register 

• < 0.5s

• Visual persistence

• Our perception of lightning is a mental event that reflects visual persistence

Characteristics of sensory memory

• How long does information stay in sensory memory 

• How much information remains in sensory memory 

Sperling

• Whole report vs. partial report technique 

Whole report task findings

• Recalled about ⅘ letters (37% accuracy)

• Same results for both short ms and long 500 ms display of the array of letters

Possible conclusions about sensory memory

• Not all letters are represented in memory 

• OR all were represented but faded quickly 

Partial report task

• 50 ms display of letters → beep (tone cue)  → report letters from cued row

• Recalled ¾ letters (75% accuracy)

• Capacity of iconic memory is about 9 items

• Much is kept but decay occurs immediately

• Span of apprehension 

Span of apprehension (partial report task)

• The number of items is recallable after any short display 

Decay (short term memory)

• Memory can just vanish

Interference (short term memory)

• Something interferes with your memory

• Can affect how well your remembering something 

• Other information we are trying to encode interferes with what we initially tried to encode

Backward masking

• Presenting a mask immediately after stimulus 

Auditory sensory memory

• Echoic

• A brief sensory memory for auditory stimuli

• Auditory sensory memory lasts about 2-3s

Sensory memory (cont.)

• Amount of information

  • Large capacity

• Duration

  • Very short duration

• Important stage because it registers information and STM (short-term memory), attention, consciousness

Short term memory (cont.)

• Short lived (20 sec or less)

• Limited capacity 

• STM as a bottleneck 

• Miller (1956)

Miller (1956)

• The STM limit was 7 (+/- 2)

Chunking

• Grouping information we already know 

• Helpful with memory 

• Requires prior knowledge

Information complexity (STM Capacity)

• Retention changes based on the complexity of the information being encoded

STM (STM vs. Working memory)

• A part of a modal model of memory 

• Capacity limited storage

• No explicit distinction of different mdoality (verbal or visual)

• Short term storage of information

Working memory (STM vs. Working memory)

• It is much more complex than STM

• Capacity limited mental workspace

• Support cognitive processing 

• A theoretical framework/storage+manipulate information

STM —> working memory

• Baddeley and hitch WM model first published in 1974

Phonological loop

• Speech sounds

• Subcomponents

  • Phonological store

  • Articulatory loop

Phonological store (subcomponents of phonological loop)

• Passive retention

Articulatory loop (subcomponents of phonological loop)

• Active rehearsal

Articulatory suppression effect (evidence of phonological loop)

• Inhibit subvocal rehearsal when you are speaking something else

Irrelevant speech effect (evidence of phonological loop)

• Hard to keep info in phonological loop when around irrelevant sounds present in the environment 

Phonological similarity effect

• Harder to remember words that sound similar than that sound different

Word length effect

• Harder to remember longer words than shorter words

Skiled in ASL

• Some were similar in ASL hand movements

• Confusions occur

Phonological loop in the brain

• Brocas area

  • Language production 

  • Left hemisphere

• Connectivity between Brocas and Wernickes

The visio-spatial sketchpad

• Maintain and manipulate visual and spatial information

• Information coded as visual percepts 

Information coded as visual percepts (the visio-spatial sketchpad)

• Visual format 

• Spatial format

Central executive

• The ceo of working memory 

• Planning actions

• Retrieval and decision processes

• Integrating information

• Attentional allocation

Episodic buffer

• Updated component from the original model 

• Communicate with long-term memory 

• Information is integrated to form into new episodic memories

  • memories for experiences and events

  • Where mnemonic devices occur

Dual task

• Two tasks to accomplish simultaneously

  • Primary task 

  • Secondary task 

sternberg memory task

• get a list of letters one at a time

• recognition test

• Memory set is encoded in STM—>probe is presented—> scan contents of STM—> Make yes no decision—>press key/sa yes/no

recognition test (sternberg memory task)

• a probe letter will appear at the end you say yes/no if the letter was on the list

Parallel search (possible retrieval model)

• searching each item simultaneously at the same time

• fast process

• whether a matching item is presented or not the process is the same speed because its nearly instantaneous

• if the list is longer its the same amount of time to complete process

Serial self-terminating search (possible retrieval models)

• scanning items one by one

• if a match is found, eliminate the remaining items

• not as fast a process

• duration can change based on whether theres a match or not

Serial exhaustive search (possible retrieval model)

• again searching all items one by one

• if theres a match you still continue till the end of the list

• longer process than the others because whole list is being searched one by one regardless

• generally this is found to be the main model of retrieval for sternberg tasks

serial position effect

• aka serial position curve

• shows distinction between STM vs. LTM

• effect happens based on position

Primacy effect (serial position effect)

• better memory for items at the early positions of the list

• reduced proactive interference

• nothing came before the first items

recency effect (serial position effect)

• better memory for items at the end positions of the list, presumably

• reduced retroactive interference

• nothing came after the last items

Evidence from rundus (1971)

• had people rehearse the list out loud as opposed to in their head

• items in the beginning of the list are rehearsed a lot more than items at the end

Evidence from Glazner and Cunitz

• after encoding the list start recalling with some time delay or count backwards from 30 seconds

Decay (memory forgetting)

• forgetting occurs due to the passage of time

Interference (memory forgetting)

• forgetting occurs due to other interfering materials

Proactive interference

• interference caused by earlier events

• goes forward in time

Release from PI

• performance deteriorates successively because of the build up of proactive interference

• the release from proactive interference

Tulvings assessment of patient KC

• patient cannot remember, in the sense of bringing back to conscious awareness, a single thing that he has ever done or experienced in the past

Declarative (explicit)

• long term memory knowledge that is retrieved and reflected on consciously

nondeclarative (implicit)

• knowledge that influences thought and behavior without consciousness

semantic memory (declarative)

• fact based memories

episodic memory (declarative)

• long term memory for live events

Patient LP

• impaired semantic memory

• episodic memory in tact

Neuroimaging evidence (episodic vs. semantic)

• different areas of the brain are activated by episodic and semantic memories

autobiographical memory (episodic and semantic memory interaction)

• memory across the lifespan

• both specific events and self related information

• more narrative style of episodic memory

• flashbulb memory

Forgetting (Declarative memory)

• remembering procedure of an event but not specifics

Remember/ Know Procedure

• remember/ know responses on events

• the amount of forgeting

• events within to yrs vs. 50 yrs

Remember (remember/know procedure)

• big drop for very old life events

Know (remember/know procedure)

• slight drop for very old events

semanticization of remote memories

• lost some details in your memory of specific events

• rather than you remember it, you know it

prospective vs retrospective memory

• most memory is retrospective

• some memory is prospective

• when we make a memory to remember to do something in the future, we still utilize LTM

• constructive episodic simulation hypothesis

Hippocampus

• located in medial temporal lobe (MTL)

• case study (Patient H.M)

• H.M had his hippocampus sectioned to prevent epileptic seizures

anterograde amnesia

• the disruption of memory for events occurring after the brain injury

• acquiring new long term memories

retrograde amnesia

• the loss for memories before a brain injury

• more disruption for more recent memory

• less disruption for older memory

case history (H.M)

• couldnt form new memories

• unimpaired implicit memory

Mirror tracing task

• tracing an image through a mirror

• tests procedural learning

• H.M showed no conscious learning but he showed unconscious/implicit learning

Implicit memory

• non deliberite

• not consciously aware

• but learned previously

• performance effected by prior experience with no necessary awareness

implicit learning

• non conscious acquisition of structured information

procedural memory

• there is a shallow forgetting curve

Priming

• exposure to one stimulus influences how one responses to another subsequent stimulus