Midterm #1 - Memory

Chapters 1-5

Qualitative

Does NOT use numbers for mathematical calculations. SUBJECTIVE. Not concrete. Case studies, observational research. Usually involve coders/observers. You’re not getting a concrete measurement. 

Quantitative

Does use numerical measurements and or/statistics. OBJECTIVE. Could include the number of words recalled.

Experiment

set of observations that occur under controlled circumstances determined by the experimenter

Empirical Evidence

the product of scientific research. In memory science, the results of carefully conducted experiments. 

To be deemed strong empirical evidence

* Must be obtained as the result of the experimentation which adheres to the scientific method. 
* Must explain methodology and is replicable. 
* Is verifiable - the same results can be obtained following clear methodology.
* Ideally, peer-reviewed.

Distributed practice

 when study is spread out over time

Massed practice

when all study occurs in one block of time

Independent variable

 the variable that is manipulated by the experimenter

Dependent variable

the observations that are measured and recorded in response to the IV (ex: reaction time)

random assignment

when participants are equally likely to be assigned to any experimental condition. 

Subject/participant bias

prior knowledge or expectations on behalf of the subject influences the performance. Example: socially desirable responding; explaining hypotheses to participants prior to participation. 

Experimenter bias

 an experimenter’s prior knowledge (or expectation) can influence the outcome of the experiment.

Subject bias

can be addressed by not informing the subject of their assigned condition. -> Single blind design.

Experimenter bias

can be addressed by keeping this information from both participants AND experimenters. -> double blind design (both participant and experimenter not knowing who's in what condition).

Placebo effect

* when performance or outcome appears to change as a result of a ‘dummy’ treatment, designed to have no effective value. 


* Agents or procedures aimed at pleasing the patient rather than exerting a specific effect. 
* Capsules achieve better reported pain relief than tablets
* Color of pill - red: stimulating (pain); blue: calming (depressants).

Confounding variable

* other variables researchers should consider as potentially influencing the results. Example: there is a strong positive correlation between shark attacks and ice cream sales. Warmer temperatures is the confounding variable. The relationship between ice cream sales and shark attacks is a spurious correlation. 
* Correlational evidence and the Third Variable Problem. 

Positive correlation

when one variable increases, so does the other. When one variable decreases, so does the other. 

Negative correlation

when one variable increases, the other decreases. And when one variable decreases, the other one increases.

No correlation

no relationship

Between subjects

variable manipulations that are experienced by only some participants. Not every participant participates in all the conditions.

Within subjects

variable manipulations that are experienced by ALL participants (to some degree). 

Mixed design

 involves both between and within subjects.

Recall

generation of a target memory.

\-production of memory already presented

\-bringing a memory to conscious awareness

Free recall

provided a global cue by which to remember. Ex: describe what you saw at the crime scene, or tell me about your childhood. 

Cued recall

given a specific cue to remember a specific memory. Ex: what did you eat for breakfast, what went with the word grape on the study list.

Recognition

matching memory to presented choice(s)

Old/New recognition

a person has to decide whether the item was previously presented. Ex: was ‘hospital’ on the study list.

Forced choice recognition

a person is asked to identify from a series of options. Ex: multiple choice tests. 

Additional memory measures in memory research

* Implicit memory tests
* Reaction times
* Source judgments
* Metamemory judgments
* Neurological imaging

Implicit memory tests

* Draws on nonconscious aspects of memory
* Testing people’s memory without their awareness

Each study (1984)

* 2 streams of information (one per ear)
* Focus was memory, not attention
* Tend to one ear
* __Surprise memory test__: affected spelling of homophones in unattended ear (bear/bare), (steal/steel)
* People who had the story in the unattended ear used the proper homophones to the context of the story. 
* Even though they aren't paying attention in their unattended ear, the information still seeps through (implicit memory)

Reaction time

* Draws on conscious and/or nonconscious experience
* Amount of time required to complete a task
* Longer RT generally reflects more involved cognitive processing
* Example: reaction time to answer the question “is porkbotch a word?” will be longer than RT for question are these the same color. 

Remember/know judgments: faster RT for remember versus know.

Source judgments

* Attributions of where or from where we learned something
* Less concern with specifics of the content
* Can be an issue when we hear things that aren’t true, or we are unable to reality monitor. 
* Reality monitor: ability to distinguish whether our memory is fact or fiction. Ex: was that a dream? Can be affected by different TBIs and illnesses (Alzheimer’s). 

Metamemory Judgments

* The ratings or decisions we make concerning what we know about memory processes
* ‘Meta’ -> think ‘introspection’
* Ex: metacognition means thinking about our own thinking
* JOL: judgments of learning are correlated with actual memory performance. 
* Confidence judgments: how confident are you that you said the right answer. 

Ease-of-learning judgments: How do you think you will do on the test tomorrow?

Neuropsychology

* The study of patients with brain damage
* Correlations between damaged areas and memory performance
* Neuroimaging: advanced tech allowing visual representation of both healthy and injured brains
* 2 goals:


* Figure out where things are happening
* How these changed unfold over time

Neath and Suprenant’s (2003) definition of memory

the ability to use or revive information that was previously encoded or processed. 

Memory is whatever the experiences of our life leave behind

* The ‘residue of experience’ can be thought of at least 2 levels:


1. Neurological


1. Behavioral

Structuralist view

* The most common view in the history of ideas about memory is that it is some type of storage facility (for knowledge and experiences). 
* Others deny that memory should be thought of as a mental storage facility and instead suggest that memory is inseparable from the use of knowledge to remember and to guide our behavior. 

Proceduralist view

*  Memory is inseparable from the use of knowledge… DIDNT GET THE REST ???


* This emphasis on memory processes rather than investigating memory as the place we put knowledge, has come to dominate memory theory and research. 

Functionalist view

* without concern for the structure of memory, or the details about how memory processes work. 


* Aim is to identify how to enhance accuracy, capacity, and efficiency in learning and remembering.

Memory metaphors

to assist the conceptual understanding of memory and how it might work, philosophers used memory metaphors (and still do!)

Plato: the contents of memory are like a birdcage

Representations of experience are like individual caged birds that vary in their accessibility

Plato: wax tablet

* he suggested that memory is like a __wax tablet__: the idea is that success in remembering some experience depends on whether it makes a durable impression. For some children, the wax is still too wet, whereas for older adults, the wax is too hard. (In either case, memory is less able to preserve durable memory representations.)
* Viewing memory as akin to the work of a scribe (tablet), he acknowledged how misperceptions of events may lead to errors of memory. 

Augustine: sense and intellectual memory

* Distinguished between sense memory and intellectual memory. 
* Sense memory: involves recollections that are rich in sensory details, as when one vividly re-experiences some life event
* Intellectual memory: involves accessing knowledge that is not tied to any particular experience. 
* He also suggested that memory is an active process that can generate errors, such as false remembrances. 
* He compared memory to a cave in which we store a representation of events that might differ from what actually occurred.

John Locke: Tabula Rasa

* At birth, memory is like a Tabula Rasa (blank slate) or empty cabinet that we fill up with experience and knowledge. Suggested that knowledge and thoughts are not really stored anywhere and do not exist unless that are active in our minds. 
* This makes Locke one of the earliest proceduralists. 
* Locke’s views on human psychology relied on the process of introspection: consciously reflecting on one’s own mental processes to derive an understanding as to their nature.

Immanuel Kant: identified three types of memories

1. The mechanical method: mindless repetition
2. The method of clever devices: involving the formation of meaningful associations between the information to be remembered (mnemonic device: memory technique that can help you recall and preserve info.


1. The method of reflection: involves consideration of the deeper meaning of the info to be remembered. He was one of the earliest functionalists

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

* Widely considered to be the founder of experimental psychology


* He was the first to offer a course on the topic of psychology in 1867 at the university of Heidelberg. First to consider himself a psychologist.
* Credited with distinguishing psychology as a separate discipline from biology and philosophy. 
* In the 1870s, he established the first university-affiliated psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig.

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

* Considered the first memory researcher. (The “Father” of memory research!)


* In 1885, he published ‘Memory: A contribution to experimental psychology.’ 
* The first to use statistical methods to analyze differences in memory scores between his conditions. Demonstrated that memory could be studied empirically. 
* Ebbinghaus established a number of principles of memory that have withstood tests of time and still prove true today!

Ebbinghaus’ Principle Contributions to Memory Research

* Less info (ex: shorter lists) is/are easier to remember than more info (long lists)
* Longer retention interval, the greater likelihood of forgetting
* Forgetting curve
* Overlearning
* Spacing effect


* Although many people had stuff to say about human memory, there were no significant controlled scientific investigations of human memory until Ebbinghaus came along. 
* Used himself as his only participant - no lab, no university support, no participants. 
* Made lists of nonsense syllables and ran many experiments testing his memory for those lists. E.g., GEB, FIC, ROF, TEM, ROG
* CVC Trigrams: Consonant-Vowel-Consonant Patterns
* Used nonsense syllables to avoid the issue of meaning between items on the lists.

Ebbinghaus: Method and Experiments

* Method: reading aloud a list of nonsense syllables (between 13 and 20 long, usually about 15) very rapidly (2.5 syllables per second). Then, immediately trying to repeat in correct order. 


* Why so fast? Ebbinghaus wanted to prevent adopting any sort of memory strategy for remembering the syllables. 
* If he failed, he read and repeated the list back again, until he reached criterion of single instance of perfect recitation - recorded time and number of trials necessary to reach this point. 


* In just ONE of his studies, Ebbinghaus learned 350 lists - which would have involved over 180,000 repetitions. 

Savings score

* represents the reduction in time required to learn a previously mastered list following a time delay. 


* Ebbinghaus’ outcome measure of how much he had retained from his first study of the list. 
* Represents the proportion of memory items ‘saved’ from the previous learning episode.
* Example: if the list took 10 trials to repeat perfectly the first time, but only 3 trials after a delay, this represented a 70% savings (memory was 70% more efficient).

Savings method

ebbinghaus’ method involving relearning a list of nonsense syllables to perfection a second time and calculating the difference in time/trials to recite the list perfectly at Time 1 and to recite perfectly again at Time 2.

Retention interval

the period of time between initial exposure to information and the instance that one is asked to recall or recognize that information.

Savings formula

* used to compute the % savings from his original learning of the list. 


* Q = 100ΔL- 85
* Q: % Savings score
* Δ: difference in time to learn list to perfection between T1 and T2 (in seconds)
* L: Time to learn list at T1 (in seconds)
* ‘85’: Time to recite list out loud without making errors (85 seconds)

Savings

is the difference between how many times it took to learn the list to perfection the first time and how many times it takes to relearn the list after a delay.

Forgetting curve

* forgetting occurs rapidly at first, then tapers off, becoming more gradual at longer delays between study and recall (13 nonsense syllables)


* Ebbinghaus plotted his % Savings Scores over the course of days to establish forgetting curve. 

Overlearning

* continuing to study material that has already been learned and mastered. When lists are overlearned, the forgetting curve was less steep (the initial forgetting was reduced)


* Overlearning resulted in a Forgetting Curve that was LESS STEEP. 

Spacing effect

* the memory advantage experienced due to distributed practice as opposed to massed practice. 


* “One of the most dependable, robust, and ubiquitous phenomena in the entire psychological literature”
* Benefits of distributed practice over massed practice:


* Higher % Savings Scores (greater memory retention)
* Less overall time to learn material
* At test, fewer overall errors in memory performance. 

Distributed study lists

* Higher savings scores
* Less total time to learn than mass practiced lists. 

Associative view of memory

* The theory that complex mental processes, such as thinking, learning and memory can be wholly or mainly explained by the associative links formed between them.


* One of the oldest perspectives in memory philosophy
* Belief that all of our senses, ideas, and memories are essentially grouped into a number of associations (links) in our minds, and mental processes are explained in terms of these associations. 
* Complex ideas are said to come from the associations formed between simpler ideas. 
* The belief that people have the ability to learn and remember associations between unrelated items. 

Ebbinghaus believed that all memory could be explained through these associations between items

* Remote associations: links formed between two nonadjacent (not contiguous) items. 
* Direct associations: links formed between two adjacent (contiguous) items. 


* He believed that every time he practiced a list, associations were formed between each syllable. The strengthening of these associations is what allowed him to remember them. 

Greater the temporal contiguity the ______ the association

stronger

Less the temporal contiguity, the ______ the association

weaker

Mary Calkins (1863-1920)

* Real trailblazer for women in psychology and academia.


* Did her PhD work on the topic of memory
* First woman to meet all the requirements for a PhD in psychology at Harvard University, unanimous agreement among scholars but was denied it, because she was a woman. 
* Later offered a special doctorate bearing the name of Radcliffe College, but turned it down. 
* Established first psychology laboratory at an American women’s college
* 1898 elected as American Psychological Association’s first female president
* Also believed there was a lot to learn about memory through the associations people form between to-be-remembered items.

Mary Calkins - Paired-Associate Experimental Paradigm

* As you might expect, related pairs were more easily recalled than unrelated pairs.
* Recency effect: observation of Calkins that memory is generally better for item pairs presented later in a list, thought to be brought about by maintenance in working memory. 
* In the learning phase, subjects see pairs of items
* In the test phase, subjects see one item of the pair and must identify the other 

Verbal learning

the process of learning about verbal stimuli and responses, such as letters, digits, nonsense syllables, or words

Serial learning

learning in a series of items in a specific order (Ebbinghaus)

Paired associate learning

learning items in linked pairs; when one is presented, cues recall of its pair (Calkins). 

Free recall learning

learning items and reciting in any order (Bousfield, Tulving). 

Bousfield (1953)

* Presented participants with words, one at a time, and then asked participants to recite as many words as they could remember in a free recall task.
* Found that even though words presented in a random fashion, participants still reported words back in an organized manner in free recall task
* That is, they tended words back in organized groups of words related to different categories (vegetables, male names, occupations, and animals).

Bousfield - Clustering

* the tendency to remember items from groups or categories together. 
* Suggests behaviour of participants in memory experiments is more complex than earlier implied - people seem to automatically impose structure and organization on items in memory to facilitate recall
* Begins to poke holes in the purely ‘associationist’ view of memory - clear that participants are not simply remembering items based on the order they were presented. 

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

* was an American Psychologist who popularized the scientific theory of behaviorism, establishing it as a psychological school of thought. 


* Stimulus response (S-R) theory: Belief that all behavior manifests as a result of the interplay between stimulus and response. 
* According to this line of thinking, behavior cannot exist without some form of external stimulus. 

Memory research after Ebbinghaus

* Watson and his followers came to dominate psychology and banished the study of anything other than observable, conditioned reflexes in response to the stimuli in the environment. 
* Classical conditioning
* Operant conditioning

Paradoxical criticism of the behaviourist tradition

learning was deemed an acceptable topic for study, as it could be directly observed. However, the stored representation of knowledge and experience (e.g., memory) was deemed unobservable and thus deliberately ignored.

Cognitive revolution (1950’s)

* Eventually, too much evidence was mounting that a purely behaviorist approach to psychology simply could not explain.


* More and more evidence that people are actively engaged in the information they recall - internal mental processes needed to be studied in order to better understand memory. 
* An intellectual shift in psychology that brought research focus to the internal mental processes driving human behavior.
* Study of thought became interdisciplinary; attention directed to processing skills (language, memory, problem solving and learning).

Frederick Bartlett

* Rejected behaviorism of Ebbinghause; believed that meaning was inseparable from memory. 
* Research demonstrated how expectations can influence memory for events 
* Influential in understanding the fallibility of memory; false memory

Endel Tulving

* Canadian Psychologist; University of Toronto


* Influential in development of idea of separate memory systems (episodic and semantic memory)
* Encoding specificity principle

Elizabeth Loftus

* American psychologist; pioneering researcher in the area of misinformation and continued influence effects.


* Used verbal stimuli to influence memory of participants
* Influential in deterring eyewitness testimony and eyewitness lineups in judicial proceedings.

Recency effect

the observation that memory is usually superior for items at the end of a list; thought to be caused by the maintenance of those items in working memory. 

Behaviorism

a school of psychology that focused on the relation of environmental inputs and the observable behavior of organisms, including human beings. 

Classical conditioning

 learning that a relation exists between a stimulus and an outcome; the organism demonstrates a behavior or response that shows that the organism has learned the association between the stimulus and the outcome.

Operant conditioning

organisms learn to perform responses or behaviors (e.g., pressing a bar) in response to a stimulus to achieve desirable outcomes (e.g., getting food) or avoid undesirable outcomes (e.g., getting an electric shock). 

Cognitive psychology

an approach to psychology that emphasizes hidden mental processes.

Empirical evidence is ______

Data generated from experiments

Which historical figure is associated with discovering the savings score?

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Endel Tulving is associated with which ideas?

1. The semantic episodic memory distinction
2. The study of how memories are experienced by us


1. The encoding specificity

An approach to memory that emphasizes hidden mental processes is:

cognitive psychology

A scientist who wants to understand the role of certain areas of the brain in understanding memory would be most influenced by which approach to memory?

Cognitive neuroscience

Experiment

set of observations that occur under controlled circumstances determined by the experimenter.

Random assignment

any particular participant is equally likely to be assigned to any of the conditions.

Double-blind procedure

experimental structure in which neither the tester nor the participant knows what condition that participant is in. 

Recall

a person must generate the target memory based on cues, without seeing or hearing the actual target memory

Free recall

a person must generate memories with minimal or no cuing of the memories

Cued recall

a person is given a specific cue and must generate a target memory that corresponds to that cue.

Recognition

person must identify the target memory from amongst a set of presented items.

Implicit memory tests

tests that draw on the nonconscious aspects of memory. 

Source judgments

our  attributions of where or from whom we learned something

reality monitoring

our ability to distinguish whether our memory is of a real or an imagined event

Metamemory

our knowledge and awareness of our own memory processes.

Judgments of learning

predictions we make as we study items of the likelihood that we will remember them later.