Ch. 8 - Retrieval

Retrieval

The process of recovering a target memory based on one or more cues, subsequently bringing that target into awareness

Activation level

The variable internal state of a memory trace that contributes to its accessibility at a given point.

Features

Elementary components from which a complex memory can be assembled, including perceptual aspects such as color and object shapes, as well as higher level conceptual elements.

Pattern completion

The process whereby presenting a subset of features that represent a memory spreads activation to the remaining feature units representing that memory, completing the pattern of activity necessary to retrieve it.

Cue-specification

When intentionally retrieving a target memory, the control processes by which one specifies the nature of the target and any contextual features that may constrain retrieval, and establishes these as cues to guide search.

Cue-maintenance

When intentionally retrieving a target memory, the process of sustaining cues in working memory to guide search.

Interference resolution processes

When trying to recall a particular target memory, control processes that help to resolve interference from competing memories coactivated by the cues guiding retrieval.

Post-retrieval monitoring

During intentional retrieval, the processes by which one evaluates the products of memory search, to determine whether the retrieved trace is what we seek.

Encoding specificity principle

The more similar the cues available at retrieval are to the conditions present at encoding, the more effective the cues will be.

Retrieval mode

The cognitive set, or frame of mind, that orients a person towards the act of retrieval, ensuring that stimuli are interpreted as retrieval cues.

Context cues

Retrieval cues that specify aspects of the conditions under which a desired target was encoded, including (for example) the location and time of the event. Context refers to the circumstances under which a stimulus has been encoded.

Retrieval tasks

• Direct memory tests

  • Diret/implicit memory tests

  • Free recall

  • Cued recall

  • Yes/No recognition test

• Indirect memory tests

  • Lexical decision task

  • Word fragment completion tests

  • Word stem completion tests

Direct/explicit memory tests

Any of a variety of memory assessments that overtly prompt participants to retrieve past events. They ask people to intentionally recall particular experiences,

Free recall

Relies on context the most heavily because people must retrieve an entire set of studied items without overt cues, freely—that is, any order.

Cued recall

Provides additional cues, and very often focuses on particular items in memory. In laboratory studies, this might include providing an associate of a previously studied word or an initial letter as a cue.

(Yes/No) Recognition tests

Usually the easiest type of direct test, because they simply require a decision: Did you encounter this stimulus on this occasion?

Lexical decision task

Participants would receive words and nonwords (e.g., GLORK) and for each would decide as quickly as possible whether the letter string presented was a real English word.

Word reagment completion tests

List the first word that comes to mind (e.g., P_M_GR_N_T_) Pomegranate

Word stem completion tests

List the first word that comes to mind  (PO____),

Repetition suppression

Reduced neural activity in brain regions that respond to a particular stimulus arising upon repetitions of that stimulus, often taken to reflect increased processing efficiency arising due to a stored memory trace.

Context-dependent memory

The finding that memory benefits when the spatio-temporal, mood, physiological, or cognitive context at retrieval matches that present at encoding.

Mood-congruent memory

Bias in the recall of memories such that negative mood makes negative memories more readily available than positive, and vice versa. Unlike mood dependency, it does not affect the recall of neutral memories.

Mood-dependent memory

A form of context- dependent effect whereby what is learnt in a given  mood, whether positive, negative or neutral, is best recalled in that mood.

Reconstructive memory

An active and inferential process of retrieval whereby gaps in memory are filled-in based on prior experience, logic, and goals.

Recognition memory

A person’s ability to correctly decide whether they have encountered a stimulus previously in a particular context

Signal detection theory

A model of recognition memory that posits that memory targets (signals) and lures (noise) on a recognition test possess an attribute known as strength or familiarity, which occurs in a graded fashion, with previously encountered items generally possessing more strength than novel items. The process of recognition involves ascertaining a given test item’s strength and then deciding whether it exceeds a criterion level of strength, above which items are considered to be previously encountered. Signal detection theory provides analytic tools that separate true memory from judgment biases in recognition.

Familiarity-based recognition

A fast, automatic recognition process based on the perception of a memory’s strength. Proponents of dual-process models consider familiarity to be independent of the contextual information characteristic of recollection.

Recollection

The slower, more attention-demanding component of recognition memory in dual-process models, which involves retrieval of contextual information about the memory. 

Dual-process theories of recognition

A class of recognition models that assumes that recognition memory judgments can be based on two independent forms of retrieval process: recollection and familiarity.

Remember/know procedure

A procedure used on recognition memory tests to separate the influences of familiarity and recollection on recognition performance. For each test item, participants report whether it is recognized because the person can recollect contextual details of seeing the item (classified as a “remember” response) or because the item seems familiar, in the absence of specific recollections (classified as “know” response).

Process dissociation procedure (PDP)

A technique for parceling out the contributions of recollection and familiarity within a recognition task.

Source monitoring

The process of examining the contextual origins of a memory in order to determine whether it was encoded from a particular source.

Source misattribution error

When deciding the source of information in memory, sometimes people make errors and misattribute their recollection from one source to another.

Reality monitoring

Using source monitoring processes to decide whether a piece of information in memory referred to a real event or instead to something imagined