Cognitive Psych Exam 2

memory

the process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present.

3 Parts: encoding, storage, and retrieval

Sensory buffers

Sensory buffers (memory) are modality-specific or sense-specific: iconic memory (seeing), echoic memory (hearing), etc. They increase the availability of information (i.e., they allow us to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimulus has ceased)

most sensory memory gets lost unless we attend to it

Working Memory

set of memory procedures and operations

dynamic form of short-term memory

info decays w/out rehearsal or interference

limited capacity, relatively easy access, temporary

rehearsal keeps in STM; more rehearsal = more likely to retrieve info from long-term memory

Long-Term Memory

Long-lasting (years)

Large Capacity

Relatively hard access

Primacy Effect

Items from the early list positions can be rehearsed more often, so are more likely to get into long-term memory

Recency effect

Most recent words are recalled from working memory

Are Working Memory and Long-Term Memory Separate

A filled delay (distractor task) before recall affects the recency effect but not the primacy effect

Slower presentation affects the primacy effect but not recency effect

Double dissociations in behavorial data, patients, and brain imaging

Working Memory capacity

Virtually all mental tasks use working memory.

Its capacity varies across people.

Storage capacity: e.g. digit span task; 7 ± 2 chunks

Operation capacity

Baddeley’s Working Memory Model Phonological Loop

holds and rehearses verbal and auditory information

phonological store (holds sound breifely) + articulatory rehearsal (refresh before it disappears)

Baddeley’s Working Memory Model Visuospatial Pad

holds visual and spatial information

Baddeley’s Working Memory Model Central Executive

controls the flow of information between the subsystems, pulls information from LTM, and decides which subsystem is the current focus of attention

How does information get into long-term memory

Maintenance rehearsal: Repeating items - vunerable to interference

Elaborative rehearsal: Thinking about how items relate to each other and other things you already know. requires active encoding

Does intention to learn items matter? Hyde & Jenkins Study

No, intention doesn’t add much, only if you engage with the material

intentional leaning = given a list of 24 words and told to memorize it

incidental learning = given words and task

intential learning group remembered more words

Depth of processing

Depth of processing is what is crucial (not the intention to learn).

Type face task —> phonological task —> semantic task

Depth of processing from least to greatest

b/c connects new with old materials. These connections can serve as retrieval paths

Learning as preparation for retrieval

Connections (i.e., associative links) help us find info and retrieve it

Organization (e.g., through mnemonics)

Understanding

Context (e.g. retracing your steps)

advantage of connections

advantage of connecting new info to prior knowledge in several ways —> allows info to be accessed from multiple retrieval paths

Clive Wearing

amnesia - can’t form new memories or recall some past aspects

encoding

acquisition of memories

storage

where we store memories

retrieval

recalling memories

context-dependent learning

the more similar the context when studying and when taking the test the better

group that studied and tested in the same context (water or land) did better

encoding specificity principle

we encode (i.e. place in memory) the stimulus together with its context. context helps with retrieval

state-dependent learning

e.g. chewing gum or hunger

mood-dependent learning

good vs. bad mood

encoding of context

target material and additional thoughts creates a retrieval path

summation of subthreshold activation

by activating through context it increases the chance of reaching threshold

Measuring the summation of activation: semantic priming

task: respond “yes” , if prime and targets are words; otherwise respond with “no”

related and unrelated words (nurse, doctor, butter)

facilitation effect: faster at responding to a related word

spreading activation- nurse spreads its activation w/ doctor —> reaches thershold faster

Recall

type of retrieval that requires you to do a memory search; depends on connections

Example: Write down all the words you remember from the study list

essential for recall: source memory

recognition

type of retrieval that requires that you realize that you have encountered the stimulus before

example: was daffodil on the study list

can be retrieved through source memory or familiarity

familiarity and source memory are independent

1) Functional dissociation: • Familiarity without source memory: Someone looks familiar but we don’t remember where we know them from. • Source memory without familiarity: Capgras syndrome

2) Different brain areas (all in the medial temporal lobe): • source memory: hippocampus • familiarity: perirhinal cortex (in the anterior parahippocampus)

explicit memory

conscious memory

episodic: memory for specific events

semantic memory: general knowledge not tied to any place

implicit memory

revealed by indirect tests (e.g. word stem completion task (PAN___)

4 types: procedural memory, priming, perceptual learning, classical conditioning)

procedural memory

knowing how (i.e. memory for skills)

priming

changes in perception and belief caused by experience

perceptual learning

recalibration of perceptual systems as a result of experience; adjust system to understand something

classical conditioning

learning about associations among stimuli (e.g. Pavlov)

source confusion

A sense of familiarity without explicit memory can lead to source confusion. Example:

Judge how interesting statement is - Female voice: false Male voice: true

Judge truth

More likely to rate repeated than new statements as true - independent of the speaker!

processing fluency

related to familiarity

stimulus —> fluency —> stimulus registered as “special” —> attribution of fluency to prior event —> “sense of familiarity”

can be high because we are practiced in perceiving a stimulus

illusion of familiarity: when cognitive psychologists make perception easier

Amnesia and episodic vs semantic memory

episodic amnesia = can remember facts NOT personal experience

semantic amnesia = can remember personal experience NOT facts

shows double disassociation, i.e. independent systems

Acquisition and retrieval of memories

acquistion and retrival are independent processes

shown by H.M

and patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome (anterograde amnesia from alcohol)

retrograde amnesia

can’t remember prior info and implicit memory

can remember new info and explicit memory

anterograde amnesia

can’t remember new info and explicit memory

can remember prior info and implicit memory

explicit and implicit memory with amnesia

anterograde amnesics can remember implict memory but NOT explicit memory

patients with damage int he amygdala can remember explicit memory but NOT implicit memory

shows explicit and implicit memory are independent systems

Common Misbeliefs about Memory

63%: Memory works like a video camera

48%: Memory of an event does not change

37%: The testimony of a single confident eyewitness should be enough to convict a criminal defendant

Al Cargo Plane Crash in Amsterdan

Did you see the TV film of the moment the plane hit the apartment building? 66% of 200 Dutch participants said yes. They remembered seeing footage of the accident and recalled details.

Wrong

Memory

What actually happens + person’s knowledge, experiences, and expectations

Can be wrong or change —> prone to error and distortions

Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts Experiment

Repeated reproduction technique: British participants were repeatedly asked to recall a story from a different culture

- Remembered gist of story, but altered details

- Changed the story to be more consistent with their own culture (e.g., canoes became boats, seal hunting became fishing

Problem: Source Monitoring

Source Monitoring

the ability to accurately identify the source of your memory

How do errors in memory arise?

Memories (and our thoughts and knowledge and new information) become interwoven. Intrusion errors can occur. (i.e. other sources alter original memory)

schema

a person’s knowledge about what is typical/frequent in a particular situation

Brewer & Treyens Office Study

Participants recalled things in line with their “office schema”. But also falsely recalled things typically in an office (e.g., books). Participants failed to recall things not usually found in an office (e.g., wine, picnic basket).

Nancy Study

Theme group read prologue and both groups tested on critical passage

Theme group remembered more details from critical passage BUT made up more things

shows understanding can help fill in gaps but also lead to more inaccuracies (inferences)

DRM procedure

Participants are just as likely to recall a theme word as they are to recall words from the actual list. They are also just as confident! Works even if participants know about the DRM procedure.

all related words are activated. e.g. cold (not on list) and frost (on list)

Misinformation effect Car Study

misleading information (ex. word) changes memory of an event

wording: smashed vs. contacted)

One week later asked if they did or did not see any broken glass

“smashed” more likely to say they saw broken glass

Event + misleading info + time —> misleading info becomes apart of event

How do false memories get implanted?

Get person’s trust.

Plant the seed: Suggest the incident might have happened.

Use places/people that are familiar.

Coax person into imagining scene (= guided imagination)

e.g. Lost in mall study

works for implausible events

hard to distinguish implanted memory from real memory

eye witness errors

associated with perception and attention (e.g., weapon focus effect) • due to misidentification through familiarity. due to suggestions and other post-event information

weapon focus effect

witnesses focus on the threat and not anything else

Teacher study

Film: teacher reading to students (E. Male and C. Female)

Female teacher gets robbed

shown photo line up w/ and w/ out actual robber

results: people choose someone vaguely familiar even if robber is not there

with post-identification feedback: higher confidence ratings

Can we distinguish accurate from inaccurate memory?

No. There are no differences in terms of detail, emotions, response speed, confidence, etc.

Jurors place high trust in witnesses’ confidence - but there is little relationship in how confidence someone says s/he is, in recalling the past, and how accurate s/he is.

Confidence can be shifted by factors that do not influence the accuracy of the memory

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

exponential

causes of forgetting: decay with time if we do not refresh memory the connections decay

causes of forgetting

decay with time (ebbinghaus curve)

interference (interact w/ old/new material)

retrieval failure (e.g. tip-of-the-tongue effect): we have info but can’t access it b/c the context we learned the info in changes

tip-of-the-tongue effect

the temporary inability to recall a well-known word despite feeling that retrieval is imminent (know we know it)

autobiographic memory

Memory of episodes/events in a person’s own life

Self-relevance - does autobiographic memory differ from other types of memory?

Self-reference effect: Better memory for information relevant to oneself Self schema: Knowledge and beliefs about oneself

• like to make past consistent w/ new experiences

• want to think positively about ourselves

emotion - does autobiographic memory differ from other types of memory?

Emotions help with memory consolidation. But emotions also narrow down focus during encoding (e.g. weapon focus effect).

processed in amygdala —> chain effect to hippocampus

flashbulb memories

flashbulb memories

Memory for traumatic events (e.g., abuse, assault, war) is often enhanced

seem burned into our minds, but can also be innaccurate

retention/forgetting - is autobiographic memory different from other types of memory

We do not remember all phases of our lives equally well (childhood “amnesia”, reminiscence bump).

reminiscence bump

period you remember the most from b/c of significant events/life changes (e.g. moving out)