Kin 312 Memory Components, Forgetting Strategies

Three Definitions of Memory

1) Tulving (1985): "capacity that permits organisms to benefit from their past experiences"

2) www.dictionary.com: "The mental faculty of retaining and recalling past experience"

3) Merriam-Webster Dictionary: "a device or a component of a device in which information especially for a computer can be inserted and stored and from which it may be extracted when wanted"

2-Component Memory Model

-Baddeley proposed 2 functional components of memory:
1) working memory: short
2) long-term memory

Working Memory

-incorporates sensory, perceptual, attentional, and short-term memory processes
-a place where information is stored for a short time

-plays critical role in:
o problem solving
o movement production and evaluation
o long-term memory function
o decision making

-is a functionally active structure
o deals with tasks that occur "right now"
o elements in working memory that get moved to long-term memory
o teams with elements of long-term memory

-involved in both the storage and processing of information

Characteristics of Working Memory

-Duration: refers to how long working memory can hold or store information; for both cognitive and motor skills was found to be at a max of 20-30 seconds

-Capacity: refers to how much information we can store; we can store up to 7 (+/- 2) items in working memory; we can chunk to expand this capacity

Long-Term Memory

-a more permanent storage space than working memory
-contain knowledge about past events and knowledge about how the world works
-duration: information is relatively permanent; we don't lose information, instead we have problems locating it
-capacity: relatively unlimited capacity

Long-Term Memory: Types of Information

1) Procedural Memories
2) Episodic Memories
3) Semantic Memories

Procedural Memories

-critical to motor skills
-can only be acquired through practice
-usually performers cannot describe how they do it
-memories that tell us "how to do something"
-procedural knowledge

Episodic Memories

-personally experienced events and where they occur in time
-in terms of motor skills: "I remember when I missed that putt left, I won't do that again"
-Allows you to compare what you did in the past to what you are doing now; compare performances
-tell us "what to do"
-declarative knowledge

Semantic Memories

-conceptual knowledge such as what our concept of "love" or what a dinosaur is
-general knowledge about the world and how it has developed from our personal point of view
-factual information such as "E=mc^2"
-tell us "what to do"
-declarative knowledge

Causes of Forgetting

-Trace Decay: when forgetting occurs due to the passage of time; it is more likely we forget due to retrieval problems

-Proactive Interference: activities that occur prior to performance that negatively affects memory

-Retroactive Interference: activities that occur after to be remembered movement we need to remember negatively affects memory

Strategies to Enhance Memory

-Memory is enhanced when patients or athletes are asked to remember the beginning or end of a movement

-Make your recommendations to a patient or athlete meaningful to enhance memory
o use visual and verbal labels
o hockey swing v. golf swing

-To enhance memory invoke intentional learning instead of incidental learning
o tell them they will be tested
o increases effort in practice

-Chunk or subjectively organize the movements

Practice-Test Context Effects

Encoding Specificity Principle: the more the practice environment resembles the test environment the better the retention of the learned skill/skills