Episodic Long-Term Memory

Explicit VS Implicit

•Explicit Memory: Long-term memory knowledge that can be retrieved and then reflected on consciously  

•Implicit Memory: Knowledge that can influence thought and behaviour without any necessary involvement of conscious awareness

Episodic VS Semantic Memory

•Episodic Memory: Autobiographical memory; stores personally experienced events

•Semantic Memory: Stores general world knowledge, like concepts and categories

Preliminary issues

Mnemonics

The Ebbinghaus Tradition

Metamemory

Mnemonic

an active strategic learning device

Mnemonic strengths

a. The material to be remembered is practiced repeatedly

b. The material is integrated into an existing memory framework

c. The mnemonic provides a way to retrieve the material

Method of loci

a type of mnemonic that uses location as cues for memory items.

Two Steps:

1.Choose a known set of locations

2.Form a mental image of each thing you want to remember and place it in a location

Peg-word Technique

type of Mnemonic in which a pre-memorized set of words serves as a sequence of mental “pegs” onto which the to-be-remembered material can be “hung.”

Mnemonic Principles

1.Provide a structure for learning

2.Form durable and distinctive memory traces

3.Guide retrieval by providing effective cues for recalling the information

Herman Ebbinghaus

Studied his own memory using non sense syllables. He employed the relearning task and saving scores to remember the syllables.

Ebbinghaus Results

• The forgetting curve - in which there is a decline in memory retention over time.

• longer lists were remembered more

• more frequently repeated list had twice the saving scores.

Distributed practice Vs Massed practice

DP (better): study time is spread out over many, shorter sessions

MP: study time is grouped together into one long session

Metamemory

the knowledge of ones own memory, including how it works and fails

Metacognition

Knowledge about one’s own cognitive system and its functioning

Isolation effect

•better memory for information that is distinct from the information around it

Principles of storage in episodic memory

1.Rehearsal

2.Organization

3.Imagery

rehearsal

A deliberate recycling or practicing of information in the short-term store

two kinds a rehearsal

Maintenance Rehearsal: A low-level, repetitive information recycling. more of a temporary hold.

Elaborative Rehearsal: A more complex rehearsal using the meaning of the information to store and remember it

Depths of processing

Memory is determined by how the person processes it.

Shallow Processing: Leads to poor LTM traces; Used in maintenance rehearsal

•Deep Processing: Leads to strong LTM traces; Used in elaborative rehearsal

Organization

• The structuring or restructuring of information as it is being stored in memory

Imagery

•The mental picturing of a stimulus that affects later recall or recognition

Paired associate task

lists of word pairs are presented to a person. After the first presentation, the first word (the stimulus) should act as a cue for the second to-be-produced word (the paired associate)

Dual coding Hypothesis

words that denote Concrete Words which can be stored twice in long-term memory, once as a word and again as a picture. in contrast a abstract words are only stored once

Encoding specificity

in which items are encoded into richer memory representation that include anything present at the time of its encoding, which can also serve as a cue.

Decay

the older the memory the more likely it is to have been forgotten

Paired associate learning

•A list of stimulus terms is paired, item by item, with a list of response terms and after learning the stimulus terms can be used as cues for the response terms

Retrieval Failure

•When a memory is lost in the system, as opposed to from the system

Tip of the tongue states

When a person is temporarily unable to remember some shred of information (e.g., a name) that they know is stored in LTM.

Availability vs. Accessibility

Availability: The memory trace exists; it was encoded into LTM

Accessibility: Degree to which the memory trace can be retrieved from memory

Types of Amnesia

•Amnesia: Loss of memory or memory abilities due to brain damage or disease

•Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memory of events before the injury

•Anterograde Amnesia: Loss of memory of events after the injury

Types of dissociation

•Dissociation: A disruption in one component of cognition but no impairment of another.

•Double Dissociation: Finding reciprocal patterns of disruption

Repetition Priming

a previous encounter with information facilitates later processing on the same information, even unconsciously