Cognitive Psych - Midterm 2 - Imagery

Loftus & Palmer

Showed a car crash, then asked people how fast it was going when it ____ the stopped car. Different words (ie Smashed vs Contacted), led to different estimates of the car speed. Showed how memory is malleable by language. 

Mr. Libby

Accidentally outed a CIA Spy to a reporter, and later denied it under oath. His lawyers argued against perjury because Mr. Libby wouldn’t have remembered saying something that at the time didn’t seem important.

Kassam, Gilbert, Swencionis, and Wilson

Asked judges to predict experiment where: Participants either learned with motivation (told about money per person while learning abt people), received motivation at retrieval, or had no motivation at all. Results showed memory was much higher when motivation was given at learning, slightly higher with motivation at retrieval compared to no motivation, while the judges incorrectly expected retrieval motivation to work as well as learning. The study demonstrates that motivation only boosts memory when present during learning. Scooter Libby Effect = Difference between judges and memorizers

Simon & Chabris

People and experts were asked to agree or disagree on different memory questions. 0% of experts agreed with any of the statements, while people had pretty high agreement.  People don’t know how memory works.

Mnemonic Techniques

Tools for helping memory

Method of Loci

Imagine a typical path you travel, place items you need to remember along the path (connect to different places along route)

Meyer & Hildebrant

Remember 7 Dwarfs, easier with list of names (Recognition vs Recall), easier to remember off the dome after getting answer earlier (LTM vs. STM). Names that don’t look like the other were harder to remember (Memory Organization)

Memory Organization

Inputs are harder to remember if they don’t look like the others in the set

Long Term Memory (LTM)

Short Term/Working Memory

10-15 Seconds.

LTM Parts

LTM to Declarative (Explicit) Memory or Nondeclarative (Implicit) Memory. Declarative to Episodic (Events) or Semantic (Facts) Memory. Nondeclarative to Skill Learning, Priming, or Conditioning.

Atkinson & Shiffrin (Modal Model of Memory)

– Info to Early Analysis (Sensory) -> through Attention -> STM (Working, needs rehearsal) -> through Processing -> LTM

Sensory Memory

1-3 Seconds. Short memory storage, split among echoic (auditory) vs Iconic (visual) memory, everything you see/hear goes here for a few seconds

Sperling

Whole Report: Remember 15 letter string in a shorter and shorter time frame, people remember avg. 4.5

Partial Report: Remember 15 letter string in 1 sec time frame, wait for cue of which row, recite that row. Remembered 3 items per row, 9 items total (when cue less than 1 sec).

Findings: 9 things in sensory memory, 

Decay

Loss of memory to time

Interference

Loss of memory to distraction/overload

Chunking

Putting information together in a meaningful way

Delayed Memory Test

See stimuli, delay, then another, and people are asked if they matched each other. Shows how long/much people can hold in their working memory.

N-Back Test

See 4 Stimuli, one after the other. Does 4th match the 2nd? (2-back) or Does 4th match the 1st? (3-back)

George Miller

Had magic number 7 ± 2 chunks of info in working memory

Primacy Effect

Remembering first items in a list because extended rehearsal allows some information to become stored in LTM. Less prominent the quicker items are presented as you have less time to rehearse.

Recency Effect

Remembering recent/last items, recent rehearsal keeps info in working memory. Interference causing a working memory overload, causing the recency items to leave the STM

Distinctiveness Effect

Items that are unlike others stick out and are more memorable

Baddeley – Model of Working Memory

Central Executive (Boss) with helpers called Visuo-spatial Sketchpad (visual) and Phonological Loop (sound). Phonological Loop involves saying things in your head to remember, supported by how longer words are harder to remember and reading rate causing more remembering

Phonological Loop

Supported by: Longer words are harder to remember, faster reading rate makes it easier to remember, simpler language easier to remember.

Luck & Vogel Part 1

Claimed: Visual info stored as objects w/ 3-4 limit. If you remember one feature, you’ll remember all features of the object. Testing: Lines w various # of objects w various # of different features, then black, then lines again and see if any of them changed. Findings: No change in accuracy for 3-4 object. You can remember up to 3-4 objects in your working memory.

Luck & Vogel Part 2/3

1. Remember orientation, 2. Remember color, 3. Remember Both. No difference between storing one vs both. Then, remember orientation, color, size, or gap, or all. Still no difference between storing all or just one. Supports the idea of only having to remember one feature the remember it all, you store up to 4 objects.

Alvarez & Cavanagh

Had people remember increasingly more complicated objects. The more complicated the object, the less people could hold in their working memory. More features can decrease the 4 object limit in working memory.

Updated Baddeley’s Model

Visual Object Memory (objects), Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad (visual), Phonological Loop (audio), Episodic Buffer (events), Somatosensory Buffer (sensory)

5 Things of Dr. Marsh

1. Has had a dog for 10 months

2. Dog’s name is Percy

3. Favorite Ice Cream is Cappuccino Chip

4. Dog is a German Shepard Mix

5. Favorite Movie is Office Space

Two Types of Declarative Memory

Episodic and Semantic Memory

Sematic Memory

facts/general knowledge

Episodic Memory

‘Episodes’ you’ve experienced, contains context (time & place), offset called autobiographical memory which holds personal memories important to one’s sense of self.

3 Part of Nondeclarative Memory

Skill Learning (learned abilities), Priming (response based on previous events), Conditioning (reflexes to stimuli)

Explicit Memory

Aware the retrieval is from the past. Typical Tests: Recognition, Recall

Implicit Memory

Actions changed based on unconscious past connection. Typical Tests: Words competition/identification

Semantic Network Model (LTM)

Different things are connected by shared details.

Collins & Quillian

Viewed semantic network model of LTM as hierarchical. Tested this by asking questions that would connect certain things to more and more general details, meaning the more general, the more you would have to go up the hierarchy to connect them. The more general the detail, the longer the response time, implying it takes time and supports the idea of the hierarchical model.

Proactive Interference

Prior learning interfering with current recall (harder to learn new language)

Retroactive Interference

New learning interferes with recalling previous learning

Encoding

Getting info and putting it into LTM (Working → LTM)

Retreival

Recovering info from LTM (LTM → Working)

5 ways Encoding can enhance Retrieval 

Encoding organization, depth processing, elaboration, encoding specificity, spacing and repetition

Gooden & Baddeley

All participants in scuba gear, learned: under water/on land, asked to recall: under water/on land. When learning and recall location matched, recall was much better. Context, specifically location, helps retrieval when it matches

Bower

Participants learned either happy/sad, and were asked to recall while happy/sad. When emotion matched, recall was much better. Supports context (specifically emotion) supporting retrieval in memory.

Rickles, Cohen, Whiteaker, & McIntyre

Participants either were high/not high at learning and then at recall. When they matched, recall was better. Same state helps retrieval.

Bahrick x4

Gave participants words in different language, studied the words 13 or 26 times, spacing between reps was 14, 28, or 56 days. Tested the learning after done, and 1,2 3 and 5 years after. More spacing and repetition both improved percent of words recalled, and that trend continued over the years. Spacing and Repetition helps learning/memory length, and cramming is bad.

Consolidation

Fragile (new) memories → Permanent. Hippocampus is used during consolidation but not afterwards. 

Synaptic Consolidation

Rapid, initial phase of memory consolidation that strengthens synaptic connections within minutes to hours after learning, making memories more resistant to interference

System Consolidation

The hippocampus guides the reorganization of the information stored in the neocortex such that it eventually becomes independent of the hippocampus

Memory Reactivation

The process of re-expressing neural patterns of a past experience

Wagner, Dake, Buckner

Given list of words and asked to make judgements on them. Measure brain activity while studying/judging words. Then asked to remember the list of words, and those items are sorted based on performance. Compare brain activity when they were learning the remembered vs forgotten words. More activity in MTL and Left PFC for remember words. Memory error happens at encoding.

List of mnemonic devices 

Chunking, Method of Loci, Repetition 

Eidetic Memory

Photographic memory, not real

Luria

Studied a man who had great memory (Solomon). He had synesthesia.

Synesthesia

Blending of senses (ex. seeing colors associated with numbers)

Palmeri

Had participants with synesthesia find different letters among other same letters. While normal participants would take longer the more objects there were, the participants were consistently quick at finding the odd one out. Shows that synesthesia affects how people process information and is an unconscious process. 

Maguire, Valentine, Wilding, Kapur

Compared world memory champs to normal people. More brain activity in hippocampus/visual-spatial areas during encoding for champs. Shows visual-imagery is really important for memory and champs use visual techniques rather than it just coming to them.

Parker, Cahill, McGaugh (AJ Story)

Asked AJ to recall what date and what she was doing every easter since 1980.

Hyperthymesia

Perfect autobiographical memory for all episodic events

Semantic memory

Recall of general knowledge and facts about the world

Causes of Amnesia

Brain Injury (Trauma, Surgery, Disease, Substance Abuse), Psychogenic Fugue (Emotion/Psychological Trauma)

Retrograde Amnesia

Can’t recall old memories, damage to non-hippocampus

Anterograde Amnesia

Can’t form new memories, damage to medial temporal lobes (hippocampus)

Corkin (H.M)

Seizures reduced, intelligence increased, STM was OK, but he had anterograde amnesia

Clive Wearing

Got herpes encephalitis, causing damage to hippocampus and retrograde amnesia. Some cognitive abilities were preserved such as intelligence or skills (piano/conducting)

Ways to test implicit memory

Tower of Hanoi/Mirror Drawing Task

Milner, Squire, Kandel

Tested anterograde amnesia patients on task of drawing a mirrored image. Patients got better day to day. Shows people can form new nondeclarative memories with anterograde amnesia. 

Patient M.L

Had damage from cycling accident in right frontal lobe that caused retrograde amnesia. Could learn about events prior to accident, but coulnd’t remember them as being a part of his own life. Preserved prior semantic memory but impaired episodic memory from past.

Patient K.C

Damage to medial temporal, frontal, parietal, and occipital lobes. Normal IQ, can acquire nondeclarative memories, and still had prior semantic memories, but had Anterograde Amnesia and Retrograde Amnesia for Episodic Memory. Interviewed by Tulving, which showed how he couldn’t really plan the future, but he still seemed happy.

Schemas (Pros and Cons)

Definition: your idea of what typically happens in a typical scenario. Pros: Provides framework to base how you remember something, helps you chunk details. Cons: can lead to misremembering a scenario. 

Deese-Roediger-McDermott Paradigm (DRM)

People are made to listen to a list of words that are all connected to some, unlisted word. They are then asked the recall the list of words, and about 40% of the time, people said they remember the connected, unlisted word. Supports schemas and spreaded activation, but also evidence for false'-memories. MEMORIES ARE MALLEABLE.

Loftus & Palmer

Participants were asked how fast cars Hit or Smashed (etc) into each other. Different words caused different speed estimates. They were asked if there was any broken glass one week later, even though there wasn’t. Those with the more aggressive words reported broken glass more. Shows how language can create false memories and MEMORIES ARE MALLEABLE.

Reality Monitoring

Ability to judge whether something is real or imagined

Source Monitoring

Where a memory came from

Lyle & Johnson

Showed that people can confuse what they actually saw with what they only imagined—especially when the imagined thing looks a lot like something they really saw. In the study, sometimes participants saw a picture, and other times they only imagined it from a word. Later, when asked “Did you see this picture?” they were most likely to say “yes” (incorrectly) for imagined items that were similar to a different picture they had actually seen. Those false memories even “borrowed” details (like where it appeared or its color/shape), so they felt vivid and real. The pattern “new < imagined-control < imagined-similar ≈ seen” means: items that were completely new (never seen or imagined) felt the least real; imagined-control items (imagined but not similar to any seen picture) felt a bit more real; imagined-similar items (imagined and looked like a different seen picture) felt almost as real as genuinely seen items. Big picture: similarity makes it hard to tell memory from imagination, which explains why people can be confidently wrong (e.g., in eyewitness situations).

Loftus & Pickrell

Lost in mall study. Provided college students with 4 events from the past, 1 of which was fake (being lost in a mall). They had to write about these events in a booklet, then were asked about the events 1-2 weeks later, then again 1-2 weeks later. 25% of people remembered false events by end of study.

Lindsay, Hagen, Read, Wade, Garry

Recall events from elementary school, including fake event, and some were shown real elementary school photo from the year of the fake event. Those with no photo some people had images, and few had memories, and a week later a few more people had memories over images. Those shown a photo, had significantly more memories, especially after one week.

Clancy, McNally, Schacter, Lenzenweger, Pitman

Are people who have some type of false memory more likely to have more false memories. Three different types of people that thought they were abducted: recovered, repressed, and control. Gave these participants a bunch of DRM tasks, control was the least tricked, recovered were the most. We have a schema for aliens.

Flashbulb Memories

Emotional and significant events remembered perfectly. Brown and Kulick say these memories are very accurate, immune to frogetting, and vivid. You can list many details about these memories.

Talarico & Rubin

On 9/12/01 Students asked about memories from 9/11, and the week before it. They were then asked 1, 6, or 32 weeks later. Rate accuracy, vividness, & confidence. Flashbulb memories had more detail initially, and that details was preserved overtime, unlike everyday memories. However, accuracy of flashbulb memories and everyday memories both decreased overtime. Only confidence of memory was preserved over time with flashbulb memories.