PSY 332 Long term memory

Key concepts of memory interaction

LTM works through interaction between episodic and semantic memory

Episodic memory

Memory for personal experiences and events

Semantic memory

Memory for general knowledge, facts, and concepts

Episodic–semantic interaction

Combining personal experience with general knowledge to understand events

Reproductive memory

Accurate recall of events as they occurred

Reconstructive memory

Rebuilding memory using past experience + current knowledge

Gist memory

Tendency to remember overall meaning rather than exact details

Why memory is reconstructive

People fill gaps using knowledge, expectations, and schemas

Reproductive memory example

Eyewitness testimony requiring verbatim accuracy

Reconstructive memory distortions

Memory errors caused by adding schema-consistent details

External influences on memory

Language, suggestions, expectations, and context shape recall

Schema

Cognitive framework that organizes and interprets information

Schema function

Helps categorize information and guide understanding

Schema examples

Knowledge about roles (mother/doctor) or places (hospital/mall)

Schema and retrieval

Schemas provide cues that make recall faster and more efficient

Schema bias

Schemas can cause people to fill in missing details with expectations

Script

Schema for expected sequence of events in a situation

Script example

Typical steps when dining at a restaurant

Script function

Guides behavior, expectations, and recall structure

Schank & Abelson (1977)

Scripts can create false memories of script-consistent actions

Brewer & Treyens (1981)

Office schema study showing schema-driven recall errors

Brewer & Treyens method

Participants waited in an office, then recalled objects

Brewer & Treyens finding

Schema-consistent items recalled better than inconsistent items

Office schema consistent items

Stapler, desk, papers (typical office objects)

Office schema inconsistent items

Skull (atypical object)

Schema-based false memory

Recalling objects that fit the schema but weren’t present

Context in memory retrieval

Environment cues interact with schemas to shape recall

Bower, Black & Turner (1979)

Script study on memory for typical vs atypical actions

Bower et al. finding

Script-inconsistent actions recalled better due to novelty

Novelty effect

Unusual events stand out and are remembered better

Script intrusion error

Recalling actions that fit the script even if not stated

DRM false memory task

Task where related words cause false recall of a missing lure word

DRM example

Recalling “sleep” after hearing bed, dream, tired, pillow, etc.

Critical lure

Strongly related word not presented but often falsely recalled

Source misattribution

Mistaking the source of a memory (event vs thought/association)

Why DRM causes false memory

Spreading activation and gist processing create strong familiarity

Loftus & Palmer (1974)

Leading questions study showing wording changes memory reports

Loftus & Palmer method

Participants watched car accidents; estimated speed with different verbs

Leading question effect

Verb choice influenced speed estimates

Smashed vs contacted

“smashed” produces higher speed estimates than weaker verbs

Language and memory

Wording can reshape what people later “remember”

Legal implication of Loftus & Palmer

Question phrasing can bias eyewitness testimony

Emotion and false memory

Emotional state can change encoding and lure activation

Storbeck & Clore (2005)

Mood affects false memory rates in DRM-type tasks

Negative mood effect

Fewer recalled critical lures (reduced false memories)

Positive mood effect

More gist/global processing → higher false memory likelihood

Emotion-memory relationship

Emotion can shift processing style and memory accuracy

Autobiographical memory

Memory for personal life experiences across time

Flashbulb memory

Vivid memory for emotionally significant events

Flashbulb memory myth

Feels accurate but is still reconstructive and error-prone

Hirst et al. (2009)

9/11 memory study showing forgetting over time

Hirst et al. finding

Substantial forgetting occurs even for flashbulb memories

Flashbulb memory accuracy

Some details remain; others distort or fade

Declarative memory

Explicit memory for facts and events (semantic + episodic)

Hippocampus key role

Critical for forming new explicit long-term memories

Hippocampus function

Integrates distributed sensory and emotional representations into memory

Distributed representation

Memory components stored across multiple brain regions

Sensory contributions to memory

Vision, smell, hearing, touch, taste, emotion networks contribute

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new long-term declarative memories

Cause of anterograde amnesia

Often hippocampal damage

HM case

Hippocampal damage leading to severe anterograde amnesia

Patient EP case

Medial temporal/hippocampal damage causing inability to form new explicit memories

Hippocampus and semantic memory

Supports learning new facts and concepts

Hippocampus and episodic memory

Supports forming new personal-event memories

Cognitive Map Theory

Hippocampus builds spatial maps based on landmark relationships

Place cells

Neurons that fire when an animal is in a specific location

Place cell evidence

Rats show place cell activation in familiar locations

Configural Association Theory

Hippocampus binds combinations of stimuli with context/meaning

Configural binding

Importance of stimulus combinations, not single cues alone

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Long-term increase in postsynaptic excitability after repeated stimulation

“Fire together, wire together”

Summary idea behind LTP strengthening connections

LTP and learning

LTP supports strengthening synapses during learning

Synaptogenesis

Formation of new synapses

LTP supports synaptogenesis

Strengthened firing patterns promote new synapse formation

PFC and hippocampus in episodic memory

Both regions support formation and organization of episodic memories

PTSD definition

Anxiety disorder after trauma with re-experiencing, numbing, hyperarousal

PTSD key brain regions

Amygdala and hippocampus strongly involved

Amygdala in PTSD

Increased activity linked to fear and threat processing

Hippocampus in PTSD

Reduced integration/contextualization of traumatic memories

PFC in PTSD

Decreased activation reduces regulation of emotion and fear responses

PTSD brain activity pattern

Increased amygdala/right hemisphere/insula/MTL; decreased PFC/hippocampus

Broca’s area in PTSD

Decreased activation can reduce verbal expression of trauma

Foa’s theory of PTSD

Trauma stored in semantic fear network that must be modified

Fear network

Associations linking cues, responses, and meanings of threat

PTSD treatment mechanism (Foa)

Activate fear network → integrate incompatible info → restructure memory