unit 5 memory

tip of the tongue state/experience

• convinced state that the P know one word, but they are unable to produce it

• they are sometimes able to provide info about the first letter, number of syllables or other phonological info → these info hints can prompt/trigger the correct word

what is preserved with tip of the tongue state?

recognition → even if you cannot recall the word on your own, you can usually recognize it immediately when you see or hear it

• in an experiment with frontal lobe P and normal P both groups did the best in the recognition condition, therefore the retrieval is the problem here (like free or cued recall)

our memory store contains more info than

we can access at any given moment

the success of retrieval depends on…

retrieval mechanisms → they help to isolate specific memory traces in the memory and search for the specific memory

• retrieval mechanisms heavily rely on cognitive control processes (like attention and decision making) which are supported by PFC

traces in memory → they are not stored in isolation but rather connected to other memories by:

1. links

2. associations

associations

• they are structural linkeages between traces

• linkeages can vary in strength (they can be weak (frequently activated) or weak (rarely activated))

retrieval

moving from one or more cures to target memory via associative connections

activation level

• the current readiness of a memory trace (how ready it is to come to your awareness)

• the variable (changing) internal state of memory trace that contributes to its accessibility at a given point

• the activation lvl can vary and it determines how accessible a trace is in the memory → the higher the activation level the greater the accessibility

a trace’s activation lvl increases when:

1. something related to it is percieved in the world

2. when attention is focused directly on the trace

retrieval involves…

reinstating the pattern of activation via spreading activation (a process where related concepts and features become together as your brain is trying to recreate the same pattern of activation when the memory was first formed) the activation happens over features that represent a memory (remember that your brain stores memories as patterns of features (like sound bits, sigh, meaning))

when given several features of the original experience as cue…

this activation will spread to other features, completing the missing components of the memory pattern (aka the full pattern of the memory is eventually reconstructed)

factors determining retrieval cues

1. attention to cues

2. relevance to cues

3. cue target associative strength

4. retrieval mode

5. word frequency effect

6. other factors (like number of cues, strength of target memory, retrieval strategy)

attention to cues

• retrieval is less effective if cues are present but not attended or not attended enough

• by giving P a secondary task during retrieval, the attention decreases → the task becomes more demanding when the interfering effects grow:

  • when P had divided attention on word recall test and they had to do a semantic task → they performed the worst

  • divided attention with phonological test was bad but not as bad

encoding specificity principle

the more similar cues available at the retrieval are to the conditions present at the encoding, the more effective the cues will be

cue-target associative strength

• associations vary in strength → the stronger the association the more frequent

• retrieval can fail if the cues are relevant but weak

• associative strength depends on time + attention we spend encoding the association

retrieval mode

it is the cognitive set (frame of mind) that orients a person towards the act of retrieval, ensuring that stimuli are interpreted as retrieval cues (it puts the person in focused state on retrieval, not just whatever)

• this is basically like flipping a mental switch and saying that you want to remember now

number of cues

the more relevant and effective cues the easier it is to retrieve memory

strength of target memory

the stronger the OG encoding, the easier it is to retrieve the memory, since well encoded memories have more connections + deeper processing + more reharsal/repetition

retrieval strategy

how you search your memory matters → a good strategy directs your attention and mental effort more effectively to focus on the right time period, it uses associations to narrow your search and avoid irrelevant distractions

word frequency effect (in recognition)

low frequency words are better recognized than high frequency words

retrieval tests

1. free recall

2. recognition test

3. cued recall test

repetition suppression

• stimulus repetitions are typically associated with reduced neural activity in the brain regions (no need to work as hard)

  • this is a robust and general phenomenon

  • our brain has a neural reduced activity with repetition and increased efficiency of neural processing because → there is a persistent perceptual traces in the sensory cortex that activates these traces to respond to stimulus

  • this reduced activity is not a failure, but a sign of becoming more efficient as the info can be processed faster or with less effort

context dependent memory

memory benefits when spatio-temporal, mood, physiological or cognitive context at retrieval matches the one present at encoding

state dependent memory

• this is a type of context dependent memory

• when P internal environment is changed by the means of drugs, alcohol → the P’s internal state helps to access the memory

mood congurent memory

• bias in the recall of memories → negative mood makes negative memories more readily available

• but this does not affect the recall of neutral memories (unlike mood dependent memory)

• this is a bias NOT a matching condition → it does not matter how you felt when you learned the memory

mood dependent memory

a form of context dependent effect where what is learned in a given mood is best recalled in that mood

reconstructive memory

• this is an active and inferential process of retrieval where the gaps in memory are filled in based on prior experience + logic + goals

• you do not recall memories excatly as they are, rather you actively fill in the missing gaps using what makes sense based on prior knowledge

source monitoring

• this is the process of examining the contextual origins of a memory in order to determine whether it was encoded from a particular store → where did this memory come from?

• errors in source monitoring may lead to false memories - you may confuse reality with imagination

in the past memory R were not interested in errors, they dismissed them as nuinsance (annoying vatiable to control)

• they had to be eliminated because they indicated guessing

• they were not interested in errors like:

  • distortions (changing details)

  • illusions (remembering things that did not happen)

  • false memories

incidental forgetting

• memory failures without the intention to forget

• happens naturally, like forgetting person’s name from a party 3 years ago

incidental forgetting and foreign language curve results

• both of the groups forget the language at first quick and then it stabilizes

• but the better the original learning the more you can retain long term and it tends to stay stable even across decades

incidental forgetting and ebbinhaus forgetting curve

massive forgetting in the 1st h and then it slows down

motivated forgetting

• a broad term encompassing intentional forgetting (i do not want to think about it) + forgetting triggered by motivations, but this lacks conscious intention/awareness

  • unconscious forgetting but still motivated → your brain suppresses something upsetting without realising

new traces of memory are initially vulnerable to…

disruption until they are gradually stamped into memory

consolidation

it is the time dependent process which a new trace is gradually woven (intervened) into the fabric of memory and by which trace components and their interconnections are cemented together

2 types of consolidation

1. synaptic consolidation → the imprint of experience takes time to solidify, because the memory requires structural changes in the synaptic connections between neurons

2. systemic consolidation → the hippocampus is initially required for memory storage and retrieval but its contribution diminishes over time until cortex (LTM) is capable of retrieving the memory on its own

reconsolidation

• this is the process by which a consolidated memory restabilizes again after being reactivated by reminders

• during reconsolidation window → memory is vulnerable to disruption

testing effect

multiple retrieval attemtps (tests) help to protect against forgetting over time → the more tests you take the more you remember later

Binet → kids and recall with questions

• free recall → highest accuracy

• neurtal questions → not as good

• suggestive questions → low accuracy

interference effets → misinformation effect

• this is the ease which leading Q or misleading statements can alter recollections (when interviewed later)

• P saw event and after they were given 3 types of info:

  1. consistent → info matches the OG event = highest accuracy

  2. none info → moderate accuracy

  3. misleading info → given false or inaccurate info = lowest accuracy

     • if you give someone a misleading Q or statement it can distort their memory even if they saw the OG event correctly

forgetting → trace decay

the gradual weakening of memories resulting from mere passage of time

forgetting → growth of new neurons

hippocampus is structurally remodeled as time goes by

forgetting → interference

the phenomenon in which the retrieval or memory can be disrupted by presence of related traces in memory (similar memories can block each other or override)

infantile amnesia

tendency for people to have few autobiographical memories from below age of 5

forgetting → contextual fluctuation

• (this refers to how mental, emotional or physical context changes over time and how this affects your ability to access memory)

• retrieval hinges in the number + quality of cues available during recall

• retrieval can fail when:

  • a cue that was previously relevant changes over time

  • irrelevant cues are used

  • incidental context at retrieval does not match the one present at encoding

competition assumption

the theoretical proposition that the memories associated to a shared retrieval cue automatically impede (handicap) one another’s retrieval when the cue is presented

cue overload principle

the observed tendency for recall success to decrease as the number of to be remembered items associated to a cue increases

• as cue becomes attached to too many things, its capacity to access any trace is compromised

retroactive interference

the tendency for more recently acquired info to handicap retrieval of similar older memories

• new memories interfere old ones

proactive interferences

the tendency for earlier memories to disrupt the retrievability of more recent memories

• old memories interfere with new ones

interference effects

• interference can be a potential source for false memories

• the more similar events the more likely that these confusions will arise

what is the reason for interference effects for false memories?

memory source framework → this is when people sometimes remember events as having occurred in one situation when they actually occurred in another (we remember the content but mix it up where it cam from or who said it = false memories due to confusion)

relatedness effect

if people experience a series of items that are strongly related then they will tend to remember other (non presented) items as having occurred if these non presented (these items were never shown) items are strongly associated to the presented items

• here semantic memory (knowledge) is filling in the gap during recollection → therefore this shows that episodic + semantic memory interact

• meaning that semantic memory disrupts episodic memory by filling in the gaps and adding info that was not there

Bartlett story study and rationalization

• rationalization = when memory is changed to make it more logical or familiar

• people interpreted the story in their own knowledge and imposed order where there was none presented

throughout relatedness false memories can arise due to

1. schemas → frameworks or expectations (what happens in restaurant)

2. inferences → logical guesses based on what you saw or heard, filling the gaps by logic

3. associative bonds → memory links are formed through pre-existing meaning (semantic), sound or structure (phonological links)

the false memories happen because our brain likes to connect ideas and when the ideas feel like they fit in, people falsely take them as real ones

the stronger something is associated/related in the brain, the more likely the brain may insert it into the memory =

relatedness effect (strong links btw items=more false memories)

part-set cuing impairment

when presenting part of a set of items it hinders your ability to recall the remaining items in the set

• e.g. if there is a set of 5 items and the R gives you 3 items and you have to recall the rest 2 = bad performance

why does part set cuing impairment occur?

• because the presented items grab your attention and disrupt your internal retrieval process → your brain focuses too much on the cued items that it becomes hard to search broadly in your memory = retrieval competition

retrieval competiton

• the cues are dominanting and it becomes hard to access the rest

• it is prevalent in part-set cuing impairment

collaborative inhibition

when people get together to remember material that they each learned, they remember less when recalling the info as a group than they do when separated

retrieval induced forgetting

• this is the tendency for the retrieval of some target items from LTM to impair later ability to recall other items related to those targets

  • so for example, you study a category of fruits (banana and orange), after you practice retrieving (fruit-orange) → and when tested you will remember orange very well, but you are less likely to remember banana even though it was also studied, but it was not practiced

    • the act of retrieval strengthens the practiced memory (orange) but suppresses related items (banana) to reduce competition during retrieval

does SAQ essays or MCQ induce retrieval induced forgetting?

• short answer questions induce forgetting of untested material, while MCQ do NOT

• essay questions make you RIF by making it harder to later remember related but untested stuff because when you retrieve specific info, your brain may suppress the related items in order to focus

• MCQ do not affect RIF that much because they give you external cues so you do not need to suppress other related items to retrieve one

by simply discussing an experience with someone might…

alter what people will remember what happened or forget

• e.g. if you and your friend watched the same movie and later you are discussing it, you might distort the parts that you had not talked about (retrieval induced forgetting)

associative blocking

these are interference effects during retrieval, according to which cue fails to elicit a target trace because it repeatedly elicits a stronger competitor, leading people to abandon efforts to retrieve the target

• e.g. if you have learned the association fruit-orange and the target word is banana and the cue is fruit, then people will more likely say orange because it is a stronger competitor to the cue

unlearning

• this happens when your brain weakens the connection btw a cue and a memory because the memory failed to help you retrieve what you were actually looking for

• when you are trying to retrieve something (e.g. banana) but you recall an error (orange) then this is a broken association (aka your brain punishes this association (fruit-orange) by weakening the bonds between fruit-orange)

inhibition as a cause of forgetting

• this is NOT that the link between cue and memory is unlearned → but rather it is that the response is inhibited with the association left intact (the link is not broken, your brain is just actively suppressing it)

  • e.g. when you try to remember someone’s name at the party, your brain blocks this association, but later when you are not trying the name pops into your head → this shows that the link was not erased, but just inhibited

experiment with acoustic confusions (letter recall)

• even when the letters were shown visually to P, they still made errors that sounded like the correct letter

• e.g. if the letter was B, the P would recall V, not Q that looks more similar visually = acoustic confusions (even with visual aid)

• this shows that STM tends to encode info by sound (acoustically), even when seen the info

Baddely’s experiment with STM and LTM confusions

• he confirmed the results that words that sounded similar P confused (like man, mad) → shows that STM errors are acoustic

• but in LTM people confused words with similar meanings (huge and large) and there the sound did not matter as much

  • this shows that LTM encodes info by meaning (semanic) → we remember the gist, not the excact sounds or appearance

results from a study where P were shown bunch of similar looking sentences and they had to recall them

• P were able to retaun meaning of the simple ideas accurate, but were not able to say which particular sentence had been on the test

• this shows that we tend to remember the meaning/gist (semantic integration), not the excact details

imagination inflation

• the more frequently a person had generated or imagined something (like a word) the greater the inflation in estimating its frequency of an actual occurrence

• having imagined the occurrence of the event made the P somewhat more likely to judge that event as previously occurred

the more frequently P had imagined performing an action the more likely the were to

1. falsely recognize the statement as having occurred

2. judge that they had actually completed that action → they felt confident that the memory was real

!! imagining something can enhance the recollections that did happen (make these memories stornger) but so can the process of creating memories of events that did not happen

repeated retrieval attempts

• the more often we remember a false detail (during tests), the more confident we become in it

  • and remember that each time we retrieve (like test) memory, we do not just recall it - we reconstruct it and re encode it → so when we retrieve smth incorrectly (like by guessing) and then repeat that retrieval later, then the error becomes familiar and makes us believe it that it actually happened

hypnosis

1. does NOT magically help access hidden memories

2. it encourages people to freely associate and imaging → and then they report whatever comes to their minds, which makes them less critical of what they remember

3. by imagining and associating the memories it increases their confidence in what they recall, even it is false → induces false memories

4. hypnosis does NOT produce any benefit in retrieval (it does not help us to remember, it rather causes people to remember things that never happened

5. people may get unwarranted confidence in the remembered events that came from hypnosis (false events)

even outside of hypnosis, simply asking someone to guess (like on memory tests) can lead to…

same kind of mistakes as in hypnosis - they might believe later that their guesses are real memories:

• their guesses encourage them to fill in blanks

• and this leads them to misremembering their own guesses as facts or real experiences later

study where P were asked to watch a video and then they were forced to answer Q about stuff that never happened in the video → the P knowingly produced the details, following the requests and then a week later…

P recalled their fabricated events as an actual event that happened in the video tape

individual differences (children and young adults) in false memories and retrieval

young children and older adults are more susceptible to memory illusions (they are more likely to experience false memories/ imagined events) than young adults

if a young adult scores high on dissociative experiences scale (when they feel like they space out) they are more likely to experience

false memories

amnesic patients seem to have impaired false memories

• they have less false memories than healthy people

• brain damage might make it harder to form new false memories since they cannot retrieve enough to build them

eyewitnesses are just as prone to false memories or memory errors as people in memory experiment and in eyewitness testimonies these are the conditions that can make false memories more likelY:

1. long delays since the event

2. many suggestions occurring during interval

3. repeated recounting of the event (retelling the event) → can lead to people filling in gaps, because often the tactics demand to go beyond what person remembers which results in guessing

children’s accuracy in recalling the events

• children seem susceptible to some forms of memory distortion

• children have accurate memories but they are less detailed than adults

• children seem to be more easily misled

conditions in cases where memories are recovered after long periods are particularly prone to memory errors or false memories and these are the factors that lead to them:

1. the retention interval is long

2. often the person recovering the memory has therapists and supporting groups recounting their own similar stories of recovered memories

3. social influence processes may be at work → people might be pressured to believe that smth happened, especially if everyone around them believes in similar things

4. therapeutic techniques involve:

   1. imagination → encouraging people to picture what happened

   2. encouragement of guessing → asking P to fill in the gaps, even if they are unsure

   3. validation → therapist might affirm what client imagines, making it feel more real