Cognition - Chapter 6: Structure of Long-Term memory

Division

Distinguishing between different types of memory

e.g. Dividing one’s memory into short-term and long-term

Long-term memory (LTM)

The system that is responsible for storing information for long periods of time

i.e. Like an “archive” of information about past events in our lives and knowledge we have learned

Long-term memory (LTM) [con’t]

Can also serve as a source of background information that we’re constantly consulting as we use working memory in a particular moment

Long-term memory (LTM)’s coverage

It can cover events ranging from 5 minutes ago to 10 years prior

Serial position curve

A plot of the percentage of participants remembering each word against the position of that word in the list during a memory recall experiment

Primary effect

The finding that participants are more likely to remember words presented at the beginning of a sequence

Explanation of the primary effect

Participants had time to rehearse the words at the beginning of the sequence and transfer them to LTM before it became overloaded with the introduction of other words

Recency effect

The better memory for the stimuli presented at the end of a sequence

Explanation for the recency effect

The most recently presented words are still in STM and therefore are easy for participants to remember

Coding

The form in which stimuli are represented

e.g. Information can be represented in visual, semantic, and phonological forms

Example of visual coding

Visualizing what Shannon Falls looked during a Squamish trip

Example of auditory coding

Repeating a song in your mind that you’ve heard multiple times before

Example of semantic coding

Recalling the plot of a book you read last month

Mental approach to coding

How a stimulus or an experience is represented in the mind

Proactive interference

When previously learned information interferes with learning new information

Release from proactive interference

A situation in which conditions occur that eliminate or reduce the decrease in performance caused by proactive interference.

Recognition memory

Identifying a stimulus that was encountered earlier during a study period

Hippocampus

A subcortical structure that is important for forming long-term memories

Hippocampus (con’t)

Also plays a role in remote episodic memories and in short-term storage of novel information.

Anterograde amnesia

An inability to create new memories and transfer memories into LTM

Mental time travel and episodic memory

The experience of travelling back in time to reconnect with events that happened in the past, proposed by Endel Tulving

e.g. People vividly reliving the 1969 moon landing during its 50th anniversary in 2019

Mental time travel and semantic memory

Involves accessing knowledge about the world that does not have to be tied to remembering a personal experience

e.g. Facts, vocabulary, numbers, and concepts.

Interactions between episodic and semantic memory

When episodic and semantic memories are often intertwined

e.g. How knowledge (semantic) affects experience (episodic)

Autobiographical memory

Memory for specific events from a person’s life, which can include both episodic and semantic components.

e.g. I went to a picnic hosted by the KPU Pride Society. It was held on a field on the outskirts of the KPU Surrey campus grounds

Personal semantic memories

Semantic components of autobiographical memories

e.g. Knowing facts related to specific events

Familiarity and people

When a person seems familiar, you might remember their name, but you can’t remember any details about specific experiences involving that person

e.g. Remembering their face, but not their name or where you met them

Familiarity and people (con’t)

Is associated with semantic memory because it isn’t associated with the circumstances under which knowledge was acquired

Recollection and people

Remembering specific experiences related to the person

e.g. Where and when you met them

Recollection and people (con’t)

Is associated with episodic memory because it includes:

• Details about what was happening when the knowledge was acquired

• An awareness of the event as it was experienced in the past

Remember/know procedure

A procedure in which subjects are presented with a stimulus they have encountered before and are asked to indicate what they remember regarding its circumstances, or what seems familiar if they don’t remember experiencing it

Semanticization of remote memories

Loss of episodic details for memories of long-ago events.

Prospective memory

A type of memory used to remember and perform planned actions at some point in the future.

e.g. Remembering to take medication at the right time and remembering to put the toothpaste cap back

Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis

The hypothesis proposed by Schacter and Donna Rose Addis (2007, 2009) that episodic memories are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of future events.

Why is it important to be able to imagine the future?

When the future becomes the present, we need to be able to act effectively

A speculated main role of episodic memory

To enable people to simulate possible future scenarios to help anticipate future needs and guide future behaviour.

e.g. When deciding whether to approach or avoid a particular situation,

Benefits of mind-wandering

People are more likely to think about the future than about the past or the present

Mindfulness

Purposely paying attention, in the present moment and nonjudgmentally, to the unfolding of experience.

e.g., Focusing on present-moment sensations (sights, sounds, touch, etc.) and internal sensations like mood.

How can mindfulness be increased?

Periodic use guided meditation through a smartphone app or online videos

Drawbacks of mindfulness

Decrease of general well-being, poorer cognitive performance and “emotional blunting or dissociation,” as a result of increased prefrontal cortex control over the limbic system

Explicit memories/ declarative memories

Memories that can be consciously experienced because they can be declared or explicitly stated

Explicit memories/ declarative memories (con’t)

They involve conscious recollections of events or facts that we have learned in the past.

Implicit memories/ nondeclarative memories

Memory that occurs when learning from experience is not accompanied by conscious remembering

e.g. Learning to ride a bike, where one only remembers the explicit experiences they had (episodic) and rules they learned (semantic)

Implicit memories/ nondeclarative memories (con’t)

They can’t be declared or explicitly stated

e.g. The actual learning process that gave one the motor and cognitive control to ride a bike occurred implicitly.

Procedural memory/skill memory

Memory for how to carry out highly practiced skills.

Procedural memory/skill memory (con’t)

It’s a type of implicit memory because although people can carry out a skilled behaviour, they often can’t explain exactly how they are able to do so.

Procedural memory/skill memory and Amnesia

Individuals with amnesia can also master new skills even though they do not remember any of the practices that led to this mastery.

Expert-induced amnesia

Amnesia that occurs because well-learned procedural memories do not require attention

Expert-induced amnesia (con’t)

When an expert is asked about what they did in carrying out a skilled action after lots of practice, they often have no idea.

The relationship between semantic and procedural memory

Remembering facts about how to do things demonstrates a link between semantic memory and procedural memory

Priming

A change in response to a stimulus caused by the previous presentation (thinking about) of the same or a similar stimulus.

e.g. ,If asked “how often do children play,” the answer may be different if, before being asked that question, one had been thinking about (or primed) sports rather than music

Repetition priming

When an initial presentation of a stimulus affects the person’s response to the same stimulus when it is presented later.

e.g. Seeing the word bird may cause you to respond more quickly to a later presentation of the word bird than to a word you have not seen, even though you may not remember seeing bird earlier

Propaganda effect

When people are more likely to rate statements they have read or heard before as being true, just because of prior exposure to the statements

Propaganda effect and implicit memory

It involves implicit memory because it can operate even when people are not aware that they have heard or seen a statement before, and may even have thought it was false when they first heard it

Classical conditioning

A procedure in which pairing a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that elicits a response causes the neutral stimulus to elicit that response.

e.g. Presenting a tone to a person followed by a puff of air to the eye that causes the person to blink. The tone initially doesn’t cause an eye blink, but after several pairings with the puff of air, the person blinks in response to it

Conditioning and emotional reactions

Conditioning in real life is often linked to emotional reactions

e.g. When one passes the location where they were pulled over, they’d likely re-experience the negative emotions that had been triggered by seeing those flashing police lights

Operant/instrumental conditioning

A learning process by which behaviours are made more likely to recur by the inclusion of reinforcers or less likely to recur by the inclusion of punishments

e.g. Rewards for carrying out a certain behaviour

Operant/instrumental conditioning (con’t)

It can be used to shape behaviour toward a more desired outcome

Reinforcement

When the learner is rewarded following a preferred behavior to encourage that behavior to recur

Positive reinforcement

Strengthening a response by increasing the tendency to perform a behavior through the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.

e.g .Getting a cookie after doing chores

Positive punishment

Weakening a response by presenting (adding) an aversive stimulus to decrease a behaviour.

e.g. Spanking

Negative reinforcement

Strengthening a response by increasing the tendency to perform a behaviour through the removal of an aversive or unpleasant stimulus

e.g. Showering daily to avoid smelling bad

Negative punishment

Weakening a response by removing a rewarding stimulus to decrease a behaviour.

e.g. Taking away a video game

What must be done for operant conditioning to be effective?

The learner needs to gradually associate the rewards and punishments with the behaviour that is being shaped over time for it to become automated just like any learned behavior

Extinction

The gradual weakening and disappearance of a response tendency because the response is no longer followed by a reinforcer and previously available reinforcement is stopped

Continuous Reinforcement

A schedule where reinforcement occurs every time the designated response takes place.

Intermittent (Partial) Reinforcement

A schedule where a response is reinforced only some of the time, typically resulting in greater resistance to extinction.

Intermittent (Partial) Reinforcement [con’t]

It can be sufficient to maintain a behavior after it’s learned