exam 3 - short term and long term memory

memory can be defined as

retention of info over time for the purpose of influencing future action

memory is important because

• used all the time in daily life

• adaptability

• improves behavioral performance for future benefit

post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

• mental health condition that develops in some people who’ve experienced a shocking, scary, dangerous events

• often experience flashbacks, dreams, frightening thoughts

• example of memory being maladaptive

memory can be split into families:

• short-term

• long-term

  • declarative (explicit)

    • episodic, semantic

  • non-declarative (implicit)

    • procedural

    • conditioning: classical, operant

short-term memory

capacity for storage of a small amount of info in an accessible state for a few seconds

working memory

temporary storage of info in order to manipulate it; involves work with temporarily stored items

working memory = storage + processing

“The Magical No. 7, Plus or Minus 2”

• by of George Miller

• proposed that the number of objects a human can hold in short-time memory is 7 plus or minus 2 independent items

• later research revealed memory is not a constant depending on what is being processed (numbers vs words, etc)

immediate free recall task

• participants in a study were presented with items and asked to recall them in any order

• final few items are better represented in short-term memory (recency effect)

distractor task

• participants in a study were presented with items and asked to recall them in any order EXCEPT after every item sequence, they’re asked to do another task before recalling

• clears the few seconds of short-term memory and recency effect goes away

delayed match to sample task

• for animals

• sample shown but animals are shown a delay

• if object reappears and matches original sample, the animal should press the lever; if lever is pressed, short-term memory is inferred

long-term memory

lasting storage of memory

pathway for forming and extracting memory

encoding → {consolidation} → storage → {reconsolidation or extinction} → retrieval

non-declarative memory

• long term memory

• expressed through action, not recollection

• types include procedural and conditioning/associative

procedural memory

• type of non-declarative memory

• knowledge of how to do something

conditioning/associative learning

• type of non-declarative memory

• association between items (ex. green → go, red →stop)

• two types: classical conditioning and operant (instrumental) conditioning

classical/pavlovian conditioning

• to begin with, unconditioned stimulus will lead to an unconditioned response

• in the presence of a conditioned stimulus (added stimulus) on top of the unconditioned stimulus, an association between the two forms

• even in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus, the same response is shown to the conditioned stimulus

  • neutral signal → non-voluntary behavior

fear conditioning

• type of classical conditioning

• ex: mouse hears a sound, foot shock is applied → freezing (fear response) & eventually even just the sound w/out foot shock leads to the same fear response

• sound = conditioned stimulus, foot shock = unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned and conditioned response = freezing

operant conditioning (instrumental conditioning)

• type of classical conditioning

• learning through reward and punishment

• reinforces a voluntary behavior

• ex: conditioning chamber/skinner box: animal moves through maze to find food and associates location w/ food → higher probability of returning to same location

behaviorism and John Watson’s belief

human behavior can be fully accounted for by classical and instrumental conditioning, and these are the dominant ways humans learn to behave

• discounts independent thoughts, feelings, imagination, creativity, etc.

Watson and “little Albert”

• experimented w/ baby albert

• originally showed no fear to animals → Watson conditioned baby to fear white rats by intro’ing a loud noise along with it → conditioned fear to similar objects to white rats (white mask, dog, rabbit)

declarative memory

• type of long term memory

• memory you can consciously recall or “declare”

• two types: episodic and semantic

episodic memory

memories of events (I did … in Paris); type of declarative long term memory

semantic memory

memories of facts (I went to Paris); type of declarative long-term memory