Unit 4: Long-Term Memory I - Codification Processes

Fundamental Memory Concepts and Definitions

• Encoding: This refers to the cognitive process of acquiring new information or successfully placing that information into the memory system.
• Retrieval: This is the subsequent process of recovering or accessing information that was previously encoded.
• Integration: The process by which new data is linked to existing knowledge structures, including prior schemas, events, and concepts. It is advantageous because new experiences merge with information already stored in the mind.

The Three-Store Model of Memory

• System Flow:
  1. Information first enters the processing system through modality-specific sensory stores.
  2. The data then proceeds to a limited short-term or primary memory.
  3. Finally, information enters a permanent and extensive long-term or secondary memory.
• The Role of Attention: Conscious attention is identified as the critical mechanism for successful encoding. Learners must pay attention to stimuli for information to move from temporary stores to more capacious and durable ones.
• Limitations of the Model: The efficacy of short-term memory (in terms of capacity, coding, and forgetting) is not absolute but varies based on:
  • People: Individual differences.
  • Materials: The type of information being learned.
  • Tasks: The nature of the cognitive activity performed.

Cognitive and Biological Bases of Encoding

• By-product Theory: Memory is viewed as a by-product of active perceptual and cognitive processing. Retention levels correlate directly with how deeply or meaningfully the information was processed initially.
• Neural Representation: Memories reside in the brain within complex networks of neurons. Recollection or the re-experiencing of an event occurs when these specific networks are reactivated.
• Hierarchical Organization: As proposed by Fergus I. M. Craik, the cognitive system is organized hierarchically:
  • Lower Levels: These represent literal copies of surface aspects (size, shape, color).
  • Higher Levels: These represent derived aspects involving significance, meaning, value, and function.
• Process Identity: Encoding processes are likely identical to the processes used for perception and comprehension. Retrieval represents the system's effort to reinstate the original pattern of mental activity.

Bartlett’s Approach and Schemas

• Effort After Meaning: Bartlett ($1932$) emphasized that subjects actively strive to understand the meaning and "essence" of stimuli rather than memorizing them verbatim.
• Recall Patterns: Over time, remembered stories tend to become shorter, more coherent, and more closely aligned with the individual's personal viewpoint.
• Schema Theory: A schema is a structured, long-term representation of knowledge used to interpret, store, and recall new material.
  • Development: Schemas are heavily influenced by cultural factors, which dictate how material is encoded and stored.
  • Memory Distortion: Systematic errors in memory often occur due to the intrusion of schematic knowledge.
  • Duration: While detailed information fades, schematic information is more persistent. Distortions are typically observed at long retention intervals (e.g., $1\,\text{week}$) rather than short ones (e.g., $5\,\text{minutes}$).

The Influence of Prior Meaning and Associations

• Background Knowledge: Studies by Glaze ($1928$) show that even simple materials (like nonsense syllables that resemble real words like CAS - CASTLE) are easier to learn when they can be linked to existing knowledge.
• Stimulus-Response Associationism: Pre-existing associations between words (e.g., bread–butter) facilitate easier learning than unrelated pairs (e.g., lobster–symphony).
• Clustering and Semantic Relatedness:
  • Deese ($1959$): High inter-word association leads to better recall.
  • Jenkins and Russell ($1952$): People tend to recall associated items in clusters (e.g., men, pen, den), demonstrating that background knowledge influences episodic encoding.

Imagery and Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis

• Imagery as a Link: Paivio ($1965$) suggested that imagery helps tie new experiences to known concepts. The ability of a word to evoke a mental image serves as a powerful predictor of its accessibility in memory.
• Dual-Coding Hypothesis ($1969$, $1971$):
  • Information is more easily learned if it can be encoded both visually and verbally.
  • Analogue Code: Preserves physical features (e.g., an image of a cat).
  • Symbolic Code: Provides a verbal description (e.g., the word "cat").
  • Having two retrieval routes (visual and verbal) increases the chance of recall if one route is lost.
• Picture Superiority Effect: Items presented as pictures are generally remembered better than words because they are more likely to be stored as both imaginal and verbal codes.

Levels of Processing and Elaboration

• The General Principle: According to Craik and Tulving ($1975$), deeper and more elaborate processing leads to significantly better memory. This effect is robust and reliable.
• Methodological Findings: In experiments where subjects answered questions about words:
  • Orthographic (e.g., case) resulted in the poorest memory.
  • Phonemic (e.g., rhyming) resulted in moderate memory.
  • Semantic (e.g., sentence fitting) resulted in the highest recall, especially when the answer was "yes."
• Elaboration and Extensiveness: More extensive encoding links a memory trace to more concepts, providing more access points for retrieval. Complex sentences are remembered better because they activate larger, richer cognitive structures.

Encoding and Retrieval Dynamics

• Transfer-Appropriate Processing (TAP): For a test to be successful, the processing requirements during the test must match the conditions present during encoding. Ideally, the individual's state at retrieval should match their state at encoding.
• Encoding Specificity Principle: A retrieval cue is only effective if its information was incorporated into the memory trace at the time of original encoding. For example, if BRIDGE is encoded as an engineering structure, the cue "card game" will fail, while "girder" will succeed.
• Context Effects: External context (revisiting a crime scene or returning to a room) can modulate memory. Higher overlap between study and test environments yields better performance.

Rehearsal, Spacing, and Organization Strategies

• Two Types of Rehearsal (Craik and Lockhart, $1972$):
  1. Maintenance Rehearsal: Passive rote repetition that keeps info at the same processing level.
  2. Elaborative Rehearsal: Meaningful relation of info to other data, which enhances delayed episodic memory.
• The Spacing Effect: Longer intervals between repetitions lead to higher retention. This "encoding variability" provides a richer, more elaborate memory trace.
• Subjective Organization: Learners naturally impose their own organization on unstructured material, often building larger "chunks."
• Organizational Mnemonics: Creating stories or interacting images to link word lists can significantly enhance encoding and long-term retention.

Specialized Enhancement and Impairment Factors

• Subject-Performed Tasks (SPT): Performing simple physical actions with objects (e.g., "pick up the book") leads to better memory than just reading the instructions, likely due to added motor and visual information.
• Intention: Nonintentional learning can be just as effective as intentional learning, provided the task forces the learner to process info meaningfully and distinctly. The levels of processing effect does not require the user to know a test is coming.
• Expertise: Deep knowledge in a specific topic reduces the time needed to understand new related info.
• Long-Term Working Memory (Ericsson and Kintsch, $1995$): The use of refined structures in long-term memory to temporarily store info during a task.
• Retrieval as Encoding: Tulving ($1967$) demonstrated that testing/retrieval is as effective as study trials for boosting learning. Spaced retrieval reinforces specialized operations and acts as a deeper second encoding event.

Practice Exercises and Examples Provided

• Visual Ambiguity: Examples such as glasses versus a hat, or dumbbells versus a house, show how labels influence the interpretation of visuals.
• Association Tasks: Pairs like SUGAR-SALT (strong) vs. PAINT-SEEM (weak).
• Category Clustering: Memorization lists including groups like PETS (Hamster, Cow, Duck, Chicken), MAMMALS (Sheep, Dog, Cat), and BIRDS (Parrot, Canary, Turkey).
• Action Paradigms: Tasks like "Steal a phone," "Open the door," or "Raise a chair" to demonstrate the Subject-Performed Task effect.