Psych 111 - Exam 3

Memory

Steps

1. Encoding - we are taking external stimuli and turning it into information to create memory from

2. Storage - taking that information and putting it away for later use

   1. Engram - mostly imaginary idea that there's a singular place in the brain where each memory is stored (myth)

3. Retrieval - need to pull that information from storage in order to use it

   1. Cues - triggers that we use for retrieval 
      

Levels of Processing

• Structural - Focus on more visual components of the information (mainly occurs in the occipital lobe)

• Phoemic - Focusing on the sound of information (mainly occurs in the temporal lobe)

• Semantic - focuses on the meaning of the information. Ex. How do you define a rose? (uses the frontal lobe)

• Organizational - encoding the information by connecting it with other pieces of information. Connecting it with feelings or other living things. (Uses the frontal lobe).

*More likely to remember something if you use the semantic or organizational processing)

• Craik & Tulving, 1972 - had participants examine a list of about 60 words. They either had them examine it structurally (uppercase or lowercase), phoemically (does it have this word in it), or semantically (is this thing alive). The semantic processing beat the other two processing levels. 

Dual Track Processing

• Effortful - conscious processing. Actively trying to process information.

• Automatic - unconscious processing.

*effortful processing becomes automatic. Ex. tying your shoes

Mnemonics - strategies that are used to improve memory

• The role of interpretation - Easier to understand our own interpretation of things. Our own interpretation will go into our memory.

• Encoding Specificity Principle - whatever we encode during the encoding stage will be the easiest key to use during retrieval.

• Elaboration - when you add information to a stimuli, it will add more retrieval cues. This will be easier to later retrieve that memory because of the additional information. By adding these cues, you are also adding information at a deeper level. 

• Dual-Coding Theory - one of the best ways to encode information is to use two different modalities so that if one fails you, you have the other to back you up. (Ex. verbal and smell)

• Self-Referent Encoding - when we can connect information to ourselves, we tend to remember it better. 

  • Cocktail party phenomenon - Looking for references to ourselves (paying attention to our names). Our names stand out from all other types of stimuli. We will always hear it despite a chaotic sound environment

Improving encoding

• Motivation to remember - Works to serve as a retrieval cue. The motivation helps you to retrieve that memory. 

• Pegwords - creating a strong visual image by combining 2 visual images. Unusual images help us to remember information better. (ex. One is a bun)

• Method of Loci - taking a location that you are very familiar with and charted a path within that location. Along that path you will place the items that you need to remember. You will walk down that path and pick up the items

• Chunking – Breaking things into smaller chunks (ex. Phone numbers). Makes it easier for us to remember

• Hierarchies - More formal version of organizational encoding. You look at where things fit in the big structure of information that you have. 

• Spacing effect- we remember information when we space out the encoding effect. Trying to remember the information all at once we are not as successful. 

• Testing effect - we remember information better when we are tested on it. Uses retrieval cues

Atkinson-shiffrin model of memory 

Sensory memory → short term memory → long-term memory

• Sensory - memory for sense information. Very short lasting memory

  • Sperling, 1960 - Flashed a grid of letters then asked participants to recall all the letters in the grid. They typically only got the first row. Or the participants heard a tone and they had to describe multiple tones after hearing them. Sperling found that the duration for sensory processing is very short, but the capacity is big. 

• Short term - Lasts 30 seconds. If it’s beyond 30 seconds, part of it has turned into long-term memory.

  • Miller 7+_ 2 - The capacity of short term memory is 5-9 pieces of information. 

• Long term memory - could last decades. The capacity of long term memory is endless.

  • Procedural - something you typically dont have to think about

    • Positive transfer - the mastery of one procedure helps you master another procedure (ex. If you already know how to play the violin, it will be easier to learn to play the viola).

    • Negative transfer - the mastery of one procedure interferes with your ability to master another procedure (ex. Switching between video games)

  • Declarative - searching for information and constantly recalling it

    • Semantic- ex. Playing jeopardy

    • Episodic - personal memory for events

  • Autobiographical - Includes your episodic memory. Most personal memory

    • HSAM - people who can remember virtually every component of their lives (ex. The person will be able to tell you what they had for lunch on a certain date). These individuals have a highly autobiographical memory. Many people have had a lot of negative experiences because of their HSAM (embarassing memories)

  • Prospective - remembering to do something in the future. 

  • Retrospective - Memory from the past. What most of our memories are. Better at retrospective than prospective

Working memory - how you are using the information in your short term memory

• Alan Baddeley - first suggested working memory

• Maintenance rehearsal - will maintain information in your short term memory

• Elaborative rehearsal- will transition that memory to long term memory. 

• Visuospatial sketchpad - what you will use for visual and spatial information (ex. Learning a dance)

• Phonological loop - will be for auditory or language based information. 

• Central executive - coordinate between different parts of the working memory as well as determine where to send cognitive resources. 

• Episodic buffer - focuses on temporal information and keeping the information in order. 

• Benefits - we see that working memory tends to peek at young adulthood. People with better working memory have better reading comprehension, and higher intelligence. 

Consolidation - creates/ turns things into stable long term memory 

• Hippocampus - critical for consolidation. Damage to the hippocampus can disrupt consolidation

• REM - rapid eye movement. Consolidation happens the most during sleep.

• Reconsolidation - taking previously retrieved memory and putting it back into long term memory.

Retrieving memory

• Implicit vs explicit

  • Implicit - long-term memory that doesn’t require any conscious retrieval. involves the cerebellum and the basal ganglia. More procedural memory process.

  • Explicit - long-term memory that requires conscious retrieval. typically involves the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.

• Context Dependent retrieval - The room is acting as a retrieval cue (if you are currently mad, it is easier to remember previous instances that made you mad.)

• Aaaociative network - chain of connections that make things easier to recall. 

• Schemas - a cluster of knowledge of an object/event that we can use to fill in gaps of our memory.

Testing memory

• Recall - asking people to retrieve information without giving them any specific cues. Ex. an essay test

• Recognition - you must recognize previously learned items. Ex. multiple choice exams

• Relearning - Measure how long it takes someone to relearn a task. The quicker it is for someone to relearn a task, the more memory they have. 

Amnesia

• Retrograde - where you forget everything prior to the event that gave you amnesia.

  • ex/ after the event, you wouldnt remember your name, family, who you were, etc

• Anterograde - where you have an inability to form new memories (significantly more common)

Memory issues

• Serial Positioning Effect - depending on where the item is in a list, you may be more or less likely to recall that item 

  • Primacy - we tend to remember the first items in the list

  • Receny - we tend to remember the last items in the list (seems to happen bc we still have those items in short term memory)

• Simons & Levine (1998) - 50% of people didn’t realize that the person had changed. Wasn’t paying attention so wasnt able to encode information to standing memory.

• Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton - Jen was assaulted and identified Ronald from two separate lineups. He ended up going to prison for 16 years and thru dna he was eventually released. Actual offender was just another black person.

  • Own race bias - we are better at distinguishing between people of our own race rather than members of another race.

• Source monitoring - we don’t remember where we heard information from. 

  • Cryptoamnesia - accidental plagiarism. You don’t remember where you got the info from so you assume that you created it.

• Processing errors - you are incorrectly using your cognitive resources to retrieve or process information. Long term memory mistakes is semantics

• Tip-of-the-tongue - where you know the information but you can't seem to pull it out (pull out game weak)

  • Redintegration - using one retrieved memory as retrieval cues for other memories

Forgetting

• Beneficial - good for us to forget things. Makes our cognitive processing healthier

• Inability - inability to forget have a difficult time thinking abstactly and logic making

• Ineffective encoding - if you are not paying attention to that information, you can’t encode that information 

• Decay/Transience - as you become more distant from that memory, the memory becomes less detailed and harder to remember

• Absentmindedness - any time your failure of attention leads to failure of memory

• Blocking - inability to retrieve information that is in memory

• Misattribution - forgetting where you are familiar with something. Assigning a recollection to the wrong source. 

• Interference - information is interfering with other information in your memory

  • Proactive - old information is interfering with new information

  • Retroactive - new information interferes with our ability to retrieve old information

• Suggestibility - changing our memory based on outside information (galighting)

• Bias - more likely to remember information that we agree with and forget information that we dont agree with

• Persistence - memory that is more persistent becomes more focused in the details. Ex. if you experience something traumatic, you remember more dramatic things

Learning

Types of learning

• Learning styles - people have different learning styles

• Synaptic pruning - as you learn information, you decrease the number of neuronal connections. This makes your brain more efficient

• Associative - learning by pairing stimuli. 

  • Classical conditioning - Pavlov. Stimuli that indicated food was on the way made the dogs drool. Stimulus and response were unconditioned and happened naturally. Conclusion: any stimulus that an organism perceives is capable of producing a reaction.

  • Operational conditioning -

Mechanics of Classical conditioning

• Neutral stimuli (NS) - organism does not have any natural reflective response toPavlov: bell starts as the neutral stimulus

• Unconditioned Stimuli (US/UCS) - what naturally and reflexivly causes a response (food)

• Conditioned Stimuli (CS) - repeatedly pair neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus to create the new CS (bell+food)

• Unconditioned Response (UR) - is the natural and reflexing response caused by the unconditioned stimulus (salivation)

• Conditioned response (CR) - response that the conditioned stimulus causes (salivation) we have more control over the CR

Other elements of CC

• Acquisition - TIme period where the bell is being paired with the food (where learning is occurring)

• Extinction - unlearning information. Bell no longer needs food → no longer salivate at the bell

• Spontaneous recovery - starts randomly responding the the CS