PSYC236 Week 12 Lecture Notes

THE STRUCTURE OF MEMORY BY DR TIM BYRON

KEY LECTURE DETAILS

  • Course: PSYC236 - Speech Comprehension and Production

  • Week: 12

  • Lecture A Reading: Chapter 8, pp. 303-320

  • Lecture B Reading: Chapters 10 & 11 of Eysenck & Keane (2020) Cognitive Psychology: A Student’s Handbook, Eighth Edition   - Chapter 6: pp. 239-265   - Chapter 7: pp. 296-343
      - (Note: Chapters in the 2015 edition match those in the 2020 edition for content.)

EVERYDAY MEMORIES

DAFT PUNK EXAMPLE

  • Song: "Get Lucky"   - Hit: #1 in Australia, released on May 12, 2013   - Discussion Point: Did this song cue any memories for you?   - Example Reflection: Recall what you were doing on Sunday, May 12, 2013.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Evaluate everyday memory research methods regarding ecological validity and variable control.

  • Identify components of autobiographical memory via Galton cueing technique and Conway’s self-memory system.

  • Describe theories related to everyday memory phenomena (e.g., infantile amnesia).

  • Discuss differences in autobiographical memory functioning between depressed and normally functioning individuals and explain causes of these differences.

MEMORY RESEARCH METHODOLOGIES

LABORATORY VS EVERYDAY MEMORY RESEARCH

  • Neisser’s (1978) Critique:   - Traditional memory research is overly simplistic and not fruitful beyond obvious knowledge.   - It prioritizes theoretical questions over practical ones.   - Laboratory experiments with artificial stimuli may not accurately reflect real-life memory application.

  • Memory Encoding-Storage-Retrieval Approach: There are limits to applying this model to real human experience.

ECOLOGICAL AND INTERNAL VALIDITY IN MEMORY RESEARCH

  • Tension: The struggle between:   - Control of variables   - Generalization to real-life situations

  • Neisser criticizes undue focus on controlling variables at the expense of real-life applicability.

EXAMPLES OF MEMORY PHENOMENA: EARWORMS

  • Involuntary memories like 'earworms' showcase the contrast between laboratory studies that control variables (Hyman et al., 2013) and real-life applicability (Byron & Fowles, 2015) emphasizing ecological validity.

STUDY ON ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY (Kvavilashvili & Ellis, 2004)

  • Concerns in ecological validity:   - Generalisability: Can experimental instances be generalized?   - Representativeness: Are the experimental tasks and materials meaningful and plausible?

  • Criteria for natural studies include:   1. Tasks/materials that resonate with participants' everyday experiences.   2. The component similarity of the study to real-life phenomena.

FOUNDATIONS OF EVERYDAY MEMORY

MEMORY COMPOSITION

  • Cohen (2008): Everyday memory often comprises 'memories of memories' rather than direct recollections of original instances.

  • Learning in Everyday Memory: Generally incidental, not premeditated due to experimenter instruction.

  • Social Factors in Memory: Significant influence as remembering is a purposeful action (Neisser, 1996).

STUDYING AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY

  • Autobiographical memory vs. episodic memory:   - Related to the self, high complexity, and duration (years vs. hours/days).   - Incorporates semantic memories and invokes different brain processes.

  • Galton Cueing Technique: This involves prompting personal recollections based on cue words (e.g., “river”).

MEMORIES ELICITED FROM CUES:

  • Examples and Ages:   - Bicycle (Age 7): Learning to ride a purple bike.   - Fire (Age 18): A friend's house burning incident.   - Fish (three days ago): Cooking salmon dish preparation.   - Leaf (about a week ago): A new leaf sprouting from a plant at home.

RATES OF FORGETTING

  • Rubin (1982): Demonstrated a steady forgetting rate over time when recalling events, finding:   - Recent events were better recalled than earlier memories.

  • Memory Patterns: This forgetting trend is consistent across ages when recalling from the last decades of life.

REMINISCENCE BUMP

  • Koppel & Berntsen (2016): Older adults recall a disproportionate number of memories from adolescence/early adulthood following childhood amnesia.   - Cited effective memory recall ranges from approximately 8.7 to 22.5 years for word cues and 15.1 to 27.9 years for ‘important memories.’

  • Retrieval Processes: They play a critical role in this phenomenon.

LIFE SCRIPT THEORY AND NARRATIVE IDENTITY ACCOUNT

  • Cultural Aspects: In Australia, a life script outlines expected life events during adolescence into adulthood (e.g., education, relationships, career).

  • Purpose of Strong Memories: These memories are often formed around significant life goals.

  • Retrieval-based Explanation: The life script aids retrieval of significant memories while narratives provide a context for identity formation.

CHILDHOOD AMNESIA

  • Also known as 'infantile amnesia,' typically, no recollections exist before age 3, with diminished memories between ages 3-6.

  • The age of early memory recollection appears to increase with time.

  • Four Major Theories of Childhood Amnesia:   1. Freud's Repression Theory: Suggests traumatic early experiences lead to forgotten memories.   2. Cognitive Self-Theory: Memory specification relies on cognitive self-awareness developed post-age 2 (Howe & Courage, 1997).   3. Social-Cultural Developmental Theory: Parental interaction, particularly elaborative reminiscing, fosters memory development in children.   4. Neurogenic Hypothesis: High neurogenesis interferes with the ability to form long-term memories, shared with non-human species (Josselyn & Frankland, 2013).

SELF-MEMORY SYSTEM (CONWAY, 2005; 2009)

  • The Theory: We possess:   - A current set of goals, aspirations about the future, working self.   - Autobiographical memory knowledge bases, combining events with narrative and self-image, as well as attitudes and beliefs.

AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY STRUCTURE (Conway, 2005)

  • Knowledge Structures:   - Factual/evaluative knowledge across various life domains.   - Event-specific knowledge, ranging from major ongoing situations to individual instances.

THE SELF-MEMORY SYSTEM VIEW

  • Coherence (older memories) vs. correspondence (recent memories).

  • Reconstructive nature of memory is emphasized; assists in explaining phenomena like childhood amnesia and the reminiscence bump through the lens of the working self and goals.

DEPRESSION IN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY

  • Impact on Memory: Individuals with depression show overgenerality in memory recall, resulting in reduced specificity and difficulty accessing detailed memories.

  • Consequences: It hampers problem-solving abilities and the capacity to envision future events.

ADVANCED TOPICS IN SPEECH PERCEPTION AND PRODUCTION

LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR SPEECH LECTURE

  • Define components of language and describe speech perception and production processes, including categorization and recognition.

THE MCGURK EFFECT

  • Phenomenon: A visual-auditory illusion where conflicting visual information alters speech perception (e.g., ‘ba’ vs. ‘fa’).

  • Relevance: Visual and auditory processing efficiencies affect speech perception.

LANGUAGE PROCESSING SYSTEM IN SPEECH
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of the language processing system from Allen and Hulme (2006).
SOUND AND NEURAL RESPONSES

  • Sound Transformation: The cochlea changes physical sounds to neural signals, which require processing to deduce speech sound meaning.

CHALLENGES IN SPEECH PERCEPTION

  • Determining subtle differences in sound, especially amidst noise (e.g., cocktail party effect).

PHONEMIC PROCESSES

  • Phonemes: Basic sound units constituting language; categorical perception variations across languages exist.

PROCESSES IN SPEECH PERCEPTION: TOP-DOWN AND BOTTOM-UP

  • Interaction: Both processes operate—bottom-up processes handle initial sound input while context supplements meaning through top-down processes.

PHONEMIC RESTORATION EFFECT (Warren, 1970)

  • Example: “It was found that the *eel was on the table,” altered by cough; illustrates how context aids speech perception.

WORD RECOGNITION: COHORT MODEL

  • Model Description:   - As listening commences, words that start with the first phoneme are activated in memory, refined as subsequent phonemes are recognized.   - Correlational speed of recognition is linked to phonological similarity (Goldinger et al., 1989).

PROBLEMS WITH THE COHORT MODEL

  • Recognizing first phonemes among continuous speech can be challenging; this model discounts rhythm, stress, and prosody.

MORPHOLOGY IN SPEECH

  • Morpheme: Smallest meaningful unit. Example: “dislocated” as bound + free morpheme.

IDENTIFYING WORD BOUNDARIES IN SPEECH

  • Bottom-Up Factors: Utilize phonotactic and statistical knowledge about syllables.

  • Top-Down Factors: Rely on prior context to ascertain word boundaries (e.g., understanding continuous speech).

PROBLEMS IN TOP-DOWN PROCESSING

  • Mondegreens: Misinterpretation of phrases due to incorrect assumptions about words.

THE MENTAL LEXICON

  • Integration of word-related information including frequency and polysemy.

UNDERSTANDING SPEECH

  • Encompasses recognizing speech, syntax analysis, and semantic representation; acknowledges the role of various aphasias in this understanding.

SPEECH PRODUCTION CHALLENGES

  • Balancing fluency and speed; includes self-monitoring and preparatory phrases for seamless speech.

SLIPS OF THE TONGUE

  • Types of errors may involve phoneme, morpheme, or word level misalignment, showing common patterns in speech errors.

ACCOUNTS OF SPEECH PRODUCTION

  • Serial Account: Stages featured in producing coherent speech, from conceptualization to articulation, detailing each step's influence.

SELF-MONITORING DURING SPEECH

  • Monitoring speech and correcting real-time errors; supported by perceptual-loop theory by Levelt (1983).

GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  • Orthography: The conventional spelling system of a language.

  • Phonology: Study of sound patterns in languages.

  • Grammar: Set of structural rules governing the composition of clauses, phrases, and words.

  • Phone/Phoneme: Distinct units of sound.

  • Coarticulation: Overlapping articulation of two or more speech sounds.

  • Phonemic Restoration Effect: A perceptual illusion where missing phonemes are filled in by listeners based on context.

  • Morpheme: Smallest unit of meaning.

  • Cohort Model: A model explaining word recognition in speech.

  • Mondegreens: Misheard phrases that create different meanings.

  • Aphasias: Communication disorders that affect speech and understanding language.

  • Slips of the Tongue: Speech errors occurring at various linguistic levels.