Chapter Six has four objectives:
Chapter Seven has five objectives:
DEFINE AND GIVE A REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE OF THE FOLLOWING TERMS:Context-Dependent MemoryContext ReinstatementEncoding Specificity
CHAPTER 6
The Acquisition of Memories and
the Working-Memory System
The Amnesic Patient H.M.
Henry Molaison (1926-2008)
Most famous case study of all time
Severe case of epilepsy (head injury accident as child)
Experimental Procedure in 1953 in order to cure his
severe epilepsy
Was unresponsive to pharmcological treatments
Removed majority of hippocampus in both hemispheres
and surrounding tissue (focus of seizures)
Seizures stopped! Immediately there was a problem
One part of the brain important in one kind of memory!
No longer able to form new memories
Personality and Intellect just fine.
Functional WM (STM) and any/all memories from before
the surgery
Clive Wearing:
Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia
Amnesia from a viral infection
• Unable to form new memories and cannot recall most aspects of his past
• Constantly believing he just now has woken up from a comatose state
• Can remember skill sets (e.g., how to play music)
• Remembers his wife
3
Memory
Memory: Learning that has persisted over time
1.
2.
3.
Ability to retain information over time (through experience) and bring them to mind
Memory makes us who we are.
Memory connects our past to our present.
Not in Isolation but a single part of a Continuum of Information Processing
Attention (Ch 5) Perception (Ch 3) Memory (Ch 6) Thinking/Evaluating (Ch
9/12) Problem Solving/High Level Cognition (Ch 13/14)
Heavily Influenced by Top Down (Frontal Lobe) Processes!
Stress and Interference
Lots of room for Error! Breakdowns in 1) Acquisition 2) Storage & 3) Retrieval
Acquisition, Storage, and Retrieval
HOW does new information become established in MEMORY?
One way to frame learning and memory: Three Phases
1. Acquisition
2. Storage
3. Retrieval
1. Acquisition
• Gaining
new
information
and placing
it into
memory
2. Storage
• Retaining
information
in memory
3. Retrieval
• Bringing
stored
information
to use
5
Phase One: Acquisition
Transduction: Sensory systems transduce
external information [light, sound pressure,
chemicals] into Action Potentials
Encoding Failure: the most common
memory breakdown
Highlights: Importance of Attention!
Acquisition and Storage are interconnected.
How you learn (acquisition) depends on what
you already know (storage)
New learning is grounded in previously
learned (stored) knowledge.
Phase Two: Storage
Brief Holds (STM) to Permanent Storage (LTM)
Context Dependent; All sensory and emotional components stored
simultaneously
Similar bits of data are stored in different places and reconstructed for later use
Brain does not store exact copies of experiences and data (like computer)
Human Memory vs Computer Memory
1.
2.
Massively Parallel w multiple areas vs Serial Processing in specific areas
Storage and Speed Limitations
Plasticity and Redundancy in Brain
Brains are much, much bigger than any computer
• 100,000,000,000,000 total interconnections
Rudimentary Understanding of Memory Modeled Computers (And Not
Much Change Since!)
Wide Familiarity with Computers Understanding of how Memory works
(A lot has Changed!)
Stage Three: Retrieval
Recovery of stored information when needed
Even if:
1.
2.
Ex: TOT
Interference/Confusion Influences
Stress Influences
Takes active practice to facilitate correct recall
when needed
Acquisition and Retrieval are also interconnected.
1. encoded perfectly
2. stored perfectly
(and that NEVER happens) still can have major
problems at this stage
Effective learning depends on how the information will
later be retrieved.
Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) Modal Model of Memory
The classical information-processing view
9
Sperling (1960) Iconic Sensory Memory
10
Updating the Modal Model
The modal model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)
Sensory memory (iconic or echoic)
• Sensory memory plays a smaller role in modern theories
• Iconic = visual inputs; Echoic = auditory inputs
Short-term memory (STM)
• Largely replaced by “Working Memory”
• Understood as a status or activity, rather than a place
Working memory (WM)—a dynamic form of short-term storage
• Less like a ‘loading dock’ more like a status.
• Emphasizes its function
• Ideas or thoughts in this memory are currently activated, currently being thought
about, and so they’re the ideas you’re currently working on.
11
Preserve Some Key Ideas of Modal Model
Working Memory
Long-Term Memory
Duration
Temporary, fragile
Long-lasting, enduring
Capacity and size
Limited
Enormous
Ease of entry
Relatively easy
Effortful
Ease of retrieval
Relatively easy
Can be difficult, slow,
12
and even unsuccessful
Working Memory and Long-Term Memory
• Experiments supporting the
modal model
• Free-recall memory test
• Serial Position Effect
• Primacy effect
• Better memory for first few items
relative to middle items
• Recency effect
• Better memory for the last few
items
• Last few items are not displaced by
future items
13
Explaining Recency and Primacy
• Recency effect
• Last few items in the list are
still held in working memory
• Earlier items are displaced by
subsequent items
• Primacy effect
• Memory rehearsal
• As the list progresses, attention
is divided across more items and
less is devoted to each individual
item.
• Words later in the list are
rehearsed less than earlier items.
• Rehearsal increases the chance
there will be a transfer of items
from working memory to LTM.
• Earlier items were rehearsed more,
so there is a greater chance of
transfer.
14
Testing Claims about
Primacy and Recency Effect
The manipulation of working
memory should affect the recall of
recency items but not items
presented earlier in the list.
Delaying recall with a different task
displaces content in working memory.
Slowing down the presentation of the
list should allow for easier recall from
LTM
15
Neurobiology of Primacy (LTM) and Recency (WM) Effects
16
Working Memory
Four differences between LTM and WM
• All points originally proposed through Modal
Model
Working Memory (WM): Multiple areas
activated simultaneously
• A status rather than a place (‘loading dock’)
All mental activities require coordination of
several pieces of information
Individuals can differ in WM HOLDING capacity.
17
Digit Span
WM like a place or a box – then makes sense to measure capacity of that box
Measure WM capacity: Digit Span
•
•
•
Digit-span task: participants hear a series of digits read to them (e.g., “8, 3, 4”) and must
immediately repeat them back.
The list is increased until memory fails.
The number of digits the person can echo back without errors is referred to as that person’s
digit span.
WM capacity at 7 plus-or-minus 2 items.
But what is an “item”?
Remember This Letter String:
IRSFBICIAEPA
18
Chunking
• The ability to condense info:
• H O P T R A S L U (9 items) HOP TRA SLU (3 chunks)
• Requires effort but reduces WM load
• Does not increase WM capacity
• Allows people to store more info by increasing the
efficiency of WM (not the capacity)
• w/o chunking, each item is processed as a single and
unrelated bit overwhelms the limited WM capacity
• Failure to use chunking as a strategy occurs freq in people
with learning disabilities, often verbal
19
Dynamic Measures of WM: Operation Span
WM a STATUS and ACTIVE in nature. Digit span doesn’t address this (just capacity)
Operation Span measures capacity when WM is “working” and is “active”
• Several methods of measuring operation span, depending on the operation being
used (e.g., reading span)
1) “Due to his gross inadequacies, his position as director was terminated abruptly.
2) It is possible, of course, that life did not arise on Earth at all.”
• The limit defines a persons Working Memory Capacity (WMC)
• This is more like what WM does in everyday life!
• Multiple Ideas at the Same Time
20
Dynamic Measures of WM: Operation Span
21
Dynamic Measures of WM: Operation Span
Higher Operation Span Larger WM
• Higher O.S. should mean do better at tasks that rely on heavy
use of WM
• Tasks that require you to keep multiple ideas activated at the
same time
Working memory capacity correlates strongly with intellectual
performance tests:
• Standardized academic tests (incl SAT)
• Reasoning tests
• Reading comprehension tests
These correlations are not evident with static span measures
(e.g., digit span)
What does this mean we are actually measuring with tests that
seek to measure “intelligence”
22
The Working-Memory System (Baddeley 1974, 2000)
The working-memory system is divided in multiple components,
including:
Central executive
• Modality Free
• Executive Function
• Attention; Frontal Cortex (PFC)
• Channels sensory data into:
Visuospatial buffer
• Spatial and visual coding
• Judging distances
• Visual imagery
Visuospatial
Buffer
Articulatory
Rehearsal
Loop
Articulatory rehearsal loop
• Subvocalization (silent speech) to launch the rehearsal loop
• Phonological buffer passively stores the sound representations
(“internal echo”)
Episodic buffer —has been proposed (2000)
• Acts as communication w LTM and Central Executive
23
Entering Long-Term Storage
Location of Permanent Memories; Final Stage
• No Capacity Limitations!
• No Duration Limitations!
Two Types of Rehearsal
• Two strategies vary by Effort
1. Maintenance Rehearsal: Reciting
Habitual Repetition
2. Elaborative Rehearsal: Linking
• Linking New Material with Old
• Visual Appearance, Sound, Meaning
• Shallow vs Deeper Rehearsal
• Personal Relevance
24
Entering LTM Takes an Active Process
• Entering into LTM isn’t created by repeated exposure to a stimulus
Sketch the front of a quarter from memory
15yrs x 365days x 1 time a day = 5,475 times
25
Brain Activity During Learning: Hippocampus and PFC
fMRI Evidence for Brain Activity that Predicts How Well
Words Will be Remembered
Brain Activity that Predicts How Well
Visual Images Will be Remembered
96 images shown then tested on 96 and
32 new pictures Brewer et al. 1998
26
Level of Engagement and Depth of Processing
Intentional Learning:
Deliberate, with the
expectation that memory
will be later tested
Incidental Learning:
learning in the absence of
an intention to learn
Shallow Processing:
Superficial engagement
Deep Processing: Engage
in more meaningful way,
Consider meaning and
relationships
27
Organization Promotes Memory
Katona (1940) argued that the key to creating facilitating
LTM lies in organization.
• We memorize well when we:
• find order in the material to be remembered
• or impose it ourselves!
Mnemonics: strategies to improve memory through
organization
• Many Strategies!
• First-letter Mnemonics
• Visualization Strategies
• Journey Method
28
Mnemonics Improve Memory Through Organization
29
Understanding Memory Acquisition
Memory is facilitated by :
• Organizing
• Understanding
• Active Rehearsal
• Depth of Processing
Contribution of the Memorizer: This means what the memorizer was
doing at the time of exposure matters. (Maintenance vs Elaborative
Rehearsal)
Also Prior Knowledge of the Memorizer Matters!
• New learning is grounded in previously learned (Stored)
knowledge.
• Aids in making connections
• Next Chapter: Storage and Retrieval
30
CHAPTER 7
Storage of Long Term Memories
Incredible Capacity of LTM!
Not like a book or video tape but more like a Dynamic
Photograph
A Network containing similar Schemas
• Items together at the time of encoding stored together
• Similar LTM memories stored together
Retrieval Paths
Variations in Retrieval
1. Recall
2. Recognition
Learning as Preparation for Retrieval
• Learning: Making connections between new information and info already
stored (existing memory)
• Make new knowledge “findable” later on
• These retrieval paths help us learn new material.
3
Context-Dependent Learning
• Context-dependent learning is
dependent on the state the learner
is in during acquisition.
Context-Dependent Learning
Noisy vs Quiet Environments (Grant,
1998); Time of Day (Holloway, 1978);
Drug/Alcohol States (Eich, 1980);
Distinctive Odors (Smith, 1979); Mood
States (Eich & Metcalfe, 1989)
5
Context Reinstatement
In another classic study reported the same effect
on learning in different rooms. However in
mismatched rooms groups they were asked to
think about learning room just before testing
(how it looked, how they felt)
Performed as well as those whose rooms did not
change.
The benefits of context-dependent learning to
memory can be gained via context
reinstatement, re-creating the context (e.g.,
thoughts, feelings) that was present during
learning.
• What matters for memory retrieval is the
mental context, not the physical environment
itself.
6
Encoding Specificity
Encoding specificity refers to remembering both the materials to be learned and the
context of those materials.
• Any stimulus that was present and noticed during encoding could serve as a cue;
info stored together
• More cues the better!
• Retracing our steps
“The man __________ the piano.”
HINT:
LIFTED
TUNED
Piano as something heavy
Piano as a musical instrument
Something heavy
Something with a nice sound
The cue was most effective if it was congruent or relevant, rather than irrelevant, with
what was stored in memory
7
Remembering Re-Creates an Earlier Experience
8
Spreading Activation Theory
Memory can be thought of as a vast Network of ideas.
Organized by general Schemas
• Ideas represented as nodes connected to each
other via Associations
Spreading Activation: A process where activation
travels from one activated node to another in a
network via the associative links
• Once activated (threshold reached): spreads
activation to neighboring nodes
• Serves as a new source for neighboring
activation
This is how neurons and action potentials are though
to work
9
How do Hints Work?
Retrieval Cues: Property of LTM as a network suggests an explanation for why
hints help us remember.
Activation of nodes from overlapping schemas promotes memory
10
Spreading Activation Theory: Semantic Priming
96 Pairs of Word and a Nonword
EX: BREAD – MARB
48 Pairs of Associated Words
EX: BREAD – BUTTER and NURSE – DOCTOR
48 Pairs of Unassociated Words
EX: BREAD – DOCTOR and NURSE – BUTTER
Recall vs Recognition
Recall
• Individual generates the memory after being
given a broad cue identifying the information
sought
• Requires memory search
• Depends heavily on memory connections
• Requires Source Memory
Recognition
• Information is presented, and the individual
must decide if it is the sought-after information.
• Absence of Source Memory, depends on
feelings of familiarity
12
Familiarity and Source Memory
Source memory and familiarity are
also distinguishable neurobiologically.
The “remember/know” distinction
• Participants were asked to judge
whether a particular item was
encountered (“remember”) or if
they had a feeling of familiarity
(“know”).
Priming
An example of indirect memory called Implicit Memory
Indirect Memory tests
• Look at how a second encounter yields different responses
than the first encounter
• Priming indicates implicit memory of first encounter
Repetition priming: lexical decisions are faster if the word has
been recently seen
• Even if participants have no recollection of the first exposure
• Word-stem completion tasks
14
Explicit and Implicit Memory
Results like these led to the
distinction between two types of
memory.
Conscious!
Unconscious!
Explicit memory
• Direct Memory Testing
• Recall the past
• Conscious awareness
Implicit memory
• Indirect Memory testing
• Shown through priming effects
• Unconscious awareness
15
Unconscious Influences of the Past: False Fame Study
“False Fame” study by Jacoby et al. (1989)
• Participants presented a list of names in a
“pronunciation task” no indication of a memory test
• Immediately OR 24 hours after the “pronunciation
task”:
• Given “Fame Task”
• Shown a list of famous names and fictitious
names
• Some very famous, some not so famous and
some fictional
• Fictional Names (New or from List)
When list with famous names presented 24 hours after
first list, participants likely to rate made-up names as
those of real famous people
• Vague sense of familiarity about the names
• Misattribution
16
Attributing Implicit Memory to the Wrong Source
Illusion of truth—effect of implicit
memory in which claims that are familiar
(e.g., from being heard before) end up
seeming more plausible.
Source Confusion
• Eyewitnesses may select someone from a
photo lineup based on familiarity rather than
recollection.
• In one study (Brown, Deffenbacher, & Sturgill,
1977), participants falsely believed they saw a
person commit a crime when, in truth, they
had actually only seen that person in a
previous photograph.
• Likelihood of error: 29%
17
The Hierarchy of Memory Types
• Explicit (Declarative) Memory
• Conscious & Voluntary Memories
• Accessed in a direct, conscious,
effortful manner
1.
2.
Semantic
• Word meaning and general facts
•
General knowledge about the world
•
Objective; Organized by Category
•
Not tied to a specific moment in
time
Episodic
• Personal account of past experiences
•
Specific information about events
•
Subjective; Organized as a Timeline
•
Tied to a specific moment in time
Amnesia
Retrograde Amnesia:
Loss of memory from before the
disruption
Anterograde Amnesia:
Inability to form new long-term memories
Amnesia Illustrates Memory Without Consciousness
Édouard Claparède. Swiss Psychologist (18731940)
Trauma Experiment: Greeted a woman
everyday with Korsakoff’s Syndrome, each
time she could not remember him. One
session hid a pin in his hand, which pricked
her when they shook hands.
Next day the woman did not remember
Claparède but refused to shake his hand,
saying, “Sometimes pins are hidden in
people’s hands.”
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