Chapter 1: History and Overview of Memory Research PDF
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University of Notre Dame
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This document provides a chapter overview on the history and different perspectives on memory research, including different metaphors, and early researchers. It covers topics such as definitions, historical context, and influential figures. It details important concepts such as the computer metaphor and models of memory, highlighting different perspectives and approaches to understanding memory.
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# Chapter 1 Overview and History of Memory Research ## Topics: - A Smattering of Definitions - Metaphors for Memory - History of Memory Research - The Modal Model of Memory - Multiple Memory Systems - Recurring Issues ## Memory ### Three Uses: 1. Record (memory trace or engram) 2. Storage facil...
# Chapter 1 Overview and History of Memory Research ## Topics: - A Smattering of Definitions - Metaphors for Memory - History of Memory Research - The Modal Model of Memory - Multiple Memory Systems - Recurring Issues ## Memory ### Three Uses: 1. Record (memory trace or engram) 2. Storage facility 3. Process (doing things - action) ## Learning - Related term to memory. - Environment provides opportunity to learn. - **Cognition, Memory & Learning** are similar ## Metaphors for Memory - Memory is not directly observable - No shape or form. - Indirect descriptions are needed. - Metaphors are used. ### Recorder of Experience: - Metaphors based on the idea of recording experiences. - Wax tablet - Record player - Writing pad - Tape recorder - Video camera ### Organized Storage: - Metaphors based on storing information in an organized way. - **"Memory Palace"** - House - Library - Dictionary (structure) ### Interconnections: - One thing reminds you of something else. - Switchboard - Network ### Jumbled Storage: - Organized & disorganized. - Searching through: - Birds in an aviary - Purse - Junk drawer - Garbage can ### Temporal Availability: - Close to you but over time, it's harder to discriminate (now vs. 2 years ago). - Conveyor Belt ### Content Addressability: - Memory based on context. - It's like a muscle that can improve through experiences. - Lock & Key (metaphor) - Tuning Fork (metaphor) ### Forgetting of Details: - Leaky bucket (metaphor) - Cow's stomach (metaphor) - Acid bath (metaphor) ### Reconstruction: - Rebuilding a dinosaur from bones (metaphor) - Remembering some details. ### Active Processing: - Doing things with information. - Workbench - Computer program (process information) ### Many Metaphors: - Directly and indirectly embody an influence of literacy. - Books, Papers, and Shelves - Sometimes easy/hard to find - Memories are fluid and not fixed. ## Computer Metaphor - This dominates cognitive psychology. ## History of Memory Research - Ancients - Precursors - Early Psychologists - Movements ### Plato (**428?-347? B.C.)**: - Philosopher - Rationalist - Dualist (mind & body are separate things) - Wax tablet and aviary metaphors ### Aristotle (**384-322 B.C.)**: - Empiricist - Laws of Association - Similarity - Contrast - Contiguity (memories around similar time) - Mind in the heart (accepted) ### St. Augustine (**354-430**): - Good description of memory in his "Confessions" ### Robert Hooke (**1635-1703**): - & adopted - Good insights into memory - Ignored because he was overshadowed by Newton. - Cited him. - Could've studied memory more early on. ### Darwin and Natural Selection (**1809-1882**) - Organism changes to adapt to the environment. - Memory helps to plan for the present and future rather than focus on the past. ## Philosophy of Mind - Psychology is implied. ### Empiricists: - Knowledge through observation - Associationism (Aristotle) ### Rationalists: - Knowledge through theories - Active invlovement of the mind (structure you impose on the world) ## Scientific Study of Memory ### Hermann Ebbinghaus (**1850-1909**): - Founder of memory research. - First memory Researcher. - **Nonsense syllables, testing on himself:** (constant-vowel-constant) - PIM DAG ZOL CEK - **Learning Curve:** (spread out rather than crammed) - Distributed and massed practice - Forgetting curve - Overlearning (continuous studying, memory returning frequently) - Chronically available (ex: names). - **Savings (Memory principle):** Effort, wait, relearn, wait, less time than savings good. Get it right. ### Forgetting Curve (not really): - A graph that shows the amount of information remembered over time ### Frederick Bartlett (**1886-1969**) : - Prior knowledge influences memory. - How does it distort it? - Memory changes to what they should have been. - Use of Schemas (memory more of what should've been rather than what was) ### William James (**1842-1910**): - Primary and secondary memory (short-term & long-term) - Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: can't remember something. ### Gestalt Movement: - German word for "shape or form" - The whole is different from the sum of its parts (Melody made out of notes, yet notes change or are the same, but it results in the same melody) - Anti-reductionistic. Can't understand things by just breaking them down. - Acknowledged the importance of understanding the components of thought. ### Gestalt Movement: - Memory influenced by a configuration of elements and context. - **Isomorphism of mental representation:** (Simulation of the world as if you're doing it, but not physical stimulation). - **Example:** Memory of riding a bike, but the bike is not in your head. ## Behaviorism: - Psychology should study observable behavior. - Reaction to introspection. - Associated with the term "learning". - Influenced by Darwinian concepts of evolution. ### Early Behaviorists: - Pavlov - Classical conditioning. - Thorndike - Instrumental conditioning. - Law of Effect. - Tolman - Mental Maps ### Edward Tolman (**1886-195**): - Mental Maps. ### Verbal Learning: - Behaviorist approach to learning verbal materials. - Tied to Ebbinghaus's work. - **Memorization:** "Attachment of responses to stimuli" - **Forgetting:** "Loss of response availability". ### Mary Calkins (**1863-1930**): - Paired associate learning: - A-B C-D paradigm - A-B A-D paradigm - A-B A-B' paradigm (synonyms) - A-B A-Br paradigm (recombinations) ## Early Neuroscience: - Memory happens in the brain. Karl Lashley figured out where. - **(1890-1958)** Karl Lashley: - Search for the engram. - Rats learned a maze. - Removed larger portions of the rats' brains from different locations. - Memory affected by the how much tissue was removed, not the location. ### Lashley's Results: - A graph that shows the relationship between the amount of brain tissue removed and the number of errors made by rats ### Donald Hebb (**1904-1985**): - "The Organization of Behavior" (1949). - Forerunner of computational neuroscience. - Mathematical modeling of brain activity.. - Signal reverberation in cell assemblies followed by a change in neural connections. ## Cognitive Revolution: - Thought is a valid subject for study. - Associated with the term "memory". - Kept methodological rigor of the behaviorists. - **The computer metaphor:** - Hardware vs. Software ### George Miller (1920-2012): - **The Magical Number Seven, plus or minus two. ** (1956) Paper about limits of thinking. - **Limited capacity of memory:** can't remember everything. - **Organization aids memory:** It helps us remember information better. ## The Modal Model of Memory: - The standard model of memory. - Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968): - Sensory registers: - Visual - Auditory - Haptic - Short-term memory - Long-term memory - Control processes ## Multiple Memory Systems: - Long-term memory has several sub components: - Different memory systems for different types of information. ### Tulving's Triarchic Theory: - Episodic memory - Autonoetic consciousness - Semantic memory - Noetic consciousness - Nondeclarative (procedural) memory - Anoetic consciousness ### Squire's Hierarchy: - Long-term memory - Nondeclarative memory - Procedural (motor) memory - Implicit memory - Declarative memory - Semantic memory - Episodic memory ### Multiple Memory Systems: - *Declarative Memory (explicit memory)*: - Semantic memory - Episodic memory - *Nondeclarative (implicit) Memory*: - Procedural memory - Classical conditioning - Priming ## Recurring Issues: - How memory relates to neurological structure and function. ### Neurological Bases: - Memories change over time. - Predictability requires knowing the stability of the change. ### Retention Over Time: - How memory is affected by emotional states: - **Modulation**: - Increased consolidation. - **Mediation:** - More attention - Increased distinctiveness - Increased organization. ### Emotion: - Fuzzy trace theories. - Performance is affected by multiple memory traces acting in concert. ### Multiple Memory Sources: - Memory influenced by the contexts of learning and memory. - Memory needs to operate in real time. - Memory is influenced by how we interact with the world. ### Embodied Cognition: - Scientific method and data are critical. ### Scientific Rigor and Converging Operations:
