PSYC100: Psychology Memory Lecture Notes PDF

PSYC100: Psychology Memory Fall 2024 @ Koç University Gözde Şentürk Sensation, Perception, Learning and Memory Sensation: Converting physical input originating from a stimulus into neuronal signal Perception: Using sensation to interpret the stimulus Memory is retaining information about...

PSYC100: Psychology Memory Fall 2024 @ Koç University Gözde Şentürk Sensation, Perception, Learning and Memory Sensation: Converting physical input originating from a stimulus into neuronal signal Perception: Using sensation to interpret the stimulus Memory is retaining information about a stimulus in the absence a stimulus. Learning is the process of acquiring new memories. What is memory? “Memory is the process involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 120) Memory is about something in the past influencing the present/future. Memory is multifaceted… There are different types of memories. What is memory? When we talk about about memory, we usually mean long-term memory in our daily lives. Long-term memory is holding information for long time. Episodic memory: Personal memories Procedural memory: Know-how Semantic memory: Facts Sensory memory is very briefly retaining the sensory information for about a second. Short-term memory is retaining a memory for a few second. The contents of your consciousness (your immediate thoughts) is in the short-term memory. (Goldstein, 2015) Memory processes Encoding: The Storing: The process Retrieval: Picking up process of forming of keeping the items a memory from the new memories. in the memory. storage. What makes different memory systems different from each other? Duration: How long does a person retains the memory? Content: Type of memory. Is it visual? Is it auditory? Loss: Memories can get loss. Why does a memory get loss? Decay, interference, other factors? Capacity: How many things can a memory system encode? Maintenance: How do we maintain or refresh the memory? (Palmer, 1999) From an information-processing perspective: The Modal Model of Memory (image from Spielman et al., 2020, p. 250) Sensory Memory Sensory memory “A brief stage of memory that holds information for seconds or fractions of a second. It is the first stage in the modal model of memory.” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 421). Example? Persistence of vision is keep perceiving a visual stimulus even though the stimulus is not there anymore. Duration: Shorter than a second Move a source of light rapidly across the visual field. You may see a trail of light as it moves, yet the trail is not actually there! Example? Watching a movie. 24 fps, but we perceive each frame to be continuous as we hold on the previous frame with our sensory memory. (Goldstein, 2015) Sensory memory: capacity and duration Sensory memory takes all/most of the information, but its duration is very brief. Two types of sensory memory Iconic memory (visual icon): Visual sensory memory. Lasts less than a second. Corresponds to the sensory memory in the modal model of attention. Echoic memory: Auditory sensory memory. Lasts a few seconds. (Goldstein, 2015) Iconic Memory Duration: Very, very short. The memory is lost within half a second (or less). Content: Visual. Maintenance: It fades away quickly due to decay or interference. You cannot control its maintenance actively. Loss: Simply fades away (decay) (Palmer, 1999 Short-Term Memory / Working Memory  Short-term memory (STM): DURATION About 15 to 20 seconds without rehearsal Decay Passively loosing the memory as time passes. Proactive interference: Previously learned information disrupts later information Retroactive interference: Newly learnt information disrupts previously learnt information. (Goldstein, 2015) Digit span test 937 Digit span test XXX Digit span test 937 Digit span test 7940245 Digit span test XXXXXXX Digit span test 7940245 Short-term memory: capacıty How to test? E.g. digit span: Number of digits remembered for a short time. According to Miller (1956, as cited in Goldstein, 2015): The capacity is 7±2 items. Short-term memory: capacity According to Miller , the capacity is 7±2 items. But according to the other studies using visual stimuli, the capacity of the STM is 4 items. Why did Miller measured STM capacity to be larger than other studies? Chunking (Goldstein, 2015 STM: capacity and chunking Chunking: Grouping together items, hence fewer items to remember. The items in the same chunk are strongly associated, items belonging to different chunks are not as strongly associated. Demonstration of chunking? (Goldstein, 2015 KSFTMFLVDC XXXXXXXXXX KSFTMFLVDC BJKFBGSTHY XXXXXXXXXX BJKFBGSTHY Working memory (WM) The term was introduced by Baddeley and Hitch “A limited-capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 426) STM: Storing information for a short period WM: Storing and mentally manipulating the information for a short period E.g. Keep following numbers in your mind: 7 4 2 3 1. Close the numbers, then add 1 to each. Report the numbers. Simple math problems. (Goldstein, 2015) Baddeley’s working memory model Phonological loop: “The part of working memory that holds and processes verbal and auditory information” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 417) Visuospatial Sketch Pad: “The part of working memory that holds and processes visual and spatial information” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 425) Central executive: “The part of working memory that coordinates the activity of the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketch pad. The “traffic cop” of the working memory system.” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 404) Long-Term Memory Long-term memory (LTM) "A memory mechanism that can hold large amounts of information for long periods of time. Long-term memory is one of the stages in the modal model of memory.” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 413) Long time. How long? Ranges from a few minutes up until a lifetime… Any memory that retains more than 30 seconds (not considering rehearsal) is in the LTM. Recent memories are usually more vivid, memories may decay as time passes. Differences between LTM vs STM/WM? WM is important for problem solving, language, and decision making. What about LTM? (Goldstein, 2015) Interaction between LTM and WM Doolittle (2013) explains the importance of WM in our daily lives. Your friend utters a sentence: “We decided to paint the walls light blue, but the bathroom tiles will not be removed”. WM: Keeping the sentence in the mind actively for a short period, processing it LTM: WM retrieves the meanings of the words from the LTM and keeps information into the achieve. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA Retrieved rom : https://theodi.org/wp- (Goldstein, 2015 content/uploads/2018/10/Film_archive_storage_6498619601.jpg Long-Term Memory: Encoding Rote learning: If you simply repeat the information over and over again… Elaborative rehearsal: Repeat the information AND use enriched cues, integrate information by making connections Serial position curve: Contribution of STM and LTM in memorizing a list of words Demonstration? I will read a few words serially from a list. At the end of the list, I will ask you to write down as many words as you can remember from the list. Please do not cheat. Then, I will present the whole list. You will be able to compare your performance with the list. What words are remembered easier in a list? A. Word position has no effect B. Words in the begging are easier to remember C. Words at the end are easier to remember D. Words in the middle of the list are easier to remember E. Words at the begging and end of the list are easier to remember Serial position effect People do not remember words from the list randomly. The position of the word in a list influence the memory performance (Murdock, 1962, as cited in Goldstein, 2015) Primacy effect: It is easier to remember the words that are at the beginning of a list. Why? Put the initial words into LTM with rehearsal. Newer words receive less attention as the initial words are rehearsed. Recency effect: It is easier to remember the words that are at the end of a list. Why? Better performance for the latest words as they are still fresh in the STM (Goldstein, 2015 The forms of LTM (image from Spielman et al., 2020, p. 253) RELATIONAL LEARNING: DECLERATIVE AND NONDECLERATIVE MEMORIES Declarative (explicit) memories: Conscious recollection of the events. Semantic memories Episodic memories Nondeclarative (implicit) memories: Memories that does not need conscious recollection, do not depend on hippocampus Conditioning Perceptual learning Motor (skill) learning (Carlson, 2014) Declarative Long-Term Memory: Where do we store them? The sensations are processed in the sensory areas. Sensory areas send information to hippocampus. Hippocampus co-activates multiple brain structures: the co-activated structures become connected. The information is kept in the connectivity of the cortex. Semantic memories are particularly stored in the temporal lobe. (Carlson, 2014) How to retrieve? Retrieval cue Retrieval cue activates the circuit that stores the memory. Activation of that circuit causes the retrieval of the memory.(akin to pattern completion) Why do we forget? Sometimes the memory is there but we cannot use the cue well. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) How can we improve our memory? Some methods are.. Encoding specificity Paying attention Elaborative process The generation effect The spacing effect Encoding Specificity Good match between the conditions of which the information is studies and the condition of which the performance is tested. Context-dependent effect: When the context during the retrieval and the encoding match, the retrieval is more effective. The effect of encoding and retrieval context on scuba divers (Godden & Baddeley, 1975 as cited in Smith & Kosslyn, 2013). Scuba divers studied a list on words on land or under the sea. Then, they were tested on land or under the sea. The scuba divers who studies the list under the sea remembered more words when tested under the sea. The scuba divers who studies the list on land remembered more words when tested on land. State-depending effect: When the mental state during the retrieval and the encoding match, the retrieval is more effective. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) Encoding: How well do we encode? Levels-of-processing theory (Craik & Tulving, 1975): The depth of processing influence encoding Shallow (superficial level): focusing the physical properties of the stimulus Deep (elaborative) level: focusing the meaning of the stimulus Deeper processing yields in better encoding. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) Encoding: How well do we encode? Transfer appropriate processing (Morris et al., 1977 as cited in Smith & Kosslyn, 2013): How well the depth of encoding processing works depends on the task demands If the task is to remember and report the physical properties, the shallow processing works better. If the task is to remember and report the meaning of a stimulus, the deep processing works better. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) The generation effect The encoding improves when you generate (come up with the solution, answer) rather than being given the information. How? Both paying attention and elaboration of information is involved in generation. How to study for the exam? Consider those Make you flashcard Come up with possible exam questions and solutions (Go over the slides, but also..) Come up with your own diagrams, figures (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) The spacing effect Massed practice: Studying a material without a break Distributed practice: Studying a material and having breaks in between Why? If trying to cram everything in one sitting, the mental resources may be depleted towards the end of the session. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) Are memories always 100% accurate? Misremembering the past Bias Suggestion Forgetting Bias Memories are distorted in accordance with our previous knowledge and expectations. Belief bias: Our memories are reshaped to fit our beliefs or world views. Consistency bias: Our memories are reshaped because of the assumption that things are stable over time. If I am happy now, then my previous memories will be shaped to have a “happy” tone. (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) Modify/create memories by suggestion: Misinformation Effect “Misinformation effect: Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event changes how the person describes that event later.” (Goldstein, 2015, p. 414) How fast were the cars going when they __ into each other? (Loftus & Palmer, 1974 as cited in Goldstein, 2015) __ :hit or smash. Stronger word, higher speed estimation. Stronger words, more likely to report seeing broken window. FORGETTING Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Function (Spielman et al., 2020, p. 266) Why do we forget? Encoding failure Memory trace decade theory Interference theory: Competition between old and new memories Retroactive interference: New memory makes it harder to remember the previous memory Proactive interference: Old memory makes it harder to encode the new memory (Smith & Kosslyn, 2013) Brain Lesions and Memory AMNESIA Retrograde amnesia: Inability to remember the past after the brain damage Anterograde amnesia: Inability to form new explicit long-term memories after the brain damage Why? Temporal lobe damage Patient HM: Bilateral medial temporal lobe lesion (includes hippocampus) (Carlson, 2014) ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE “Plaques in the brain are due to cell death, which then causes those affected with the disease severe forgetfulness. A person can forget how to walk, talk, and eventually eat.” (Spielman et al., 2020, p. 312)  References Carlson, N.R. (2014). Foundations of behavioral neuroscience (Pearson New International Edition, 9th Ed.). Pearson. Doolittle, P. (2013, June). How your "working memory" makes sense of the world [Video]. TEDGlobal 2013. https://www.ted.com/talks/peter_doolittle_how_your_working_memory_makes_ sense_of_the_world Goldstein, E.B. (2015). Cognitive Psychology: connecting mind, research, and everyday experience (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage. Palmer, S. E. (1999). Vision science: Photons to phenomenology. MIT press. Smith, E. E. & Kosslyn, S. M. (2013). Cognitive Psychology: Mind and Brain. Pearson New International Ed. Pearson. Spielman, R. M., Jenkins, W. J. , & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2e. OpenStax. https://openstax.org/details/psychology-2e Note: The Designer function powered by Office Intelligence services were used to design the slides.