PSY 101 Topic 5 - Memory PDF

These brief notes are to complement what was taught in Session 5. These notes are in no way a substitution for your reading of the textbook. The main reading for session one is Chapter 10 of the Wade & Tavris. What Is Memory? ▪ the capacity to preserve (retain) and recover (retrieve) information...

These brief notes are to complement what was taught in Session 5. These notes are in no way a substitution for your reading of the textbook. The main reading for session one is Chapter 10 of the Wade & Tavris. What Is Memory? ▪ the capacity to preserve (retain) and recover (retrieve) information ▪ persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information ▪ Psychology studies: 1. Encoding: how information is placed into memory 2. Storage: how it is retained or maintained after being encoded 3. Retrieval: how it is found or recovered for some later purpose What happens when you remove the hippocampus? - Sam Kean The Manufacture of Memory - Explain why the workings of memory are more reconstructive than people imagine them to be. Memory is selective. British psychologist Sir Frederic Bartlett (1932). Memory is a reconstructive process. We may reproduce some kinds of simple information by habitual repetition, said Bartlett, but when we remember complex information, our memories are distorted by previous knowledge and beliefs. Source misattribution - The inability to distinguish an actual memory of an event from information you learned about the event elsewhere. E.g. a birthday party. Flashbulb Memory - a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event. The Conditions of Confabulation - Describe three conditions under which confabulation is especially likely to occur. Confabulation - Confusion of an event that happened to someone else with one that happened to you, or a belief that you remember something when it never actually happened. It occurs when:  1. You have thought, heard, or told others about the imagined event many times. Imagination inflation: The more you think about an event, the more likely you are to believe that you actually were there and that it happened as you “remember” it. 2. The image of the event contains lots of details that make it feel real. 3. The event is easy to imagine. Brian Williams Timeline: What he said & when The Eyewitness on Trial - Summarize the evidence indicating that eyewitness testimony can be susceptible to memory errors. ❖ Because of unfamiliarity with other ethnic groups, the eyewitness may focus solely on the ethnicity of the person they see committing a crime and ignore the distinctive features that would later make identification more accurate. ❖ Memories are also influenced by the way in which questions are put to the eyewitness and by suggestive comments made during an interrogation or interview. ❖ Misleading information from other sources also can profoundly alter what witnesses report. Misleading information about a perpetrator's appearance can reduce an eyewitness's ability to identify the real perpetrator later in a lineup. ❖ A single witness's report proved to be as influential as the reports of three different witnesses. Such is the power of a single witness's voice (Foster et al., 2012). ❖ Leading questions, suggestive comments, and misleading information affect people's memories not only for events they have witnessed but also for their own experiences. Children's Testimony - Explain the conditions under which children might provide reliable versus unreliable eyewitness testimony. ❖ A child is more likely to give a false report when an interviewer strongly believes that the child has been molested and then uses suggestive techniques to get the child to reveal molestation (Bruck, 2003).  ❖ Rumor and hearsay play a big role in promoting false beliefs and memories in children, just as they do in adults (Principe et al., 2006). ❖ If the interviewer says, “Tell me the reason you came to talk to me today,” and nothing more, most actual victims will disclose what happened to them (Bruck, 2003). Measuring Memory - Distinguish between recall and recognition tasks in explicit memory, and distinguish between priming and relearning in implicit memory. Explicit memory - Conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an item of information. - Also known as declarative or conscious memory Properties: - Memory consciously recalled or declared - Can use to directly respond to a question It is measured by: 1. Tests for recall - the ability to retrieve and reproduce information encountered earlier. E.g Fill-in-the-blanks & essays 2. Tests for recognition - the ability to identify information you have previously observed, read, or heard about. E.g True/False & MCQ Recognition is easier than recall. Implicit memory - when information encountered in the past affects our thoughts and actions even though we do not consciously or intentionally remember it. - Unconscious retention in memory. - Information that people don't purposely try to remember is stored in implicit memory. - Sometimes referred to as unconscious memory or automatic memory. - Unconscious and unintentional. - Implicit memory is also sometimes referred to as nondeclarative memory since you are not able to consciously bring it into awareness.  - Examples of implicit memory include: ➔ singing a familiar song ➔ typing on your computer keyboard ➔ brushing your teeth ➔ Riding a bike ➔ Knowing how to use utensils and dress yourself each day ➔ Navigating a familiar area such as your house or neighborhood ➔ Recalling how to boil water to fix dinner Methods of measurement: 1. Priming - A method for measuring implicit memory in which a person reads or listens to information and is later tested to see whether the information affects performance on another type of task. Priming is influence of one memory on another Priming is implicit because it does not depend on awareness and is automatic Activation of one or more existing memories by a stimulus Activation not a conscious decision BUT, can effect subsequent thoughts and actions 2. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913): Relearning method or savings method - A method for measuring retention that compares the time required to relearn material with the time used in the initial learning of the material. Models of Memory - Describe the basic characteristics of three memory systems according to the information-processing model, and note the challenges to this view proposed by parallel distributed processing. The three-box model of memory: Similar to the processes of a computer; Memory as Information Processing: 1. Encoding - the processing of information into the memory system; converting it to a form that the brain can process and use.  2. Storage - the retention of encoded information over time. 3. Retrieval - process of getting information out of memory; recovers it for use. In storage, the information may be represented as: ➔ concepts ➔ propositions ➔ images, or cognitive schemas ➔ mental networks of knowledge ➔ beliefs ➔ expectations concerning particular topics or aspects of the world. Storage takes place in three interacting memory system: 1. A sensory register retains incoming sensory information for a second or two, until it can be processed further. 2. Short-term memory (STM) or Working Memory holds a limited amount of information for a brief period of time, perhaps up to 30 seconds or so, unless a conscious effort is made to keep it there longer. 3. Long-term memory (LTM) accounts for longer storage, from a few minutes to decades (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968, 1971). The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Information can pass from the sensory register to short-term memory and in either direction between short-term and long-term memory, The three-box model has emphasized sequential operations. In contrast, the brain performs many operations simultaneously, in parallel. Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model or connectionist model - A model of memory in which knowledge is represented as connections among thousands of interacting processing units, distributed in a vast network, and all operating in parallel. Also called a connectionist model. How We Make Memories: Crash Course Psychology #13 The Three Box Model of Memory The Sensory Register: Fleeting Impressions - Explain the functions, duration, and location of the sensory registers in the three-box model of memory. A memory system that momentarily preserves extremely accurate images of sensory information. Includes a number of separate memory subsystems, as many as there are senses. The sensory register acts as a holding bin, retaining information in a highly accurate form until we can select items for attention from the stream of stimuli bombarding our senses. The identification of a stimulus on the basis of information already contained in long-term memory occurs during the transfer of information from the sensory register to short-term memory. Information that does not quickly go on to short-term memory vanishes forever, The fleeting nature of incoming sensations is actually beneficial; it prevents multiple sensory images—“double exposures”—that might interfere with the accurate perception and encoding of information. Short-Term Memory: Memory's Notepad - Explain the functions and duration of short-term memory, and contrast the leaky bucket and working memory approaches to understanding this “box” of memory In the three-box model of memory, a limited-capacity memory system, involved in the retention of information for brief periods; it is also used to hold information retrieved from long-term memory for temporary use. The material is no longer an exact sensory image but is an encoding of one, such as a word or a phrase. The Leaky Bucket - George Miller (1956) estimated its capacity to be “the magical number 7 plus or minus 2.” - Chunk - A meaningful unit of information; it may be composed of smaller units. - The real capacity of STM is a few chunks. - But chunking cannot keep short-term memory from eventually filling up.  - Information that will be needed for longer periods must be transferred to long-term memory or it will be displaced by new information and spill out of the bucket. - Particularly meaningful items may transfer quickly, but other information will usually require more processing—unless we do something to keep it in STM for a while. Working Memory - STM controls attention, focusing it on the information we need for the task at hand and warding off distracting information. - Patients like H. M. can do anything that requires retrieval of information from long term into short-term memory. Their problem is with the flow of information in the other direction, from short-term to long-term memory. Long-Term Memory: Memory's Storage System - Describe semantic categories and four forms of long-term memory, and explain how primacy and recency illustrate the serial-position effect in transferring information from short-term to long-term memory. The vast amount of information stored there enables us to learn, get around in the environment, and build a sense of identity and a personal history. Organization in Long-Term Memory We organize our LTM: 1. By placing objects in their semantic categories. E.g. Chair belongs to the category furniture. Information in memory about a particular concept is linked in some way to information about the concept's semantic category. The LTM is a vast network of interrelated concepts and propositions. 2. In terms of the way words sound or look. Lethologica or Tip-of-the-Tongue state - a feeling that accompanies the temporary inability to retrieve information from memory, users of sign language call them “tip of the finger” states. People in a TOT state tend to come up with words that resemble the right one in sound, meaning, or form (e.g., number of syllables)  before finally recalling the one they're searching for, which indicates that information in long-term memory is organized in those terms. 3. By its familiarity, relevance, or association with other information. The Contents of Long-Term Memory Procedural memories - Memories for the performance of actions or skills (“knowing how”). E.g. how to comb your hair, use a pencil, solve a jigsaw puzzle, knit a sweater, or swim. - implicit, because after skills and habits are learned well, they do not require much conscious processing. - Implicit memory - retention independent of conscious recollection. (Also called nondeclarative memory.) - Influences your thoughts or behavior, but does not enter consciousness. - Automatic processing - unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings. Declarative memories - Memories of facts, rules, concepts, and events (“knowing that”); they include semantic and episodic memories. - Explicit memory - memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and “declare.” (Also called declarative memory.) - We encode explicit memories through conscious effortful processing. - Effortful processing - encoding that requires attention and conscious effort. Two subtypes of explicit memory: Episodic Memory: - Memories of personally experienced events and the contexts in which they occurred. - Memory tied to your own personal experiences. - Explicit, because you can actively declare your answers to these questions. Semantic Memory:  - Memories of general knowledge, including facts, rules, concepts, and propositions. - Memory not tied to personal events. - General facts and definitions about the world. - Explicit, because you can describe what you know about them. - Unlike episodic memories, your knowledge does NOT include your personal experience From Short-Term to Long-Term Memory: A Puzzle Serial-position effect - The tendency for recall of the first and last items on a list to surpass recall of items in the middle of the list. If you are shown a list of items and are then asked immediately to recall them, your recall will be best for items at the beginning of the list (the primacy effect) and at the end of the list (the recency effect); the items in the middle of the list will tend to drop away. Primacy effects happen because the first few items in a list are rehearsed many times and so are likely to make it to long-term memory and remain memorable. Recency effects occur because at the time of recall, they are plucked out of short-term memory, where they are still sitting. The items in the middle of a list are not so well retained because by the time they get into short-term memory, it is already crowded with the first few items. As a result, middle items often drop out of short-term memory before they can be stored in long-term memory. The serial-position effect can occur with both semantic and episodic memories. The Biology of Memory Changes in Neurons and Synapses - Outline the process of long-term potentiation in the formation of memories. In short-term memory:  - changes within neurons temporarily alter their ability to release neurotransmitters. In long-term memory: - there are lasting structural changes in the brain. - High-frequency electrical stimulation increases the strength of synaptic responsiveness in the hippocampus and other areas of the brain. Long-term potentiation - A long-lasting increase in the strength of synaptic responsiveness, thought to be a biological mechanism of long-term memory. - Certain receiving neurons become more responsive to transmitting neurons, making synaptic pathways more excitable. - Calcium and the neurotransmitter glutamate play a key role in long term potentiation causing receiving neurons in the hippocampus to become more receptive to the next signal that comes along. - During long-term potentiation, dendrites grow and branch out, and certain types of synapses increase in number. - In another process, some neurons become less responsive than they were previously. - Memories must therefore undergo a period of consolidation. Consolidation - The process by which a long-term memory becomes durable and relatively stable. - Consolidation can continue for weeks in animals and for several years in human beings. - The act of remembering previously stored memories can make them unstable again. A new round of consolidation often then sweeps up new information into the old memory, remolding it (Schiller & Phelps, 2011). - Sleep plays a role in ensuring consolidation of new information. Where Memories Are Made - Evaluate the evidence that memories are not stored in any one “place” in the brain. The amygdala is involved in the formation, consolidation, and retrieval of memories of fearful and other emotional events (Buchan).  The frontal lobes of the brain are especially active during short-term and working-memory tasks. The prefrontal cortex and areas adjacent to the hippocampus in the temporal lobe are also important for the efficient encoding of pictures and words. The hippocampus is critical to the formation of long-term declarative memories (“knowing that”); damage to this structure can cause amnesia for new facts and events. The hippocampus is also critical in recalling past experiences. The formation and retention of procedural memories (memory for skills and habits) depends on activity in the cerebellum. Human patients with damage in the cerebellum are incapable of being classically conditioned. The brain circuits that take part in the formation and retrieval of long-term memories (hippocampus), however, are not the same as those involved in long-term storage of those memories (cerebral cortex). The storage of memories eventually becomes the responsibility of the cerebral cortex. Memories may be stored in the same cortical areas that were involved in the original perception of the information; corresponding regions become active when sensory modalities are remembered. The hippocampus may somehow bind together the diverse aspects of a memory at the time it is formed, so that even though these aspects are stored in different cortical sites, the memory can later be retrieved as one coherent entity. Hormones, Emotion, and Memory - Summarize the evidence that memory can be influenced by emotion and hormonal levels. Hormones released by the adrenal glands during stress and emotional arousal, including epinephrine (adrenaline) and norepinephrine, can enhance memory. Arousal tells the brain that an event or piece of information is important enough to encode and store for future use. Too much arousal can weaken memory. Thus, persons in high stress situations may have trouble remembering details of the event accurately.  Norepinephrine may affect glutamate receptors on the surfaces of nerve cells, increasing the strength of incoming signals. Adrenal hormones can also cause the level of glucose (a sugar) to rise in the bloodstream, and from there the glucose can readily enter the brain. In the brain, glucose may enhance memory either directly or by altering the effects of neurotransmitters. Too much glucose can impair cognitive functioning instead of helping it. The “sweet memories” effect also depends on your metabolism, what you have eaten that day, and the level of glucose in your brain before you ingest it. How We Remember Encoding, Rehearsal, and Retrieval - Describe some major strategies that contribute to memory retention, and give an example of each. Mnemonics Strategies and tricks for improving memory, such as the use of a verse or a formula. Some mnemonics take the form of easily memorized rhymes. Others use formulas (e.g., “Every good boy does fine” for remembering which notes are on the lines of the treble clef in musical notation). Still others use visual images or word associations. 9 Types of Mnemonics to Improve Your Memory Effective Encoding Sensory information is summarized and encoded as words or images almost as soon as it is detected. To remember information well, you have to encode it accurately in the first place. E.g. The last thing you ate. With some kinds of information, accurate encoding takes place automatically, without effort. However, many kinds of information require effortful encoding. E.g. Learning and remembering the content of this course. Rehearsal The review or practice of material while you are learning it. When people are prevented from rehearsing, the contents of their short-term memories quickly fade. Short-term memory also holds visual information and abstract meanings. Most people, or at least most hearing people, seem to favor speech for encoding and rehearsing the contents of short-term memory. The speech may be spoken aloud or to oneself. When people make errors on short-term memory tests that use letters or words, they often confuse items that sound the same or similar, such as d and t, or bear and bare. These errors suggest that they have been rehearsing verbally. Maintenance rehearsal - Rote (mechanical or habitual repetition of something to be learned) repetition of material in order to maintain its availability in memory. This kind of rehearsal is fine for keeping information in STM, but it will not always lead to long-term retention. Elaborative rehearsal - Association of new information with already stored knowledge and analysis of the new information to make it memorable. E.g. Using examples to learn a psychological concept. Knowing more details about something makes it more memorable. Deep processing - In the encoding of information, the processing of meaning rather than simply the physical or sensory features of a stimulus. If you recognize patterns and assign labels to objects or events, your processing will be somewhat deeper. If you fully analyze the meaning of what you are trying to remember, your processing will be deeper yet. Retrieval Practice The repeated retrieval of an item of information from memory, is necessary if a memory is to undergo consolidation and remain available for a long time.  In a college course, a good way to ensure retrieval practice is to take short quizzes after you have learned some material but before the big exam. Why We Forget Mechanisms of Forgetting - Summarize the processes of decay, replacement, interference, and cue-dependent forgetting, and explain how each contributes to our understanding of forgetting. Forgetting can occur at any memory stage. As we process information, we filter, alter, or lose much of it Ebbinghaus (1885/1913): Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885/1913) memorized long lists of nonsense syllables—such as bok, waf, or ged—and then tested his retention over a period of several weeks. Most of his forgetting occurred soon after the initial learning and then leveled off (see Figure 10.8a). Generations of psychologists adopted Ebbinghaus's method of studying memory, but his method did not tell them much about the kinds of memories that people care about most. Linton (1978): 100 years later, Marigold Linton decided to find out how people forget real events. She used herself as a subject, but she charted the curve of forgetting over years rather than days. Linton (1978) expected the kind of rapid forgetting reported by Ebbinghaus. Instead, she found that long-term forgetting was slower and proceeded at a much more constant pace, as details gradually dropped out of her memories. Decay Decay theory - The theory that information in memory eventually disappears if it is not accessed; it applies better to short-term than to long-term memory.  However, some memories, both procedural and declarative, can last a lifetime. E.g. If you learned to swim/ride a bike as a child, you will still know how to at age 30. Replacement The theory that new information entering memory can wipe out old information. Forgetting as encoding failure: Information never enters the long-term memory. Ebbinghaus: forgetting curve over 30 days-- initially rapid, then levels off with time. Retrieval failure: Forgetting can result from failure to retrieve information from long-term memory. Interference Forgetting occurs because similar items of information interfere with one another in either storage or retrieval; the information may get into memory and stay there, but it becomes confused with other information. Such interference, which occurs in both short- and long-term memory, is especially common when you have to recall isolated facts such as names, addresses, passwords, and area codes. Proactive (forward acting) Interference - Forgetting that occurs when previously stored material interferes with the ability to remember similar, more recently learned material. - disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information Retroactive (backwards acting) Interference - Forgetting that occurs when recently learned material interferes with the ability to remember similar material stored previously. - disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information Cue-Dependent Forgetting - The inability to retrieve information stored in memory because of insufficient cues for recall. Willem Wagenaar (1986): Recorded critical details about events in his life, found that within a year he had forgotten 20 percent of those details; after 5 years, he had forgotten 60 percent. Yet when he gathered cues from witnesses about 10 events that he thought he had forgotten, he was able to recall something about all 10, which suggests that some of his forgetting was cue dependent. Cues that were present when you learned a new fact or had an experience are apt to be especially useful later as retrieval aids. That may explain why remembering is often easier when you are in the same physical environment as you were when an event occurred: Cues in the present context match those from the past. E.g. Why going back into the previous room helps you remember why you went into the next room. It may also help account for the eerie phenomenon of déjà vu, the fleeting sense of having been in exactly the same situation that you are in now (déjà vu means “already seen” in French). Déjà vu may be a kind of mistaken recognition memory. Similar feelings of familiarity can actually be produced in the laboratory. I would not always be a case where one has had the experience before. Mood-congruent Memory Tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood and overlook or forget experiences that are not. Other memories, emotions, or moods serve as retrieval cues State-dependent Memory What is learned in one state (while one is high, drunk, or depressed) can more easily be remembered when in the same state. The tendency to remember something when the rememberer is in the same physical or mental state as during the original learning or experience.  After learning to move a mobile by kicking, infants had their learning reactivated most strongly when retested in the same rather than a different context (Butler & Rovee-Collier, 1989). The Repression Controversy - Explain why claims of repressed memories should be greeted with a strong skeptical reaction. Amnesia - The partial or complete loss of memory for important personal information. Repression - In psychoanalytic theory, the selective, involuntary pushing of threatening or upsetting information into the unconscious. In psychogenic amnesia, however, the causes of forgetting are psychological, such as a need to escape feelings of embarrassment, guilt, shame, disappointment, or emotional shock. Psychogenic amnesia begins immediately after the triggering event, involves massive memory loss including loss of personal identity, and usually ends suddenly, after just a few weeks. It is quite rare in real life (McNally, 2003). Traumatic amnesia, a more controversial type of amnesia, allegedly involves the burying of specific traumatic events for a long period of time, often for many years. When the memory returns, it is supposedly immune to the usual processes of distortion and confabulation, and is recalled with perfect accuracy. The notion of traumatic amnesia originated with the psychoanalytic theory of Sigmund Freud, who argued that the mind defends itself from unwelcome and upsetting memories through the mechanism of repression, the involuntary pushing of threatening or upsetting information into the unconscious. The problem for most people who have suffered disturbing experiences is not that they cannot remember, but rather that they cannot forget: The memories keep intruding. There is no case on record of anyone who has repressed the memory of being in a concentration camp, being in combat, or being the victim of an earthquake or a terrorist attack. Details of even horrible experiences are subject to distortion and fading over time, as are all memories.  Repression is hard to distinguish from normal forgetting. People who seem to forget disturbing experiences could be intentionally keeping themselves from retrieving their painful memories by distracting themselves whenever a memory is reactivated. A reluctance to think about an upsetting experience is not the same as an inability to remember it (McNally, 2003). In the absence of supporting evidence, we may have to tolerate uncertainty because a person might have a detailed, emotionally rich “memory” that feels completely real but that has been unintentionally confabulated (Bernstein & Loftus, 2009). In such cases, it is important to consider the content of the recovered memory and how it was recovered. What is the earliest age you think we have memories from? Childhood Amnesia: The Missing Years - Discuss three reasons why childhood amnesia is likely to take place. Most adults cannot recall any events from earlier than age 2; and even after that, memories are sketchy at best until about age 6 (Jack & Hayne, 2010). Childhood amnesia (sometimes called infantile amnesia) - The inability to remember events and experiences that occurred during the first 2 or 3 years of life, We all retain procedural memories from the toddler stage, when we first learned to use a fork, drink from a cup, and pull a wagon. We also retain semantic memories acquired early in life: the rules of counting, the names of people and things, knowledge about objects in the world, words and meanings. Moreover, toddlers who are only 1 to 2 years old often reveal nonverbally that they remember past experiences (e.g., by imitating something they saw earlier); and some 4-year-olds can remember experiences that occurred before age 2½. Children cannot encode and retain their early episodic memories consistently until about age 4½. Why?  1. Brain development ➔ The prefrontal cortex, and other parts of the brain involved in the formation or storage of events, are not well developed until a few years after birth. 2. Cognitive development ➔ Before you can carry memories about yourself with you into adulthood, you have to have a self to remember. The emergence of a self-concept usually does not take place before age 2. 3. Social development ➔ Preschoolers have not yet mastered the social conventions for reporting events, nor have they learned what is important to others. As a result, they focus on the routine aspects of an experience rather than the distinctive ones that will provide retrieval cues later, and they encode their experiences far less elaborately than adults do. Remembering and Forgetting: Crash Course Psychology #14