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Memory research has been heavily influenced by emerging __ __. Analogies between processes used in __ and human memory were formed in an __-__ __. The 3 stages of this __ was 1. __, 2. ___, 3. ___. This is still the most __ __. However, unlike __, in humans, it is difficult to __ these stages because they are not __.
- computer technology
- computers
- information-processing framework
- framework
- 1. coding
- 2. storing
- 3. retrieving
- influential framework
- computers
- separate
- independent
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Describe an early study which tried to quantify human memory. Especially important in relationship between interval and forgetting.
- Ebbinghaus (1885)
- Used himself as sole subject
- Taught himself series of nonsesne syllables until he could repeat them in order twice without error
- Tested his retention at various delays and measured how long it took him to relearn his lists to get it perfect twice
- Result: retention decreases as retention interval increases
- rate of forgetting slows down - the standard forgetting curve (implies that info that lasts for a few days may survive indefinately and that some forms of memory may have a consolidation period - during which new memories are vulnerable but are being strengthened)
- NB: type of learning was rote repetition (not meaningful, but just repeating, which is not the most efficient way)
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List the 5 factors that influence memory encoding (that a relatively permanent representation of info is encoded and strengthened).
- practice
- level of processing
- organisation
- spacing
- active retrieval
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Describe a study which showed the importance of practice.
- Pirolli & Anderson (1985)
- Subjects practice memory for 15 sentecnes for 25 days 2hr/day
- Tested for recognition of sentences by asking them to differentiate between memorised senstences and foil sentences (made up of same words)
- Result: recognition time decreased with practice, even after recall was perfect
- ALSO - There is a relatively small effect ofamount of practice within a day relative toamount of practice across days. There is noevidence for a benefit of more than four trialsper day.
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[Level of Processing] Episodic memory depends upon __ __ that occurs at time of processing. It is often assumed that __ processing involves a __ of stages or __ _ __. Give an example with reading.
- stimulus processing
- stimulus
- hierarchy
- levels of processing
- Reading - proceed from analysis of physical features of input at most superficial level
- to encoding of semantic content or meaning at deepest level
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The level or depth of prcessing of a stimulus has a large effect on its memorability. Who calimed this?
- Craik & Lockhart (1972)greater depth of processing produces more richly encoded or elaborate memory representation
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Describe the experiment showing the different effects of shallow vs elaborative processing?
- Craik & Tulving (1975)
- Presented subjects with 60 words in perception task in which they were required to answer one of anumber of different questions designed to induce different levels of processing (case, rhyme and sentence conditions)
- Result: in subsequent retention test - recognition better for words presented with question desgined to induce a deeper level of processing
- So, in the most elaborative processing condtion (sentence condition), question making particpant think about meaning of the word ('would the word fit into this sentence?)
- In the more superficial stimulus-level processing question like (case - 'is the word in capital letters?'), retention was much worse
- During the test, time taken to answer these 'yes' or 'no' questions were much quicker for shallow processing questions like the case condition, whereas it was longer for sentence condition.
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Why is deeper coding better? Give a person's statement. Descirbe another study backing this.
- Anderson & Reder (1979)
- Semantic processing and self-generation provide subject with richer and more elaborate code, which yields additional retrieval routes with more associations.Anderson and Bower (1972)Subjects who included self-generated elaboration in the sentence showed higher percentage of recall.
- Condition1 - 'the doctor hated the lawyer'
- Condition2 - 'the doctor hated the lawyer because of a malpractice suit'
- When asked later 'the doctor hated ___', Condition 2 people answered correctly 72% and Condition 1, 57%
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What is the difference between maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal?
- Maintenance rehearsal is simply repeating the stimulus again and again in order to remember it (rote memorisation). While maintenance rehearsal is good for short term memory and fast recall...
- Elaborative rehearsal organizes the stimulus into something meaningful so that it is processed deeply and remembered better in long term.
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How does organisation help encoding and retrieving memory? Describe the study demonstrating the effectivness of oranised memory encoding.
- Organisation provides a mechanism for cueing memory of individual items - a systematic way to go through and cue different elements - mnemonic technique
- Bower et al (1969)
- Participants asked to learn 112 words, 4 trials (28/trial)
- 1/2 subjects presented with words organised into conceptual hierarchies (minerals-metals-rare-gold), and other 1/2 got the words in random list.
- Result: participants presented with organised set of words remembered 47% more words
- They also unsurprisingly recalled info in the order of the hierarchy
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Give an example of another classic mnemonic technique.
- Method of Loci
- Esp useful if material doesn't lend itself to hierarchical system
- One can imagine walking along a path with some fixed locations along the path
- they associate certain objects/elements with certain locations along the path
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What is the spacing effect? (Also what is massed practice?)
- Spacing effect: memory is better for repeated information if repetitions occur spaced over time than if they occur massed, one after another
- Massed practice: many trials with the same stimulus are undertaken without interruption
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Describe the study demonstrating this spacing effect.
- Bahrick (1979)
- Participants asked to learn 50 English-Spanish word pairs. On presentation trial, they are presented visually, and experimenter pronounces Spanish word
- During test, English word presented visually, subject must say corresponding Spanish word. 3 training sessions.
- 3 groups:
- 1. no interval between training sessions
- 2. 24 hour between each training sessin
- 3. 30 day between
- Result: When subjects tested 30 days after last training session, degree of recall increased in relation to spacing between training sessions
- So, 30-day interval subjects performed better than 0 day-interval and 24hr-interval subjects
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Active retrieval vs elaborative learning vs repeated learning? Describe a study which demonstrated the importance of active retrieval.
- Karpicke et al (2011)
- Study paragraph of text and recall test later - verbatim and inference
- 4 conditions:
- 1. study paragraph once
- 2. study paragraph in 4 consecutive periods
- 3. elaborative concept mapping
- 4. retrieval practice (study text, practice retrieval, then repeat)
- Learning time matched between 3 and 4.
- Result: Retrieval practice subjects did best in both verbatim and inference tests.
- Interestingly, students predicted that repeated studying would be the best and that practicing retrieval will not be good.
- Perhaps indicator that we have these overconfidence when we see things over and over again in front of us but we actually remember less unless we try and fail.
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What is transfer-appropriate processing?
- Principles that retrieval is more likely if cues available at recall are similar to those that were present during encoding. This can be related to the number of cues available for retrieval.
- eg. Kohler et al - words trained presented as words in test and objects presented as pictures - much better.
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Give a famous study about transfer-appropriate processing.
- Godden & Baddeley (1975)
- Divers learnt list of words underwater and dry land and recalled it in the two settings
- Lists learned underwater were better recalled underwater, and vise versa.
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Something interesting about transfer-appropriate processing and depth of processing effect. What is it?
- Some argue that depth-of-processing effect (whereby deeper processing leads to better memory), is just a transfer-appropriate effect in disguise.
- Morris et al (1977): if people asked to merely rhyme a word during recall rather than thinking about meaning or visualising it, the 'superficial' processing task that doesn't involve thinking about semantic meaning, actually perform better when test involves rhyming recognition.
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More cues mean better recall. What are the 3 main formats for recall and why are some harder than others? Study?
- Free recall
- Cued recall - some prompt or clue to correct answer
- Recognition - pick correct answer from list of possible
- The difficulty ranking directly reflects the number of cues available to jog memory.Bahrick et al 1975graduates asked names of people from highschool
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What about the link between more cues-better recall effect and flashbulb memories?
- Is it due to additional retrieval through more cues? Discussion in media for example, emotional cues?
- Although flashbulb memories can be quite inaccurate at times (perhaps because of reconstruction during retrieval)
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Talk to me about memory retrieval and why it can often not be veridical.
- For complex events or facts, we are often reconstructing events or facts from a few fragments of veridically retrieved information - filling in details
- Use of memory structures like schemas (represents what is 'expected' in a given context) can help store new facts but they can also lead to remember things as having been more prototypical or typical of other information clustered in that schema.
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Describe a study which showed how schematas and previously held expectations can affect memory.
- Brewer & Treyens (1981)Subjects asked to remember picture of an office.
- Good at recalling items that were there which also fit the epectations of what an office might contain (consistent/present)
- Poor at recalling inconsistent/present items
- Would falsely recall items that are usually found in office which are not in picture
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Describe a study that demonstrated that we do reconstruct information when retrieving memories - especially how we add information learned later to our memorial representations.
- Loftus (1975)
- presented short film of complex, fast-moving traffic accident
- immediately after film, one group were asked questions containing true presuppositions (about something that was in the film) and another was asked questions containing false presuppositions.
- Result: A week later, the false presupposition group reported having seen the presupposed object that wasn't actually there.
- Shows that questions immediately after can introduce new information which is then added to the memorial representation of the event.
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