Download lecture 23 - Illinois State University Department of Psychology

PSY 368 Human
Memory
Imagery &
Mnemonics
Brief outline for week
• Imagery
• Effects
• Theories
• Cases of superior memory
• Ways to improve you memory
Demo: Remembering a shopping list
Route
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Milk
Cereal
Hot dogs
Pickles
Mustard
Orange juice
Sponges
Toilet paper
Light bulbs
Cookies
• Bizarre image
➟ Classroom
➟ Out by elevators
➟ In elevator
➟ DeGarmo lobby
➟ Plaza
➟ Quad
➟ Bridge over College Ave
➟ Area outside of Milner
➟ Bone Student Center
➟ Student Bookstore
➠ Dr. Cutting milking a cow in the
classroom
➠ Cptn’ Crunch sword fighting
with Tony the Tiger
➠ Three people roasting hotdogs
over camp fire
➠ Flood of pickle juice and
floating pickles, have to step on
pickles to get out
➠ Etc. The more bizarre and vivid
the image, the better. Add
sounds and smells to your
images
Imagery
• A lot of the mnemonic techniques have an imagery
aspect to them, so we will start with a discussion of
imagery and memory
Historical Overview
• Three Ages of Mental Imagery:
• The Philosophic Period
• Mental images were taken to be the main factor in the makeup of
the mind. Images were also sometimes believed to be the elements
of thought.
• The Measurement Period
• Galton (1880), gave a questionnaire to 100 people asking them to
remember their breakfast table and answer some questions about
the images that they had. Created a measure of imagery that was
related to sex, age, and other differences specific to individuals, but
learned little else. With behaviorism, this died out.
Historical Overview
• Three Ages of Mental Imagery:
• The Cognitive and Neurocognitive Period
• Imagery studies and research was reborn in the late 1960s on two
ideals.
• The first was proposed by Sheehan and Neisser (1969). It dealt with the
quantitative assessment of imagery. (see also Neisser & Kerr, 1973).
• The second advance for imagery involved the incorporation of the
concept into a cognitive model where the internal representation of
information was a central element.
Imagery
• What is a mental image?
• Is the mental representation of things that are not currently being
sensed by the sense organs
• How is it like reality, how is it different?
• Hard to study, not directly observable and fade away quickly.
• Does an image use the same neural hardware as experience?
• Spatial ability is independent of verbal ability. We can test it using
methods similar to operation span or digit span.
• Example of test:
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Cube folding: Will the arrows
touch if you fold these into cubes?
Imagery and Memory Effects
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Mental rotation tasks
Picture superiority effect
Image scanning effect
Bizarreness effect
Concreteness Effect
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Mental rotation tasks
• Mental rotation tasks suggest that you
use images in working memory in an
analog way.
• Shepard and Metzler (1972): Rotate
images, look at response time.
A: “Same” rotated in
picture plane.
B: “Same” rotated in
depth.
C: Different.
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Picture superiority effect
• Shepard (1967):
• Present 612 pictures or words with a recognition test.
After 2 hours approximately 100% accuracy for pictures,
88% for words. After a week about 88% for both.
• Standing (1977):
• Learn 1,000 words, 1,000 simple pictures, or 1,000 bizarre
pictures. After 2 days recognition memory was 61.5% for
words, 77% for pictures, and 88% for bizarre pictures.
• Summation: Memory for pictures is better than
memory for words, especially early on.
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Image scanning effect
• Paivio (1978)
• For example, imagine these times on an analog clock face.
Which of each pair has a bigger angle between the hands?
• 4:10 and 9:23
• 3:20 and 7:25
• 2:45 and 1:05
• 3:15 and 5:30
• Results
• Reaction times related
to angular distance,
smaller angle = larger
RT
• P’s who were high
imagers were overall
faster than low
imagers
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Image scanning effect
• Scanning tasks show that the farther apart two things are on
an image, the longer it takes to mentally scan from one to the
other (e.g., Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978).
• Memorize this map…
• There’s a hut, a tree, a rock, a
lake, a well, sand, and grass.
• Hear the name of an object,
then another. Imagine a black
dot zipping from one to the
other on the shortest path.
• Push a button when it gets
there.
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Image scanning effect
• Scanning tasks show that the farther apart two things are on
an image, the longer it takes to mentally scan from one to the
other (e.g., Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978).
• Time to scan between all pairs of locations on imaged map
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Bizarreness effect
• Better memory for bizarre images
• McDaniel & Einstein (1986)
• Presented participants with sentences w/ underlined word triplets,
within either bizarre or common sentence contexts (10 sets)
• Bizarre: The dog rode the bicycle down the street
• Common: The dog chased the bicycle down the street.
• Instructions: Form an mental image that included the underlined
words, and rate the vividness of the image
• Following a 30 sec distractor task they were asked to recall the
underlined words
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Bizarreness effect
• Better memory for bizarre images
• McDaniel & Einstein (1986)
• Presented participants with sentences w/ underlined word triplets,
within either bizarre or common sentence contexts (10 sets)
• Bizarre: The dog rode the bicycle down the street
• Common: The dog chased the bicycle down the street.
• Results, bizarre images were better recalled than common images
• But only when in the context of common images
• May not related to imaging ability, but rather distinctiveness
• Von Restorff effect (isolation effects): The distinctive (or
isolated) item “stands out” and is remembered better
than other list items
Imagery and Memory Effects
• Concreteness Effect
• Read list of words
• Typically better recall for the concrete items
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Dollar
Cabin
Storm
Arrow
River
Book
Peach
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Justice
Franchise
Session
Incident
Hope
Cost
Mood
Imagery
• Images could be:
• Analog representations:
• Pictures in the head: Images are what they feel like, a picture
in the head whose properties are like the properties of the
real thing
• Perceptual processing: Images use the same perceptual
hardware you use to see
• Propositions: It’s essentially a verbal/symbolic
thing. The feeling that you have an image is
epiphenomenal, there isn’t really an image
Three Theories of Imagery
1. Functional-Equivalency hypothesis
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Analog representations. Something like pictures, but
not exactly the same
2. Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis
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No images, propositional representation
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
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Perhaps both image and verbal (propositional?)
representations for some things
Three Theories of Imagery
1. Functional-Equivalency hypothesis
• Shepard and Kosslyn (e.g., Cooper & Shepard, 1978;
Kosslyn & Pomerantz, 1977)
• States that imagery and perception are extremely similar.
• Shepard and Kosslyn introduced mental rotation of visual
stimuli in memory.
• Relationship between time required for a specific mental
rotation and the actual degrees of rotation
• Visual images reflect internal representations that operate in
a way that is analogous to the functioning of the perception
of physical objects
Three Theories of Imagery
• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use
to see.
• Estes, Verges, & Barsalou (2008)
• Reading words should lead to mental simulations of the words,
using perceptual hardware.
• Part of this simulation is location.
• Trial:
• Prime: Cowboy
• Word: hat (upper location) or boot (lower location)
• Target: Letter (X or O at top or bottom of the screen)
• If you simulate the location, then hat should interfere with letters
at the top (you’re using that perceptual hardware). Boot would be
opposite.
Three Theories of Imagery
• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use
to see.
• Estes, Verges, & Barsalou (2008)
• Reading words should lead to mental simulations of the words,
using perceptual hardware.
• Results
• Letters in objects’ typical locations took longer to identify.
Three Theories of Imagery
• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use
to see.
• Zwaan & Yaxley (2003)
• Spatial iconicity effects also suggest that location is part of the
representation of words and that location simulation is part of
comprehension.
• Present a pair of words, are they related?
• Attic
• Basement
• Or
• Basement
• Attic
Three Theories of Imagery
• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use
to see.
• Zwaan & Yaxley (2003)
• When vertical arrangements were correct, participants were
faster than when they were incorrect.
• Again, location seems to be part of the understanding of a
word.
Imagery
• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.
• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image than it is
to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)
• Get a clear mental image of the picture below:
Imagery
• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.
• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image than it is
to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)
• Are the following shapes in the picture you just saw?
Imagery
• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.
• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image than it is
to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)
• Are the following shapes in the picture you just saw?
Imagery
• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.
• For example, you can reverse pictures, but most people
report that reversing images is very hard (relative to with a
picture).
• Chambers & Reisberg (1985)
• Look at ambiguous figure, provide
interpretation
• Imagine the figure, provide a second
interpretation, very hard to do
• Draw image from memory, then give
second interpretation, could do it
Three Theories of Imagery
2. Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis
• Anderson and Bower (e.g., Anderson, 1978, Bower,
1972, Pylyshyn, 1973)
• Memory is not like a photograph
• We store propositional interpretations of events, whether
they be verbal or visual, rather than the imagery
components.
• Anderson and Bower explain that concrete concepts are coded
by a rich set of predicates that bind concepts together. ..."the
only difference between the internal representation for a linguistic input
and a memory image is detail of information”
Theories of Imagery
• Images could be:
• Propositions: Essentially a verbal/symbolic thing. The
feeling that you have an image is epiphenomenal, there
isn’t really an image.
You saw
You heard
“The goal keeper
missed the ball”
Same underlying propositional representations:
• missed(goalkeeper, ball)
Image may provide even richer information:
• wept(goalkeeper)
• cursed(goalkeeper)
Three Theories of Imagery
Comparing Analog and Propositional codes
Analog Code
Propositional Code
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Picture-like code
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Word-like code
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Images like perceptions,
retain some sensory
qualities
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Images are descriptions
of visual scenes
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Relations represented
implicitly
Relations represented
explicitly
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Sequential
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Simultaneous
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Different representations
for each sense
Same representations for
each sense
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Anderson (1978): concluded that “it may not be possible to decide between
imaginal and propositional representations strictly on the basis of behavioral data.”
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Proposed that words and images are processed separately
(based on patients with temporal lobe damage who could not
process images).
• The basic tenant of this theory is that information is mentally
represented either in a verbal system or a nonverbal (analog)
system (or both).
• Each system contains different kinds of information.
• Each concept is connected to other related concepts in the same
system and the other system.
• Activating any one concept also leads to activation of closely
related concepts.
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Explains many of the imagery effects
• Concreteness effect
• Verbal and visual (image) codes for concrete items
• Picture superiority effect
• Pictures automatically coded two ways, as and image and as a verbal
description
• Imagery instructions
• Schnorr & Atkinson, (1969)
• Studied pairs of associates using two instructions
• Imagery instructions – 80%
• Rote rehearsal - 40%
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Explains many of the imagery effects
• Symbolic distance effect – it is easier to make judgments about
items that are farther apart on a dimension than it is to make
judgments about items that are close on a dimension.
• true or false:
• The fly is bigger than the flea.
• The horse is bigger than the mouse.
• The rabbit is bigger than the dog.
• The mouse is bigger than the fly.
• The dog is bigger than the horse.
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Explains many of the imagery effects
• Symbolic distance effect – it is easier to make judgments about
items that are farther apart on a dimension than it is to make
judgments about items that are close on a dimension.
• Picture symbolic distance effect tasks are easier than verbal
symbolic distance effect tasks (pictures access the system directly,
verbal has to be recoded).
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt memory?
• Segal (1971): imagery tasks can interfere with visual perception
• Brooks (1967): perceptual tasks can interfere with imagery
• Try imaging President Lincoln’s face and read the text given below.
Imagery involves one or more of your five
senses, hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight. An
author uses a word or phrase to stimulate your
memory of those senses. These memories can
be positive or negative which will contribute to
the mood of your poem…
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt memory?
• Schooler & Engstrom-Schooler (1990)
• P's are shown a videotaped robbery. (This creates a visual memory.)
• P's then either:
1) Are asked to imagine the robber.
2) Are asked to describe the robber.
3) Are asked to do a series of math problems. (control)
• P's complete a recognition memory test picking the robber out of a
lineup of eight persons.
Three Theories of Imagery
3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis
• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt memory?
• Schooler & Engstrom-Schooler (1990)
• Results: Creating two
codes can disrupt memory
for information that is
only represented in one
code.
Demo: Remembering a shopping list
• Okay, recall the shopping list. Run through the route
from here to the bookstore in Bone.
• List
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Milk
Cereal
Hot dogs
Pickles
Mustard
Orange juice
Sponges
• Toilet paper
• Light bulbs
• Cookies
Special Abilities
• Eidetic imagery
• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)
• Flashbulb memories
Special Abilities
• Eidetic imagery = Photographic memory
• Criteria strict for classification - image = photograph
• Eidetic images have more detail than normal and last
longer than iconic memory.
• Frequency of occurrence
• Mostly in preadolescent children
• Rare in adults - not well-studied
Special Abilities
• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)
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‘S’ (Solomon Shereshevsky, Russian journalist 7 mnemonist)
Average IQ
Could recall speeches verbatim
Memorize complex mathematical equations and matrices
Memorize text and poems, even in foreign language
Diagnosed as having severe Synesthesia
• Musical tones were colors, touch were tastes
• Thinking about numbers:
• “take the number 1. This is a proud, well-built man; 2 is a high-spirited woman; 3 a
gloomy person; 6 a man with a swollen foot; 7 a man with a moustache; 8 a very
stout woman—a sack within a sack. As for the number 87, what I see is a fat
woman and a man twirling his moustache”
Special Abilities
• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)
• Synesthesia is a condition where sensations usually
experienced in a single modality are experienced in two
modalities.
• This condition give psychologists some very interesting data
and research.
• Some examples of synesthesia are receiving an auditory signal
or sensation in a visual modality, where it obviously shouldn’t
be.
• Synesthesia is rule governed, not random.
• For example, there is a positive relationship between increasing the
pitch of a sound and increased brightness.
Special Abilities
• Flashbulb memories
• Very vivid memories
• Personally relevant – emotion
• Difficult to study
• Neisser and Harsch (1992) study
• Where you were on Sept. 11
• Challenger explosion in 1986 - asked people day later about where
they were, etc.
• After 3 years they were inaccurate at remembering these things, but
very confident they were accurate
• No evidence they are different from normal memories.