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Long Term Memory CLPS0020: Introduction to Cognitive Science Professor Dave Sobel Fall 2012 Review of STM • Capacity: 7 +/- 2 “Chunks” • Representation: Auditory, but also organized temporally: – For the most part: FIFO (First in - First Out) – Chunks suggests an additional conceptual representation • Maintenance: – Words remembered better than nonwords • Suggests more of a conceptual representation – Slow presentation rate, overall number of items increases • More encoding and more elaboration • Is elaboration effortful or automatic? Levels of Processing • Elaborative Rehearsal is a way of chunking information • Question 1: Does memory improve the more you elaborate on information? • Question 2: Does it matter if you know you are going to have to remember the information? – i.e., Automatic or Effortful Craik & Lockhart (1972) • Present subjects with one of three tasks – Capital Letters: Press a button if each word has a capital letter in it (Shallow Processing) – Rhyming: Generate a word that rhymes with this one (Medium Processing) – Antonyms: Generate an antonym for this word (Deep Processing) • Then present a surprise recall memory test for the words they saw – The deeper the processing, the better subjects are at remembering the words Discussion • Question 1: Does level of elaboration affect memory? – Answer: Yes!!! • Question 2: If you know it’s a memory test, will that help? – Presenting the memory test as a surprise doesn’t matter. – Same result if subjects know it’s a memory test (increased performance overall, though) How does information get into LTM? • Some definitions first: • Encoding: The process by which information gets into long term memory • Retrieval: The process by which we bring information out of LTM • Forgetting: The process by which we lose information in LTM Today: Encoding • How does encoding work? • Encoding Specificity (Tulving, 1983) – Information is encoded in a context – Change that context and you affect memory Example #1 • Shown a list of paired associates, but you are only asked to remember the words in capital letters – fruit - HAND – vase - DUCK – strawberry – JAM • Then gave a recognition memory test, in which the target word is presented in an alternative context – fruit - HAND (Yes) – lamp - FINGER (No) – traffic - JAM (Yes) <-- This is the Target Stimulus Tulving (1983) Results • If context changes, subjects are worse than if context stays the same, but there’s a different word – When you encode strawberry – JAM, you are more accurate at remembering jelly – JAM than traffic – JAM • If context changes, subjects are worse than if there is no context – When you encode strawberry – JAM, you are more accurate at remembering pebble – JAM than traffic – JAM Example 2: State Dependent Learning • Learn information in a brightly colored room or in an ordinary colored room (Smith et al., 1978) • Recall test in either the same/switched room – Match Group and Mismatch group • Recall is better in match groups than mismatch groups • Generalizes to many other contexts Explicit vs. Implicit Memory • State Dependent Learning suggests we are encoding context as well as information • Does this affect recall? – Explicit Memory: Conscious recollection of past events typically revealed through recognition or recall tasks. – Memory with awareness • Contrast with Implicit memory? – Memory without awareness (McDougall, 1924) – Influence of past events on behavior without our consciousness – “Subliminal” Explicit vs. Implicit Memory • What is Explicit memory? – Conscious recollection of past events typically revealed through recognition or recall tasks. – Memory with awareness • What is Implicit memory? – Memory without awareness (McDougall, 1924) – Influence of past events on behavior without our consciousness – “Subliminal” Example of Implicit Memory: Stem Completion ( Warrington & Weiskrantz, 1970) • Two Phases • Phase 1: • Asked to memorize a list of 50 words. Among those words, is a target word (e.g., “class”) • Give an explicit memory task: Do they remember the word “class”? • Only include subjects who do not Stem Completion Phase 2 • Generate any word that starts with the first three letters CLA____ • ~50% of subjects generate “class”. • When asked again, most subjects will not recognize that “class” was on the list. – No awareness that they were exposed to “class” previously • Control: Take a second group of subjects, and just give them phase 2. – Very few (< 10%) generate “class” as the word Conclusions • Do we encode everything? – Probably not consciously. But we often retain the gist of information (e. g., War of the Ghosts) • What role does the brain play in memory – Amnesia (Next Lecture) Types of Amnesia 1 • Soap Opera Amnesia – Get hit on the head, don’t remember who you are – So rare that I will claim it doesn’t exist! • Retrograde Amnesia – Head Trauma often results is some memory failure for events leading up to trauma – Often recovered, except ~500-1000ms prior to trauma Anterograde Amnesia • Inability to learn new information, but retain information already learned • Most information comes from study of patient HM (Milner, 1966) • HM had surgery which removed most of his hippocampus and MTL to relieve epilepsy. – Similar findings in patients with Korsakoff’s Syndrome Anterograde Amnesia (cont) • Inability to acquire new semantic & episodic information. – Did not remember the doctors who see him every day. • Inability to encode new information into long term memory. LTM prior to the surgery (1965) is intact. • Intact performance on working memory tasks (e.g. digit span) Encoding or retrieval? • Is this a difficulty with encoding or retrieval? • Marslen-Wilson & Teuber (1975) presented HM with pictures of famous people. – Some were famous before his surgery. – Others only achieved fame afterwards • HM did not recognize people who became famous after his surgery, but did recognize those from before the surgery • If given a hint about people who became famous after surgery, his performance improved – Something was getting in Implicit memory • HM’s performance on implicit memory tasks (like stem completion) is similar to normals • HM’s Procedural Memory is intact – Skill learning was not impaired – Mirror tracing task Mirror Tracing Task Conclusions about Amnesia • Anterograde Amnesia involves a failure to encode new information – Explicit memory fails to get in – Implicit memory system is functional – Hippocampus and Medial Temporal Lobes important to encoding • Reflects the idea that implicit and explicit memory are performed by separate memory systems More types of memory errors • Amnesia is an extreme example of memory errors – But amnesia is pretty rare • Bartlett’s “War of the Ghosts” – Details of often lost, gist is retained, based on schemas or existing knowledge. • Remembering things that aren’t there Brewer & Treyens (1981) Office • Had subjects sit in a professor’s office • Asked what they remember as being in the office – No books, but more than 30% remember seeing books – Influenced by prior knowledge (schemes) Semantic Influences • Deese (1959), Roediger & McDermott (1995) • Recall list of words – bed, rest, awake, tired, dream, wake, snooze, blanket, doze, slumber, snore, nap, peace, yawn, drowsy Semantic Influences (cont) • Immediate or delayed recall: people will remember “Sleep”, even though it was not on the list • Even with source warning, people make this error (McDermott & Roediger, 1998) What causes memory errors? • Delay – Things erode over time • Retrieval Failure – Stress or change in circumstances (recall statedependent learning) – Repisodic blurring (Where did you park your car today) • If everything is familiar, you lose the usefulness of familiarity (i.e. context) – Misinformation (What if repeated information is subtly different?) Verbal Misinformation • Verbal influences can affect memory for events in general • Verbal Misinformation (Loftus, 1974) – Shown a videotape of a blue car hitting a red car. – Then adults read a verbal description of events which states that a green car hit a red car. – Later subjects misremember car as green, not blue in verbal report – Paint Chips – subjects pick a blue/green color, not a blue color Updating or Social Pressure • When misinformation happens, are memories actually changed (updating) – Loftus’s interpretation • Or is this a response to external factors in the experiment (like social pressure)? Evidence against Updating (1) • McCloskey & Zaragoza (1985) • Standard “Misinformation” Paradigm: Subject witnesses a theft. Before the thief leaves, he picks up a hammer. • Later, subject reads a verbal report of the events, which says that the thief picked up a wrench – Note the misinformation (wrench for hammer) • Later, given a forced-choice question: What did the thief pick up? A hammer or a wrench? – Most subjects will report wrench. Evidence against updating (2) • Do subjects encode hammer and overwrite it with wrench? Or does hammer stay in memory? • Same procedure: see hammer, told wrench in written report • Did you see the thief pick up a hammer or a screwdriver (old vs. novel) • If memory is updated, then subjects should be at chance. If not, then subjects should go back to original item – Most subjects choose hammer. Evidence against updating General Conclusion • Memory errors are critical in the real world • Think about Eyewitness testimony – – – – Highly unreliable Prone to errors based on questions (Suggestibility) Prone to errors based on experience (Misinformation) Prone to errors based on recall (Verbal Overshadowing, Retrieval Based Forgetting) – Yet, often most compelling • Worse: False Memories – Misinformation effects suggest that whole episodic memories be implanted? – What happens when those episodes are unpleasant? – How resistant are we to these false memories? – How resistant are children?