Download retrieve

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A closer look at:
Retrieval
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Yesterday and today you learned
about…
 Stage
1: Encoding.
 Stage
2: Storage.
 Once
information is encoded and stored
successfully, you must be able to get it back
out, or retrieve it!
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The two retrieval tasks

Recall: retrieve memories not
in conscious awareness
(example: a fill-in-the-blank or
essay test)

Recognition: identify items
previously learned (example:
a multiple choice test)

Harry Bahrick study (1975):
people who had graduated 25
years earlier could not recall
many of their old classmates
but they could recognize 90%
of their pictures/names!
+Relearning Time as a Measure of Retention

In the late 1800s, Hermann
Ebbinghaus studied another
measure of memory functioning:
how much time does it take to
relearn and regain mastery of
material?

He studied the memorization of
nonsense syllables (THB YOX KVU
EHM) so that depth of processing or
prelearning would not be a factor.

The more times he rehearsed out
loud on day 1, the less time he
needed to relearn/memorize the
same letters on day 2.
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“Every memory we have is held in
a web of associations.”
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Retrieval cues

Imagine a spider suspended in the middle of her web, held
up by the many strands extending outward from her in all
directions to different points. If you were to trace a pathway
to the spider, you would first need to create a path from one
of these anchor points and then follow the strand down into
the web.

Retrieval cues: bits of information associated with others
(tastes, sights, smells, etc.)
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Priming

The activation of particular
associations in memory, which
usually aids retrieval;
“memoryless memory”

People primed with money-related
words were less likely to then help
another person.

Priming with an image of Santa Claus
led kids to share more candy.

People primed with a missing child
poster then misinterpreted
ambiguous adult-child interactions
as kidnapping.

“Bark”
+ Context-Dependent
Memory

Part of the web of
associations of a memory
is the context. What else
was going on at the time
we formed the memory?

We retrieve a memory
more easily when in the
same context as when we
formed the memory.
Words learned
underwater are better
retrieved underwater.
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Déjà vu = “already seen”

Sometimes being in a context
similar to one we’ve been in
before may trigger déjà vu

Every situation has many cues
that might unconsciously help
you retrieve an earlier, similar
experience.

Or, a new situation might be
moderately similar to several
events.

The right question to ask:
“Why do I feel as though I
recognize this situation?”
+ State-Dependent Memory

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
Our memories are not just
linked to the external
context in which we learned
them.
Memories can also be tied
to the emotional and/or
physiological state we were
in when we formed the
memory.
Mood-congruent memory
refers to the tendency to
selectively recall details that
are consistent with one’s
current mood.
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The end!