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Memory
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Ceci : suggestibility in kids
Amnesia: worth
Memory Processes
Rehearsal
Encoding
Attention
Sensory
Memory
Working
Memory
Retrieval
(aka Short Term Memory)
Long-Term
Memory (LTM)
Free Recall Task
- Listen a list of words (10-40),
- at the end write all the words you remember
- you can list them in any order.
Serial Position Function
Probability
of reporting
the item
?
12
………
Position in Original List
30
List Length
20
30
10
20
Position in Original List
30
40
Prob.
Of
Rept.
1
40
Serial position effects are consistent over different list sizes...
Primacy
Recency
Privileged rehearsal better
Long Term Memory encoding
Working Memory
contribution
LTM
STM
Working memory
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Is it like silent speech?
How much info can you hold in verbal WM?
What is WM for?
Is there a ‘visual’ WM?
Is there a ‘central executive’ that coordinate info?
1. Verbal Working Memory: is it like
silently repeating the words in your head? Yes!
Sound-like
short-term store
Verbal information
written language is
recoded as sound
Silent
rehearsal
process
1. Evidence that Verbal Working Memory is like
silently repeating the words in your head
• Memory span task:
– Read a list of items. Repeat them after a while (5 secs).
• Results:
– Words that sound alike (mad, cat, man, map, cat): lots of errors
– Words with similar meaning (huge, long, tall, big, wide): few errors
– Words that look similar (cough, dough, through): :few errors
• Conclusion:
– Information is stored as sound in verbal Working Memory
1. Evidence that Verbal Working Memory is like
silently repeating the words in your head
• Word length effect:
– memory span for “sum, wit, harm” is better than for
“opportunity, individual, university” because it takes
shorter to articulate (to say silently)
• People who talk fast have larger memory span
• Patients whose speech is impaired (aphasia) are also
impaired in verbal working memory
• The brains areas active during speech are also active
during verbal WM.
Neural overlap between verbal WM and language
Speech production areas and language receptive areas are active
when people try to remember phonological (sound like) information
2. Capacity of verbal WM
Capacity: How many things can you hold in verbal WM?
Digit span task:
Results: 7 + 2 items
• But what counts as an item?
– A digit? A word? A letter? A sentence?
– An association (a pointer) to a representation in longterm memory (i.e, chunking)
Ready for a test
B F K EJ F I KARA F D
Another trial
F B I J F KC I A F D R
F B I
C I A
F D R
J F K
chunking allows storage of greater amounts of
information…because information is
“packaged” more efficiently
3. What is Working Memory for?
1.
Keeping information available: mentally reciting a telephone
before writing it down. Pretty dumb task
2.
3.
Reading,
problem solving: mentally rotating the image in the instructions
when building IKEA furniture
4.
5.
mental arithmetic: Calculate how much to tip the waiter?
Reasoning
4. Working Memory for Visual information
Color squares (set size 1-12) for 100 ms
900 ms Blank
Color squares (set size 1-12) for 100 ms
~ 4 objects Remembered
- No interference with verbal WM load: separate systems
Short-Term Working Memory:
A multi-part system
Central
Executive
-All the WM tasks
discussed so far are
pretty ‘dumb’.
(coordination)
Rehearsal
-Humans are capable
of doing much more
with their WM.
Visual WM
Verbal WM
- Something has to
coordinate all the parts
of WM.
- Capacity: 4-5
- Capacity: 7 + 2
-It stores ‘objects’
- & spatial locations
- It stores ‘sounds’ -- acoustic code
- It has buffer and rehearsal
The Central Executive
• Supervise attention
• Planning/Coordination
• Monitoring
Frontal lobe syndrome
• Distractibility, difficulty concentrating
• Problems with organization, planning
• Perseveration:
– fail to stop inappropriate behavior
Memory Processes
Rehearsal
Attention
Sensory
Memory
•Very rapid decay
•Modality specific
Encoding
Retrieval
Working
Memory (WM)
Long-Term
Memory (LTM)
• Limited Capacity (7+2) •Unlimited capacity
•Consciously available •Hard to get stuff in it
• Flexible material
•Organized by meaning
•Decays if not rehearsed
(semantically)
++++++++ Different domains: Visual, Verbal, etc.+++++++++
LTM
Types of Knowledge (memory)
Declarative
Semantic
Memory
2+2, sky is blue
Procedural
Episodic
Memory
The Eagles won; ‘cook’ was a word in the list
Affected by Amnesia
The distinction emphasized by the declarative/procedural model is
in terms of the kind of information being represented (i.e.
knowledge that can be reported verbally vs motor skills).
Another Possible architecture of:
Memory Systems
Implicit Memory
Explicit Memory
Priming
Semantic
Memory
Skill & Habit
Learning
Episodic
Memory
2+2, sky is blue
Affected by Amnesia
Classical
Conditioning
This emphasizes how information is accessed (conscious vs automatic)
‘Of two men with the same outward experiences and the
same amount of mere native tenacity, the one who thinks
over his experiences the most, and weaves them into
systematic relations with each other, will be the one with the
best memory’
William James, 1890
Moving information into Long Term
Memory
1. Mere exposure hypothesis:
–
The more we see/hear something, the better will
encode it into long term memory
Is mere exposure enough? The Penny Test
(Nickerson &Adams, 1979)
Is mere exposure enough? No!
(Nickerson &Adams, 1979)
Moving information into Long Term
Memory
1. Mere exposure:
–
No!
The more we see/hear something, the better will encode it into
long term memory (LTM)
2. Maintenance rehearsal: No!
–
The more you keep it in working memory, the better will
encode into LTM
3. Elaborative rehearsal: YES!
–
The more you process the meaning and integrate it with what
you already know, the better it will be encoded in LTM
Importance of
Meaningful
Organization
Evidence that elaborative rehearsal is best
Instructions that foster shallow processing:
‘Decide whether the two words written in same case’
How to succeed in this task: pay attention to the font
Examples
HUGE-enormous
gloves- pants
DISASTER- CATASTROPHE
Answer
no
yes
yes
Surprise memory test: poor memory
Evidence that elaborative rehearsal is best
Instructions that foster elaborative processing:
‘Decide whether the two words are synonymous’
How to succeed in this task: pay attention to word meaning
Examples
HUGE-enormous
gloves- pants
DISASTER- CATASTROPHE
Answer
yes
no
yes
Surprise memory test: good memory!
Since elaborative rehearsal is best,
so why not use it all the time?
Because it’s hard work, dude!
• Maintenance rehearsal (e.g. phone number):
– rote mechanical process
– requires little effort,
• Elaborative rehearsal (e.g. exam; phone of cute guy):
– Semantic processing & relations to background knowledge
– leads to better long-term retention, but
– requires effort
Memory Stages:
Encoding
Retention
Retrieval
Retrieval: the role of organization
• Example:
– In one minute, name as many animals as you can
• Retrieval Plan (Organization)
–
–
–
–
Zoo:
Farm:
Pests:
Pets:
How to improve your memory:
Factors that enhance long-term memory
1. Understand the information (semantic organization)
2. Have a background knowledge on the material (it gives you a
better chance of understanding)
3. Metacognition (Know how memory works):
– Use right memory strategy: for example, choose elaborative rehearsal
over maintenance rehearsal
– Organize the to-be-remembered items: cluster items into
meaningful categories such as vegetables, fruits, cleaning stuff
– response criterion: Decide when you to keep your mouth shut
4. Encoding specificity: study in the same context you will be tested
5. Space your learning sessions (rather than massed learning)
6. Emotion
Amnesia
Anterograde: events since brain trauma
Retrograde: events prior to brain trauma
Anterograde amnesia in patient HM
Figure 5.9 The Hippocampus Patient
Schacter, Gilbert and Wegner: Psychology, First Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Worth Publishers
Bitemporal Lobectomy
- Performed as treatment for epileptic seizures
- “Success” except for anterograde amnesia
Patient H.M.
* had such a surgery in 1953 (age 29)
* normal IQ, digit span, conversation, motor learning
Priming in anterograde amnesia
• Study phase: “is this word pleasant or not?
• Test phase:
– Recognition [Was “scorch” on study list?] or
– Word Stem Completion: Complete “sco_ _ _”
• Impaired recognition but normal stem completion
(i.e., as likely as normal subject to complete stems with words
that were observed earlier).
(Graf, Squire, & Mandler, 1984)
Implicit Memory: Mirror drawing task
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon
• The experience of
knowing that we know
something but are unable
to access it
• Memory was stored, but
not retrieved properly
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Brain Changes with Alzheimer’s Disease
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Biology of Memory Deterioration
• Alzheimer’s disease
– 13% of those over 65 years, 42% over 85
– Dementia - overall cognitive decline, including
severe memory and language loss
– Brain pathology
• Plaques and tangles
• Cell death: early = hippocampus, later = cortex and
others
• Loss of acetylcholine cells in the basal forebrain - give
medications to replace acetylcholine, aid memory
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Table 5.1
Schacter, Gilbert and Wegner: Psychology, First Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Worth Publishers
Memory
Development
• From the crib to elementary school, children’s
memories improve dramatically due to
– Memory span increasing with age (rehearsal,
physical maturation)
– Increasing conceptual knowledge of the world
– Development of meta-memory skills
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Infant Implicit Memories:
Talking with Their Feet
• Infants as young as
2 months demonstrate
implicit memory
days after conditioning
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009
Infantile Amnesia
• We are unable to recall personal
experiences that took place before about 3
to 5 years of age
• Why? Theories:
– Hippocampus is not yet developed, so we can’t
retain new explicit memories
– Infants have little or no sense of self
Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2009