Download PSY 368 Human Memory - the Department of Psychology at Illinois

PSY 368 Human
Memory
Memory Experts and
Ways to improve your memory
Brief outline for today
• Cases of superior memory
• Flashbulb memories
• Eidetic imagery
• Memory Experts
• Ways to improve you memory
• Distributed practice
• Testing effects
• Mnemonic techniques
Superior Memory
• Flashbulb memories
• Very vivid memories
• Surprising and consequential events – emotionally charged
• Difficult to study
• Neisser and Harsch (1992) study
• Challenger explosion in 1986 - asked people day later about where
they were, etc.
• After 3 years they were asked to recall details
• Reported vivid memories, and were very confident
• However, they were inaccurate at remembering these things
• No evidence they are different from normal memories
• Subject to reconstructive processes (including distortions)
Superior Memory
• Eidetic imagery = “Photographic memory”
• Strict criteria for classification
• Example test procedure (e.g., Haber & Haber 1964)
• Present an image for 30 sec
• Remove the image
• Ask a variety of questions about details of the image
• Answers typically in the present tense (as if the picture is present)
• Eyes move to locations where the details had been in picture
• Frequency of occurrence
• Mostly in preadolescent children (estimated 8% of kids)
• Rare in adults - not well-studied
Superior Memory
• Eidetic imagery = “Photographic memory”
• Not like a photograph, rather it is a strong, vivid image
• Eidetic images have more detail than normal images and last
longer than iconic memory.
• But they do fade away (between a few seconds and a few
minutes), they are not long lasting (so don’t seem to be
encoded with high detail in LTM)
• Requires time to encode (not like the split second camera
snapshot)
• Affected by the subjective state of the individual and may
include distortions, additions, and/or omissions
Memory Experts
• Luria (1968), The Mind of a Mnemonist
• ‘S’ (Solomon Shereshevsky, Russian journalist & mnemonist)
• Average IQ
• Memory feats
• Could recall speeches verbatim
• Memorize complex mathematical equations and matrices
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Memorize text and poems, even in foreign language
Digits (100+)
Nonsense syllables
Foreign-language poetry
Complex figures
• Diagnosed as having severe Synesthesia
Memory Experts
• Luria (1968), The Mind of a Mnemonist
• Synesthesia is a condition where sensations usually experienced
in a single modality are experienced in two modalities.
• Some examples of synesthesia are receiving an auditory signal or
sensation in a visual modality.
• Synesthesia is rule governed, not random.
• For example, there is a positive relationship between increasing the
pitch of a sound and increased brightness.
• For S, 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”
Memory Experts
• Ericsson and Chase (1982)
• They had a university student (SF) practice the digit span task for 1 hour per
day for 2 years
• Over this time, his span increased from about 7 items to 80 items
• Encoding and retrieval principles in action:
• He increased his span to 18 items by relating numbers to known
running times (e.g. 3594 = “Bannister’s time for the mile”)
• He further increased his span by organizing those chunks into a
hierarchical structure
• Speed-up principle in action:
• He became much faster at chunking and organizing the numbers with
extensive practice
• However, his newfound ability did NOT generalize to other memory tasks
• He maintained average letter and word spans
Memory Experts
• Thompson et al. (1991)
• Rajan Mahadevan: Previously held the world record for memorizing
the most digits of pi (30,000) (note: new record Akira Haraguchi 83,431 digits)
• Found that he had an unusual digit span:
• 59 visually presented digits
• 63 for heard digits
• He chunked digits into strings of 10–15 digits, not the typical 3–4
• This initially suggested a natural enhancement of his basic memory
capacity
• However, arguing against a natural superiority, he has an average:
• Symbol span
• Ability to remember the position and orientation of various objects
• Memory for word lists and stories
• It turns out that he uses various associations and patterns to group digits.
Memory Experts
• “National Memory Championship” – “Memoriad”
• http://usamemorychampionship.com/
• http://www.worldmemorychampionships.com/
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vsYCSmBcM0&feature=related
• Sampling of
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events (from US & international)
Names and faces (164, 15 mins)
Speed numbers (500, 5 mins)
Speed cards (1 deck, 21.2 sec)
Poetry
Random words (300, 15 mins)
• Max deck cards (28 decks, 1hr)
• Random digits (2080, 1 hr)
• Historical dates (132, 5 mins)
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer (2012)
• Journalist covering the memory championships one year
(2005), the next competing in the competition (2006)
(Records)
Can you be a Memory Expert?
• Okay, recall the shopping list from yesterday. 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
Can you be a Memory Expert?
• What can you do to improve your memory?
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Distributed practice
Testing effects
Effective studying tips
Mnemonics
• Lot’s of books out there.
Can you be a Memory Expert?
• What can you do to improve your memory?
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Distributed practice
Testing effects
Effective studying tips
Mnemonics
• The “granddaddy” of them all:
• Written between 86 and 82 B.C.
• Describes the memory techniques
attributed to Simonides of Ceos (5th
century B.C. poet)
• the basic techniques that underlie almost all
modern mnemonic techniques
Rhetorica ad Herennium
Memory Myths
• “Memory is like a muscle, exercise it and it gets generally better/stronger”
• You can practice mnemonic techniques, but they still require effortful use and are
specific to what you apply them to
• “Only 10% of our brain power is used.”
• No agreed upon operational definition of “brain power”
• No evidence that there are parts of the brain “just sitting around unused, waiting to
be tapped”
• “Becoming more balanced in using right and left side of brain will tap into
unused potential.”
• Left-language/Right-spatial (for most people)
• “Can improve memory with presentation during sleep.”
• Sleep studies - placebo effect - subjects thought they had an effect of what they
were told they were studying, but no objective effect existed
Distributed Practice
• Distributed practice is better than massed practice
• Lorge (1930)
• Mirror tracing task
• 20 trials of learning
• Massed
• 1 min between trials
• 1 day between trials
P
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m
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c
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50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Massed
1 min
• Spacing between the learning sessions led to better
performance
1 day
Distributed Practice
• Distributed practice is better than massed practice
• It is better to space out learning trials sparsely (thinly) across a
period of time than to mass them together into a single learning
block.
• This leads to faster improvement rates and more lasting
retention.
• As distributed practice takes longer in absolute terms (i.e. less actual
training, but more days), it is not always practical or convenient.
• Individuals using distributed practice often paradoxically feel as
though they’re being less efficient.
• The benefit is not related to fatigue with denser learning.
Distributed Practice
• Distributed practice is better than massed practice
• Landauer & Bjork (1978)
• Is it better to repeatedly study and test items on a list (e.g. word pairs) in
close succession or spread apart? There are competing factors
Spacing Effect
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Spaced presentation (i.e. study)
enhances memory for a variety
of materials
• Based on this alone, study and
test should be separated as
much as possible, but …
Generation Effect
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Successfully testing yourself
strengthens memories more than
passively studying items
• The sooner an item is tested after
initial presentation, the more
likely it will be recalled and
strengthened
Proposed Solution: The Expanding Retrieval Method
Distributed Practice
• Distributed practice is better than massed practice
• Landauer & Bjork (1978)
The Expanding Retrieval Method
• A flexible strategy, in which:
• A new item is initially tested after a short delay to ensure that it is recallable.
• As the item becomes better learned, the practice–test interval is gradually
extended.
• Each item should be tested at the longest interval at which it can be reliably
recalled.
• Recall failure indicates that it should be presented after a shorter delay. Successful
recall indicates that the delay should be increased.
• Optimum is about 10-20% of study time before testing. For testing after 10 days,
spacing between presentations should be 1-2 days. In general, longer inter-trial
delays are better than short ones.
Testing Effects
Karpicke and Roediger (2006)
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Testing Effect:
• The finding that long-term retention is best
when the information is repeatedly tested
during learning
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Task:
• Students were asked to memorize a prose
passage through either
• Repeated Study (SSSS):
• Passage was read four times without a
test
• Single Test (SSST):
• Passage was read three times, followed
be a recall test
• Repeated Test (STTT):
• Passage was read once, followed by
three recall tests
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Results:
• Repeated study is most effective at
the short retention interval
• At learning, this group expected
the best long-term memory
• Considered the least
effortful/demanding condition
• Repeated testing is most effective at
the long retention interval
• i.e. the testing effect
Testing Effects
Bjork and Bjork (1992)
• Storage Strength:
• Relative permanence of a memory trace
• Retrieval Strength:
• The accessibility of a given memory trace
• Easy retrieval does not increase storage strength
• Difficult retrieval increases storage strength and leads to longterm memory performance
• Working hard to give yourself recall tests during studying is highly
beneficial to long-term retention
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Testing Effects
Pashler et al. (2005)
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Task:
• Learn Luganda–English translations
• Some participants got corrective feedback on incorrect test trials during study
• Others did not receive feedback
• Tested 1 week later on the vocabulary
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Results:
• Recall for the words they had gotten wrong a week before was about five times
better if they had received immediate feedback.
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Conclusion:
• Testing yourself with feedback is best for long-term retention
• Tip: Use flashcards; don’t just re-read your notes!
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Effective Studying
• Finding optimal spacing
• Pashler et al., (2007)
• The optimal spacing depends on the length of the delay between learning
and testing
• The optimum interval between learning episodes should be 10–20% of the test
delay
Chap 1
First day
of class
Chap 2,
Review
Chap 1
Chap 3, Chap 4
Review Review
Chap 1-2 Chap 2-3
Chap 5,
Review
Chap 2-4
Chap 6,
Review
Ch 1, 3-5
Chap 7,
Review
Ch 2, 4-6
Chap 8,
Review all
chapters
Four months (28 days), Optimum spacing is 10-20%, so .1 x 28 = 2.8 and .2 x 28
= 5.6 so optimal study time of each piece of information is every 2.8 to 5.6 days.
This includes review of previous material not just new presentations.
Midterm
• In general, longer inter-trial delays are preferable to shorter ones
• Receiving corrective feedback after test trials is important, though it can
occur after a short delay without consequence
Effective Studying
• Biggs’ (1987) Study Process Questionnaire
• The questionnaire assesses students’ dominant approach to learning
Learning Style
Emphasis
Predicts
Surface
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Deep
• Learning to understand
• Relating ideas to evidence and
integrating information
• High motivation to understand
• Similar to deep level of processing
Good examination
performance
Strategic
• Seeking the study techniques to get
the best grades
• Motivated to be efficient
Great examination
performance
Rote learning of ideas and facts
Poor examination
Little focus on content
performance
Little motivation to study
Similar to shallow level of processing
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Effective Studying
• Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach: Effective reading for studying
Stage
Goals
S
Survey
• Figuring out how the reading is organized
• Read the summary or scan the piece
Q
Question
• Thinking of relevant questions to which each section
should answer
• Do this for chunks of text of 3000 words or less
R1
Read
• Reading through each chunk in order to:
• Answer the questions formulated above
• Integrate information to pre-existing knowledge
R2
Recite
• Trying to remember the key ideas of each chunk
• If forgotten, repeat the Read stage
R3
Review
• Remembering the key ideas from the chapter and
combining the chunks after finishing the entire piece
• Return to Read stage, if necessary
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Effective Studying
• Morris’s (1979) SQ3R Approach: Effective reading for studying
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Benefits of the SQ3R approach:
• Avoids the student’s illusion
• The false confidence students get as they skim through a chapter,
finding that the material seems familiar (i.e. they’d be able to
recognize it)
• However, the actual test is likely to be:
• More anxiety-provoking
• Asking them to recall (rather than recognize) the information
Mnemonic Devices
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Methods for improving memory
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Here are a few of the different methods of
mnemonic devices:
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Acronyms and acrostics
Rhymes
Imagery
Method of Loci
Number-letter system
Peg-word system
Mnemonic Devices
• Acronyms (Word to retrieve information.)
• HOMES for the Great Lakes
• Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior
• NASA
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Roy G. Biv
• Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet
(colors of visible spectrum)
Mnemonic Devices
• Acrostics (Sentence to retrieve letters.)
• Every good boy deserves fudge.
• Musical notes on treble clef staff (E, G, B, D, and F)
• My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles
• The colors of the rainbow, in order: Red, Orange, Yellow,
Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
Mnemonic Devices
• A rhyme is a saying that has similar distinctive
sounds at the end of each line.
• Makes things easier to remember because it can be
stored with acoustic encoding.
• Example:
• The ABCs song
• In fourteen hundred and ninety-two Columbus sailed the
Ocean Blue.
• 30 Days has September, April, June, and November. All the
rest have 31, except February.
• "i" before "e," except after "c," or in sounding like "ay" as in
"neighbor" or "weigh."
Mnemonic Devices
• Many Mnemonics incorporate Imagery
• Last lecture we discussed many examples of situations memory
effects involving mental imagery
• Interacting Images
• Wollen et al. (1972)
• Presented P’s with pictures of paired
objects & words (control group w/o
picts)
• Then presented with a word, asked
to recall paired word
• Results:
• Visualization is most effective when images of objects are paired. It was not
necessary for the pairing to be bizarre to show the advantage.
Mnemonic Devices
• Many Mnemonics incorporate Imagery
• Last lecture we discussed many examples of situations memory
effects involving mental imagery
• Interacting Images
• Imagery is used to memorize pairs of words. An image is formed as a
result of each word given, and then two images are joined through
mental visualization.
• Examples:
• Piggy bank =
• Piggin means bucket
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Mnemonic Devices
• The Method of Loci
• Imagine a journey through a familiar
landscape or location, such as your house
(“memory palace”).
• In each room or special location in the
room place a piece of information.
• Practice walking around the location and
you should recall the different pieces of
information.
• Locations serve as a cue
• Helpful for serial learning
• Locations should be distinct
• Need strong association between
location and item
Mnemonic Devices
• The Method of Loci
• De Beni et al. (1997)
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Memory performance for a 2000-word text
• Two retention intervals
• Written and oral presentation
• Rehearsal vs method of loci
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Results
• Large benefit
for oral
presentation
• No benefit for
written
presentation
• Visual
presentation
may interfere
with imagery
Short delay
1-week delay
Mnemonic Devices
• Remembering names and faces
• After introduction, repeat their name
• Use their name in conversation
• Visualize
• Imagery Technique:
• Come up with an imageable substitute for the name
• e.g. Eysenck = “ice sink”
• Come up with a prominent facial feature of the person
• e.g. a nose
• Link the two
• e.g. The nose could be the sink’s faucet
• Unfortunately, this may be too time-consuming for day-to-day usage
• Fun activity: Make one for your own name
• Use their name as you say good-bye
Mnemonic Devices
• Keyword strategy
• The three R’s
• Reconstruct: Develop keyword-something familiar, acoustically
similar and easily pictured.
• Relate: Link keyword with definition in interactive picture.
• Retrieve: Process to get answer.
• Example:
• Use to learn foreign language vocabulary
• Spanish example: Pato = Duck
• First step:
• Concrete keyword that sounds like foreign word = Pot
• Second step:
• Form visual image connecting keyword with meaning
• Picture: Duck wearing a pot on its head
Mnemonic Devices
• Peg-word strategy: used for remembering large sets of
numbers
• First: use memorized concrete nouns
• Rhyming words with numbers helps to
remember words
• Semantics can be used too (spider for 8)
1 – bun
2 – shoe
3 – tree
4 – door
• Second: create visual image of target
word with peg-word
5 – hive
• Similar to Loci: objects instead of
locations
• Limitations of the technique:
7 – heaven
• Requires extensive training
• Easier to use with concrete materials
• It may not be very useful in everyday life
6 – sticks
8 – gate
9 – wine
10 -- hen
28 = shoe + gate
Mnemonic Devices
• Major system strategy: used for remembering large sets of
numbers (Johann Winkelmann, 1648)
0–S
1 – T or D
2–N
3–M
4–R
5–L
6 – Sh or Ch
7 – K or G
8 – F or V
9 – P or B
28 = N + F
Add vowels as needed
“Knife”
Mnemonic Devices
• Person-action-object: used for remembering large sets of
numbers
• Every two digit number between 00 and 99 has a three part image
79 = superman flying
with a cape
34 = Frank Sinatra crooning
into microphone
• Now a six digit number like 341379 is:
• Person from first, action from second,
object from the third
13 = David Beckham
kicking a soccer
ball
Effective Memory
Ericsson (1988)
Requirement
Description
Encoding Principle
Information should be processed
meaningfully, relating it to preexisting
knowledge
Retrieval Structure Principle
Cues should be stored with the information
to aid subsequent retrieval
Speed-Up Principle
Extensive practice increases the speed of
encoding and retrieval
Best way to improve memory for specific information:
practice retrieving it
Why do mnemonics work?
• Attention
• Think about our
• Ensure encoding
shopping list demo
• Repetition
• Retrieval cues
• Dual-coding cues
• Verbal and visual representations
• Organization
• “chunks”
• Notice relationships and differences
• Use existing knowledge
• Elaboration
• Think about meaning and make distinctive
• Generation
• Your ideas makes it personal
Mnemonics: Limitations
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Time
How to deal with abstract material?
Learning vs. retention
Creative ability
Interference
Doesn’t help memory in general
Does not help understanding of material
Need to practice mnemonics!