Memory: Retrieval and Problems

1. Memory: Retrieval and Problems AP Psychology

3. Memory Retrieval and Forgetting

4. Let’s Test Your LTM! • You will see several words, one at a time • Do whatever you can to try and remember as many of the words as you can • At the end of the list, try to recall as many words as you can

5. Let’s Test Your LTM! • Bed • Clock • Dream • Night • Turn • Mattress • Snooze • Nod • Night • Artichoke • Insomnia • Rest • Toss • Night • Alarm • Nap • Snore • Pillow

6. Let’s Test Your LTM! • Write down the words you saw!

7. Here’s the Words • Bed • Clock • Dream • Night • Turn • Mattress • Snooze • Nod • Night • Artichoke • Insomnia • Rest • Toss • Night • Alarm • Nap • Snore • Pillow

8. Did you Recall? Bed or Clock Snore or Pillow Night Artichoke Toss and Turn Sleep Explanation Primacy Recency Spacing Effect Distinctiveness Clustering False Memory Memory Demonstration

9. Memory Retrieval • We can recognize more than we can recall. • Recognition is easier than recall because it provides retrieval cues or hints that help us remember where the information is stored in our memory.

10. Recall vs. Recognition tests Recall Tests Recognition tests • Must retrieve info learned earlier. • Two step process: • 1) generate a mental list, • 2) recognize the answer from the list. • Examples: Fill-in-the-blank test; essay exams • Only need to identify the correct answer. • 1 step process: • 1) recognize answer from the list. List was already generated for you. • Example: Multiple choice tests

11. Recall vs. Recognition • What is the capital of Vermont? • Raise your hand if you know the answer

12. Recall vs. Recognition • What is the capital of Vermont? • A. Brattleboro • B. Montpelier • C. Rutland • D. Cabot • Raise your hand if you know the answer

13. Recall vs. Recognition • What is the capital of Vermont? • A. Brattleboro • B. Montpelier • C. Rutland • D. Cabot • Which was easier: recall or recognition? • For your psychology exam, would you rather have a fill-in-the-blank or a multiple choice test?

14. What affects retrieval? • Priming – the activation of particular associations in our memory; is often unconscious. • For example, we may suddenly remember something that we thought we had forgotten when we smell or taste something associated with the memory. • In this case, the smell is priming our memory

15. What affects Retrieval? • Context effects – we are more likely to remember something if we learn it in the same context. For example, you will likely do better on a psychology test if you take it in this room. An example of the Encoding Specificity Principle!

16. What affects Retrieval?Memory and Mood • State-dependent memory – we are more likely to remember something if we are in the same psychological state (happy, sad, etc.) that we were in when we learned it. An example of the Encoding Specificity Principle!

17. What affects Retrieval?Memory and Mood • Memories are mood-congruent – that is, if we are in a good mood, we are more likely to recall events as positive. • If we are in a bad mood, we are more likely to recall events as negative. • This is true even if we are recalling the SAME event in two different states of mind. An example of the Encoding Specificity Principle!

18. What affects Retrieval?Memory and Mood • For example, let’s say you went on a family vacation to the beach and there were tons of mosquitoes and your parents never let you out of their sight, and the weather and beach was beautiful. • If someone asks you about your vacation later, what aspects of it you will remember (the bad or good ones) depends on your current mood.

19. Memory and Mood • Mood-congruent memories explain how depression can easily become a downward spiral. • A person in a depressed mood recalls or interprets events negatively, thus leaving them feeling even worse.

20. Forgetting • Forgetting – Forgetting is an important adaptation. • If we couldn’t forget most of the information that enters our senses, we would be distracted most of the time.

21. Why do we Forget? • Encoding Failure – information never enters long-term memory; usually because we didn’t make an effort to pay attention and rehearse the information

22. Why might Encoding Failure Happen? • When you don’t use elaborative rehearsal, or provide enough meaning, to a term or event, • People fail to encode information because: • It is unimportant to them • It is not necessary to know the information • A decrease in the brain’s ability to encode

23. Why do we Forget? • Decay theory is the gradual disappearance of a memory because the memory has not been thought about, or retrieved, from long-term memory into short-term memory • Ex: If a person does not dial their childhood phone number for a few years, then the memory of that number will start to decay, or fade away.

24. Decay • Biology-based theory • If unused, normal brain metabolic processes erode memory trace • Theory not widely favored today • Ability of people to retrieve memories from long ago with retrieval cues would show this is not true.

25. Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) • German philosopher who did early memory studies with nonsense syllables • Developed the forgetting curve, also called the “retention curve” or “Ebbinghaus curve”

26. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve • Ebbinghaus found that the more times he practiced a list of nonsense syllables on day 1, the fewer repetitions he required to relearn it on day 2. • The more time we spend learning new information, the more we retain.

27. Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve

28. How to combat the Forgetting Curve: • Overlearning • Continuing to rehearse after the point the information has been learned • Rehearsing past the point of mastery • Helps ensure information will be available even under stress

29. Encoding Short-term memory Long-term memory X Retrieval Retrieval failure leads to forgetting Forgetting as retrieval failure • Retrieval—process of accessing stored information • Sometimes info IS encoded into LTM, but we can’t retrieve it • Retrieval Failure – inability to “locate” memories

30. Why do We Forget? • Tip-of-the-tongue, occurs when a retrieval cue is not strong enough to retrieve, or trigger the memory stored in long-term memory. Tip of the Tongue

31. Why do We Forget? • Interference theory is the process through which either the storage or retrieval of a memory impairs other information and memories • Proactive Interference • Retroactive Interference

32. Why do We Forget?-Retrieval Failure • Proactive interference occurs when previous, old information affects, or interferes, with trying to remember new information. • An example of proactive interference is when you try and can’t remember your NEW locker combination because you keep on dialing your old locker combination.

33. Why do We Forget?-Retrieval Failure • Retroactive interference occurs when recently learned new information affects, or interferes, with remembering old information. • An example of retroactive interference is when you can’t remember your OLD class schedule because your new class schedule is interfering, or causing you to forget your old class schedule.

34. How can we remember…. • When trying to remember the difference between Proactive and Retroactive, it may be helpful to think about porn. • Yes, P.O.R.N. P= Proactive O= Old interferes R= Retroactive N= New interferes

35. Why do We Forget?-Retrieval Failure • Motivated Forgetting–people repress or suppress memories that are painful or that conflict with their self-image. • Undesired memory is held back from awareness • Suppression— conscious forgetting • Repression— unconscious forgetting (Freudian)

36. The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model (1968) • Stimuli are recorded by our senses and held briefly in sensory memory. • Some of this information is processed into short-term memory and encoded through rehearsal. • Information then moves into long-term memory where it can be retrieved later.

37. The Atkinson-Shiffrin Model (1968)

39. Amnesia • Amnesia is the loss of memory

40. Amnesia • Retrograde amnesia is the inability to recall past memories due to an injury to the head • Tends to be temporary. • As the brain starts to heal from an injury, the memories start to come back.

41. Amnesia • Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new memories due to damage to the hippocampus • “50 First-dates” is an example of anterograde amnesia • she could not form any new memories

42. Clive Wearing • The man with no short-term memory • What type of Amnesia would this be? Clive Wearing

43. Jill Price • The woman who never forgets • What issues might this cause? The Woman Who Never Forgets

44. False Memories

45. Reconstructing Memories: Sources of Potential Errors • Why do the details change over time? • Two general areas that errors occur in memory reconstruction • Info stored before the memory occurred may interfere • Info stored after the memory occurred may interfere

46. Sources of Potential Errors • Source Confusion – true source of the memory (how, when, & where it was acquired) is forgotten. • This could be attributing an imagined event to real life or attributing a story read in a book to your own childhood. • False Memory – distorted and inaccurate memory that feels completely real and is often accompanied by all the emotional impact of a real memory. False Memory-Lost in the Mall

47. Sources of Potential Errors • Cryptomnesia – a seemingly new or original memory is actually based on an unrecalled previous memory. • inadvertent plagiarism • Can happen in everyday conversation • "Somebody says, 'Mary is so effervescent,' and then the word 'effervescent' keeps coming up." • Cryptomnesiastems from a failure to simultaneously engage in creative thinking and monitor where incoming ideas are coming from, according to Marsh's research.

48. Elizabeth Loftus (1944- ) • Does research in memory construction • Has found that subjects’ memories vary based on the wording of questions • Demonstrated the misinformation effect

49. Memory Construction-False Memories • Misinformation Effect – If we are primed with misleading information, we are likely to incorporate it into our memory; As we retell stories, we will fill make guesses about memory gaps. • These guesses then become part of our memory. • Affects Eyewitness Testimony The Bunny Effect (Priming)

50. Memory Distortion • Memory can be distorted as people try to fit new info into existing schemas • Giving misleading information after an event causes subjects to unknowingly distort their memories to incorporate the new misleading information • Do politicians do this? How?