Memory How Is It Studied?

1. MemoryHow Is It Studied? • Use many different types of materials: nonsense syllables; words, related and unrelated; digits; sentences; shapes; articles in a visual display, etc. • Presented visually and auditorily. • Vary time to learn, time until recall or recognition is required. • Can measure both recall and recognition, as well as time to relearn.

2. MemoryHow Is It Studied? • Types of presentation • Serial learning: List is presented in specific order. Must be recalled in that order. Each time is used as a probe for the next. • Free recall: List is studied in full, recalled in any order. • Memory span: Recall whole list in correct order. • Paired associate learning: Pairs of items are presented in pairs. Asked to recall second member on presentation of first.

3. Let’s Test Your Memory • Next slide will appear for 30 seconds. • Study the list without writing anything. • When the slide disappears, write down as many of the items as you can recall in any order—free recall. • We’ll do this with four different lists.

4. rab mip der bew qin wah pif daf gic tuv Memory

6. ril mos dor blu kee luv sho def glo tuf Memory

8. rib mop rub bow win way pin dad gip tux Memory

10. book story fiction biography paper memo report read note letter Memory

12. rab mip dur bew qin wah pif daf gic tuv ril mos dor blu kee luv sho def glo tuf CVC Nonsense Syllable Pseudohomophones

13. rib mop rub bow win way pin dad gip tux book story fiction biography paper memo report read note letter Unrelated Words Related Words

14. Memory • Effect of meaning: Each list had progressively more meaning: • Nonsense syllables--no meaning. • Pseudo homophones--sound like words so acquire the meaning of those words. • Unrelated words--each word has meaning. • Related words--each word has meaning and is related to the other words. • Performance tends to improve as the lists become more meaningful. • Does this have implications for studying?

15. Auditory Memory • I will read a list of words. • Please listen carefully and do not write anything down.

16. Interference Theories of Forgetting • If memory is the result of forming associations then forgetting may be the result of interference that breaks the associations. • Two sources of intereference: • Material that was learned before the association was formed. • Material that was learned after the association was formed.

17. Interference Theories of Forgetting • Proactive Interference • Material learned earlier interferes with new learning: • Learn A Learn B A interferes with B • If A interferes with B, then we have proactive interference. • Retroactive Interference • Material learned later interferes with new learning. • Learn A Learn B B interferes with A • If B interferes with A, then we have retroactive interference.

18. Interference Theories of Forgetting • If all learning is pooled then it would become more difficult to retrieve the more similar it is to other information (Ceraso, 1967). • The evidence suggests that. The more similar the interfering information is, the more likely it is to affect the previous, or later learning. • Baddeley has tested this outside the lab in real life memory situations where the same activity is repeated frequently, e.g., parking at school or work.

19. Memory As A Reconstructive Process • The associationist view of memory and forgetting ignores that we are active, thinking organisms. • Demo: Write down as many words from that list I read as you can recall.

20. Moth Bird Net Bug Stomach Insect Fly Pretty Cocoon Blue Wing Yellow Flowers Colour Beer How Many Did You Get?

21. Did you get more of the items near the beginning (1, 2, 3) or the end (13, 14, 15) than the middle? • Did you add any extra words? • As you recalled the words, were they in groups?

22. Primacy and Recency Effects • Typically, students recall more items from the beginning and the end of the list than from the middle. • Primacy effect • Recall of items from early in the list. • More opportunity to rehearse items. • Less when rehearsal is prevented. • Recency effect • Recall of items from near end of the list. • Less if there are interfering tasks.

23. Memory As A Reconstructive Process • Effects such as primacy and recency, adding related items, organizing our recall indicate that we construct our memories. • We remember items that fit logically within a group of items. • False Memory Syndrome • Eye Witness Testimony

24. Theories of Memory • Information Processing Theory or Modal Memory Model • Memory likened to computer system. • Uses terms such as input, central processing, storage, etc. • Other views of memory processing are now embedded within this model.

25. Encoding (storage) Attention Short-term, Working, or Immediate Memory Long-term Memory Sensory Memory Retrieval Rehearsal Information Processing Theory of Memory Sensory Input Sound, light, touch

26. Sensory Memory • Sperling’s research: • Short-lived nature of sensory memory is due to the short duration that we are able to hold the information, not in the capacity of sensory memory. • Temporary store: • Iconic memory (visual) lasts less than 1 sec., fading very quickly in the first 300 msec. • Echoic memory (auditory) may last 1-3 sec. • May be a perceptual after effect rather than an actual memory effect.

27. Short-Term Memory • Limited storage capacity rather than limited duration. • Demo: Digit span test • Demo: Memory for letters. • Capacity seems to be 72 or 5 to 9 items or chunks. • Requires strategies like rehearsal to hold items. • Need to actively work on material in short-term memory. • Maintenance rehearsal • Elaborative rehearsal

28. Short-Term Memory Equals Working Memory Baddeley’s Model of Working Memory

29. Long-Term Memory

30. Long-Term Memory • Explicitmemory—contains declarative information, memories that we can consciously bring to mind (declare). • Episodicmemory—memory for episodes, events, experiences in our lives. • Semanticmemory—all our common sense and general knowledge. • Implicitmemory—memory without conscious awareness, that we cannot declare. • Procedural information (motor skill) • Unconscious event information that affects us later • Responsible for repetition priming

31. Demonstration • I am going to read 12 sentences. I want you to try to remember the sentences as best you can. To make sure you are listening carefully, I will ask you a question about each sentence after I read it. You should answer silently to yourself. • I will now show you 15 sentences. Keep track of the ones that you think you heard when I read them the first time.

32. The hill was steep. • The girl who lives next door broke the window. • The window was on the porch. • The old car pulled the trailer. • The old car, pulling the trailer, climbed the hill. • The girl who lives next door broke the large window on the porch. • The car was old. • The girl broke the large window. • The old car pulling the trailer climbed the steep hill. • The girl broke the large window on the porch. • The car climbed the steep hill. • The girl broke the window. • The man who lives next door broke the large window on the porch. • The car climbed the hill. • The girl broke the window on the porch.

33. How Info May Be Represented in LTM • May think and remember in propositions--single pieces of information that can be represented by a subject and a verb. • Single proposition sentence. • The window is dirty. • Two proposition sentence. • The window at the front of the house is dirty. • Three proposition sentence. • The window at the front of the red house is dirty.

34. #1 and #15 were read before • The hill was steep. (1) • The girl who lives next door broke the window. (2) • The window was on the porch. (1) • The old car pulled the trailer. (2) • The old car, pulling the trailer, climbed the hill.(3) • The girl who lives next door broke the large window on the porch. (4) • The car was old. (1) • The girl broke the large window. (2) • The old car pulling the trailer climbed the steep hill. (4) • The girl broke the large window on the porch. (3) • The car climbed the steep hill. (2) • The girl broke the window. (1) • The man who lives next door broke the large window on the porch. (4) • The car climbed the hill. (1) • The girl broke the window on the porch. (2)

35. Orgnization of Info in LTM • Auditory Information: Remember meaning (verbal propositions)—semantic storage. • Visual Information (Images) • Evidence for two types of encoding: • Proposition Theory: We encode visual images as descriptive propositions. • Analogue Theory: We encode the image itself and can actually work with that image. • Conceptual Information (from Ch. 8) • Feature Theory: Remember features or propositions that characterize the concept. • Prototype Theory: We remember a prototype.

36. Organization of Info in LTM • Hemispheric differences in activation of memories: • Relates to type of material. • Verbal activates left hemisphere areas. • Images activate right hemisphere areas. • Combination activates both hemispheres. • Many different areas are involved, both cortical and subcortical regions. • Relates to type of material. • Relates to activity and type of processing. • Emotional experiences, which are accompanied with increased release of neurotransmitters like adrenalin, are remember better. • Some chemicals can interfere with memory.

37. Organization of Info in LTM • Mental representation in LTM seems is based on associations. • The associations form networks that are in a conceptual hierarchy

38. A Conceptual HierarchyA Network of Associations

39. Portion of Semantic Network

40. LEVELS OF PROCESSINGDEMONSTRATION • Mentally answer the question on each of the following slides as they appear.

41. BOOK Is the word in capital letters?

42. duck Would the word fit in the sentence: “I saw a _____ in a pond”?

43. safe Does the word rhyme with blue?

44. house Would the word fit in the sentence: “The girl walked down the ____”?

45. WEIGHT Does the word rhyme with gate?

46. snow Is the word in small letters?

47. STUDENT Would the word fit in the sentence: “The ___ was reading a book”?

48. colour Does the word rhyme with TYPE?

49. flower Is the word in capital letters?

50. robin Would the word fit in the sentence: “Last spring we saw a ______”?