Chapter 6 Memory Processes

Modified: 2006-03-17

I. INTRODUCTION

• A. Encoding
• B. Storage
• C. Retrieval

II. ENCODING AND TRANSFER OF INFORMATION

• A. Forms of Encoding
  • 1. Short-Term Storage
    • a) Acoustic Code--what it sounds like
    • b) Semantic Code--what is means
    • c) Visual--what it looks like
    • d) all are used in STM encoding but acoustic is the main encoding
• 2. Long-Term Storage
  • The issue here is when do we use different encoding strategies in LTM?

B. Transfer of Information from Short-term Memory to Long-Term Memory

• 1. Consolidation
  • Integrating new information into stored information
• 2. Metamemory
• 3. Metacognition
  • Knowing what you know
  • Knowing how your memory works
  • Being able to assess your own memory
  • Young children lack metamemory skills
  • Principles to Strengthen Memory
• 4. Rehearsal
  • Elaborative rehearsal is better than maintenance rehearsal
    • a) Distributed Practice
    • b) Massed Practice
      • Distributed practice is better than massed practice
• 5. REM Sleep
• 6. Elaborative Rehearsal--make items more meaningful
• 7. Maintenance rehearsal--items are repeated
• 8. Organization of Information
• 9. Mnemonics
  • Categorical clustering--put items into categories
  • Interactive images--create images out of items interacting with each other
  • Pegword system--use rhymes and previously memorized list (one/bun, two/shoe...)
  • Method of loci--associate items with places previously memorized (rooms of house)
  • Acronyms--make a word (HOMES)
  • Acrostics--make a sentence (On old Olympus's towering heights...)
  • Keyword system--sounds of foreign words interactively linked with sounds (beurre->bear->bear eating butter)
  • Mnemonics work best for serial recall items
• 10. Forcing functions
  • Avoiding encoding by making yourself changing environment
• 11. Retrospective Memory
  • search for items in past
• 12. Prospective Memory
  • remember things we need to do

III. RETRIEVAL

• A. Retrieval from Short-Term Memory
  • Is the search serial or parallel?
  • Serial indicates one by one search
  • Parallel means all items are processed at once
  • Is the search exhaustive or self-terminating?
  • Exhaustive indicates that all items in the set are examined
  • Self-terminating means that after target is found the search stops
• Studying Searching in STM
  • Saul Sternberg (1967)
    • Memorize a set of numbers (6,3,8,2,7)
    • Shown a probe digit
    • Participant must indicate if the probe was in the set
    • Reaction time to respond is measured
  • 3 critical factors manipulated
    • How many items were in the set the participants had to memorize
    • Whether the probe was in the list
    • The probe's location in the set

• Possible Result Patterns (p. 205)
  • A represents parallel processing
  • B illustrates serial processing
  • C illustrates exhaustive serial processing
  • D illustrates self-terminating serial processing
• Sternberg's Conclusion
  • A serial exhaustive model
  • But….
  • Corcoran (1971) proposed that a parallel model could also explain the pattern found
  • Townsend (1971) stated it was mathematically impossible to distinguish parallel from serial
  • Thus, both models still exist

• B. Retrieval from Long-Term Memory
  • If You Do Not Retrieve from LTM…
    • Has the memory disappeared?
    • or
    • Is the memory still there but cannot retrieve it (available, but not accessible)?

IV. PROCESSES OF FORGETTING AND MEMORY DISTORTIONS

• A. Interference Versus Decay Theory
  • Decay theory--Memory is weakened with disuse
• B. Interference Theory
  • Proactive: old memories interfere with recall of new information
  • Retroactive: new memories interfere with recall of old information
• F. Recency Effect--remember last items better
• G. Primacy Effect--remember first items better

V. THE CONSTRUCTIVE NATURE OF MEMORY

• A. Reconstructive
• B. Constructive
  • Prior experience influences how we recall information
  • Having retrieval cues can help us recall more information, but cues can also lead to errors
  • Constructive Nature of LTM
    • Bartlett (1932) was the first to demonstrate distortions for prose
    • Read stories about Native Americans
    • Subjects were good at recalling "gist" information
    • Omission of detail was systematic
    • Tended to omit information that did not make sense to the participants
• C. Autobiographical Memory
  • 1. Diary Studies--a way to study memory
    • Make a diary, check items later
• D. Memory Distortions
  • 1.Seven Sins
    • a) Transience--memory fades differentially
    • b) Absent-mindedness--do something over, or forget something intended
    • c) Blocking--knowing something but unable to produce it
    • d) Misattribution--not knowing where we learned something or who told us
    • e) Suggestibility--someone tells you something and you believe it
    • f) Bias--experiences may affect recall
    • g) Persistence--remembering one thing over and over
  • 2. Eyewitness Testimony Paradigm
    • Elizabeth Loftus has done several studies demonstrating how memory fallibility has real-world consequencesUsing leading questions, participants have reconstructed memories incorrectly
      • Loftus & Palmer (1974)
        • Participants were all shown the same video of an accident between two cars
        • Some subjects asked: "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?"
        • Others were asked: "How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?"
    • APA and Eyewitness Testimony
    • Elizabeth Loftus homepage
  • 3. Repressed Memories
    • Recovered Memories of Abuse
      • A person remembers now that 20 years ago, someone sexually abused them
      • Traumatic memory was previously repressed, but was recovered (often) under hypnosis in therapy
    • Validity of recovered memories?
      • Empirical evidence for Freudian repression?
      • Can Painful Abuse Memories be Repressed?
        • Skeptics argue that repression (or in some cases dissociation) of sexual memories is a concept without any scientific merit
      • If repression does not exist, there can be no such thing as a recovered repressed memory; rather, a recovered memory of abuse can only be a false memory of abuse
    • False Memory vs. Repressed Memory Issue
      • Evidence for suggested false memory is not automatically evidence against repressed-recovered memories, and vise versa
      • No Consensus on the Issue
      • Results vary dependent upon characteristics sample (volunteers, children, child services, adult recall, etc.)
      • Some abuse memories are not traumatic, and thus are presumably not be repressed, rather they may be forgotten, like any memory
      • Post-traumatic stress syndrome may also occur
      • One symptom is recurrent, intrusive thoughts about the traumatic incident&emdash;this is the opposite of repression
      • Some may handle memory of sexual abuse by blocking out of mind either by repression or dissociation
  • 4. Source-monitoring error
    • Where did you hear or read item? Often, people misattribute their source.
• E. Context Effects on Encoding and Retrieval
  • 1. Flashbulb Memory
    • Some researchers propose that events that are particularly surprising or arousing will yield flashbulb memories
    • Where were you when the…
      • Challenger explosion occurred?
      • OJ verdict was read?
      • JFK was assassinated?
      • Bombing of the twin towers?
    • Some research proposes good memory for
      • Place where you learned of information
      • What you were doing when you heard it
      • Where you heard the information from
      • Emotions in self and others
      • The aftermath
    • Emotion and Memory
      • There is a strong relationship (.90) between the emotionality and vividness of memory
      • This does not mean that the memory is accurate
      • Emotional events seem to be less resistant to forgetting over time…
      • Perhaps they are perceived better
      • Perhaps we think about them more
    • Flashbulb Memory Results
      • Neisser and Harsch (1992)
        • Tested immediate memory for Shuttle Explosion, and then tested it again 3 years later
        • There was little agreement with the two "memories" despite the confidence of the participants
  • 2. Encoding Specificity--Tulving (1983)
    • People encode the context with the target material
      • Physical match (class, diving, smell)
      • Emotional match (happy, depressed)
      • Understanding match (childhood amnesia, under the influence of drugs match)

VI. MEMORY DEVELOPMENT

• A. Metacognitive Skills and Memory Development
  • Rehearsal varies by age and culture (learned skill)
  • Cognitive monitoring may consist of:
    • self monitoring (bottom up)
    • self regulation (top down)
  • Physiological changes over time
• Schacter's "Seven Sins of Memory"
  • Memories are transient (fade with time)
  • We do not remember what we do not pay attention to
  • Our memories can be temporarily blocked
  • We can misattribute the source of memory
  • We are suggestible in our memories
  • We can show memory distortion (bias)
  • We often fail to forget the things we would like not to recall (persistence of memory)