Joel Cooper
University of Utah
Memory Is …

The mechanism
we use to create,
maintain and
retrieve
information about
the past
Processes in Memory

Encoding
 Processes
used to store information in
memory

Storage
 Processes
used to maintain information in
memory

Retrieval
 Processes
memory
used to get information back out of
Activity 1
Every thing that comes to mind must be
written down
 No talking
 Ready?
 Name all the 7 Dwarfs

Activity 2 – Now name them.
Activity 3
Turn your paper over
 Select the correct names from the
following list

From the Following List Identify the names
of the seven dwarfs:
Crabby
Wheezy
Dasher
Wishful
Jumpy
Happy
Fearful
Sniffy
Goofy
Sleepy
Grumpy
Gloomy
Shorty
Stubby
Gabby
Grouchy
Droopy
Bashful
Dopey
Smiley
Tearful
Cupid
Shy
Lazy
Scrappy
Silly
Cheerful
Puffy
Doc
Teach
Pop
Nifty
Sneezy
Dumpy
Burpy
Activity 4

Recall the names of the 7 Dwarfs in order
of appearance in the movie.
Activity cont.
Activity 1 (Recall)
 Activity 2 (Cued Recall)
 Activity 3 (Recognition)
 Activity 4 (Serial Recall)


Let’s look at your errors
Common errors

Sound
 Number
of syllables
 Ending in Y
Letter “s” and “d”
 Meaning
 Different category names

 Santa’s
reindeer
 Care bears
 Smurfs
Methods Used to Study Memory

Which type of memory
test would you rather
have?
 An
essay or a multiple
choice exam?
 recall vs. recognition
Recall Tasks

Free Recall


Cued Recall



Recall all the words you can from the list you saw previously
Recall everything you can that is associated with _______
Participants are given a cue to facilitate recall
Serial Recall


Recall the names of all previous presidents in the order they
were elected
Need to recall order as well as item names
Recognition Tasks
Circle all the words you previously studied
 Indicate which pictures you saw yesterday

Implicit or Explicit Memory
Tasks

Explicit memory tasks
 Involves
conscious recollection
 Participant knows they are trying to retrieve
information from their memory

Implicit memory tasks
 Require
participants to complete a task
 The completion of the task indirectly indicates
memory
Implicit Memory Tasks
Participants are exposed
to a word list
Tiger
Lion
Zebra
Panda
Leopard
Elephant
After a delay…
Participants then complete
word puzzles, they are not
aware they are a type of
memory test
Word fragment Completion:
C_E_TA_
E_E_ _AN_
_ E _ RA
Word Stem Completion:
Mon _____
Pan_____
Models of Memory

Represent ways that memory has been
conceptualized
 Atkinson
& Shiffrin’s 3 Stage Model of Memory
 Craik & Lockhart’s Level of Processing Model
 Baddeley’s Working Memory Model
 Tulving’s Multiple Memory Systems Model
 McClelland & Rumelhart’s Connectionist Model
Traditional Model of Memory

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) 3 Stage Model
Stimuli
Sensory
registers
Short Term
Memory
(STM)
Information Processing Model
Long Term
Memory
(LTM)
Sperling (1960) Iconic
Memory Research

Whole report procedure




Flash a matrix of letters for
50 milliseconds
Identify as many letters as
possible
Participants typically
remembered 4 letters
Partial Report Procedure



Flash a matrix of letters for
50 milliseconds
Participants are told to
report bottom row
Participants were able to
report any row requested
Partial Report Technique
Averbach & Coriell (1961)
Iconic Memory Research
G E U L M F S X
WP M B D H J Y
- Showed matrix for 50 msec
- Place a small mark above a letter at different delays
- Results indicated that as many as 12 letters could be stored in
sensory memory
Sensory Stores

Iconic store or Visual sensory register
 Holds
visual information for 250 msec
longer
 Information held is pre-categorical
 Capacity – up to 12 items
 Information fades quickly

Econ or Auditory sensory register
 Holds
auditory information for a 2-3
seconds longer to enable processing
Short-Term Memory

Attention


Attend to information in
the sensory store, it
moves to STM
Short Term
Memory
(STM)
Rehearsal


Rehearsal
Repeat the information
to keep maintained in
STM
Retrieval

Access memory in LTM
and place in STM
Attention
Storage &
Retrieval
Short-Term Memory








Short-term /working memory
Limited capacity (7 + or - 2) or 2 sec.
Inputs from SR and LTS
Consciousness
Coding: verbal/spatial
Information can be maintained
indefinitely,
provided it is given constant attention
Information decays in 15-20 seconds
Rote vs Chunking mnemonics
Webster says…
Mnemonic :
Assisting or
designed to
assist memory
Short-Term Memory

How is information lost?




Decay ==> Time
Interference ==> Older displaced by
new
Brown-Peterson Task
Waugh & Norman
Brown-Peterson Task

Subjects presented with trigram (XQJ)

Experimenter presents number (257)

Subject counts backwards by 3’s (2/sec)

After x seconds, subjects recall trigram
Brown-Peterson Task
VRO
187
UYV
89
IDC
131
Brown-Peterson Task
Proactive Interference in STM
100
Trial 1
Correct Recall %
90
Trial 2
80
Trial 3
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
3 sec
6 sec
9 sec
12 sec
15 sec
18 sec
Delay(seconds)

Keppel & Underwood (1962)



Replicated the Peterson & Peterson Task varying the time delay to
recall
Analysis was done by trial number (1st trial, 2nd trial, 3rd trial, etc.)
Found support for proactive interference
Loss or Decay?

Waugh & Norman -- Loss in B-P task could be
due to decay or interference, because both
covaried with retention interval

Independently varied time and number of
intervening items

Does loss follow time or number of items?
Waugh & Norman Task

Subjects presented with string of digits

Digits read at 1 or 4 per second (time)

Does recall vary as a function of time or
items?
1 per second
6 2 9 4 1 8 3 4 8 1 0 4 2 6 7 3
( 16 sec )
4 per second
6294183481042673
( 4 sec )
Probe Digit : 9
Response : 4
Waugh & Norman Task
Loss from STM

Loss is largely due to interference:
 Old
information is replaced by new
 Rehearsal
moves info to head of buffer
Long-Term Memory

Capacity
 Thus

far limitless
Duration
 Potentially
permanent
Long Term
Memory
(LTM)
Long-Term Store
Information comes from STS
 Conscious transfer -- Explicit memory
 Unconscious transfer -- Implicit memory
 Large capacity
 Can information be lost from LTS?
 Poor retrieval cues
 Memories overwritten?

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

Bed
Clock
Dream
Night
Turn
Mattress
Snooze
Nod
Night
Artichoke
Insomnia
Rest
Toss
Night
Alarm
Nap
Snore
Pillow
Write down the words you saw
Words
Bed
Clock
Dream
Night
Turn
Mattress
Snooze
Nod
Night
Artichoke
Insomnia
Rest
Toss
Night
Alarm
Nap
Snore
Pillow
Memory Demonstration
Did you Recall?
 Bed or Clock
 Snore or Pillow
 Night
 Artichoke
 Toss and Turn
 Sleep
Explanation
 Primacy
 Recency
 Spacing Effect
 Distinctiveness
 Clustering
 False Memory
Serial Position Curve
Effects of Rehearsal

Rhundus -- subjects
rehearsed outloud

Primacy curve matched
rehearsal curve

Primacy determined by
transfer to LTM
Effects of Distracters

Glanzer -- distractor task
at end of list

Recency portion of curve
abolished

Recency determined by
readout from STM
Serial Position Curves

Primacy determined by
transfer to LTM

Recency determined by
readout from STM
Levels of Processing Model of
Memory

Craik & Lockhart (1972)
 Process
level
different
strengths of memories
 Deep processing
better
memory; elaborating according to
meaning leads to a strong
memory
 Shallow processing emphasizes
the physical features of the
stimulus; the memory trace is
fragile and quickly decays
 Maintenance rehearsal (Rote) vs.
Elaborative rehearsal
Support for Levels of
Processing

Craik & Watkins (1973)
 Participants
listened to lists of words
 Task was to recall the last word in the list which
began with a particular letter
 The number of intervening words between
words beginning with the target letter was
varied
Craik & Watkins (1973) Results

Recall of words was independent of the length of
time (the number of intervening words) it was
maintained in STM
 Conclusion:
Maintenance rehearsal did not
automatically lead to LTM
 Levels-of-Processing Interpretation: Students
rehearsed the words without elaborating on the
meaning of the words, only concentrating on the initial
consonant sound—rehearsing at a shallow level
Depth of Processing

Craik & Lockhart
LEVEL
- Structural
- Phonemic
- Categorical
- Sentence
QUESTION
Capital letters
Rhyme
Type of fish
Fit in sentence
*
**
***
****
Craik & Tulving (1975) Results
1
Case
0.9
Rhyme
Recognized
0.8
Sentence
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Yes
No
Sentence Type
Criticisms of LOP Model


Circular definition of levels
Transfer appropriate processing effect




Morris, Bransford, and Franks (1977)
Two processing tasks: semantic vs. rhyme
Two types of tests: standard yes/no recognition vs. rhyme test
Memory performance also depends on the match between encoding
processes and type of test
Encoding Task
Semantic
Rhyme
Recognition
0.83
0.62
Rhyme
0.31
0.49
Working Memory Model
Baddeley & Hitch, 1974
Phonological
Loop
Phonological
store - 2 sec.
Central
Executive
Visuospatial
Sketchpad
Spatial Visual Where
What
Norman and Shallice – 1986
•Action Plan
Articulatory control
process
•Contention Scheduling
•Supervisory attentional system (SAS)
Working Memory Model

Articulatory Loop
 Used
to maintain information for a short time and for
acoustic rehearsal

Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad
 Used
for maintaining and processing visuo-spatial
information

Episodic Buffer
 Used
for storage of a multimodal code, holding an
integrated episode between systems using different
codes
Working Memory Model

Central Executive
 Focuses
attention on relevant items
and inhibiting irrelevant ones
 Plans sequence of tasks to accomplish
goals, schedules processes in complex
tasks, often switches attention between
different parts
 Updates and checks content to
determine next step in sequence of
parts
Working Memory Model Support

Baddeley (1986)
 Participants
studied two different list types
 1 syllable: wit, sum, harm, bay, top
 5 syllables: university, opportunity, aluminum,
constitutional, auditorium
Reading rate seemed to determine recall
performance
 Supports conceptualization of an articulatory
loop

Working Memory Model
Support

Visuo-spatial Sketch Pad
 Dual-task
paradigm
 Sketchpad can be disrupted by requiring
participants to tap repeatedly a specified
pattern of keys or locations while using
imagery at the same time
Multiple-Memory Systems
Model


Tulving (1972)
Semantic Memory
 General
knowledge
 Facts, definitions, historical dates

Episodic Memory
 Event

memories (first kiss, 6th birthday)
Procedural Memory
 Memories
on how to do something (skiing, biking,
tying your shoe)
Multiple-Memory Systems Model
Support

Nyberg, Cabeza, & Tulving (1996)
 PET
technology to look at episodic and semantic
memory
 Asked people to engage in semantic or episodic
memory tasks while being monitored by PET
Results
•Left (hemisphere) frontal
lobe differentially active in
encoding (both) and in
semantic memory
retrieval
•Right (hemisphere)
frontal lobe differentially
Connectionist Perspective

Parallel distributed processing model
 Memory
uses a network
 Meaning comes from patterns of activation
across the entire network
 Spreading Activation Network Model
 Supported by priming effects
Deficient Memory

Amnesias
 Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memory for events that
occurred before the trauma
 Infantile Amnesia

Inability to recall events of
young childhood
 Antereograde Amnesia

No memory for events that
occur after the trauma
Amnesia Studies
Study antereograde amnesiacs using
implicit and explicit memory tests
 Amnesiacs show normal priming (implicit),
but poor recognition memory (explicit)
 They did not remember having seen the
word list, but completed the word
fragments at the same rate as normals

Hippocampus and Memory

Hippocampus
 Critical
for integration and consolidation
 Essential for declarative memory
 Without the hippocampus only the learning
of skills and habits, simple conditioning,
and the phenomenon of priming can occur