Memory
Chapter 7
Continued…
How is knowledge organized?
 Clustering: the tendency to remember
similar or related items in groups
 Conceptual Hierarchy: multilevel
classification system based on
common properties among items
How is knowledge organized?
 Schemas: an organized cluster of
knowledge about a particular object
or event abstracted from previous
experience with the object or event
 People are more likely to remember things
that are consistent with the schemas than
things that are not and people sometimes
exhibit better recall of things that violate
their schema-based expectations
How is knowledge organized?
 Semantic Networks: consists of nodes
representing concepts, joined together
by pathways that link related concepts
 Proven to be useful in explaining why
thinking about one word can make closely
related words easier to remember
Semantic Networks
Retrieval
 Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon: the
temporary inability to remember
something you know, accompanied by a
feeling that it’s just out of reach
 Usually happens about once a week –
especially with names
 Clearly constitutes a failure in retrieval
Retrieval
 Retrieval Cues: stimuli that help gain access to
memories
 Reinstating the Context of an Event: this is
trying to recall a memory by putting yourself
back in the context in which it occurred – this
involves working with context cues to aid
retrieval
 Context Cues: often facilitate the retrieval of
information
 Used successfully in legal matters and investigations
Misinformation Effect
 Reconstructing Memories and the
Misinformation Effect: when you retrieve
information from long-term memory you aren’t
able to pull up a “mental videotape” that
provides an exact replay
 to some degree, memories are just reconstructions of
the past that may be distorted and may include details
that did not actually occur
Misinformation Effect
 Elizabeth Loftus
 Researched the misinformation effect and
found that reconstructive distortions show up
very frequently in eyewitness testimony
 ｧ 3 Stages
 1. View event
 2. Exposed to information about event, some of
which is misleading
 3. The recall of the original event is tested to
see if the post-event misinformation alters the
memory of the actual event
Misinformation Effect
 Ex  subjects shown a video of an accident and
then “grilled” to provide testimony
 Biasing information was introduced
 Words such as “hit” and “smashed into” were
used
 A week later, recall of the event was tested and
people who were asked questions with vivid
imagery words like “smashed into” remembered
seeing things like broken glass (which wasn’t
present)
 Why are there distortions in eyewitness testimony?
 People’s Schema’s put words like “smashed into”
and broken glass or tons of damage together in the
same category
Measures of Forgetting
 Retention:
 the proportion of material retained (remembered)
 Recall:
 Reproduction of information on your own without
any cues
 Recognition:
 The ability to select previously learned
information from an array of options
 Relearning:
 memorizing information a second time to
determine how much time or how many practice
trials are saved by having learned it before
Why We Forget?
 Ineffective Coding
 Information may have
never been inserted
into memory properly
 Decay Theory
 Forgetting occurs
because memory traces
fade over time
 Can we really forget
 Pseudoforgetting:
 you can’t really forget
what you haven’t
learned
 Another name for
Ineffective Coding
what has been stored in
Long Term Memory
permanently?
Why We Forget?
 Interference Theory
 Retroactive Interference:
 new info impairs the
retention of previously
learned material
 Proactive Interference:
 retention of previously
learned material
interferes with the
learning of new material
Why We Forget?
 Retrieval Failure
 A mismatch occurs
between retrieval
cues and the
encoding
 Motivated Forgetting
 People keep embarassing
or painful events buried in
the unconscious
 Also called  Repression
Think About It…
 When it comes to school & your study
habits, what causes you to forget the
most?
 Discuss your answers with the class.
Are there similarities among your
answers? Why?