KINDS OF LONG-TERM
MEMORY
• DECLARATIVE
(explicit; conscious;
knowing what)
– episodic memory
(events)
– semantic knowledge
(facts)
• NONDECLARATIVE
(implicit; procedural;
knowing how; unconscious)
– skills and habits
– associative learning and
conditioning
– nonassociative learning
– priming
Tulving (1984): the evolution
of memory systems
DISSOCIATING
IMPLICIT
FROM
EXPLICIT
MEMORY
Implicit Tests (e.g., fragment completion)
Explicit Tests (e.g., free recall of words)
- profound anterograde amnesia
no effect
big effect
- changing stimulus features
between study and test
big effect
little effect
- elaborative encoding during study
little effect
big effect
- time between study and test
slow rate of
forgetting
rapid rate of
forgetting
PRACTICE AND MEMORY:
THE POWER LAW OF STUDY
vac,
tib,
pid,
..
dang!
• Ebbinghaus (1885)
T im e t o R e le a r n
– serial learning task
– practices lists of 16
nonsense syllables
– varies number of study
trials
– tests himself the next
day by “relearning”
25
20
15
10
5
0
1
2
4
8
16
32
Number of Practice Trials
64
MASSED versus
SPACED PRACTICE
Keppel (1964):
study lists of ten paired-associates
FLOOR - CARD
PEN
- TREE etc.
# of practice trials on
each day in lab:
1st 2nd 3rd 4th
massed:
--spaced:
2
2
correct in
cued recall:
immed next week
--
8
95%
___%
2
2
83%
___%
“LEVELS OF PROCESSING”
AND MEMORY
(Craik & Tulving, 1975)
question precedes . . . target word decision
pos
R e c o g n it io n ( % )
sensory level:
in capital letters?
phonemic level:
rhymes with “weight”?
semantic level:
fits in sentence, “he
met a ___ downtown.”
neg
TABLE
fish
crate
CHAIN
FRIEND cloud
100
80
pos target
neg target
60
40
Sensory
Phonemic
Semantic
Level of Processing
ELABORATIVE ENCODING
ADDS RETRIEVAL PATHS
irrelevant
associations
retrieval cue
elaboration
elaboration
target memory
elaboration
VISUAL IMAGERY AND MEMORY
• IMAGERY INSTRUCTIONS AID
MEMORY
– interactive images: MAN - THUMB
• “CONCRETE” WORDS AID MEMORY
– DOOR
FISH
MUG
better than
NOR
WISH
SMUG
• SUBJECTIVE CLARITY OF IMAGE
CAN AID MEMORY
– “An old cannon sat on the river bank; a
silver coin can be seen . .
–
%recalled
shining on top of it
.69
hidden inside the barrel
.56
on the ground across the river
.55
(Keenan & Moore, 1979)
IMAGERY-LINK MNEMONICS
Face-Name Associations
link the name with a
distinctive facial feature
ebbing house?
New Vocabulary (Sweeny, 1983)
SCURRILOUS
PEDUNCLE
next week:
read definition, use in context
___% corr
add the “linkword” mnemonic
___% corr
USING MNEMONICS
IN EVERYDAY TASKS
• MNEMONICS WORK BY
ENCOURAGING
– attention and rehearsal
– effective use of prior
knowledge
– elaborative encoding for
distinctive memories
• LIMITS TO MNEMONIC
TECHNIQUES:
– can require extensive training
to acquire and effort to use
– are often task-specific, and may
show litle “transfer”
– may become irrelevant as
material is practiced
A PHENOMENAL MEMORY
• Kim Peek, the “Rain Man”
– Severely abnormal brain
• No corpus callosum
• Dwarf cerebellum
• Other abnormalities
– Astounding memory
•
•
•
•
•
•
C. 9,000 books
Sports trivia
Universal calendar
All US zip codes
The human mapquest
Musical literacy
– Astounding encoding
• C. 10 sec / page
• Two pages concurrently?
– Developing new skills
• Piano playing and improvisation
• Composing?