Long-term memory
• “How does info become encoded/stored in LTM?”
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Rehearsal/practice
Levels of processing
Forming connections or associations
Self-reference effect
Generation effect
Organization of info
Imagery
• “How do we retrieve info from LTM?”
• Retrieval cues
• Encoding specificity / State dependent learning
• Transfer appropriate processing
Retrieval cues
• Tulving & Pearlstone (1966)
• Do retrieval cues improve memory?
• Method
• Study words (from categories) in random order
• Test: free recall, cued-recall (provide categories)
• Results
• Free recall: 40%
• Cued-recall: 75%
• Conclusions
• YES!
• Availability vs. accessibility
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon (TOT)
Match encoding and retrieval conditions
• Store more than just
information to-beremembered (TBR)
• Encoding specificity:
Study on land
• Context (cue)
• Location/environment
Study under water
• State-dependent learning
• Emotion/mood
• Transfer appropriate
processing
• Task match
• Example: diving study
Godden & Baddeley (1975)
Encoding specificity CogLab
Spring 2012 (n = 13)
Phase I: Study
Word pairs
Cue-WORD
Study
Phase II: Test
Fragment
completion with
study word
IV: cue match
DV: %acc
Test condition
Encoding specificity & State dependent
learning examples
Grant et al. (1998)
Eich & Metcalfe (1989)
Transfer appropriate processing
Morris, et al. (1977)
• Is deep processing always better than shallow?
• Method
• Study: semantic/meaning vs rhyming condition
• Test: rhyming
• Results
• Different study/test: 33%
• Same study/test: 49%
• Conclusions
• Shallower processing can produce better memory
performance when encoding and retrieval tasks match
Thompson & Tulving (1970)
• Question
• Levels of processing or transfer appropriate processing?
• Method
• Study lists of 24 words: no cue, weak, or strong cue
• Test: no cue, weak or strong cue, free recall
• Example: study: train-BLACK; test: white-_ _ _ _ _
• Results
Thompson & Tulving (1970) exp 1
25
20
15
10
5
0-0
0-W
0-S
W-0 W-W W-S
S-0
S-W
S-S
Thompson & Tulving (1970)
• Not strong effect b/c Ss ignored weak study cue?
• Experiment 2 methodology
• Group 1: 0-0, 0-0, 0-0, 0-S
• Group 2: 0-0, 0-0, 0-W, 0-0
• Group 3: 0-0, 0-0, 0-S, 0-0
• Group 4: W-W, W-W, W-0, W-W
• Group 5: W-W, W-W, W-W, W-S
• Group 6: W-W, W-W, W-S, W-W
• Get Ss used to relying on weak cue, then switch
Thompson & Tulving (1970)
Thompson & Tulving (1970) exp 2
20
15
10
5
0
0-0
0-W
0-S
W-0
W-W
W-S
Thompson & Tulving (1970)
• From article:
• “Thus, the cue “white” cannot provide access to
stored information about BLACK as a TBR word, if
BLACK has been encoded as part of the “trainBLACK” complex, or…” by itself.
• Retrieval cues are specific to how information was
studied!
• Memory failure can be result of lack of appropriate
cue of what to retrieve!
“TBR” = to-be-remembered
Encoding specificity
• Roediger & Payne (1983)
• Is the a cue with the same meaning needed for better
recall?
• Study: Use homographs (2 meanings)
• wind – cold
• sick – cold
• Test:
• Rain, snow, fog
• Flu, sneeze, malaria
• Results: Cued-recall
• Congruent = .44 (replicated = .57)
• Incongruent = .03 (replicated = .11)
Encoding and retrieval match
• Real world examples
• Running into individuals in non-typical locations
• Marian & Neisser (2000): Remember experiences in
same language it occurred
• How can you apply this to studying for exams?
• What other experimental manipulations could you use
to test encoding specificity?
• Current research: Zeelenberg (2005)
• Cued-recall vs. forced-report cued-recall
• Influence of implicit/explicit memory
Roediger & Karpicke (2006): Testing effect
• Why does testing effect occur?
• Applications?
How to study more effectively
(according to cognitive psychologists!)
• Elaborate
• Levels of processing effect
• Generate and test yourself
• Come up with your own questions and then answer them
• Organize
• Create (generate!) outlines to form a framework
• Chunk information
• Take breaks
• Use “distributed” practice (w/ short breaks)
• Sleep
• Match learning and testing conditions
• Study same place as test OR study in many different locations
• Avoid “illusions of learning”
• “Don’t mistake ease and familiarity with knowing”