LTM systems
Semantic
Episodic
Procedural
Mnemonics: Strategies for better recall
Method of Loci: TBR items associated with locations in familiar image.
EX: boxes in head associated with places in classroom.
Mnemonics: Strategies for better recall
Peg word system: TBR items
associated with rhymes of
numbers 1-10. EX: 1 is bun,
remember to buy hot dogs;
2 is shoe – remember to
buy socks, etc.
Acronyms: Using first letters
or sounds of TBR to create
memorable phrase or
sentence. EX: FACE; every
good boy does fine
Mnemonic principles: (1) structured input, (2) associative rehearsal (using images,
rhymes, word/sentences), and (3) cued retrieval.
Research on memory
Subjects required to
learn a list of non-sense
syllables. Learning =
acquiring new info,
familiar words would not
be new. Relearning task:
learn list and then learn
same list later.
Savings score: % reduction in learning trials necessary to reach original
performance criterion. Ex. If perfect immediate recall required 10 trials and an
hour later only 6 trials were needed, then the 1 hour savings score would be
40% (4/10; 40% fewer trials needed to reach criterion).
Episodic memory: memory for events
• Factors that effect memory
– Frequency: more frequent events better remembered (studying helps
recall, more studying helps more!)
– Distinctiveness: the more unusual an event the better remembered.
Massed vs. Distributed practice:
Distributed usually better because
each study session represents a
separate “event,” thus more
frequent.
Von Restoff effect: example of
distinctiveness improving memory
Rehearsal: STM “practice” in skill or knowledge acquisition
• Maintenance vs. elaborative
rehearsal.
Memory as function of level of
processing: maintenance (shallow),
elaborative (deep).
Other forms of “deeper” processing
•
Self-reference effect: self-related info
better remembered
•
Generation effect: self-generated info
better remembered
•
Enactment effect: improved memory when
information is enacted or behaved in some
way as opposed to watched or read about.
Organized encoding: effort expended in semantically organizing inputs
leads to better recall.
Imagery: Dual code hypothesis
• Paired associates learning
studies. Words rated for “image
value” Hi imagery words
bettered than lo imagery words.
Two coding possibilities
for incoming info:
verbal, imagery.
Anything coded into
both (tornado) has
memory advantage over
something only coded
into one (reciprocal).
Allan Paivio
Encoding Specificity Hypo: cue-dependent forgetting (or
remembering)
Tulving and Thompson Recall beats recognition
Step 1 Paired Associates Learning
Cue
Target
Bath
Need
Head
Light
Girl
Cute
…
…
Step 2& 3 Free Association/Recognition
Want
Desire Need Urge Craving
Dark
Light Gloomy Night Fear
Cuddly Warm Fuzzy Cute Baby
…..
…… ….. …… ……
Step 4: Cued-Recall
Bath _______
Head _______
Girl _______
Retrieval cues: state and context effects
• Context: external environment
Godden & Baddeley (19750
• State: internal psychological state
Goodwin et al (1969)
LTM memory retrieval: decay vs. interference
• Classic study: Jenkins & Dallenback (1924)
Types of Interference: Proactive vs. Retroactive
• Newer teachers
names interfere with
older
•
Old boyfriend/girlfriend’s
name interferes with
new bf/gf name.
Brain damage studies of memory
•
•
•
KC: dissociation of semantic and
episodic memory
Injured in motorcycle accident, frontal
lobes
Remembers how to play chess, but
cannot remember specific instances
of chess-playing
HM: radical brain surgery to relieve epileptic
symptoms. Large parts of hippocampal gyrus
removed.
Loss of declarative/episodic memory, but
retention of implicit/procedural memory as
evidence by mirror tracing task
Left frontal: encoding of episodic memories; retrieval from semantic memory
(used retrieved semantic info to make sense of encoded events.
Right frontal: retrieval of episodic memories.
Amnesia
Inability to recall past memories
(especially explicit memories)
Inability to form new
memories (especially
explicit memories0