Memory

1. Memory Transient memories: Sensory memory Acquisition of memories: Working memory Retention of memories: Long-Term memory Retrieval of memories

2. Memory and conditioning • In conditioning, induction of the contingency is influenced by the learning situation coupled with predispositions. • The induced knowledge is stored in memory. • The memory influences behavior as it is activated by motivation, including reinforcers and goals.

3. Memory research • Research in human memory can bypass induction by using instructions, and motivation by using social contingencies. • Memory research seems relevant to human beings, especially in education. • Memory, then, is part of learning.

4. Transient memories • Sensory memory • Visual sensory memory: the iconic store • Auditory sensory memory: the echoic store • Sperling (1960) and visual sensory memory • Ready to participate in Sperling’s study?

5. S R J V M Q D T F W H N

6. Sperling’s test phase: • high

7. Sperling’s test phase • medium

8. Sperling’s test phase • low

9. Sperling’s experimental condition • Ready?

10. G M Q B Z N K R P L T X

11. . Sperling’sresults: • Iconic store is transient, decaying to less than 50% of peak performance within one second. • All items in the array are placed in the iconic store.

12. Auditory sensory memory • Several studies have shown analogous results in auditory memory. • Echoic store studies often use dichotic listening. • Echoic memory is dramatically lower after 2 seconds, and disappears by 5 seconds. • The suffix effect: Conrad (1960) and Crowder and Morton (1969)

13. The suffix effect • I am going to say some numbers. At some point, I will say the number zero. When you hear me say zero, ignore the zero and say the numbers that preceded it. • The suffix effect disappears if you use non-language sounds, like buzzers or musical notes, so it is not just a delay effect. • When you hear the tone, ignore it and say the numbers that preceded it.

14. Encoding • Information in sensory stores is lost unless it is encoded, or processed into long term memory. • Does encoding occur in a special Short Term memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin model) or in rehearsal systems? • How much encoding happens automatically? • Space, time, and frequency • But do we encode memories while we sleep?

15. “Short Term Memory/Store” • Claim of STM/STS was based on research into rehearsal, coding, and retention duration. • Rehearsal was thought to be a function of STM encoding. But sheer rehearsal does not improve memory unless the person knows what information will have to be recalled. • One predictor is depth of processing.

16. Craik & Lockhart (1972) • Target word: HOUSE • Group 1: Is the word in capitals? (Visual encoding) • Group 2: Does the word rhyme with ORANGE? (Acoustic encoding) • Group 3: Does the word make sense in this sentence: “Part of the American dream is ownership of one’s own _______.” (Semantic encoding) • More rehearsal time only improves memory if the increased time is used to process deeply.

17. Coding peculiarities of STM: • STM was thought to use acoustic encoding, and LTM semantic encoding. • If the recency effect is due to acoustic encoding (STM) and the primacy effect due to semantic encoding (LTM), then homophones should produce more interference at the end of the list and synonyms at the beginning. • Kintsch and Bushke (1969) found this.

18. Coding, continued: • However, meaningful acronyms are recalled better in STM studies than meaningless trigrams: NBC, CIA, NFL vs. BLX, KZP • Also, semantic confusion can be produced in STM tasks: “The student studied for the test.” • tree door song exam tile salt dawn • Recall: “The student studied for the exam.”

19. Retention in STM • Peterson and Peterson (1959): negatively accelerated forgetting curves--STM decays quickly, and what remains must be in LTM. • But: Peterson and Peterson’s effect was not found for the first trigram: interference was necessary. • And: All forgetting curves are negatively accelerated, even over days, months, years!

20. But support for two memory systems is seen in amnesia cases: • HM, after losing his temporal lobes and hippocampus, lost the ability to form new, lasting memories. • Anterograde amnesia patients (Baddeley & Warrington, 1970) remembered words at the end of a list (the recency effect), but not at the beginning (no primacy effect): STM but no LTM. • KF, with damage to the left cerebral hemisphere, showed the opposite effect: impaired STM, but normal LTM; a primacy effect but no recency effect.

21. If not STM, then what? • The Mental Workbench (Klatzky, 1980): • A. Rehearsal systems (Slave systems) • 1. The phonological loop: The inner ear/voice • Memory-span tests: • 2 10 5 12 8 4 6 2 9 1 • 0 11 22 70 26 7 39 87 16 13 • Memory-span results fit in a 2 second phonological loop: More single-syllable words, more short-vowel words, more Chinese numerals are recalled. • Length of phonological loop relates to word learning and reading difficulties, including dyslexia.

22. 2. The visuospatial sketch pad • A visual slave system analogous to the phonological loop • May be abstract, like a matrix, or concrete, like a scene. • Relies on the picture superiority effect: Parallel vs. serial processing • Is independent of the phonological loop. • Contains visual summaries (sketches rather than photographs).

23. B. Decision functions: How are transient memories accessed? • Shiffrin & Schneider (1977): STM is a subset of LTM, containing information that is currently being processed actively. • The sensory stores and the slave rehearsal systems are activated by the central executive, which can also gain access to transiently activated information from the permanent store: multiply 23 x 34. • Memories from the permanent store are also transiently activated by cues and by priming. • Central executive problems are central to Alzheimer’s disease.

24. But there is more to memory: • Filling short-term memory with words or digits impairs capacity to form memories for other material only minimally. • Parkin, 2000: Repeat 5-3-7-2-4-1-6-9 aloud as I show statements, and decide whether each statement is true.

25. Parkin, 2000 • Dogs have feathers. • Penguins can fly. • Trees bear oranges. • Houses fall down. • Books are edible.

26. An encoding task x z r j f . g h a d f . J O N A H . L Q P D N .

27. Memory principles • What memory principles applied on the previous slide? • When and where did J O N A H appear on the screen? • How many of the characters can you recall now? • Why was J O N A H the easiest one to recall?

28. Encoding functions • Attention • Encoding uses different brain systems. • Acoustic • Visual • Semantic • Combining encoding systems enhances not only memorability, but even believability: “If it doesn’t fit, you must _______.”

31. Craik & Watkins, 1973 house tree group beehive elephant giraffe gerund coffee guppy