Review of Long-term Memory

1. Maintenance Rehearsal Sensory Memory Working or Short-term Memory Encoding Attention Long-term memory Sensory Input Retrieval Review of Long-term Memory • Retrieval transfers info from LTM to STM • Forgetting—inability to retrieve previously available information • Why do people forget?

2. Sensory memory The senses momentarily register amazing detail Short-term memory A few items are both noticed and encoded Long-term storage Some items are altered or lost Retrieval from long-term memory Depending on interference, retrieval cues, moods, and motives, some things get retrieved, some don’t Why do we forget? • Forgetting can occur at any memory stage

3. Encoding Short-term memory Long-term memory X Retrieval Retrieval failure leads to forgetting Forgetting as retrieval failure • Retrieval—process of accessing stored information • Sometimes info IS encoded into LTM, but we can’t retrieve it

4. Tip of the tongue phenomenon • TOT—involves the sensation of knowing that specific information is stored in long-term memory but being unable to retrieve it • Can’t retrieve info that you absolutely know is stored in your LTM

5. Measures of Retrieval • Recall—test of LTM that involves retrieving memories without cues, also termed free recall • Cued recall—test of LTM that involves remembering an item of information in response to a retrieval cue • Recognition—test of LTM that involves identifying correct information from a series of possible choices. • Serial position effect—tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than items in the middle.

6. Encoding Specificity – When conditions of retrieval are similar to conditions of encoding, retrieval is more likely to be successful – You are more likely to remember things if the conditions under which you recall them are similar to the conditions under which you learned them

7. Encoding Specificity • Context effects—environmental cues to recall • State dependent retrieval—physical, internal factors • Mood Congruence—factors related to mood or emotions

8. Memory Distortion • Memory can be distorted as people try to fit new info into existing schemas • Giving misleading information after an event causes subjects to unknowingly distort their memories to incorporate the new misleading information

9. Accident Leading question: “About how fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?” Memory construction Loftus Experiment • Subjects shown video of an accident between two cars • Some subjects asked: How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other? • Others asked: How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?

10. Word Used in Question Average Speed Estimate smashed collided bumped hit contacted 41 m.p.h. 39 m.p.h. 38 m.p.h. 34 m.p.h. 32 m.p.h. Loftus Results

11. Eyewitness Testimony • Scripts—type of schema • Mental organization of events in time • Example of a classroom script: Come into class, sit down, talk to friends, bell rings, instructor begins to speak, take notes, bell rings again, leave class, etc.

12. Eyewitness Testimony • Recall not an exact replica of original events • Recall a construction built and rebuilt from various sources • Often fit memories into existing beliefs or schemas • Schema—mental representation of an object, scene or event • Example: schema of a countryside may include green grass, hills, farms, a barn, cows, etc.