Biological and cognitive psychology
Lecture 14
Biocog lecture 14
Cognition of memeory
Intro memory
Memory: the mental process of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval
Memory performance depends on:
-encoding: getting it in
-maintaining: keeping it in
-retrieving: getting it out
Short-term memory: for recent information (last 30 seconds or so) or information activated
in the mind
Long-term memory: for more distant information than needs to be retrieved from your
archive of past events
-is it truly an archive or more flexible repository reconstruction of the past?
Distinction between ltm and stm based on lesion studies and experimental
dissociation
Long-term memory
-explicit/ conscious memory -implicit/ unconscious memory
--episodic: personal memory --repetition priming memory
--semantic: factual knowledge memory --procedural memory
Declarative memory: ability to store and retrieve both episodic and semantic
memories
Distinction also found through dissociation studies
BUT: nearly all episodic memories have semantic components
Semanticization of episodic knowledge = the first time someone told you that Madrid
is the capital of Spain (semantic fact), this was an episodic event in your life, but you
probably don’t remember this particular event
Memory tests
-free recall: recall studied items in any order
-serial recall: recall studied items in the original order
-cued recall: what is word X you studied together with word A?
-forced choice recognition: which word did you study before, word A or B?
-yes/no recognition: did you study word A?
Recognition (explicit) versus Word Completion (implicit)
Recognition: after exposure to list and delay -> show new list with some words the
same -> which did you see on the first list
, Word Completion: after exposure to list and delay -> show new with only the first
letters of every word -> complete them
Explicit performance reduces more strongly over time tan implicit
Dissociation suggests involvement of different memory systems
Context and cues
There is always a reason or context that leads us to retrieve content, eg: discussion or
conversation, pictures, music, smells
Tip of the tongue effect = when you know that you know something but cannot get it out
Cue strength →
General cue – context – item itself
Effectivity of a retrieval cue depends on what you encoded in the first place
Encoding specificity & Context-dependent memory = memories are linked to the context in
which they are created, it states that it is easier to recall information when you are in the
same context in which to memorized (or studied) it
Tulving and Thomson on stages of encoding specificity
-subjects were better at recall than recognition
-spider+brid -> image of medium size bird that eats spiders
-bird+eagle -> image of eagle -> does not really help recall
Context dependent memory
Words learned and tested in the same environment (upper points in graph) are better
recalled than items for which the environmental context varied between study and test
(bottom points in graph)
, Familiarity and source monitoring
Butcher on the bus phenomenon = the epitome of pure familiarity, occurs when someone
believes that a person a familiar (often upon seeing them in an atypical context) while failing
to recall any information about that person whatsoever
Do you really remember the word being on the list or do you just feel you know the word
was on the list?
-remembering requires retrieval of some aspect of the word presentation, ie mental
time travel to when the word was presented; recollection
-knowing is related to a sense of familiarity of the item
Huppert and Piercy on the impaired contextual memory of amnesic patients
Test: show pictures on two successive days -> have you seen them before?
-amnesic patients were more likely to say that a picture seen twice on day1 came from day2
relative to pictures shown once on day1
--no recollection
--increased familiarity
Jacob at al: becoming famous overnight experiment
-limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past
False memories
Information presented post-event influences memories
-cues help retrieve memories
-but information can also change/create memories
False memory: a ‘memory’ for an event that did not occur
Or subtler: a modification of a memory
-memory is constructive
Misinformation effect = misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event
can change how that person describes the event later
Lecture 14
Biocog lecture 14
Cognition of memeory
Intro memory
Memory: the mental process of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval
Memory performance depends on:
-encoding: getting it in
-maintaining: keeping it in
-retrieving: getting it out
Short-term memory: for recent information (last 30 seconds or so) or information activated
in the mind
Long-term memory: for more distant information than needs to be retrieved from your
archive of past events
-is it truly an archive or more flexible repository reconstruction of the past?
Distinction between ltm and stm based on lesion studies and experimental
dissociation
Long-term memory
-explicit/ conscious memory -implicit/ unconscious memory
--episodic: personal memory --repetition priming memory
--semantic: factual knowledge memory --procedural memory
Declarative memory: ability to store and retrieve both episodic and semantic
memories
Distinction also found through dissociation studies
BUT: nearly all episodic memories have semantic components
Semanticization of episodic knowledge = the first time someone told you that Madrid
is the capital of Spain (semantic fact), this was an episodic event in your life, but you
probably don’t remember this particular event
Memory tests
-free recall: recall studied items in any order
-serial recall: recall studied items in the original order
-cued recall: what is word X you studied together with word A?
-forced choice recognition: which word did you study before, word A or B?
-yes/no recognition: did you study word A?
Recognition (explicit) versus Word Completion (implicit)
Recognition: after exposure to list and delay -> show new list with some words the
same -> which did you see on the first list
, Word Completion: after exposure to list and delay -> show new with only the first
letters of every word -> complete them
Explicit performance reduces more strongly over time tan implicit
Dissociation suggests involvement of different memory systems
Context and cues
There is always a reason or context that leads us to retrieve content, eg: discussion or
conversation, pictures, music, smells
Tip of the tongue effect = when you know that you know something but cannot get it out
Cue strength →
General cue – context – item itself
Effectivity of a retrieval cue depends on what you encoded in the first place
Encoding specificity & Context-dependent memory = memories are linked to the context in
which they are created, it states that it is easier to recall information when you are in the
same context in which to memorized (or studied) it
Tulving and Thomson on stages of encoding specificity
-subjects were better at recall than recognition
-spider+brid -> image of medium size bird that eats spiders
-bird+eagle -> image of eagle -> does not really help recall
Context dependent memory
Words learned and tested in the same environment (upper points in graph) are better
recalled than items for which the environmental context varied between study and test
(bottom points in graph)
, Familiarity and source monitoring
Butcher on the bus phenomenon = the epitome of pure familiarity, occurs when someone
believes that a person a familiar (often upon seeing them in an atypical context) while failing
to recall any information about that person whatsoever
Do you really remember the word being on the list or do you just feel you know the word
was on the list?
-remembering requires retrieval of some aspect of the word presentation, ie mental
time travel to when the word was presented; recollection
-knowing is related to a sense of familiarity of the item
Huppert and Piercy on the impaired contextual memory of amnesic patients
Test: show pictures on two successive days -> have you seen them before?
-amnesic patients were more likely to say that a picture seen twice on day1 came from day2
relative to pictures shown once on day1
--no recollection
--increased familiarity
Jacob at al: becoming famous overnight experiment
-limits on the ability to avoid unconscious influences of the past
False memories
Information presented post-event influences memories
-cues help retrieve memories
-but information can also change/create memories
False memory: a ‘memory’ for an event that did not occur
Or subtler: a modification of a memory
-memory is constructive
Misinformation effect = misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event
can change how that person describes the event later
