LongTerm Memory

1
Long-Term Memory

• Dr. Claudia J. Stanny
• EXP 4507
• Memory Cognition
• Spring 2009

2
Overview

• Types of Long Term Memory
• Relation between encoding and retrieval
• Encoding processes and their consequences
• Retrieval strategies
• Autobiographical memory

3
Long Term Memory Ebbinghaus (1885) Long-term
Retention Functions
4
Types of Long Term Memory
5
Distinctive Characteristics of LTM

• Organization of information
• Schemas
• Capacity
• Duration
• Bahrick permastore
• Encoding impact on retention
• Retrieval mechanisms
• Forgetting availability versus accessablity

6
Encoding Strategies Levels of Processing

• Craik Lockhart (1972)
• Orienting tasks assigned at study to induce
  different levels of processing
• Shallow processing (physical features of stimuli)
• Does the word contain an E or a G?
• Is the word presented in capital or lower case
  letters?
• Intermediate processing
• Write down a word that begins with the same
  sound.
• Deep processing (semantic encoding)
• Rate words on your perception of their
  PLEASANTNESS
• (1 UNPLEASANT 7 PLEASANT)

7
Recognition performance for words processed at
different levels
Data from EXP 3082 (2002)
8
Variations on Deep Processing

• What kinds of processing count as deep
  processing?
• Distinctive encoding
• Encoding differs or makes a stimulus stand out
• Isolation effects unique encodings
• Elaborate encoding
• Create a code that includes multiple aspects
• Complex codes many connections to other
  representations

9
Self-Reference Effect

• Processing task
• Does this word relate to you?
• Recognition performance is as good as for a
  semantic processing task
• Biggest improvement seen when participants think
  the word does apply to them (46) than when it
  does not (34)

10
Generation EffectSlamecka Graf (1978)

• What is the effect of processing depth when you
  generate the code yourself versus when you have
  the coding given to you?
• Read Condition
• Shallow SAVE CAVE
• Deep SEA OCEAN
• Generate Condition
• Shallow SAVE C____ (rhyme)
  CAVE
• Deep SEA O_____ (synonym)
  OCEAN

11
Encoding Specificity

• Match between cues encoded at study and cues
  available during retrieval

12
Emotion, Mood and Memory

• Pollyanna Principle
• Rate of forgetting for pleasant unpleasant
  events
• Mood-dependent congruence
• Mood-dependent memory (encoding specificity)

13
Retrieval from LTM

• Types of Retention Tasks
• Explicit Memory Tasks
• Aware that memory is being used/tested
• Subjective experience of intentional use of
  memory
• Implicit Memory Tasks
• Task is perceived as a problem-solving task or
  other cognitive challenge

14
Comparing Memory Tasks

• Explicit Memory Tasks

• Implicit Memory Tasks

• Recall
• Cued recall
• Recognition tests
• yes/no recognition
• multiple choice tests

• Word completion task
• V__L__A__E
• Word stem completion task
• OC __ __ __
• Repetition priming (RT tasks)
• Lexical decision task
• Anagram solving
• LVGEALI ? _______

15
Evidence for different types of LTM

• Dissociation of performance on explicit and
  implicit memory tasks
• Variables improve performance on explicit memory
  but do not influence implicit memory performance
• Depth of processing
• Variables improve implicit memory performance but
  do not influence explicit memory
• Benefits of number of repetitions
• Note some variables have the same effect on both
  types of task (proactive interference)

16
Effect of LOP on performance on an implicit and
an explicit memory task

• Shallow processing task
• Does the word have a B or a P?
• Deep processing task
• Rate the word on its pleasantness (1 7)
• Implicit memory test
• Anagram task
• Explicit memory test
• Free recall

Data EXP 4507L Spring 2006
17
Amnesia

• Differences in performance by amnesiacs on
  implicit and explicit memory tasks

18
How do experts differ from novices?

• Amount of knowledge in area of expertise
• Quality of organization of information in LTM
• More efficient encoding of new information
• More successful retrieval of information
• Differences in cognitive strategies used
• Chunking and organization of new material
• Identifying distinctive characteristics of
  stimuli
• Procedures used to solve problems
• Better metacognition about processing
• Judgments about task difficulty
• Monitoring progress on a problem

19
Expertise is Context-Specific

• Expertise emerges from extensive deliberate
  practice in a particular domain
• 10 years of deliberate practice required
  (Ericsson, 2003)
• Expertise in one domain does not make one an
  expert in every domain
• Superior memory performance in one area of
  expertise does not generalize to superior memory
  performance in general
• Problem identification and efficient solution is
  also domain-specific

20
Autobiographical Memory

• Special case of episodic memory
• Memory for events of our personal life
• Interaction with semantic memory
• Role of schemas in autobiographical recall
• Consistency bias
• Source monitoring
• Identifying the origin of a memory or belief

21
Recall of autobiographical memories across the
life span (Rubin, 1997)
Reminiscence Bump
Forgetting Function
Infantile Amnesia
22
Flashbulb Memories

• Highly detailed episodic memories of an event
• Contain many autobiographical details
• Source information for the news of the event
• Detailed contextual information
• Where you were, what you were doing, who you
  talked to, what your emotional response was, etc.
• Are flashbulb memories special?
• Do they include errors seen in other memories?
• Are they subject to forgetting like other
  memories?

23
Eyewitness Memory

• Estimator Variables
• Characteristics of the witness or witnessed event
  known to have an influence on accuracy of witness
  recollections
• System Variables
• Characteristics of the legal / investigative
  process known to have an influence on accuracy of
  witness recollections
• Variables that produce memory distortions
• Misleading questioning
• Post-Information effects

24
Factors that influence the accuracy of eyewitness
memory

• Delays between the event and recall
• Intrusions related to misinformation
• Reconstructive nature of memory
• Schema-based intrusions
• Social pressure
• Demand characteristics of questioning the
  encourage production of more information or a
  specific answer
• Positive feedback following identifications
  during lineups increases confidence without
  increasing accuracy