Lecture 6: Long Term Memory Basic Principles

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Lecture 6 Long Term Memory - Basic Principles
Psyc 317 Cognitive Psychology
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Issues with deep processing

• Deep processing isnt really well defined
• Deep processing doesnt always take longer
• Slow Count vowels in automobile
• Fast Car-Transportation or vegetable?
• Meaning task is faster

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Aiding Encoding Forming additional connections

• More descriptive sentences for memory
• Chicken
• She cooked the chicken.
• The great bird swooped down and carried off the
  struggling chicken.
• Which sentence would help you to remember the
  word chicken?

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Aiding Encoding Forming additional connections

• Referencing yourself

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Transfer-Appropriate Processing

• Does deeper processing always result in better
  memory? No.
• Retrieval is enhanced if method of encoding
  matches method of retrieval
• Known as transfer-appropriate processing

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Morris, et al. (1977)

• Two methods of encoding
• Semantic acquisition Does the word fit into this
  sentence The ___ rode a bicycle.
• Deep processing
• Rhyming acquisition Does the word rhyme with
  toy?
• Shallow processing

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Morris, et al. (1977)

• One method of retrieval
• Rhyming test Present unseen word
• Which word presented before rhymes with current
  word?
• Summary of the two conditions
• Semantic acquisition (SA), rhyming test (RT)
• Rhyming acquisition (RA), rhyming test (RT)

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Morris, et al. Results
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What does this mean?

• The principle of encoding specificity
• We learn information together with context
• Childhood memories are remembered at the place
  where they were encoded
• State-dependent learning
• Memory is best if a person is in the same state
  for encoding and retrieval
• Lets look at some examples

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Why do these help encoding?

• Retrieval cues
• More information tied to a memory
• When trying to remember a memory, you can
  activate related information
• Related to
• Retrieval (coming up soon)
• Distributed activation (future lecture)

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Aiding Encoding Organizing Information

• Jenkins Russell (1952)
• People will spontaneously organize items as they
  recall them
• Demo
• Remember the words in the list I read
• Write the words down in any order

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Aiding Encoding Organizing Information

• One person Tell me the words you wrote down in
  order
• Apple, plum, banana, shirt, shoe, sofa, desk,
  chair
• Bower et. al (1969) - Present words in concept
  trees
• Organized vs. random trees

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Organized tree for minerals

• Organized trees 73 words
• Random trees 21 words

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Organization adds a meaningful framework

• If the balloons popped, the sound wouldnt be
  able to carry since everything would be too far
  away from the correct floor. A closed window
  would also prevent the sound from carrying, since
  most buildings tend to be well insulated. Since
  the whole operation depends on the steady flow of
  electricity, a break in the middle of the wire
  could also cause problems.

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Bransford Johnson (1972)

• What?!?
• Does this help?

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Outline

• Structure of Long-Term Memory (LTM)
• Encoding information into LTM
• Storing information in LTM
• Retrieving information from LTM

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How do we store memories?

• In the brain! At the synapse level
• Memories are represented through changes in the
  synapse (Hebb, 1948)

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Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

• New experience causes neuron A to release
  neurotransmitter onto neuron B
• Causes minor structural changes
• Repeated activity causes greater changes between
  neurons A and B
• This leads to enhanced firing
• Known as long-term potentiation

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Hebbian Learning
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Ideas like this win Nobel Prizes

• Many researchers have shown that LTP is easiest
  to generate in memory centers of the brain
• Example the hippocampus
• Kandel (2001) won a Nobel Prize for his work in
  this area

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LTP occurs in neural circuits

• Hebb expanded his LTP idea to include groups of
  neurons firing at once
• At first, circuits are weak
• But they fire close together more and more to
  form links

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Remembering Sallys number
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Memory consolidation

• Period to consolidate memories is known as the
  consolidation period
• If consolidation is disrupted for a lot of
  memories, the patient has retrograde amnesia
• Electroconvulsive therapy - patients cannot
  remember events before the ECT session

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The hippocampus and memory

• Consolidation is directed by the temporal lobe -
  specifically, the hippocampus
• H.M. had hippocampus removed to control seizures,
  but he couldnt form new long-term memories

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H.M.s brain damage

• H.M.s damage was not just in the hippocampus,
  but most of his medial-temporal lobe

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Conclusions from H.M.

• Hippocampus is not needed for short-term or
  working memory
• Hippocampus IS needed for forming conscious LTMs
• Hippocampus is not where memory is stored
• Hippocampus is not needed for procedural learning

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Outline

• Structure of Long-Term Memory (LTM)
• Encoding information into LTM
• Storing information in LTM
• Retrieving information from LTM

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How do we remember things?

• Retrieval!
• Most memory failures are that of retrieval
• Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
• Mind blanks
• Etc.
• How can retrieval be made better?

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Retrieval Cues

• Real-world examples
• Visiting the house you grew up in brings back
  childhood memories
• Something random reminds you to go to the store
• Other examples?

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Tulving Pearlstone (1966)

• Present 48 words randomly from groups

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Mantyla (1986)

• Subjects saw 600 nouns, write 3 words associated
  with each noun

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State-depedent learning

• State-dependent learning
• Memory is best if a person is in the same state
  for encoding and retrieval
• Lets look at some examples

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Godden Baddeley (1975)Learning Environment
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Grant et. al (1998)Learning Conditions
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Elch Metcalfe (1989)Learning Mood
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Encoding specificity works!

• By matching internal and external conditions of
  encoding and retrieval, remember more!
• So if youre tired now, make sure youre tired
  for the exam!

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What this says about studying Elaboration

• Study using deep, elaborative rehearsal
• Dont just read, but think-Make up questions and
  quiz each other
• Peterson (1992) - 82 of students highlight
• No difference in performance between highlighting
  and not highlighting
• Why is that? Not necessarily deep processing
• What else can you do?

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What this says about studying Organize

• You need a meaningful framework to put the
  information into
• Use my lecture outlines
• Create your own lecture outlines
• What else can you do?

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What this says about studying Associate

• Create mnemonics!
• Four lobes of the brain
• Frontal in the front
• Parietal is partway between the front and back
• Temporal lobe is near the temples
• Other mnemonics?

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What this says about studying Take Breaks

• Get some sleep! Dont cram
• Give your brain some time for consolidation
• Distributed vs. massed practice effect (Reder
  Anderson, 1982)
• Difficult to hold attention over a long time
• Studying after a break give you feedback about
  how much you remembered
• Studying same material over different periods can
  aid retrieval

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What this says about studying Encoding
Specificity

• Match study and test conditions
• Break into the classroom and study?
• Study in as many places as possible
• Reduce how much of the knowledge is tied to a
  specific context