Memory Components, Forgetting, and Strategies

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Chapter 10

• Memory Components, Forgetting, and Strategies
• Concept Memory storage and retrieval influence
  motor skill learning and performance

2
Memory Structure

• Definition of memory Our capacity to remember
• Tulving (1985) - Memory is the capacity that
  permits organisms to benefit from past
  experiences
• Memory structure comprised of two functional
  systems
• Working memory
• Long-term memory
• Memory functions
• Storage of information
• Retrieval of information
• System specific functions

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Two-Component Memory Model

• Working Memory
• Sub-systems
• Phonological loop
• Visuospatial sketchpad
• Central executive

• Long-Term Memory
• Sub-systems
• Procedural memory
• Semantic memory
• Episodic memory

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Working Memory (WM)

• Memory system associated with sensory,
  perceptual, attentional, and short-term memory
  processes
• Involved in all situations requiring temporary
  use and storage of information
• Function Enables people to respond according to
  the demands of a right now situation
• Critical role in decision making, problem
  solving, movement planning and execution
• Interacts with long-term memory
• Interactive workspace

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Three Types of Memory Systems in Working Memory

• Phonological loop inner ear, inner voice
• Visuospatial sketchpad minds eye
• Central executive coordinated the information
  in working memory

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Working Memory Storing of Information

• Duration
• Maintains information for 20-30 sec. before
  losing parts of info
• See Adams Dijkstra (1966) experiment
• Capacity
• Can store 7 items (/- 2)
• Person can increase capacity
• Chunking

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Working Memory Processing of Information

• Information processed to allow person to achieve
  action goal or goal of problem at hand, e.g.
• Remember how to perform an action as just
  instructed
• Solve a specific movement problem e.g., how to
  throw a ball to another person how to fit
  together the pieces of a puzzle

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Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• Serves as the more permanent storage repository
  of information
• Function Allows people to have information about
  specific past events as well as general knowledge
• Duration Unknown since we cannot satisfactorily
  measure duration of info in LTM
• Capacity Relatively unlimited

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Three Types of Memory Systems in Long-Term Memory

• Procedural Stores information about how to do
  specific activities, e.g. motor skills
• Semantic Stores our general knowledge about the
  world based upon experiences, e.g. concepts
• Episodic Stores our knowledge about personally
  experienced events
• Allows us to travel back in time

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Distinguishing Between Knowing What to Do and How
to Do

• A common approach to classifying the types of
  knowledge in the episodic and semantic memory
  systems in LTM describes the knowledge as
• Declarative knowledge
• Knowledge that can be verbally described (i.e.,
  what to do to perform a skill)
• Procedural knowledge
• Knowledge that enables the person to actually
  perform a skill (i.e., know how to do a skill)
• Typically this knowledge is not verbalizable or
  difficult to verbalize
• Consider distinction between verbally describing
  how to tie your shoes and actually tying them

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Remembering and Forgetting Terminology

• Encoding Process of transforming
  to-be-remembered information into a form that can
  be stored in memory
• Storage Process of placing information in
  long-term memory
• Rehearsal Process that enables a person to
  transfer information from working to long-term
  memory
• Retrieval Process of searching through LTM for
  information needed for present use

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Assessing Remembering and Forgetting

• Explicit memory tests
• Recall test
• Recognition test
• Implicit memory tests
• Assess info in memory that is difficult to
  verbalize or may not be verbalizable (i.e., info
  that would not be accessed on an explicit memory
  test)

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Causes of Forgetting

• Trace decay
• Working memory
• LTM
• Proactive interference
• Working memory
• LTM
• Retroactive interference
• Working memory
• LTm

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Movement Characteristics Related to Memory
Performance

• Location and distance characteristics
• Movement end-point location remembered better
  than movement distance
• Arm movement end-location within the persons own
  body space remembered better than outside body
  space
• Implications for teaching motor skills
• Emphasize limb movement end-points or key spatial
  positions during movement
• Meaningfulness of the movement
• Movement becomes meaningful if they can relate
  the movement to something they know

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Strategies that Enhance Memory Performance

• Increasing a movements meaningfulness
• Visual metaphoric imagery
• Person thinks of producing a metaphoric image
  related to the movement
• Verbal label
• Attach a specific label to the movement
• The intention to remember
• Intentional and incidental memory
• Subjective organization
• Organizing sequences of movements

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Practice-Test Context Effects

• Encoding Specificity Principle
• (Tulving Thomson, 1973)
• Refers to the relationship between memory
  encoding and retrieval process
• States that the more the test context resembles
  the practice context, the better the retention
  performance
• What are some implications of this principle for
  practicing motor skills