PSYCH 1X03 Study Guide - Final Guide: Hermann Ebbinghaus, Long-Term Memory, Eidetic Memory
14 Jul 2018
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Memory
• Memory is the fundamental cognitive mechanism that allows you to encode, store & retrieve info
• Information you learn can be forgotten within days or even hours of learning it so to retain it, it
must be revisited
• Case Study:
o 2 friends Amanda and Jen compete over biology test scores
o Amanda consistently falls a little short of Jen
o She thinks Jen has a photographic memory
o Amanda wants to learn about memory to improve her own study plan
• Common Memory Metaphors:
o Memory acts like a video camera which accurately preserves images to be played back at
a later time
o Memory is a filing cabinet where files are stored in an organized folder which can be
later accessed
o A computer memory where components are responsible for handling different memories
at different times
• Problems with Memory Metaphors:
o Frederick Bartlett realized that these metaphors provide a useful way to think about
memory but are all misleading as they all assume that memory can store experiences in
their original distorted form
The Basics of Memory
• Psychologists ask 3 types of questions about memory:
o Questions about memory acquisition: what will be stored in memory?
o Questions about memory storage: how and where will it be stored?
o Questions about memory retrieval: how can memories be returned to consciousness.
• Cue-response mechanism studied by behaviorists say 1 memory acts as a cue to trigger another
into consciousness
o Example: 2 friends banter back and forth, 1 memory triggers another shaping the
conversation flow
• Hermann Ebbinghaus operationally defined memory as a serial learning task
• As Ebbinghaus memorized nonsense word lists, he suggested that each word in the list served as
a cue that triggered the memory of the word that followed; like pearls linked in a necklace
• Cueing is an important concept in encoding specificity, by which encoding and retrieval are
linked through cues
• Each memory cue is linked to the cue before it
• Psychologists rely on cognitive models to understand a complex & abstract process like memory
in which the models make specific, testable hypotheses that can be studied in controlled
experiments
• A basic memory task involves 2 phases:
o During the encoding phase, a subject learn a list of items, words or pictures
o Ex. in a simple experiment, a researcher presents the same list of items to 2 different
groups & then explicitly asked the experimental group to learn the presented items, while
a control group is distracted
• Later during the retrieval phase, subjects are tested for their memory
• The retrieval phase uses either a recall and recognition test for memory
• In a recall test, subject is asked to generate as many items as remembered
• During a recognition test, subject is shown and several items and asked to judge whether each
item is “new” meaning it was not previously presented, or “old” meaning it was previously
presented
• Subjects who were not distracted performed better
• Ebbinghaus’s Experiment:
o Ebbinghaus used the basic coding and retrieval design to learn about cueing and
forgetting of memories
o Ability to recall words was highest immediately following learning & over time he was
able to remember fewer and fewer words
o Constructed the famous “forgetting curve” which describes the rapidly decreasing rate of
recall over time
The Multi-Store Model
• Proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin
• Assumes that memory is composed of both short and long-term storage system
• Incoming perceptual information is first stored in a short-term memory buffer; info in the short-
term memory is available for online tasks but is not stored permanently
• Important info encoded in short-term memory can be transferred to the long-term memory system
• Model suggests that memory has a temporary & permanent storage
• Chunking:
o Miller discovered that information can be reorganize into “chunks” of meaningful
packets, greatly expanding the capacity of short-term memory
o Letter groupings that form words pack even more information into a single chunk
o Ex. you may only be able to remember 7 random letters of the alphabet but you can also
remember different names of animals, even though each of t names contain several letters
o Ex. If a chess expert and novice are briefly shown a chessboard with pieces placed at
random and later asked to recall the position of the pieces, both are likely to make several
errors. However, if the expert and novice are briefly shown a chessboard with pieces
placed from an actual game, the expert is likely to have an upper hand when asked to
recall the position of the pieces
• Memory models can be tested through experiments
o The value of this model is judged by how well it explains data, & its testable predictions
about memory
The Serial Position Curve
• Memory performance is best for items that were presented earlier or later in the list and worst for
items presented in the middle of the list
• This pattern of performance is summarized in a serial position curve
• Primacy Effect:
o Memory performance is good for items encoded early in the list
o The items at the beginning of the list will be the first to enter short-term memory and
have the most opportunity to be rehearsed to be transferred into long term memory
• Recency Effect:
o Last several items have the least opportunity for rehearsal and transfer to long-term
memory
o according to the multi-store model, all encoded information is first sent to the short-term
memory buffer that is limited to hold 7 items
o Since you can only hold around 7 items in short-term memory, as you go through the list
the newest items replace the oldest items in the short-term buffer
Improving Primacy:
• Having more time to encode each item would allow for more rehearsal = transfer into long-term
• Primacy effect should be enhanced when using a longer time interval bw presented items
Diminishing Recency
• A manipulation that causes the most recent contents of the short term memory to be replaced or
disrupted should neutralize the recency effect
• Ex. asking a subject to perform a distracting task immediately following the encoding phase
o Performing at distracting task would require a short term memory resources, causing the
last of the presented items to be disrupted from the short-term memory buffer
o The Recency effect disappears only for the group performing the distracting task
The Levels of Processing Principle
• The levels of processing model suggests that memory performance depends on the level of
encoding:
o An item encoded at a shallow level requires little effort, and is directed at the physical
characteristics of a stimulus: memory performance is poor
o An item encoded at a deeper level requires more effort, and is directed at the semantic
characteristics of a stimulus; memory performance is richer
• Levels of Processing:
o Craik and Lockhart directly manipulated the level at which a subject encoded a list of
words
▪ Groups of subjects were presented with lists of words that can be judged on
different properties
▪ Subjects in the shallow encoding condition made physical judgments about
whether word item was an upper or lowercase
▪ In the moderate encoding condition, subjects made acoustic judgments about
whether a word item rhymed with another word
▪ In the deep encoding condition subject made semantic judgments about whether
a word item was related to another
▪ At the end of the encoding session subjects were given a recall test
▪ memory performance was poor on the shallow level items, improved for the
moderate level items, and best for the deepest level items
• Levels of Processing Principle: the more we organize & understand the material, the better we
remember it
o paying attention to surface details leads to poorer recall
o Actively reading and note-taking by making connections with your existing knowledge
base = deep
o Passively skimming through a reading or taking word for word notes without elaboration
= shallow
• Encoding Specificity:
o Environmental cues are encoded together with memories for items and events
o Think back to your first kiss and you can remember more than the feeling of your lips,
the romantic setting, the anticipation and the awkward feeling as the person says “I don't
think about you that way”
o The principle of encoding specificity describes how memory encodes all aspects of
specific experiences
o all these aspects can influence memory performance in the future by acting as specific
cues for the event being recalled
• Storage & Retrieval are Related: Preserving encoding context helps subsequent memory recall
Document Summary
Memory: memory is the fundamental cognitive mechanism that allows you to encode, store & retrieve info. The multi-store model: proposed by atkinson and shiffrin, assumes that memory is composed of both short and long-term storage system. Incoming perceptual information is first stored in a short-term memory buffer; info in the short- term memory is available for online tasks but is not stored permanently. If a chess expert and novice are briefly shown a chessboard with pieces placed at random and later asked to recall the position of the pieces, both are likely to make several errors. Improving primacy: having more time to encode each item would allow for more rehearsal = transfer into long-term, primacy effect should be enhanced when using a longer time interval bw presented items. In the moderate encoding condition, subjects made acoustic judgments about whether a word item rhymed with another word. If the tone sounded immediately after the array, participants were accurate.
