Chapter 7- Interconnections Between Acquisition and Retrieval Flashcards
Retrieval Paths:
• Connections made between newly acquired material and information already in memory
Travel along paths, moving from one memory to next when you want to retrieve a memory
Context Dependent Learning:
• Learning material is remembered better when tested in a similar environment that it was learned
• Psychological context that matters, not physical context
i.e. 2 groups- one group learned material and were tested in the same room, second group learned material in one group, tested in second room. Right before the test, the second group was asked to think about the first room (what it looked like, how it made them feel). Result was both groups did equally well
Context Reinstatement:
Strategy of recreating thoughts and feelings of learning episode, even if you are in a very different place at the time or recall
Encoding Specificity:
• What is encoded is the stimulus together with its context
• Connections established can differ, can change how you remember the past
• i.e. “the man lifted the piano”, or “the man tuned the piano” creates idea that piano is something heavy or piano as a musical instrument
• Participants asked to recall target word, participants who had heard “man lifted the piano” were likely to recall target word if the cue was “something heavy” but not “nice sound”
See word “other” but fail to realize the word “the” was also present
Memory Network:
• Nodes- representations of ideas within network
Associations/associative links- connects nodes together
Spreading Activation:
• Node activated when it has received strong enough input signal
• Activated node can activate other nodes via associations
Nodes receive activation from neighbours, more they receive, the more the activation level increases to reach response threshold, causing it to fire
Subthreshold Activation:
• Activation levels below response threshold
Recently activated node is “warmed up”, so weaker input will be sufficient to bring node to threshold
Retrieval Cues:
• Node receives activation from 2 sources simultaneously (question and cue), allows it to fire
i.e. “Capital of South Dakota” and “Man’s name “ activates “capital” and “man’s name” nodes and associations until they both activate the same node
Lexical Decision Task:
• Participants shown series of letter sequences on computer screen, some are words, some are not
• Hit yes if sequence spells a word, and no if it doesn’t
• Speed of response demonstrates how quickly they can locate the word in memory
Sequences presented with pairs of letter sequences (yes if both are words)
Semantic Priming:
• 2 words in pair are related in meaning
• Results in faster response time
i.e. “bread” and “butter”, bread nodes activated butter nodes
Recall:
• Presented with retrieval cue that broadly identifies information you seek
• Have to come up with information yourself
i.e. Can you remember the words to that song?
Recognition:
• Information is presented to you, have to decide if it’s the sought after information or not
i.e. Is this the man who robbed you?
Source Memory Without Familiarity:
- Knowing
* Can recall family members (know), but they don’t seem familiar (don’t remember)
Remember/Know Distinction:
Participants asked during recognition test to press one button if they recall the episode of encountering a particular item (know), and pressing a different button if they don’t recall the encounter but have the feeling that the item must have been on the earlier list (remember)
Familiarity Without Source Memory
- Don’t have recollection of the source of current knowledge, but have strong sense of familiarity (remember)
- Watching a movie, actor seems familiar (remember), but can’t remember where you saw them or what their name is (no source memory- don’t know)
A feeling of “remembering” is more likely with correct memories than false memories.
Brain Area For Source Memory
Hippocampus
Brain Area For Familiarity
Anterior Parahippocampus
Word Stem Completion:
• Participants given 3 or 4 letters and must produce a word with this beginning
People more likely to offer specific word they’ve encountered recently
Explicit Memories:
Revealed by direct memory testing- specifically urges you to remember past (i.e. recognition test, recall)
Implicit Memories:
• Revealed by indirect memory testing- current behaviour is influenced by prior event
i.e. priming effects
False Fame:
• Participants presented with list of names, then presented with list of names and had to decide if the people on the list were famous or not
• If famous list presented right after the first list of names, then someone who felt a name was familiar would realize that it is familiar because they just saw it on the first list (familiarity and source memory)
If famous list presented 24 hours later, name is familiar but don’t know why, so you answer yes to whether they are famous or not (only familiarity)
Illusion of Truth:
Statements previously heard more likely to be judged as more credible than sentences never heard before
Source Confusion:
• i.e. Participants witnessed staged crime
• 2 or 3 days later, shown mug shots of people who supposedly participated in crime (but weren’t actually involved)
• 4-5 days later, asked to pick out criminal from lineup
Participants often picked out criminal seen in mug shot, not in crime
Processing Pathway:
• Sequence of detectors, and connections between detectors that activation flows through in recognizing a specific stimulus
Use of processing pathways strengthens pathway
