History of Memory

Question 1

Begins in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece

Answer 1

• Mnemosyne (“new-mow-seen”): Greek goddess of memory
• Thoth: Egyptian god of memory and wisdom

Question 2

Philosophical Traditions: Nature versus Nurture

Answer 2

Nativist: Humans are shaped mainly by biological inheritance (nature).
- Fixed at birth

Empiricist: Humans are shaped mainly by experience (nurture).
- Endless possibilities

Question 3

Plato

Answer 3

** was a supporter of nativism**: we are born with innate differences in
skill and talent (and ability to learn),
and suggested “sorting by quality”
soon after birth

Humans are shaped mainly by
biological inheritance (nature).

Question 4

Aristotle

Answer 4

oposed that knowledge and talent are matters of training and experience, not inheritance (Empiricist)

(Believed the heart, not the brain, is
critical for memory)

Humans are shaped mainly by their
experience (nurture)

Question 5

Aristotle and Memory

Answer 5

Aristotle’s theory of associationism
argued that memory depends on
forming linkages (“associations”)
between events or ideas.
Recalling or experiencing one bit
elicits a memory of the other

Question 6

Theory of Associationism

aristoteles

Answer 6

Contiguity – Experiences near each other in time/space are joined (if you think of making coffee, you will think of drinking coffee)

Frequency – Experiences repeated together become connected (when we think of coffee, we think of donuts)

Similarity – Experiences similar to one another become connected (if you think of one of your birthday parties, you will think of the others)

Question 7

John Locke (1632–1704)

Answer 7

children arrive in the world a blank slate (tabula rasa), to be influenced by experiences. (Empiricist)

Good education should be available to all,regardless of class or wealth

Question 8

William James (1842-1910)

Answer 8

Taught the first course in psychology in America.

A proponent of associationism from Aristotle.

Elements of an event are linked in association networks. Similar events are also linked.

Per James, remembering one idea would spread along links, leading to the retrieval of a complex episode.

James speculated that these links are physically formed in the brain.

Early ideas about neuroscience and brain plasticity!

Question 9

Current Approaches

Answer 9

Most modern researchers acknowledge that we are shaped by both nature and nurture.

Still, sharp disagreements persist over relative importance in different domains.

Question 10

Women who Shaped the Field of Psychology

Mary Whiton Calkins

Answer 10

• PhD (not officially conferred)
• Denied PhD because she was a woman
• Harvard University (1894)
• Known for her work on “paired-associate” learning
• First female president of the American Psychological Association
• Worked alongside William James
• Would have been the first woman to receive a PhD in psychology (along with Margaret Floy Washburn)

Question 11

Inez Beverly Prosser

Answer 11

• First black woman to receive a PhD in psychology
• PhD, University of Cincinnati (1933)
• Known for her work on learning, education, reform, racial identity

Question 12

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Answer 12

conducted the first rigorous experiments of memory (mostly on himself).

According to him, the psychology of memory could become a rigorous natural science

Question 13

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Human Memory
Experiments

Answer 13

Ebbinghaus was especially
interested in forgetting—that is, in how memory deteriorates over
time.

Ebbinghaus was famous for his
memory plots (”forgetting curves”),
showing that you lose a lot in the first 24 hours an then forgetting slows down a little

Question 14

Pros and Cons of this approach?

Answer 14

Pros:
* advantage of using non sensical words (they are all nutreal)

Cons:
* it can be bad because its harder to remenber words that have no meaning to us
* he used himself in the study so it might not apply to everyone (generability)

Question 15

Marigold Linton

reading!!: know the difference between both studies and pro and cons

Answer 15

• did a similar study then Ebbinghaus
• did it on herself
• some changes in intervals and other things like that
• she didnt observed the same curve as he did )hers were more linear
  *

Question 17

Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Studies

Answer 17

was studying digestion. He is now
known for developing methods
for studying animal learning.

Classical conditioning: an
organism learns to respond to
a previously neutral stimulus
that has been repeatedly
presented alongside a
biologically significant stimulus

Question 18

classical conditionin ex

Answer 18

1. ring a bell, ice cream > u drool
2. do it enoght
3. ring bell > drool

Question 19

Ivan Pavlov’s Conditioning Studies

Answer 19

In later studies, Pavlov and his assistants showed that they could weaken an animal’s trained response
in a process called extinction.

Extinction involves weakening a learned response to a stimulus by no longer pairing that stimulus with a reward or punishment

Question 20

generalization

Answer 20

Pavlov also demonstrated that a dog will transfer what it has learned about one stimulus to similar stimuli

ex:
* blue square,ice cream > drool
* blue square>drool
* another similar tone to the blue (not the same) > drool

why is it important?
- it can help us understand different mental health conditions ex; PTSD

Question 21

Edward Thorndike and the law of effect

Answer 21

Edward Thorndike (1874–1949),
student of William James.
Interested in how animals learn.
Thorndike observed how cats learn
to escape from puzzle boxes.

Instrumental conditioning:
organisms learn to make responses
to obtain / avoid consequence. The organism’s behavior is instrumental in determining whether the consequences occurs. Now it is
referred to as operant conditioning

Question 22

the Law of Effect

Answer 22

Thorndike observed that the probability of a particular behavioral response would increase or decrease depending on the consequences, which he called the law of effect.

According to this law, an animal has a range of behaviors it can exhibit: behaviors that lead to positive
outcomes for the animal persist; those that do not die out

Question 23

John Watson’s Behaviorism

Answer 23

john Watson (1878–1958)
founded behaviorism, a school
of thought that says psychology should study only observable behaviors and not try to infer mental processes.
Inspired by Pavlov as well as
John Locke’s idea of the
“tabula rasa”.

• little albert - created fear in albert of fluffy things by showing him a furry thing and adding a loud noise(something that scares them)

Question 24

B. F. Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

Answer 24

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904–1990) advocated an extreme form of behaviorism, radical behaviorism, in which he asserted that free will is an illusion. In this view, humans, like other animals, simply produce learned responses to
environmental stimuli.

Question 25

**The Neo-Behaviorism of Edward Tolman**

Answer 25

**Edward Tolman** (1886–1959) believed that rats are like humans; they are intrinsically motivated to learn. He studied how rats learn the general layout of mazes by forming what he called a **cognitive map**, an **internal representation of the spatial layout of the world.**

Question 26

cognitive map

Answer 26

Tolman demonstrated the value of cognitive maps for **understanding how rats could apply what they have learned in novel situations;**rats can find food in mazes via alternative routes if their preferred route is blocked. Tolman argued that during their free exploration, rats were learning a cognitive map that they could use later. He called this **latent learning**, that is, **learning that is unconnected to a positive or negative consequence and remains undetected (latent) until explicitly demonstrated**

Question 27

These ideas were important because...

Answer 27

it suggest: **(1) animals are not just learning behaviours;** **(2) we can use experimental approaches to infer a mental state. ** Provided a bridge between cognitive and behavioural approaches

Question 28

Endel Tulving

Answer 28

Although we will learn about **Endel Tulving** (1927-2023) many times in this class, I will first introduce you to him in this lecture. He was a Canadian memory researcher (born in Estonia) who made many contributions to memory. Do you remember I told you that when you **match the study and test context, you get better memory? That idea is from Tulving**. Also introduced the concept of **multiple memory systems**, which we will learn more about later

Question 29

Brain Structure: Early Ideas Britannica

Answer 29

In the early days (e.g., mid 1800s), some scientists believed that different areas of the brain were specialized for different functions (e.g., frontal lobes and language). Some extreme and highly problematic views on brain localization were put forth around this time, including **phrenology** - **the notion that skull measurements can predict an individual’s personality and abilities**. Phrenology is a pseudoscience, used to promote sexism and racism. Today, common phrases are associated with this pseudoscience ○ E.g., “well rounded”

Question 30

**Neuropsychology **

Answer 30

ideas of **“localization of function” came from studying brains that were missing tissue to see how such losses affected performance**. Neuropsychology studies the relationship between brain function and behavior, often by **examining the functioning of patients who have brain damage.** ● Is this a good approach? Let’s discuss. - yes, but it is not as clear cut some parts of the brain are just a pice of the system not eberything - it can help us find treatments

Question 31

location of the **engram**—

Answer 31

Karl Lashley (1890–1958), was an American psychologist who searched for the location of the **engram**—**the physical change (or trace) in the brain that forms the basis of a memory.** In Lashley’s work, a group of rats were trained to navigate a maze. After learning, a different small area of the cortex was removed. **Yet, the rats could still do the task**. Though Lashley noticed that **bigger lesions would cause bigger learning impairment**, **no single cortical area seemed to be more important than any other area**. Conclusion of Lashley: learning is “simply not possible!” some problems: - only focused in the cortext(not the jippocampsue) - just focused in one type of learning : maze learning

Question 32

**theory of equipotentiality**

Answer 32

which states that memories are not stored in one area of the brain. Instead, the brain operates as a whole “unit” to store memories. - we belive there is some speciallization but other types of the brain also plays a role in memory (in the middle)

Question 33

Compare: to study do this!

Answer 33

● Localization of function versus the theory of equipotentiality. ● Issues with both ideas. Where does that lead us? ● No region is an “island” but Lashley’s view was too extreme (there is some degree of specialization)

Question 34

Brenda Milner

Answer 34

studied patients with brain lesions, including a patient named Henry Molaison **(patient HM)** with severe memory loss following removal of his medial temporal lobes in 1953 to combat severe epilepsy. Milner is still working at McGill University and the MNI continuing to make important discoveries

Question 35

Important Modern Figures

Answer 35

Richard Wolfgang Semon (1859–1918) was an evolutionary zoologist who coined the terms **engram**. Many modern researchers are studying the engram, as we will learn in this course, including Steve Ramirez at Boston University and the late Xu Liu from MIT