Wk9: Encoding and Retrieval Flashcards
(23 cards)
What is encoding?
Getting material into memory
What is retrieval?
Getting material out of memory
What are the levels of processing in studying words?
- Orthography (spelling)
- Phonology (pronunciation)
- Semantics (meaning)
Which levels of processing are better for encoding words?
Semantics > Phonology > Orthography
What level of processing to people instinctually use to encode memory?
- Semantics
- Similar stimuli (requires more effort to differentiate) easier to encode
- Novel/ Unusual stimuli (novel means you check the semantics) easier to encode
What is the method of Loci?
A memory retention technique where an individual places objects they aim to remember is a mental representation of a intimately familiar physical location.
What are the methods of deep processing?
- Organisation; mneumonics, loci
- Chunking
- Understanding; fewer separate elements to remember when it’s one cohesive concept
What are the problems of levels of processing as a memory encoder?
- Circular definition: Deep processing and good memory
- Critical factor to deep processing is not time or difficulty
What secondary factor (to semantics) can help encode memory?
Distinctiveness
How would you measure the effects of distinctiveness on memory
IV: semantic (S) vs. non-semantic (N) stimuli
IV: low (L) vs high (H) distinctiveness
E.g. HS: saggy glove, LS: leather glove, HN: glove rhymes with stove, LN: glove rhymes with dove
DV: measure recall of these items
How would we measure emotional encoding?
Present px with graphic images of surgeries.
IV: tell px the photos are either real surgeries, or training images (after stim offset to prevent arousal confound)
DV: measure recall
What are flashbulb memories?
- Tendency for people to report very vivid, detailed memories of major consequential world events
- Tendency for these memories to be just as accurate as any other, (not much) and prone to the same forgetting
- Tendency for our confidence in these memories to be greater than that of other memories
What is the tip of the tongue effect?
- Tendency for individuals to have a vague idea of the word they are forgetting
- Tendency for number of new items remembered from the same set to be forgotten - word trade off.
How do you test the efficacy of encoding-retrieval for exams, specifically?
Px shown word with a capital letter (e.g. rocK)
IV: does the word fit? “The ____ rolled down the hill” or what is the capital letter?
DV: Test recognition from distractors; different words (pebble, stone) or different capital letter (rOck, roCk)
Int: semantic encoding did better in semantic retrieval, orthogonal encoding did better in orthogonal retrieval
How do you test the efficacy of encoding-retrieval in contexts?
Px (divers) shown word list
IV: word list only shown on land (L) or underwater (W)
DV: measure recall on land or underwater; compatible or incompatible
Int: incompatible did worse than compatible
What is state dependent learning?
- Tendency for retrieval to improve in the environment the material was encoded
- Context: encode in the location you want to retrieve
- E.g. when you go into your room and forget why your there, but then you go back to the kitchen and remember “oh yeah, I went to get my phone”
What are indirect test effects?
- Doing the test encourages other behaviours that improve learning, and encoding retrieval, such as studying
What are direct test effects?
- Doing the test results in exposure and encoding of that test information, and practice doing tests.
Can you erase memories?
- Using specific drugs during retrieval may disrupt retrieval
- This disruption - like false memory - can alter the memory permanently, erasing it
- Seen in mice, no human tests
How does learning, atttention, and memory apply to the free energy principle?
- Reduce surprise by creating models
- To create models, one must attend to, remember, and apply patterns to the external environment
- I.e. present, past, future; attention, memory, learning
What is contextual cuing?
The tendency for the similarity of context between stimuli over time (LTM) - even if it has no bearing on the target or if it goes unnoticed - to increase reaction time
Contextual cuing and memory
Those with hippocampal damage do not show contextual cuing effects - they cannot remember the similarity of the context behind the stimuli
What is transfer appropriate processing?
- Transfer is best when testing processing overlap with studying
- Processing type: study the type of factors you want to retrieve
i.e. to do well on tests, study in the same fashion you will be tested on; are you applying theories or recalling definitions?
