Memory II: Encoding and Long-Term Memory

 We ended talking about Miller's chunking

o We might be grouping units together, in this case it might not count as an item
 Tendency for people to remember for words at the beginning and end of the list, serial
position effect
o On the graph, we see two effects: recency and primacy
 Recency effect: better memory for the last few items on the list, based on working memory
 Primacy effect: better memory for the first few items
 Middle of list, people aren't necessarily good at
 Maybe recency effect make sense for us, those are the last words we saw
 Why the earlier words?
o During list presentation, the first few words gives us more time to rehearse those
words, can transfer them to long-term memory
o Anything shorter than 20 seconds is short term memory
 Pretty strong recency effect, nothing going on in that 30 seconds, words can be rehearsed
more often, recency effect does not disappear
 30 seconds is not enough to eliminate the recency effect because can be rehearsed during
that time
o A distractor task prevents rehearsal after the presentation of the list is needed to do so
(i.e. counting backwards, sing a song, etc.) If so, you will forget more.
 Slower presentations yields better memory for early and middle list items
o Due to enhanced encoding and rehearsal opportunities
o Reflects improvements in LTM
 Modal Model stresses the sensory register that goes onto short term memory
o There was a short term storage and long term storage
 Baddely and Hitch
o Incorporating in concept of working memory, why does this term exist?
o Working memory used to account for some effects, not that much of a difference,
pretty much of a difference to short term memory
o On exam, working memory = short memory unless referencing this model
o We are not referring to one thing, referring to a whole system that has components
o Working memory refers to some active process that refers to a central executive
which is making the decision
o But there are still these storage components, instead of some register, we have a
sketchpad or buffer
o Phonological loop
o These combine into the register
o Episodic buffer
o Things in the central register is broken off and incorporated into these different areas
 Components of Working Memory Model
o Phonological loop
 Maintains linguistic (speech based) information in a phonological
 Maintained in some form of rehearsal
o Visuo-spatial buffer
  Temporary maintenance and storage of visual and/or spatial information
 Do I make a right or left on the street? You are maintaining a map in your head,
maintaining items as we are sensing/perceiving them
 Lasting much longer than 3-4 seconds
o Episodic buffer: temporary hold, a way that integrates information from phonological
loop
o Central executive: this limited controlled attention, responsible for what is getting
processed, stored, and remembered
 There is some evidence that this loop and buffer are two separate things
o In this experiment, we have P.V. who has had a stroke
o Damage to left hemisphere, frontal lobe damage
o Short term memory
o Unable to understand even short sequences of spoken digits
o Couldn't process numbers and letters, unable to store them
o In this experiment he was asked to memorize 1 letter or number
o Might be shown C visually and asked to say it out loud, still remember what was seen
o Could not understand something iconic, something that lasts 15-20 minutes
o If you were to tell him the letter, after 3 seconds his performance is at chance,
performance dropped off, doesn't remember, auditory short term memory is affected
 Patient ELD suffered stroke to right hemisphere frontal/temporal lobe region
o Difficulty finding home and memory problems for unfamiliar material
o Severe deficit in visuospatial memory
 One type of injury that may exist where someone can perform one task and can't perform
another
o In this case, someone is excellent at auditory but not visuospatial and vice versa
o Suggests that these are not interconnected and are separate

Memory II
 Today we will talk about long-term memory, specifically declarative memory
 We remember different kinds of things
 Episodic memory
o Maintenance rehearsal: simply focus on the to-be-remembered items themselves
 Elaborative rehearsal: thinking of more about the context of the event, much richer when
you remember in a certain context, vivid in our mind, experience in that context binds us to
that memory
 Levels of Processing proposed by Craik and Tulving
o In this experiment, you are presented with list of words, cued with one of three tasks
 "is the word capitalized?" --> Shallow processing, physical level
 "Does the word rhyme with cat?" --> Intermediate processing, acoustic or
phonological level
 "Is the word a type of plant?" --> Deep processing, semantic level
o The deeper, meaningful something is, you better you will remember it
 Self referencing effect: this word describes me, then I will have better memory of what it
might be
 Levels of Processing
o Subjects were asked to read pairs of words
  Rapid and fast, lamp and light
o Another group was tested on generating themselves: rapid and f___; lamp and l____
o Later: given a cued recall test, and people do much better with generation than mere
reading
 Remember it much better when generating it themselves
 Being tested for information serves to boost memory
o Testing effect: deep processing needed to take a test helps create longer lasting
memories of the material
o One group people studied, studied again and took test
o Next group studied, took a practice test/midterm, and took test
o Long term, those who did pretest did better
o Take away: testing yourself will improve long term retention
 Incidental learning: deep processing leads to learning, even in absence of an intention to
learn
 Intentional learning: usually ensures deep processing will occur, not necessarily any better
than incidental learning with deep processing
 Transfer appropriate processing
o Why does deep processing help?
o Compatibility between encoding and retrieval processes
o If we want to take a test and improve pronunciation, paying attention to sound will
yield more results than meaning
o Perhaps the way we study and tested is similar and it helps with memory
 Semantic coded in deeper level of processing on the graph, blue bar represents level of
processing
o Graph showing how effective encoding
o Deeper encoding is not necessarily better, depends on what we're trying to retrieve
o If we were prompted with rhyme, then we are much better with rhyming later than a
word in context
o If we were prompted where we just read a word that belongs in a sentence, then we
are better at doing it
o The nature in which we are studying and testing, if they are the same and matching
up, then they will do better
 Context and memory
o Context of when we are encoding something matters, helps retrieval
o Mental state, how we are feeling
o Other words on the list
o Environmental cues such as odors or sounds
o Like finding a word in a textbook, you are familiar with the words on that page and
the information and how the page looks
 The effect of context on recall
o Participants learned in a scuba suit above water or a scuba suit in water, studied and
tested
o Graph shows that if they learned on dry land then tested in water their recall wasn't
that great, but learned on dry land and tested on land, they recalled a lot
o If they learned underwater and tested on dry land, didn’t recall as much
o Some people need noise or quiet
 o Changing our environment hurt recall
o Those who studied with noise do better in an environment that is noisy
o Those who studied with quiet environment do better in a quiet environment when
testing
 Subjects learned words in a distinct room and tested in 1 of 3 conditions
o Tested in same context or texted in different or tested in different but imagine an
encoding context (the first room where they learned words)
o Being tested in same context is same as those who imagined
o Mental space is what could cause similar performance
 Those who learn when they are sober do better on tests when they are sober
o Those who drink when they study, do better when they are drunk
 State of mind can also affect your performance, your mood plays a role in how you
remember something
 What's the best way to encode?
o Massed cramming, spaced
o Spaced practice yields better results than mass practice --> cramming is bad in the
long run
o Yet no difference when studying for short term
o Why does this occur? When are cramming, encoding is dependent on environment
and material you learned plays a role. When we are spacing out studying, context is
differing in different
 Where is memory in the brain?
o Hippocampus is key to translating working memory to long term memory, curved
structure in the middle towards the bottom of brain
o In brains, hippocampus is also involved in spatial memory
o Interesting example is in humans, taxi drivers in London have to study for a test and
need to memorize all the maps of the city and really have a mental map of London
that you need to be an expert on. State aloud from point A to point B, taxi drivers are
pretty good at this, hippocampus is much larger than others
 Memory encoding
o When you experience an event, different parts of brain are all active, making a
decision where all of these is sending a signal
o When you want to recall or retrieve information
o Build up networks of neurons, rest of nodes are activated
o Memory are a collection of nodes and neurons, when we are remember, we reactivate
those nodes
o Maybe that memory of us is re-experiencing what we experienced in the past already
o Role of hippocampus is involved in some kind of encoding both episodic and
semantic, bind different events together, after events talk about more damage in what
happens in amnesia.
 Also used for retrieval, reactivated to some sort of cue that is reactivating all
these other parts of the cortex in this area