LongTerm Memory Episodic Kimberley Clow kclow 2uwo ca

Long-Term Memory: Episodic Kimberley Clow kclow 2@uwo. ca http: //instruct. uwo. ca/psychology/130/

Outline n What is Episodic Memory? – Autobiographical Memory n Ebbinghaus n Memory Stages – Encoding – Storage – Retrieval n Interactions Between Stages – Depth of Processing – Strategies

Recap n This is the mental model of memory that has developed over the last few lectures

Long-Term Memory

Examples n n n What did you eat for breakfast this morning? What was the first university class you attended? What was the name of your fourth grade teacher? What was the name of your first best-friend? What colour was your bedroom when you were 6 years old? n Leftovers from thanksgiving dinner n The history of theatre n Ms. Jarvis n Richie n Blue

Autobiographical Memory Primarily interpretations about an event n Information about n – the location of an event – temporal information about the date of occurrence of an event – the actors, actions, and locations – context-specific sensory and perceptual attributes – imagery Contains the experience of remembering n Duration of the memory can last for years n

Types n Personal Memory – image-based representation of a single unrepeated event n Autobiographical Fact – identical to personal memory, except that the memory is not image-based n Generic Personal Memory – similar to personal memory, except that the event is repeated or a series of similar events occur and are represented in a more abstract form

Accuracy n "Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin“ • Barbara Kingsolver n Accuracy of autobiographical memories – Factual information: • . 88 correlation among family members – Emotions and attitudes: • . 43 correlation among family members

What Memory System? This is Your Life Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

Ebbinghaus

Criticism n He excluded meaning from the stimuli – We have a great tendency to impose meaning even on the most meaningless stimuli • e. g. , mentally turning BEF into BEEF – If memory is studied in absence of meaning, can this tell us how memory normally functions? • When we do have access to meaning • When do we use mnemonics and other strategies?

Stages of Memory n Three different stages of processing – Encoding – Storage – Retrieval n Recollecting episodic memories is determined by the interaction of encoding and retrieval processes – How we input material will determine how well we can output it

Encoding n Depth of Processing – Shallow processing • Physical features – Deep processing • Meaning n Memory is affected by the way information is encoded – Not just whether it is in the system – How was it encoded into the system?

Experimental Evidence n Study Phase – Visual • Does the word contain a letter E? – Phonemic • Does the word rhyme with train? – Semantic • Is it a type of animal? n Test Phase

Not Just the Kind of Processing n Manipulation of sentence contexts – Target: TOMATO • Simple – She cooked the … • Medium – The ripe … tasted delicious • Complex – The small lady angrily picked up the red …

Criticisms n Circular Arguments – Deep vs. shallow not well defined – If result is good memory processing must have been deep instead of shallow n Recall vs. Recognition n Doesn’t explain why some codes are better than others – Why difference for yes vs. no response? n Doesn’t explain context effects

Encoding Specificity n Study word pairs – Encode based either on meaning or sound • Meaning – Is the target related to the word CAT? • Sound – Does the target rhyme with the word CAT? 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 MEANING CUE SOUND CUE ENCODE MEANING ENCODE SOUND

Context Effects 50 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 MEANING CUE SOUND CUE ENCODE MEANING ENCODE SOUND

Two Types of Context n Intrinsic context – Has direct impact on the meaning of the tobe-remembered item • strawberry-JAM vs. traffic-JAM n Extrinsic context – Situation has indirect effect on the to-beremembered item • Mood and state dependent learning – learn words on land or 20 ft under water

Cautionary Note! n Change of environmental context affected recall, but not recognition

n Encoding specificity may more generally be thought of as transfer-appropriate processing n Transfer-Appropriate Processing – memory performance is determined by the degree of similarity between the cognitive operations performed at encoding and those performed at retrieval

When Episodic Memory Fails… His face is familiar. . . HEY BUDDY, I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. .

Encoding Strategies n Rehearsal – Type II n Mnemonics – Single Use – Multiple Use n Organization n Imagery

Mnemonics n Three principles: 1. Material to-be-learned is structured and integrated into a preexisting memory framework 2. Material to be remembered must be practiced to form distinctive traces 3. Mnemonic device can be used for both encoding and retrieval by providing effective cues

Single Use Mnemonics n Acronyms – ROY G. BIV n Rhymes – i before e, except after c n Phrases – Spring forward, fall back – Never Eat Shredded Wheat – My Very Earnest Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas n Personal Meaning – My student Kate reminds me of Kate Blanchet playing Galadriel

Multiple Use Mnemonics n The Method of Loci – Dates back to Ancient Greece.

n Peg-Word Technique – Taking advantage of pre-existing associations • “This old man, he played one…”

Imagery n Many mnemonics use visual imagery – Do the method of loci and peg words work because of their visual basis? n Imagery aids learning – Deeper encoding? – Better storage? – Easier retrieval?

Retrieval n Types of tasks used to test retrieval: – Relearning Task • Ebbinghaus – Paired-Associate Learning – Recall • Free recall • Serial recall • Cued recall – Recognition

Paired-Associate Learning Task

Forgetting n Reasons for Forgetting – Decay – Interference – Retrieval Failure n Important Terms – Availability – Accessibility

Availability vs. Accessibility n Two groups studied same list of 48 items – Items were preceded by the appropriate name of the category – Participants were told that they only had to remember the items themselves At recall one group free recall, the other group cued recall n Results: n – Free recall group: 40 percent – Cued recall group: 62 percent n So information can be available but not accessible

Other Influences

And … n Targets presented with weakly associated cue – glue-CHAIR n When asked to RECOGNIZE – if target is in a new context recognition may fail • fail to recognize table-CHAIR n When given cued RECALL with original associate cue, now successfully remember – glue-? n New associate better cue for remembering item than the item itself! – Don’t remember chair when they see chair with table, but can recall chair when they only see glue

Dissociation? n Patient H. M. – Episodic & semantic memory prior to surgery intact, but cannot form new memories n Patient E. D. – Semantic memory is impaired yet episodic memory for the same period is intact n Not good evidence Patient K. C. – Episodic memory processes disrupted, but semantic memory processes in tact Good evidence