Mem & Cog Exam 2

1) Keep a record of past events
2) Planning the future

Sensory Store--> STM--> LTM (and STM also loses some)

Code/Representation - Acoustic vs. Any
Capacity: 7 (+-) 2 items vs. Unlimited
Duration: 15-60 sec vs Lifetime
Rehearsal: Maintain info and transfer to LTM

High recall on first and last items (primacy: LTM; recency: STM)

bad seizures, leisoned hippo and medial temp. lobes
had STM but couldn't transfer to LTM (couldn't learn anything new)
could take LTMs and transfer some to STM
could learn to play tennis (motor memory intact)

-original thinking: physiological factors determine hunger (alt. theory: memory that just ate)
-dense amnesiacs, give meal; wait half hour, offer second meal (controls refuse, amnesiacs accept)
wait half hour, amnesiacs accept again

all codes: acoustic, visuospatial, semantic
this the active part of memory

only from decay (time)
not interference

present with trigram (3 letters - GVC), then distract so no rehearsal (count backwards by 3s)
vary retention period: downward curve (forget after 15 sec)

caused by both decay and interference
variable of interference: other information, esp. if similar

new info interferes with old

previously learned info interferes with new info

given 4 letters auditory (e.g. 'x'), then 8 sec delay
then given either acoustically similar ('s') or visually similar (y) - presented visually but P says aloud, one letter per second
then recall original 4 letters

-used Brown & Peterson paradigm
looked at individual trials - downward curve gets steeper with each trial

Initial: 7 plus/minus two digits (Miller, 1956)
Current: depends on the code you're using, on chunking

process of combining individual info into groups or chunks

7 chunks (letters or words; e.g. FBI, YMCA, etc)
but depends on size of chunk (small chunk get more chunks)

chess experts and novices, look at chess board for 5 sec
take away, have to recreate situation

intense practice of STM retrieval, 1 hr/day, 3-5 day/week, 20 months
present digits 1 per sec

for digits: 7.2; for words: 5.5

digit/word difference varies with speech rate (fast talkers have higher STM capacity)
defintion: # of things you can pronounce in 2 seconds

measure speech rate by counting for young children
as age increases, speech rate increases, and STM capacity increases

word length effect: you can hold more 1 syllable words in STM than you can multiple syllable words
also depends on how long it takes to pronounce a word (e.g. bishop vs harpoon)

Arabic: numbers take long to say, short digit span
Chinese/English: short to say, longer digit span

given 3 letters and say aloud, then count backwards by 3 up to 20 sec (no recall of letters, no incentive to sneak in rehearsal)
then, do trial for 2 second with recall - after 2 seconds, low accuracy of recall

4 items

Reading comp: zero correlation
Fluid intelligence (reason speedily and abstractly): zero
Vocab scores: yes correlates (+.35-+.6)

both processing and storing

sentence (The dog was fast), remember last word ("fast")
anther sentence, remember last word (measures processing while storing)

like Reading span task, but with math sentence (e.g. 6+1=7), remember answer (i.e. recall 7 later)

Uses both reading and computation span
determine if correct (e.g. 9/3 - 2 = 6? - no)
after equation, given word (e.g. table), have to remember table later

age 19 (declines in later age)

Have young and old adults participate in a slow or fast WM task

young and old adults, get WM capacity (R, C or O span), get processing speed
compute correlation between age and WM capacity (-.53)

conduct a multiple regression analysis to determine the relation of age and WM if variability of WM accounted by speed is removed

WM ability reliant on speed of processing, the underlying primitive

One single pool of general resources

Visual Task: show block F, then use visual imagery to go from bottom to top and down
Verbal Response: say yes at every top corner, no at every non-top corner
Visual Response: if at top corner, circle Y at that spot, N at non-top corner)
Verbal task: listen to sentence, go through and say if each word a noun or not (and reply either vis. or verbally)

1) Digit load (from 0-6), then 2) reasoning task (AB, A precedes B, true), then 3) recall digits
Exp. 1: low digit load (0-2) - early theory says as 0 takes up no capacity, 1 some, 2 more
Exp. 2: Large load (0-6)

a limited capacity system for temporary storage and processing of info, that is used for complex tasks like comprehension, learning, reasoning

1) Directs attn. (activation and inhibition) and mental resources
2) performs reasoning and language comprehension
3) planning future
4) controls central pool of general mental fuel

storage and rehearsal of auditory info

holds auditory info (2 sec) from outside world or inner speech

performs rehearsal (inner voice)
under small loads, operates independently; on high loads, draws from Cent. Exec

stores and rehearses visual (what, ventral) and spatial (where, dorsal) info
small load: independent; large: with Cent. Exec.

learn list of words either with Visual Mnemonic (VS sketchpad and CE) or Rote Repetition (Phono Loop and CE)
while learning, do a task, either Pursuit Rotor (uses VS) or Articulatory Suppression (uses PL)

performed by PFC, which is last to develop and first to be affected by age

best developed in most recent species

1) have difficulty devising plans and carrying out
2) keeping current concerns sufficiently activated
3) difficulty staying focused, on track
4) be less reflective and more reflexive

-the ability to focus/maintain attn. on the current goal in the face of distraction
-frontal lobes genetically determined, highly related to fluid intelligence

Stroop test, either 0% or 75% congruent (75% harder)
Either high or low WM capacity individuals

leison either PFC or hippo
-Delayed task (WM): food in well, changes each trial, close window, they remember well that has food
-Associated task (LTM): one side has cross, one circle (cross has food every time); delay, chose side

keep in mind last "n" number of items
Ex. 3-back: Dog, Table, Chair, Rug, Can, Chair (does last item match 3 items back? yes)
practice 1 hr for 20 sessions, get new n-back test

near: practicing a task yields improvement on that or similar tasks, but not on dissimilar tasks

high and low WM capacity people, get probed with PDA 8x a day for a week
("are you trying to concentrate, and if so, are you successful?")

good controlled attn requires activation and inhibition
-Inhibitory mechanism: suppresses irrelevant thoughts (e.g. environmental details, personalitistic memories); and clears WM of irrelevant info

Control Trials: read red item quickly [1: L(r) N; 2: X C(r)] - say L, inhibit N, inhibit x, say C
Sequential Trials: 1: L(r) C; 2: X C(r) - inhibit C on 1, but say on 2 - response should be slower (if inhibition functioning)

Control: read passage with no distractors, test comp.
Exp: read same passage but only read words in italics (i.e. distractors and test comp.

present faces to learn (180) while in fMRI machine (very distracting)

-Morningness questionnaire, then 10 short stories and test mem
Young: perform better in evening than morning (46.2 - 65.0)
Old: perform better in morning than evening (47.2 - 30.4)

A) connect 1-2-3-4-5-6 (time of day doesn't affect performance)
B) connect 1-A-2-B-3-C (time of day does affect

-Digit Load, either H or L (H: random 41320; L: not random 01234)
-Present name in middle of face and say either pop star or politician (congruent: Mick Jagger name on Jagger; incongruent: David Bowie name on Bill Clinton)
-then probe digit, say what comes next

Same as exp. 1, but also did fMRI analysis, looking at fusiform gyrus
Good selective means activate name and inhibit face
Dep. Var: subtract reaction time of incongruent to congruent (good SA means small diff)

Animal Literature: need repetitions (# of pairings, both classical and operant conditioning)
Modal Model of Memory: need lots of rehearsal with rote repetition

quality over quantity of rehearsal
Assumption 1: memory rep. is a by-product of type of processing performed on product
Ex. 'ant' and think semantically or just auditorally - then encounter event (episodic memory) and what comes to mind is how you encoded it

does nothing for memory; really though, it helps a little on recog tests (but nothing for free recall)

1) Materials (e.g. random #s use non; sentence use sem)
2) Task Demands (e.g. memorize telephone # for 5 sec vs 25 min - non: sem)
3) Knowledge of learner (good learners use good processing, bad use bad)

present with words (dog, table, etc), but don't know getting mem test
task: pleasantness, categorize, rhyme, syllables)
now recall (surprise

Same as exp. 1, but pleasantness raters don't know about test, but other groups do

present with lots of 21-word lists, task to remember last "g" word)
Ex. golf, garden (drop golf and remember garden)
now recall all g words

1) circular definition of depth
-can predict results when comparing sem. vs non (i.e. falsifiable) but not when sem vs sem
-ad hoc: test Pleasantness vs Sentence, Pl better - Pl deeper task because led to better mem; better mem b/c Pl deeper task)

Give either semantic task (sentence completion) or non task (capital letter: roCk)
give either sem test (recog rock or fact?) or non test (which cap letter: rOck or roCk?)

memory is better to extent that the cog. processing used at encoding matches cog. processing at retrieval

either simple sentence (She cooked the _.tomato) or complex (The small lady picked up the red, juicy _ and threw it at the grocer.tomato)

present with 60 words (4 categories, 15 words per cat) in random order
Ex. plane, shoe, tree, pilot, sock (they would cluster plane and pilot)

16 word lists over 16 trials
words begin to be recalled in same groups

learned foreign language words, many 50-word stacks
drop out words they know well until do all 50 well
vary intersession interval, vary retention interval (between relearn and test)

learned 32 obscure trivia, same method as Bahrick study (vary ISI and RI)
General Results: dist. practice improves LT retention

Old View: people differ in mem. systems
New: people with good mem use good strategies

knowledge about your memory processes
Includes: knowing effective strategies, what to rehearse, when to keep or stop studying

children (5, 7, 10), show 7 pics
on a trial, point to 2-5 pics, and recall either immediately or 15 sec later

same as exp 1 but teach young children how to rehearse

Production: do not know effective strategies
Control: inability to control mental processes

Unsuccessful and Successful 5th graders, give sentence (The tall man use the paintbrush___.)
Suc. makes precise elaborations (...to paint the ceiling); Un makes arbitrary (...to pain the wall)

1) Bio: immutable brain changes
-neurons shrink, loss of myelin, less blood flow and neurotransmitters, less brain volume

3 cultures (China, Am. Deaf, Am. Hearing), assess attitude towards elders (Hearing low, Chinese high)
Battery of tests, see age diffs

present trivia items to young and old and told if true, remember if true
varied instructions: memory emphasis (Important to remember) vs. memory neutral

present with 20 questions (usually people know), predict how well you'll know answers on a later recall test
Take fastest 25% and slowest 25%

DA: simply know if learned
Inference: guess if info learned (retrieval fluency, elaboration of retrieval)

1) interpretation, not exact copies
2) supported by a rep. system different from verbal memories
3) produces very good learning

idea that both visual and verbal are stored in the most basic unit of meaning that has a truth value

idea that verbal is stored in propositional form but visual in a form that maintains geometric properties

show object, and then either same object rotated in depth or in picture, or mirror of object

encode island map that has different landmarks
image, start at one spot and travel to another spot

Image rabbit by either an elephant (rabbit small) or by a fly (rabbit big)
Ask does rabbit have a pink nose? consult image

Either visually image a tree or auditorally image a river
Simultaneously either have to perceive a faint visual or aud. signal

hold a vis or verbal memory (is green of pine trees greener than grass; is freedom a guarantee of all US citizens)

display 4 dots on screen for two seconds
then, take away, show arrow (would arrow line up with a dot?)

handout
Perception task: Are stripes in Quad 3 longer than in Quad 2
Visual task: present quads, ask same question
TMS ventral stream, or non visual stream

depends on where damage - if eye, optic nerve: yes; if ventral/dorsal: no

patients, try to find source of seizures with SCR
found neurons that respond to certain stimuli in ventral stream (e.g. baseball lights up a neuron)

ability to discriminate between real and imaginary events
e.g. did I lock my car or just imagine doing so

present 350 concrete nouns (1/2 image, 1/2 perceive) - fMRI also during encoding
20 min delay, test memory

young and old, image 4 tasks doing, actually do 4 tasks
delay 3 wks and test memory

1) Detail: more perceptual detail, more likely to be real (touch, vividness, etc)
2) Remembering cog. operations of imagining (e.g. if remember hard to image St. of Liberty's color, know image)
3) Plausibility: could that have actually happened

forces attn and good processing
good mnemonists use good strategy more than just being naturally good

non sem task: does word rhyme
sem task: sentence completion
sem test: recog test
non sem test: have cue (one of rhyming words), give other rhyming word

vague paragraph without title or vague paragraph with title (paragraph about doing laundry)

1) Reduces what have to remember
2) guides interpretation of ambiguous details
3) makes unusual things stand out

learn words either underwater or on land
recall words either underwater or on dry land

learn words in windowless room with neat experimenter or in window room with sloppy experimenter
test in either room

when physical environment during encoding and during recall are same, best results
weak, but best for free recall

learn word pairs in a category (e.g. fruit-banana and fruit-orange)
study half (fruit-banana) and not other half (fruit-orange)

like 1994 paradigm but some instances fit more than one category
practice red-blood impairs unpracticed red-tomato

active forgetting of an episode for self-protection
hard to verify: event actually happened, event now remembered was forgotten, forgetting due to repression and not something else

Concrete (C) and Abstract (A) paired either C-C, C-A, A-C, or A-A
test

two ways to rep. an object - verbally or visually
Concrete can be either, Abstract only verbal

memory for HS classmates (0-48 yrs later)
nearly 100% on recog matching tests up to 48 yrs
but picture cuing and free recall declines over time

take spanish in HS, test over varying amts of time later (0-50 yrs) - comprehension, grammar, etc

older adults, give cues and tell to recall any memory (e.g. cue: street; recall: hit by bus)
dates memory, sees when most memories from

for salient, emotionally intense events (9/11, OJ Simpson, JFK)

interview people about flashbulb memory, found highly detailed memories (assumed accurate)

ask details about what doing, etc right after accident
2 1/2 years later, ask to rewrite details
high confidence of memories

details, then ask again vary amts of time later
also ask about an ordinary event that had occurred

inability to retrieve memories prior to age 3 1/2

kids of different ages, give task to learn (two-step procedure: push car, then use plunger to push to turn on light)
vary delay, test memory

put kid in crib, get baseline kicking
then attach foot to string to mobile, they acquire association (award)
delay, then put back in but tie foot to side and measure kicking

tell story to infant while in womb

ask person for directions, rudely have door carriers go in between, switch with a carrier
-over 1/2 don't detect change (wasn't encoded)

"trace dependent forgetting"
when you forget, memory no longer there

"cue dependent forgetting"
available, just not accessible (wrong cue)

best cue is one that most frequently occurs with item (dog and cat)

1) what's stored in memory is determined by how you perceive and process it
2) how processed will determine what will be an effective ret. cue

present with words, told to remember cap. word (train - BLACK)
free associate to a word (e.g. white - snow, igloo, black...)
go back and circle cap. words from that free assoc test
then, give back original cue (cue recall test)

for 600 items, one group comes up with 1 cue, another w/3
cued recall test 3 days later

aging disrupts self-initiated ret. process
older adults need more environmental support (better cue)

young and old, read long sentence ("grimacing man...")
get partial recall (short version of sentence, fill in "grimacing") or full recall (full sentence, fill in "grimacing")

1) generate ret. cues when encoding (e.g. take notes)
2) reinstate original context (of learning) at ret. (e.g. lose keys, think about what doing)
3) ret. in same internal state (State dep. learning)

Components: Soc. Psych (develop good rapport) and Cog. Psych (imagine back at scene of crime, diff perspectives, etc)

ret. (presentation of cues) interferes with ret. of related items

study 6 items form each of 6 categories
test with Cat. heading only (Vegetable) or cat. heading + 3 of items (Vegetable + lettuce...)
recall of 3 not mentioned