Cognitive Level of Analysis

1. Cognitive Level of Analysis Long-term Memory

2. DO NOW • Get in rows and columns and start studying for the quiz you have today! You have 5 minutes…

3. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RETENTION OF INFORMATION • Elaborate • Generate and test • Organize • Match learning and testing conditions

4. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RETENTION OF INFORMATION • Associate what you are learning to what you already know • Avoid the “illusion of learning”

5. STRATEGIES TO IMPROVE RETENTION OF INFORMATION • Take breaks • Memory is better for multiple short study sessions (spacing effect) • Consolidation • Distributed versus massed practice effect • Difficult to maintain close attention throughout a long study session • Studying after a break gives feedback about what you already know

6. OTHER FACTORS THAT AID ENCODING • Creating connections, cues for remembering • Organizing to-be-remembered information • Capitalize on retrieval cue → word or other stimulus that aids recall for other words in that category

7. ENCODING SPECIFICITY • We learn information together with its context • Baddeley’s (1975) “diving experiment” • Best recall occurred when encoding and retrieval occurred in the same location

8. Grant et al.’s (1998) “studying” experiment

9. STATE-DEPENDENT LEARNING • Learning is associated with a particular internal state Two days Eich & Metcalfe (1989)

10. Long-Term Memory • Long-term memory (LTM) = system that is responsible for storing information for extended periods of time • “Archive” of information about past events and knowledge learned • Storage stretches from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember

11. LTM & STM/WM • LTM • Large capacity to hold information • Information held for an extended period of time • STM/WM • Relatively small capacity to hold information • Information held for relatively brief period of time • Emphasis on manipulating information Dynamic interaction during a conversation: hold exact wording in mind (WM) and simultaneously access information regarding the content/context (LTM)

12. Long-Term Memory: Prove it… • Korsakoff’s syndrome • Chronic alcoholism/deficiency of vitamin B1 • Results in destruction of frontal and temporal lobes • STM generally intact • Retention of information for seconds is okay • Retrograde amnesia • Loss of ability to recall some past events • Anterograde amnesia • Loss of ability to develop and retain new memory • Inability to recognize people just met

13. LTM: Double Dissociation Contracted herpes simplex encephalitis → brain (hippocampus) was attacked Surgical removal of bilateral hippocampus Unclear: “Encephalopathy” = disorder of the brain

14. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwigmktix2Y • Clive Wearing: accomplished musician, seemed aware that he had children, had a sense of doctors, remembered how to play the piano… “HM”: Henry Gustav Molaison (1926-2008) http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/05/us/05hm.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

15. Serial Position Curve • Murdoch (1962) proposed the idea of a serial position curve Memory better for stimuli presented at the beginning and end of the list • Primacy effect • Superior memory for stimuli presented at the beginning of a sequence • More time to rehearse, more likely to enter LTM • Recency effect • Superior memory for stimuli presented at the end of a sequence • Most recently presented words are still in STM

16. To LTM?? Murdoch, 1962 In STM?? At least one imaging study has demonstrated different patterns of activation for words with early and late serial positions (see Talmi et al., 2005) There is debate regarding whether different patterns of activation should be observer

17. Coding in Long-Term Memory • Visual coding • Recognize an individual based on their appearance • Auditory coding • Recognize a person based on their voice • Semantic coding • You remember the gist or meaning of something that happened • Predominant type; remember meaning not exact wording

18. Types of Long-Term Memory***** declarative Non-declarative

19. Types of Long-Term Memory: Explicit/Conscious • Episodic involves mental time travel • No guarantee of accuracy • Mental time travel: the experience of traveling back in time to reconnect with events that happened • Semantic does not involve mental time travel • General knowledge • Episodic and semantic show a double dissociation The experience of traveling back in time to reconnect with events that happened

20. Separation of Episodic and Semantic Memories • “K.C.” damaged hippocampus and related areas after involvement in a motorcycle accident • Semantic memory intact, can remember general information about the past • He is aware that his brother died • No episodic memory, cannot relive any events of his past • He is unable to recall where he was when his brother passed away

21. Separation of Episodic and Semantic Memories • “Italian woman” suffered an attack of encephalitis (inflammation of brain) • Impaired semantic memory • Couldn’t remember meanings of words on the shopping list or location of items in the store • Episodic memory for past events was preserved • Could recall daily events and what she accomplished months before

22. Separation of Episodic and Semantic Memories • Retrieving episodic and semantic memories activate different brain regions Activated by facts (semantic) Activated with autobiographical memories (episodic) Levine et al. (2003)

23. Episodic Semantic • Episodic can be lost, leaving semantic • Acquiring knowledge may start as episodic →“fade” to semantic • Semantic can be enhanced if associated with episodic • Personal semantic memory: semantic memories that have personal significance • More likely to recall Cleveland Browns players form the mid-1980s because I attended/watched games with family/friends

24. Types of Long-Term Memory: Implicit/Unconscious**** • Implicit: non-declarative memory that unconsciously influences behavior (nonknowing memory) • Priming • Procedural memory • Classical conditioning

25. Priming • Repetition priming: presentation of one stimulus affects performance on that stimulus when it is presented again • Seeing the word bird may cause you to respond more rapidly to another presentation of the word bird • Conceptual priming: enhancement caused by the priming stimulus is based on the meaning of the stimulus • Presentation of the word animal might cause you to respond more rapidly to later presentation of the word bird

26. Priming: Why it matters/what it illustrates • Graf et al. (1985) • Three groups: (1) medical inpts, (2) pts undergoing ALC txment, (3) amnestic pts • Rate word preference 1 to 5 • Tested: (1) recall words [explicit], (2) given a three-letter fragment and asked to add letters to create the first word that comes to mind Key point: Priming can occur even when there is little explicit memory

27. Implicit Memory • Warrington and Weiskrantz (1968) • Korsakoff’s syndrome patients • STM semi-intact; LTM impaired • Showed fragmented pictures, participant had to identify the object • Sequentially shown more and more complete versions of the picture until it was recognizable • Tested day after day

29. Implicit Memory in Everyday Experience • Perfect and Askew (1994) • Propaganda effect: more likely to rate statements read or heard before as being true • Implications for advertisements • Implications for campaigns

30. Implicit Memory: Procedural Memory • Procedural memory is sometimes referred to as skill memory (memory for actions) • No memory of where or when learned • Perform procedures without being consciously aware of how to do them • People who cannot form new LTMs can still learn new skills (e.g., H.M.)

31. Implicit Memory: Classical Conditioning • Pairing a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response

32. Review Next week: -Ways to improve encoding and retrieval of information -Changes in the brain associated with forming memories -Integration with SL

33. Autobiographical Memory (AM) • Recollected events that belong to a person’s past Episodic memory for events from our life plus personal semantic memories of facts about our lives • Multidimensional • Spatial, emotional, and sensory components • Visual experience often plays a significant role in forming and retrieving AM

34. Autobiographical Memory • Cabeza et al (2004) • Compared brain activation caused by autobiographical memory and laboratory memory • Participants viewed pictures of Duke University • Photographs they took (A-photos) • Photographs taken by someone else

35. Autobiographical Memory • Both types of photos activated brain structures associated with • Episodic memory • Processing scenes • Photographs participants took also activated brain structures associated with • PROCESSING INFO ABOUT THE SELF • Memory for visual space • Mental time travel memory

36. Parietal cortex showing similar areas activated by both the A-photos and the L-photos during the memory test. Areas in the parahippocampal gyrus that were activated by the A-photos and the L-photos: Activation was much greater for the A-photos.

37. Memory Over the Lifespan • What events are remembered well? • Significant events in a person’s life • Highly emotional events

38. Reminiscence Bump • Participants over the age of 40 asked to recall events in their lives • Memory highest for recent events and for events that occurred in adolescence and early adulthood (between 10 and 30 years of age)

39. Reminiscence Bump • Hypotheses about the reminiscence bump

40. Reminiscence Bump • Self-image hypothesis • Memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed • People assume identities during adolescence and young adulthood • Many transitions occur between ages 10 and 30

41. Reminiscence Bump • Cognitive hypothesis • Encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability

42. Reminiscence Bump • Cultural life-script hypothesis • Each person has • A personal life story • An understanding of culturally expected events’ • Personal events are easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script • Self-image: period of assuming person’s self-image • Cognitive: encoding is better during periods of rapid change • Cultural life script: culturally shared expectations structure recall

43. Memory for Emotional Stimuli • Emotional events remembered more easily and vividly • Emotion improves memory, recall may become greater with time • Enhance consolidation process? • Key structure: amygdala

44. LaBar & Phelps (1998) • Tested ability to immediately recall arousing words and neutral words • Dolcos et al. (2005) • Tested ability to recall emotional and neutral pictures a year after initial presentation

45. Flashbulb Memories • Memory for circumstances surrounding shocking, highly charged important events • Typically, we “recall” where we were, and what we were doing

46. Flashbulb Memories • Key features of our flashbulb memories: • How do you evaluate flashbulb memories?

47. Flashbulb Memories Talarico & Rubin (2003): Decrease in the number of details remembered was similar for memories of 9/11 and an everyday event; belief that memory was accurate remained high for 9/11, but decreased for everyday event.

48. Flashbulb Memories • Davidson et al. (2006) • Shortly after, asked numerous questions surrounding 9/11: • “How did you hear about the news?” • “Who was present?” • Same questions asked about significant event that occurred days prior to 9/11 • Memories for 9/11more resistant to fading after a year than memory for other events that occurred around that time

49. Flashbulb Memories • Narrative rehearsal hypothesis • Repeated viewing/hearing of event after initial exposure can potentially impact memory • Watching news coverage, discussing the event with others, etc… • Could introduce errors in own memory