memory: models and research methods

Memory: Models and Research Methods

Chapter 5

Outline

1. Tasks Used for Measuring Memory

2. Traditional Model of Memory1. Sensory Store

2. Short-Term Store

3. Long-Term Store

3. Alternative Perspectives

4. Exceptional Memory and Deficits in Memory

Basic Concepts

• Memory– Is the means by which we retain and draw on

our past experiences to use this information in the present

Basic Concepts

• Memory– As a process, memory refers to the dynamic

mechanisms associated with retaining common operations of memory:

• Encoding – you transform sensory data into a form of mental representation

• Storage – you keep encoded information in memory

• Retrieval – you pull out or use information stored in memory

?


Write down the name of the disorder.

Which of the following disorders it could be:1. Prosopagnosia2. Anosognosia3. Autotopagnosia


Recall Versus Recognition Tasks

• Recall– You have to reproduce a fact, a word, or other

item from memory

• Recognition– You have to select or otherwise identify an

item as being one that you learned previously– Recognition is usually much better than recall


1. Explicit-memory tasks• You must consciously recall or recognize

particular information1. Declarative-knowledge tasks

- you must recall facts - What is your first name?

2. Recall tasks - you must produce a fact, a word or other item from

memory - Dysfunction of the basal ganglia is known to cause -----------.


1. Explicit-memory tasks (cont.)3. Serial-recall tasks

- you must repeat the items in a list in the exact order in which you heard or read them

- If you were shown the digits 3-4-2-5-6, you would be expected to repeat “3-4-2-5-6

4. Free-recall tasks - you must repeat the items in a list n any order in which you can recall them

- If you were presented with the digits 3-4-2-5-6, you would receive full credit if you repeated “4-2-3-6-5”


1. Explicit-memory tasks (cont.)5. Cued-recall task

- you must memorize a list of paired items; then when you are given one item in the pair, you must recall the pair for that item- list of pairs: “book-pen, dog-table”; when given the stimulus “book” you would be expected to say “pen”

6. Recognition tasks - you must select or otherwise identify an item as being

one that you learned previously- multiple choice test


2. Implicit memory tasks

- You must draw on information in memory without consciously realizing that you are doing so


2. Implicit memory tasks (cont.)1. Word completion tasks

- you are presented with a word fragment, such as the first three letters of a word and you are asked to complete the word- e.g. BOO_

2. Task involving procedural memory - you must remember learned skills and automatic

behaviors, rather than facts- e.g. reading mirror writing, riding a bike

2. Traditional Model of Memory

1. Sensory Store

• Capable of storing relatively limited amounts of information for very brief periods

• Initial repository of much information that eventually enters the short- and long-term stores


1. Sensory Store

• Iconic store – Discrete visual sensory register, so called

because information is believed by some to be stored in the form of icons (visual images)

– The iconic store can hold about 9 items and it decays very rapidly (in terms of miliseconds)

?

Read the following list of numbers:

12, 45, 56, 89, 32, 21, 90, 48, 23, 98, 65, 45

?

Write down as many items from the list as you can.


2. Short-Term Store

• Holds memory for matters of seconds and, occasionally, up to a couple of minutes

• George Miller (1956)– Our immediate (short term) memory capacity for a

wide range of items appears to be about 7 items, plus or minus two

• Chunking – organizing items into meaningful units increases the capacity of short-term store


3. Long-Term Store• Store of memories that stay with us over long

periods, perhaps indefinitely• Wilder Penfield

– Performed operations on the brains of conscious patients afflicted with epilepsy

– used electrical stimulation of various parts of the cerebral cortex to locate the origins of each patient’s problem

– Patients sometimes would appear to recall memories from way back in their childhoods that may not have been called to mind for many years


1. Self-reference effect

– Very high levels of recall when we are asked to relate words meaningfully to ourselves

– Each of us has a very elaborate self-schema, an organized system of internal cues regarding ourselves, our attributes, and our personal experiences

– Therefore, we can richly and elaborately encode information related to ourselves much more so than information about other topics


2. Working memory

• Is part of long-term memory and also comprises short-term memory

• It holds only the most recently activated portion of long-term memory, and it moves these activated elements into and out of brief, temporary memory storage

3. Alternative Perspectives3. Episodic versus Semantic memory

• Semantic memory– General world knowledge – our memory for

facts that are not unique to us and that are not recalled in any particular temporal context

• I remember the name of the researcher who investigated the difference between semantic and episodic memory.

• Episodic memory– Personally experienced events and episodes

• I saw my friend Connie in the dentist’s office yesterday.


1. Outstanding Memory: Mnemonists• Someone who demonstrates extraordinarily

keen memory ability, usually based on using a special technique for memory enhancement

• Luria (1968) – mnemonist S.– Could remember words 15 years after a session in

which he learned them– S. had disorder called synesthesia which enabled him

to encode information efficiently • Syntesthesia – Patient Experiences some sensations in a

sensory modality different from the sense that was physically stimulated (e.g. colors are associated with sounds)


2. Deficits in Memory: Amnesia• Retrograde amnesia

– Individuals loose their purposeful memory for events prior to whatever trauma induced memory loss

• Anterograde amnesia– Difficulty remembering events that occurred from the

time of a brain trauma

• Infantile amnesia– The inability to recall events that happened when we

were very young


3. Memory and brain structures• Double dissociation

– People with different kinds of neuropathologies show opposite patterns of deficits

• Hippocampus– Important in explicit memory

• Amygdala– Important in encoding memories with emotional aspects

• Basal ganglia– Primary structures controlling procedural knowledge

• Cerebellum– Crucial in procedural memory

Synesthesia

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Synesthesia

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memory: models and research methods

Documents

implicit memory tasks

word completion tasks

memory dysfunction

procedural memory

measuring memory1

explicitmemory tasksyou

implicit memory tasksyou

common operations of