Unit 1: Understanding the individual Memory

1
Unit 1 Understanding the individualMemory

• Week one Introduction to memory
• Week two Models of memory
• Week three Forgetting and Mnemonics

2
Activity What is Memory?

• Write down a list of everything that you did
  yesterday. Try to recall every single activity
  that you did.
• Write down a list of everything you did on the
  5th of December last year. Try to recall as much
  as you can.
• What do you notice about what you can remember
  for each date?
• What is the role that memory plays in each of
  these activities? For example, think about the
  different types of information that you need
• What can you do that doesnt require memory?

3
What is Memory

•  
• Memory is a cognitive process used to encode,
  store, and retrieve information.
• Encoding - means to put something into a code, in
  this case the code used to store information in
  the memory. Encoding takes many forms visual,
  auditory, taste, smell etc
• Storage -as a result of encoding, the information
  is stored within the memory system.
• Retrieval -the recovery of stored information
  from the memory system. It includes recognition,
  recall and reconstruction.

4
What is Memory

• Several theories of memory are based on the
  assumption that there are 3 kinds of memory
• Sensory memory this is a storage system that
  holds information in a relatively unprocessed
  form for fractions of a second after the physical
  stimulus is no longer available.
• Baddeley (1988) suggested that one function of
  this kind of storage is to allow information from
  successive eye-fixations to last for a long
  enough time to be integrated and so to give
  continuity to an individuals visual environment
  e.g. Like a film

5
What is Memory

• Short-term memory
• a temporary place for storing information during
  which it receives limited processing.
• Short-term memory has a very limited capacity and
  short duration, unless the information in it is
  maintained through rehearsal.
• Long-term memory
• this is a relatively permanent store which has
  unlimited capacity and duration.

6
What is Memory

•  Different kinds of long-term memory have been
  identified
• episodic (memory for personal events)
• semantic (memory for facts and information)
• procedural (memory for actions and skills).

7
Short-term Memory

•  
• Some researchers (eg Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1968)
  see short term memory simply as a temporary
  storage depot for incoming signals from the
  senses. Others (eg Baddeley 1986) prefer to use
  the term working memory to indicate its dynamic
  and flexible aspects.
• Encoding
• Information arrives in sensory memory in its
  original form (or modality), eg acoustic,
  visual, etc. However, as memory processes are
  unconscious individuals are not aware of which
  type of encoding they use.
• Substitution error studies have provided much of
  the information about coding, eg Conrad (1964).

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 Short-term Memory

• Conrad (1964)
• Aim to find out whether people used acoustic
  coding in short-term memory, even when
  information was presented visually.
• Procedure Participants were shown a random
  sequence of 6 consonants projected in rapid
  succession onto a screen. (The strings of
  consonants were either acoustically similar or
  acoustically dissimilar.)
• Participants were asked to write down the letters
  in the same order as they appeared.
• Letters were presented too fast for the
  participants to keep up, so they had to rely on
  memory.
• Conrad noted the errors made by the participants.

9
 Short-term Memory

• Findings
• The majority of the errors involved the
  substitution of a similar sounding letter
• Participants found that it was more difficult to
  recall strings of acoustically similar letters in
  the correct order than dissimilar letters, even
  though they were presented visually.
• Conclusions
• The visually presented information must have been
  encoded acoustically.
• The short term memory is primarily encoded on the
  basis of sound.

10
 Short-term Memory

• Baddeley (1986) found that words with similar
  sounds were much harder to recall than words,
  which did not sound alike. Similarity of meaning
  had only a slight detrimental effect on
  performance. Baddeley, like Conrad, concluded
  that short-term memory relies more on the sound
  of words than on their meaning.
• Other researchers (eg Brandimonte et al 1992)
  have found that although acoustic coding is the
  preferred method of encoding in short-term
  memory, other modes of representation are also
  possible. For example in the absence of acoustic
  coding, visual coding may be substituted.

11
STM capacity experiment

• You will now be shown a series of numbers in
  lists. After each list has finished, please try
  to write down the numbers you have just seen in
  order.

12
 Short-term Memory

• Capacity
• Jacobs (1887) conducted the first systematic
  study of the capacity of short-term memory by
  devising a technique called the memory span. He
  found that the memory span for digits or letters
  was between 5 and 9 items and that short-term
  memory span increased with age (either due to
  increased brain capacity or memory techniques).

13

• TAERGSIDNALTOCS

14
 Short-term Memory

• Most people have a digit span of seven, plus or
  minus two Miller (1956)
• This has been called Millers magic number 7.
  Miller claimed that this finding holds good for
  lists of digits, letters, words or larger
  chunks of information.
• Miller reported that the key issue is chunks
  (integrated pieces or units of information).
  About 7 chunks of information can be held in
  the short-term memory at any one time. The
  question of what constitutes chunks depends on
  personal experience.
• Chunking improves the capacity of memory but it
  may reduce its accuracy

15
Multi-store model

• This model arose from the information processing
  approach where memory is characterised as a flow
  of information through a system.
• The system is divided into a set of stages and
  information passes through each stage in a fixed
  sequence.
• The Multi-store model suggests that incoming data
  passes through a sensory store where it can be
  registered for very brief periods of time before
  decaying or being passed into a short-term memory
  store.
• There are two types of sensory storage
• Iconic storage the store associated with visual
  information
• Echoic storage the store associated with
  auditory information
• Atkinson and Shiffrin believed that memory traces
  in the short-term memory are fragile and can be
  lost within 30 seconds unless they are rehearsed.

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Short-term Memory

• Difficult to assess capacity of short-term
  memory two main ways are span measures and
  recency effects in free recall.
• Span measures e.g. digit span (Jacobs, 1887)
  require the participant to repeat back
  immediately a list of random digits in the
  correct order.
• Span of immediate memory generally seven, plus
  or minus two, whether the units are numbers,
  letters or words.
• Miller (1956) proposed that the capacity of short
  term memory depends more on the number of chunks
  rather than individual units.

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Recency Effects Experiment

• In this serial position experiment, you will hear
  a list of words. At the end of the list, you
  must write down the words you heard in any order
  you like.
• The task will then be repeated, but before
  recalling, you must count backwards in 3s from
  100.

18
Short-term Memory

• Primacy and recency effects measured in studies
  of free recall, participants recall words from a
  list in any order immediately after it has been
  presented.
• Recency effect last few items in a list are
  usually better remembered than items in the
  middle.
• Primacy effectfirst few items in a list are
  usually better remembered than items in the
  middle.
• Why?

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Short-term Memory

• Recency effect based on information in the
  short-term store- suggests capacity is about 2 or
  3 items.
• Effect eliminated when interference task
  introduced between end of presentation and start
  of recall (Glanzer and Cunitz, 1966)
• Primacy effect depends mainly on extra
  rehearsal, items no longer in short-term store?
• TASK Read and summarise Glanzer and Cunitz
  experiment.

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Short-term Memory

• Duration
• Peterson and Peterson (1959)
• Aim To test how long short-term memory lasts
  when rehearsal is prevented.
• Procedure
• Participants were briefly shown a consonant
  trigram (i.e. 3 letters such as MWG or CGX).
• Participants were asked to count backwards in 3s
  from a specified number to stop them thinking
  about the letters.
• After intervals of 3,6,9,12,15 or 18 seconds,
  participants were asked to recall the original
  trigram.
• The procedure was repeated several times using
  different trigrams.

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Short-term Memory

• Duration
• Findings
• Participants were able to recall 80 of trigrams
  after a 3 second interval.
• Progressively fewer trigrams were recalled as the
  time intervals lengthened.
• After 18 seconds, fewer than 10 of the trigrams
  were recalled correctly.
• Conclusions
• If rehearsal is prevented, information vanishes
  rapidly from short-term memory.
• Therefore, decay is the mechanism for forgetting
  in short-term memory.

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Short-term Memory

• The key point about findings based on the
  Brown-Peterson technique is that items disappear
  from short-term memory only when rehearsal is
  prevented. New items can only take their place if
  existing items move on.
• Repetition serves as a method of continually
  reinserting the information into the short-term
  memory and thereby strengthening the memory.
• Without rehearsal, the duration of short-term
  memory is less than 30 seconds.

23
Short-term Memory

• Rehearsal
• There are different types of rehearsal. Craik and
  Watkins (1973) distinguished between maintenance
  rehearsal, where, for example, a word is repeated
  out loud a number of times to keep it in
  short-term memory, and
• elaborative rehearsal, in which information is
  processed in terms of its meaning. They suggested
  that maintenance rehearsal may be enough to keep
  information in short-term memory, while
  elaborative rehearsal is the type necessary to
  transfer information from short-term memory to
  long-term memory.

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Evaluation of Multi-store model

• 3 different kinds of memory stores- model based
  on evidence that there are important differences
  among the stores
• Temporal duration (e.g. STM- 18seconds (Peterson
  and Peterson,)
• Storage capacity (e.g. Miller (1956) 7/-2 chunks
  of information)
• Forgetting mechanism (e.g. STM-primacy/recency
  effects, different types of rehearsal)
• Effects of brain damage (e.g. amnesic patients
  have poor long-term memory but almost normal
  short-term memory, Baddeley and Warrington, 1970)

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Evaluation of Multi-store model

• Problems and limitations
• Rehearsal does not always lead to storage.
• If coding in the short-term memory is mainly
  acoustic, how do we understand language?
• How does the model explain flashbulb memories?
• Some types of information are not amenable to
  rehearsal, e.g. smells and yet we remember them.
• Memory oversimplified in this model?

26
Working Memory

• Baddeley and Hitch (1974) argued that concept of
  STM should be replaced with WM. WM consists of 3
  components
• Central executive responsible for the
  supervision of information integration and for
  coordinating the slave systems. It is also
  responsible for directing attention to relevant
  information
• Articulatory or phonological loop holds
  information briefly in a phonological or
  speech-based form. Prevents decay by continuously
  articulating its contents.
• Visuo-spatial sketch pad stores visual and
  spatial information. It can be used, for example,
  for constructing and manipulating visual images,
  and for the representation of mental maps.

27
Working Memory

• Baddeley, Thomson and Buchanan (1975) studied the
  articulatory loop.
• Asked participants to recall sets of 5 words in
  the correct order. Word-length effect better
  with short words than long words. Indicates
  limited capacity of articulatory loop.
• Hitch and Baddeley (1976) tested two predictions
  of the working memory model
• If two tasks make use of the same component, they
  cannot be performed successfully together.
• If two tasks make use of different components, it
  should be possible to perform them as well
  together as separately.

28
Working Memory

• Participants carried out verbal reasoning
  task-involved deciding whether a set of sentences
  provided a true or false description of the
  letter pair that followed it (e.g. B is followed
  by A AB).
• Assumed that this task makes use of the central
  executive.

29
Working Memory

• At the same time as carrying out the verbal
  reasoning task, participants were given an
  additional task (one of four conditions) before
  each trial
• the repeatedly
• one, two, three, four, five
• a different random string of digits out loud
  every trial
• or there was no additional task (control).

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• It was assumed that the first two conditions
  would make use of the articulatory loop only
  because little thought or attention is involved.
• In contrast, saying six random digits involves
  the central executive as well as the articulatory
  loop.
• Predicted that only condition 3 should interfere
  with performance on the verbal reasoning task.
• Results reasoning performance slowed down only
  when the additional task was condition 3.

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Working Memory

• Evaluation
• Working memory model concerned with both active
  processing and brief storage of information.
• Multi-store model minimises active involvement of
  the individual in learning and remembering.
• Therefore, working memory model relevant to
  everyday tasks such as mental arithmetic, verbal
  reasoning and comprehension.
• Working memory model views verbal rehearsal as an
  optional process (one of two specialised systems)
  rather than the main process for retention of
  information.
• Yet, little known about central executive,
  visuo-spatial sketch pad and the interaction
  between these components.

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Long-term Memory

• Multi-store model proposed by Atkinson and
  Shiffrin (1968) suggested that there is a single
  long-term memory store.
• Critics have argued that this model is
  over-simplified and that it is improbable that
  all the knowledge we possess is stored in exactly
  the same form in one store.
• Much research has been carried out to determine
  the number and nature of long-term memory stores

33
Long-term Memory

• Episodic and semantic memory
• Tulving (1972) argued for a distinction between
  episodic and semantic memory
• Episodic memory autobiographical- refers to
  storage of specific events or episodes. E.g.
  party you attended last weekend.
• Semantic memory general knowledge about the
  world e.g. facts and figures, language, etc.

34
Long-term Memory

• Tulving (1972, p.386) defined semantic memory as
• a mental thesaurus, organised knowledge a person
  possesses about words and other verbal symbols,
  their meanings and referents, about relations
  among them, and about rules, formulas, and
  algorithms for the manipulation of these symbols,
  concepts and relations
• Distinction between semantic and episodic memory
  can be described in the following way
• Episodic Wedding- remember who you went with,
  what various people wore, meal and party
  afterwards
• Semantic Knowledge of wedding ceremonies- e.g.
  usually in Church, sometimes registrar, legal
  ceremony which results in marriage, traditional
  wear for female is.., etc etc

35
Long-term Memory

• Tulving (1989) carried out a study to investigate
  the distinction between episodic and semantic
  memory
• A small dose of radioactive gold was injected
  into the bloodstream of participants (including
  Tulving).
• Participants instructed to think about personal
  events OR general knowledge (e.g. history of
  psychology)
• Blood flow in different areas of the brain
  recorded

36
Long-term Memory

• Tulving (1989)
• Results
• Episodic memory associated with a high level of
  activation in the frontal cortex
• Semantic memory associated with a high level of
  activation in the posterior or back regions of
  the cortex
• Evidence supports Tulvings view that there are
  separate long-term memory systems
• Evaluation difference in content of memories yet
  less clear that there is a difference in the
  processes involved. E.g. both rely heavily on
  each other

37
Long-term Memory

• Explicit and Implicit memory
• Memory tests involve the use of direct
  instructions to participants to retrieve specific
  information (e.g. free recall, cued recall,
  recognition)
• These tests are tests of explicit memory which,
  according to Graf and Schachter (1985) can be
  contrasted with implicit memory
• Explicit memory is revealed when performance on
  a task requires conscious recollection of
  previous experiences
• Implicit memory is revealed when performance on
  a task is facilitated in the absence of conscious
  recollection

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Long-term Memory

• Explicit memory based on conscious recollection
• Implicit memory not based on conscious
  recollection
• How does one measure implicit memory?
• Why is this distinction important?

39
Long-term Memory

• Distinction useful when studying patients
  suffering from amnesia (partial loss of long-term
  memory usually caused by brain damage)
• Patients have severe problems with long-term
  memory- yet mainly with explicit rather than
  implicit memory
• Claparede (1911) hid a pin in his hand before
  shaking hands with an amnesic patient.
• After this, the patient was reluctant to shake
  hands but was embarrassed as she could not
  explain this reluctance
• Behaviour indicated implicit memory- this
  occurred in the absence of explicit memory of the
  accident

40
Long-term Memory

• Graf, Squire and Mandler (1984) tested memory in
  amnesic patients (and controls) for list words in
  four ways
• 3 standard explicit memory tests (cued recall,
  free recall, recognition)
• 1 implicit memory test word completion task
• Participants given three-letter word fragments
  (e.g. STR----) and asked to write down the first
  word they can think of beginning with these
  letters
• Implicit memory measured by extent to which the
  word completions match words from a previous list
• Results found that amnesic patients performed
  worse than controls on the explicit memory tasks.
  Yet performed as well as controls on the implicit
  memory test

41
Long-term Memory

• Declarative and procedural knowledge systems
• Cohen and Squire (1980) argued for a distinction
  between two long-term memory stores containing
  different types of knowledge
• Declarative knowledge knowing that e.g. what
  you had for lunch yesterday and capital of
  France.
• Procedural knowledge knowing how e.g. how to
  ride a bicycle, swim, drive a car.
• Explicit memory depends on declarative knowledge
• Implicit memory depends on the procedural
  knowledge system

42
Long-term Memory

• Declarative and procedural knowledge systems
• Cohen and Squire (1980) argue that amnesic
  patients have severe impairment of the
  declarative memory system and therefore find it
  hard to acquire new episodic and semantic
  memories.
• Yet amnesic patients find it relatively easy to
  acquire new skills which rely on procedural
  memory e.g. dress-making, jigsaw completions,
  (Eysenck and Keane, 1995)

43
Long-term Memory

• Declarative and procedural knowledge systems
• Squire, Knowlton and Musen (1993) argued that the
  main brain structures underlying declarative or
  explicit memory are located in the hippocampus,
  medial temporal lobes and the diencephalons.
• Study by Squire et al (1992) supported this view.
  Using PET scans, found that blood flow in the
  right hippocampus was much higher when
  participants were performing a cued recall task
  compared to a word-completion task.

44
Long-term Memory

• Summary
• Semantic and Episodic
• Explicit and Implicit
• Procedural and declarative

45
Forgetting

• The term forgetting has several meanings
• The information was never stored problem of
  availability
• The information was stored, but is difficult to
  retrieve problem of accessibility
  (tip-of-the-tongue)
• Confusion problem of interference
• Absentmindedness problem of habit, attention,
  and automatic responses.
• Generally, forgetting is the inability to recall
  or recognise material which was previously stored
  in memory.

46
Forgetting

• Trace Decay 
• According to the decay theory, information is
  forgotten because of the passage of time.
• Theoretical assumption that forgetting depends on
  the length of the retention interval rather than
  on events occurring during that interval.
• Peterson and Peterson, (1959) found that memories
  were held in short-term memory for approximately
  18 seconds, after which they disappeared via
  trace decay.
•  
• Hebb (1949) believed that, as a result of
  excitation of the nerve cells, a brief memory
  trace is laid down. At this stage the trace is
  very fragile and likely to be disrupted. With
  repeated neural activity (via rehearsal), a
  permanent structural change occurs and the memory
  is transferred to the long-term memory where it
  is no longer likely to decay.

47
Forgetting

• Displacement
•  
• Displacement refers to the limited number of
  slots in short-term memory (7/-2). When more
  items are introduced into short-term memory than
  there are slots, some of the old information must
  be knocked out of its slot, or displaced.
•  
• Evidence for this comes from the Brown-Peterson
  technique, where the last few words on a list are
  displaced from short-term memory by the counting
  task.
•  

48
Forgetting

•  Interference
•  
• The idea behind this theory is that memories may
  be interfered with either by what has been
  learned before, or by what may be learned in the
  future. Forgetting increases with time because of
  interference from competing memories that have
  been acquired over time.
• Proactive interference when previous learning
  interferes with later learning and retention
• Retroactive interference when later learning
  disrupts memory for earlier learning

49
Forgetting

• Interference was widely studied in the 1960s, but
  has attracted less attention since then.
• Studies typically made use of the technique of
  paired-associates in which a word is associated
  with one word on a list and with a completely
  different word on another list.
• Participants are required to learn one list and
  then the other. When given the stimulus word from
  the first list, it was found that participants
  frequently suffered from retroactive
  interference, in other words, they recalled the
  paired associate from the second list.
• In both cases of interference, the greater the
  similarity of the interfering material, the
  greater the interference (Underwood and Postman,
  1960).

50
Forgetting

• Interference theory Evaluation
• Prediction learning a second response to a given
  stimulus causes the first response to be
  unlearned.
• Only occurs under laboratory conditions?
• Slamecka (1966) asked participants to produce
  free associates to various stimulus words.
• These stimulus words were then paired with new
  responses.
• When participants asked to recall their free
  associates, no sign of retroactive intereference.

51
Forgetting

• Interference theory Evaluation
• Uninformative about internal processes involved
  in memory and learning
• Requires special circumstances for interference
  effects to occur (same stimulus and two different
  responses) which rarely happens in real life.

52
Forgetting

• Many theorists have tried to understand why
  recognition memory is usually much better than
  recall (Parkin, 1993)
• Two-process theory (Watkins and Gardiner, 1979)
  suggests that
• Recall involves a search or retrieval process
  followed by a decision or recognition process
  based on the appropriateness of the information
• Recognition involves only the second stage.
• Yet, recall sometimes better than recognition
  which should not happen (e.g. Tulving and
  Thomson, 1973)
• Little explanation of recognition memory

53
Forgetting

• Cue-dependent Forgetting
• Tulving (1974) 2 major reasons for forgetting
• Trace dependent forgetting information no longer
  stored in memory (e.g. trace decay theory)
• Cue-dependent forgetting information in memory
  but cannot be accessed
• Tulving assumed basic similarities between recall
  and recognition and that contextual factors were
  important (memory contains information about
  material and context)

54
Forgetting

• Cue-dependent Forgetting
• Tulving and Pearlstone (1966)
• Long lists of words belonging to several
  different categories were presented (e.g.
  animals, furniture etc)
• Participants asked to write down what they could
  remember (non-cued recall)
• Participants given category names and asked to
  write down what they could remember
• Results participants recalled up to three or
  four times as many words with cued recall

55
Forgetting

• Cue-dependent Forgetting
• External cues e.g. category names
• Internal cues e.g. mood state
• state-dependent forgetting research (eg Goodwin
  et al, 1969) showed that information is more
  likely to be remembered by an individual if they
  are in the same physical or emotional sate as
  they were in when they learned it.
• Effects are stronger when participants are in a
  positive mood than a negative mood (Ucros, 1989)

56
Forgetting

• Cue-dependent Forgetting
• Findings on cue-dependent forgetting and
  mood-state dependent memory indicate that
  forgetting occurs when the information available
  at the time of retrieval does not match or fit
  information in memory trace.
• Tulving (1979) proposed the encoding specificity
  principle
• The probability of successful retrieval of
  the target item is anincreasing function of
  informational overlap between the information
  contained in the retrieval cue and the
  information stored in memory.

57
Forgetting

• Cue-dependent Forgetting
•          context-dependent forgetting research
  (eg. Abernathy, 1940) has shown that it is much
  easier to remember information in the same
  context in which the information was learnt.
• Also remembering information is made easier with
  retrieval cues which trigger memory for relevant
  information.
• Tulving assumes that context affects recall and
  recognition in the same way- but is this the
  case?

58
Forgetting

•          context-dependent forgetting
• Baddeley (1982) proposed a distinction between
  intrinsic context and extrinsic context
• Intrinsic context has direct impact on meaning
  or significance of a to-be-remembered item (e.g.
  strawberry vs traffic as intrinsic context for
  the word jam.
• Extrinsic context e.g. room in which learning
  takes place does not.
• Recall affected by both, recognition affected
  only by intrinsic context

59
Forgetting

• Godden and Baddeley (1975)
• Participants learned a list of words either on
  land or 20feet underwater.
• Then given a test of free recall on land or
  underwater.
• Results those who learned on land recalled more
  on land and those who learned underwater recalled
  more underwater
• Recall 50 higher when learning took place in the
  same extrinsic context

60
Forgetting

• Godden and Baddeley (1980)
• Similar study- tested recognition memory instead
  of recall
• Results recognition memory not affected by
  extrinsic context e.g. did not matter if they
  learned words on land and tested underwater

61
Forgetting

• Emotional Factors in Forgetting 
• Repression
• Repression is a concept from psychoanalytic
  psychology which focuses heavily on emotion.
  Freud (1915) proposed that forgetting is
  motivated by the desire to avoid displeasure, so
  embarrassing, unpleasant or anxiety-producing
  experiences are repressed pushed down into the
  unconscious.
•  
• Repression is an unconscious, protective defence
  mechanism, which involves the ego actively
  blocking the conscious recall of memories which
  become inaccessible.
•  

62
Forgetting

• Emotional Factors in Forgetting 
• Repression
• Case studies provide examples of repression.
  Freud reports the case of a man who kept
  forgetting the line With a white sheet. Free
  association revealed that the term white sheet
  was associated with the sheet placed over a
  corpse. The mans friend had recently died from a
  heart attack and the white sheet was associated
  with death this made him fearful since he was
  overweight and his grandfather had died of a
  heart attack.
•  
• Repression has proved difficult to demonstrate in
  a laboratory but attempts have been made

63
Forgetting

• Levinger and Clark (1961) investigated the
  retrieval of associations to words that were
  emotionally charged, compared with the retrieval
  of associations to neutral words. They found
•          It took participants longer to provide
  free associations to the negatively charged words
  compared with the neutral words.
•          Compared with the neutral words, the
  negatively charged words produced higher galvanic
  skin responses in the participants.
•          Participants found it more difficult to
  recall their associations for the negatively
  charged words compared with the neutral words.
•  
• From these findings, Levinger and Clark concluded
  that repression led to the emotionally negatively
  charged words being more difficult to recall and
  results therefore, support Freuds theory that
  repression causes forgetting.

64
Forgetting

• However, a situation of high anxiety was produced
  by Loftus and Burns (1982) who showed two groups
  a film of a bank robbery, but exposed one of the
  groups to a far more violent version where a
  young boy was shot in the face. The group that
  saw this version later showed far poorer recall
  of detail than the control group.
•  
• Loftus and Burns explained the forgetting with
  the weapons focus effect, where fearful or
  stressful aspects of a scene (eg the gun) channel
  attention towards the source of distress and away
  from other details.
•  
• Alternatively, people may need to be in the same
  state (ie anxious) to recall properly this is a
  cue-dependent explanation.

65
Forgetting

• Flashbulb Memories
•  
• The term flashbulb memory describes a
  long-lasting vivid memory formed at a time of
  intense emotion, such as significant public or
  personal events.
•  
• Brown and Kulik (1977) found that around 90 of
  people reported flashbulb memories associated
  with personal shocking events, but whether they
  had such memories for public shocking events,
  like assassinations, depended upon how personally
  relevant the event was for them. 75 of black
  participants in their research had a flashbulb
  memory for the assassination of Martin Luther
  King, compared to 3 of white participants.

66
Forgetting

• Flashbulb Memories
•   
• Brown and Kulik argue that flashbulb memory was a
  special and distinct form of memory since the
  emotionally important event triggers a neural
  mechanism, which causes it to be especially well
  imprinted into memory.
•  
• Neisser (1982), disagrees that flashbulb memories
  are distinct from other memories, since the
  long-lasting nature of the memory is probably due
  to it being frequently rehearsed (thought about
  it and discarded afterwards) rather than being
  due to any special neural activity at the time.

67
Memory Improvement Techniques

• Improving the memory depends on organising
  information and then using active techniques and
  persevering with them.
• Organisation
• Organising and ordering information can
  significantly improve memory.

68
Memory Improvement Techniques

• By Category and Hierarchy
• If things are stored away in their proper place
  it is much easier to find them than when they are
  jumbled up.
• Memory is the same, retrieval is made easier when
  memory is organised rather than if it is
  disorganised.
• Information can be accessed more easily if it is
  organised by category and hierarchy.

69
Memory Improvement Techniques

• Bower et al. (1969) presented participants with
  word lists arranged either hierarchically or
  randomly. Participants were then tested for
  recall.
• The results showed that the list, which was
  arranged hierarchically was recalled two to three
  times better than the list arranged randomly.

70
Memory Improvement Techniques

• By Imagery
• Diagrams can be used to illustrate information
  and to aid understanding of information.
• Imagery can be defined as the creation of a
  mental picture.
• After studying patients with damage to one of
  their temporal lobes, Paivio (1971) proposed that
  the processing of words and images occurs
  separately. According to Paivio, concrete words,
  which can be images, are encoded twice in memory,
  once in verbal symbols and once as image-based
  symbols. This increases the likelihood that they
  will be remembered.
•  
• Paivio called this the dual coding hypothesis.
  (This can be linked to the phonological loop in
  the Working memory model.)

71
Memory Improvement Techniques

• By Context
• It is easier to retrieve a particular episode if
  you are in the same context as that in which the
  episode occurred (Estes, 1972).
•  
• Context has been shown to affect our memory in
  several ways.

72
Memory Improvement Techniques

• In state-dependent learning the internal state of
  the individual provides the contextual cue for
  retrieving information. Recall is most effective
  when the individual is placed in the same
  psycho-physiological state as they were in when
  the original learning took place.
•  
• State-dependent learning has been demonstrated
  for a wide range of altered states of awareness,
  including those due to
•          depressants (Goodwin etal, 1969,
  alcohol)
•          stimulant drugs (Bustamante etal, 1970,
  amphetamines)
•          hallucinogenic drugs (Eich etal, 1975,
  marijuana)
•          hypnosis (Bower etal, 1978)
•          mood states (Weingartner, 1978,
  depression)
•          stages of sleep (Bonnet, 1983)

73
Memory Improvement Techniques

• Active Techniques
•  
• Active learning facilitates memory by helping an
  individual to attend to and process information.
•  
•          Repetition
•  
• Practice makes perfect the more times
  information is memorised, the more accurate the
  recall and the less time it takes to re-learn the
  material.
•  
• Ebbinghaus (1895) found re-learning savings the
  greater the number of repetitions the less time
  it took to re-learn the lists.
•  
• Linto found that everyday memories last longer if
  they are occasionally remembered.

74
Mnemonics

•       
•    Mnemonics try to improve organisation when
  encoding takes place.
•  
• They are a combination of loci, associations and
  imagery.
• There are several well-known mnemonic systems
• Method of Loci (using familiar locations-eg
  shopping list)
• Numeric pegword system (link items to
  pegs-locations-e.g. one is a bun rhyme)
• Keyword method (new keyword acts as retrieval cue
  e.g. learning the french word for library-bible)
• Narrative link (link otherwise unrelated words in
  a story)
• Rhymes and rhythms (times table rhymes)

75
Mnemonics

•          Grouping classify lists on the basis
  of some common characteristic. Remembering the
  key element of the group is a key to remembering
  all the items. An example would be grouping trees
  by deciduous or evergreen.
•          Rhymes setting the information to be
  remembered to a rhyme eg in 1492 Columbus sailed
  the ocean blue.
• Other examples of mnemonics using rhyming
  include
•          I before E except after C or
•          30 days hath September, April, June
  and November.
• It seems that the rhythmic pattern helps by
  reducing the number of retrieval possibilities.

76
Mnemonics

•             Acronyms the first letter from
  each word in a list forms a key word, name, or
  sentence, eg Richard of York gave battle in
  vain for the colours of the spectrum or every
  good boy deserves food for the lines on the
  treble clef.
• Chaining material to be learned into
  narrative stories can also help remembering.
  Bower and Clark (1969) asked participants to make
  stories from lists of ten un-related nouns.
  Subsequently, 93 showed correct recall.

77
Mnemonics

•     Mnemonics help memory by shortening the
  sequence to be learned or elaborating it, and
  giving it meaning.
•  
• They do have drawbacks
• they do not help to understand the material
• they are time consuming to learn
• under stress the mnemonic may be forgotten and
  therefore the information.

78
Mnemonics

•      What about strategies for learning complex,
  integrated material?
• Mind Maps
• Mind mapping involves writing down a central idea
  and thinking up new and related ideas out from
  the centre. By focussing on key ideas written
  down and then looking for branches out and
  connections between the ideas, knowledge is
  mapped in a manner which will aid learning and
  recall.
• PQRST Method
• Preview, Question, Read, Self- recitation and
  Test
• Designed to help improve ability to study and
  remember material from textbooks