Long-Term Memory: Episodic Kimberley Clow

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

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

Long-Term Memory

Examples 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? Leftovers from thanksgiving dinner The history of theatre Ms. Jarvis Richie Blue

Autobiographical Memory Primarily interpretations about an event Information about –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 Duration of the memory can last for years

Types Personal Memory –image-based representation of a single unrepeated event Autobiographical Fact –identical to personal memory, except that the memory is not image-based 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 "Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin“ Barbara Kingsolver Accuracy of autobiographical memories –Factual information:.88 correlation among family members –Emotions and attitudes:.43 correlation among family members

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

Ebbinghaus

Criticism 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 Three different stages of processing –Encoding –Storage –Retrieval 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 Depth of Processing –Shallow processing Physical features –Deep processing Meaning 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 Study Phase –Visual Does the word contain a letter E? –Phonemic Does the word rhyme with train? –Semantic Is it a type of animal? Test Phase

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

Encoding Specificity 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? ENCODE MEANING ENCODE SOUND MEANING CUE SOUND CUE

Context Effects ENCODE MEANING ENCODE SOUND MEANING CUE SOUND CUE

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

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

Encoding specificity may more generally be thought of as transfer-appropriate processing 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 Rehearsal –Type I –Type II Mnemonics –Single Use –Multiple Use Organization Imagery

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

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

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

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

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

Availability vs. Accessibility 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 Results: –Free recall group: 40 percent –Cued recall group: 62 percent So information can be available but not accessible

Other Influences

And … Targets presented with weakly associated cue –glue-CHAIR When asked to RECOGNIZE –if target is in a new context recognition may fail fail to recognize table-CHAIR When given cued RECALL with original associate cue, now successfully remember –glue-? 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? Patient H.M. –Episodic & semantic memory prior to surgery intact, but cannot form new memories Patient E.D. –Semantic memory is impaired yet episodic memory for the same period is intact Patient K.C. –Episodic memory processes disrupted, but semantic memory processes in tact Not good evidence Good evidence