1. What Builds Strong Memories?
Psychology 355: Cognitive Psychology Instructor: John Miyamoto 05/01/2018: Lecture 06-2
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2. Outline Implicit memory ≠ Explicit memory What builds strong memories?
Memorization (repetitive rehearsal) is NOT effective.
Generating related ideas strengthens memory.
Generating related mental images strengthens memory.
Results for Study of Alcoholic Amnesics, Non-Alcoholic Amnesics, & Non-Alcoholics Non-Amnesics on Recall and Word Fragment Completion
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18

3. WFC & Recall for Amnesics & Normal Controls
Graf, P., Shimamura, A. P., & Squire, L. R. (1985).
Subject read lists of words.
Subjects rated the words on a list on scale from
1 = “like extremely” to 5 = “dislike extremely”.
2) Recall Trials: Subjects attempted to recall the words.
3) Implicit Memory Trials: Subjects performed WFC with the words.
Results: Amnesics do just as well as other groups on implicit memory (WFC) but do much worse on explicit memory (recall).
Explicit Memory  Implicit Memory
INPT ALC AMN
Recall trials and implicit memory trials follow immediately after subjects complete the ratings of liking.
perform as well as other groups
perform worse than other groups
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Warrington & Weiskrantz: Korsakoff Patients Identify Incomplete Figures

4. Related Study by Warrington & Weiskrantz (Figures 6.11 & 6.12)
Errors
Day of Training
Patients lack episodic memory of studying the words, but implicit memory task (WFC) shows that they retain information from the study list.
Korsakoff patients were asked to identify incomplete pictures (pictures with parts of the objects erased).
Patients were not asked: Have you seen this before? (explicit memory test)
Patients were asked: What is it? (implicit memory test)
Over three days, the patients improved without remembering previous training or exposure to the stimuli.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Explicit & Implicit Memory Have Different Forgetting Curves

5. Episodic & Implicit Memory Show Different Patterns of Forgetting
1 hour days
% Correct
Recognition
WFC
Tulving et al. (1982) studied recognition and WFC among normal subjects.
Graph shows that recognition (episodic memory) and WFC (implicit memory) show different patterns of forgetting over time. Episodic memory is lost faster than implicit memory.
Bottom Line: Explicit (declarative) memory & implicit memory are based on different memory systems.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Episodic & Implicit Memory Are Not Mutually Exclusive

6. Explicit Memory & Implicit Memory are Not Mutually Exclusive
Many memories can have both explicit and implicit components
Suppose I have a conversation earlier in the day about working memory. I can have an explicit episodic memory of that conversation. My implicit memory of the conversation can have an influence on thoughts that I have about other issues in psychology.
Implicit components can guide the construction of an explicit (episodic) memory.
A familiar face is more likely to be falsely identified as a perpetrator of a crime (witness thinks the familiarity is due to seeing this person commit the crime).
Example: A woman was attacked in her home shortly after watching a TV show in which a psychologist, David Thompson, was interviewed.
Later she identified David Thompson as the attacker (He had an alibi, the interview on the TV show.)
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
What Builds Strong Memories?

7. What Builds Strong Memories?
Some experiences are remembered easily and for a long time. Other experiences are forgotten. What is the difference?
Some scientific topics are remembered for a long time. Other topics are forgotten quickly. What is the difference?
What are effective study habits? Students often want to know the answer to this question.
* Red polygon outlines the main memory systems involved in this question.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Modal Model of Memory - Reminder of Encoding, Retrieval and Consolidation

8. Encoding, Retrieval & Consolidation
Sensory Store
Short-Term Store
Long-Term Store
Retrieval
Encoding
External World
Control Processes
Encoding, Retrieval & Consolidation
* How to build stronger memories?
Encoding – creating an LTM out of currently processed information
Retrieval – bringing information that is stored in LTM back to STM
Consolidation – a process that strengthens memories over time. Consolidation increases the chances for retrieval.
Maintenance Rehearsal & Elaborative Rehearsal
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18

9. In General, What Makes Memories Memorable?
Mere repetition (memorization) is ineffective.
What is effective?
Elaboration & Association
Generation of Related Thoughts
Creating Related Mental Images
Repeated Retrievals, Reprocessing, & Re-encoding
Develop retrieval strategies and retrieval cues that will be useful on future occasions.
NEXT
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Maintenance Rehearsal and Elaborative Rehearsal

10. Maintenance Rehearsal & Elaborative Rehearsal
Maintenance Rehearsal – repeating to-be-remembered information over and over (phonological loop) "Memorization" = Maintenance Rehearsal (cognitive psychologist's term)
Elaborative rehearsal – drawing connections between to-be-remembered information and other information, especially connections based on meaning.
Memory for meaning
Form associations between what you want to remember and other ideas, facts, concepts, etc. Create retrieval cues.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Mere Repetition is Ineffective for Strengthening Memory

11. Mere Repetition Is Ineffective for Strengthening Memory
Craik & Watkins (1973): The amount of maintenance rehearsal has very little influence on the likelihood of correct recall.
Subjects heard sequences of words. Subjects task was to remember the most recent word in the list that started with a particular letter, e.g., "p".
Example: Study the following list of words:
Correct answer = "post"
last "p" word
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Continue Craik & Watkins (1973) – Differences in Number of Rehearsals

12. Mere Repetition Is Ineffective for Strengthening Memory
last "p" word
At end of experiment, subjects were asked to recall as many of the words on the lists as they could remember.
Different "p" words are rehearsed a different number of times.
E.g., "peach" is rehearsed more than "pin" because "peach" has 4 non-"p" words following it and "pin" has only 2 non-"p" words following it.
Finding: Likelihood of recall was unrelated to number of intervening non-p words, i.e., unrelated to the amount of maintenance rehearsal.
Memorization is an ineffective learning strategy.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Maintenance vs Elaborative Rehearsal – Depth of Processing Hypothesis

13. Depth of Processing (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)
Depth of Processing Hypothesis: Depth of processing at time of study is the main determinant of ease of remembering.
Processing of to-be-remembered material proceeds from shallow features to deeper content.
SHALLOW Letters in words Sound of words DEEP Meaning Relationship to other knowledge
Another way to state the depth of processing hypothesis: Speed of processing is slower but strength of memory trace is greater when encoding occurs at deeper levels of processing.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Test of Depth of Processing Hypothesis

14. Craik & Tulving Test of Depth of Processing Hypothesis
Experimental Paradigm: On each trial, the subject sees a word and answers a question about the word.
Condition 1 (very shallow processing): Example: Does the word “dungeon” contain the letter “t”?
Condition 2 (moderately shallow processing): Example: Does the word “dungeon" rhyme with “engine"?
Condition 3 (deeper processing of meaning): Example: Does the word “dungeon" fit into the sentence, “The prisoner was kept in a ______ for two years."?
Later the subject is asked to recall the words, and the percentage of correct recall is recorded.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Results re Experiment

15. Results re Depth of Processing Hypothesis
Finding: Reaction time is slower but percent correct recall gets better as processing gets deeper and deeper.
Recall improves with deeper processing during study.
Result supports depth of processing hypothesis.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Confounding of Depth of Processing with Encoding Duration

16. Confounding of Depth of Processing with Duration of Encoding
Two confounded aspects of deep processing:
Deep processing takes longer than shallow processing (in general).
Deep processing emphasizes the meaning of the to-be-learned material and its relationship to other pieces of knowledge.
Question: Does deeper processing produce better memory because it takes longer or because it emphasizes meaning?
Answer: Clever experiments demonstrate it is the type of processing (meaning-based) and not the duration of processing that creates the stronger memory.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Outline of Effective Study Habits

17. In General, What Makes Memories Memorable?
Mere repetition (memorization) is ineffective.
What is effective?
Elaboration & Association
Generation of Related Thoughts
Creating Related Mental Images
Repeated Retrievals, Reprocessing, & Re-encoding
Develop retrieval strategies and retrieval cues that will be useful on future occasions.
NEXT .
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Generation Effect

18. Generation Effect Anti-Passive Learning
Generation effect: You are more likely to remember information that you retrieve or generate (during study) than information that you simply receive and attempt to “memorize.”
Intuitive idea:
Mental activity at time of study promotes future recall.
Any ideas that you generate during study can serve as retrieval cues when you need to remember the information later.
Generation Effect Anti-Passive Learning
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Mantyla Experiment: Self-Generated Stronger than Other-Generated Cues

19. Generating Semantic Associates Creates Strong Retrieval Cues
Mantyla (1986): Purpose of Study:
to show that semantic associates that were present at study are effective cues for recall;
self-generated cues are the more effective cues for recall than are cues that someone else generates.
Memory Task: Subjects study words. Later they are asked to recall them (test method = cued recall).
3 experimental conditions (next slide)
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design

20. Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design
Condition 1: Generate word cues at study; use them at test
At study, list 3 words that are closely associated with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the stimulus word. (cued recall)
Condition 2: See word cues at study; use them at test
At study, see 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject along with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the target word. (cued recall)
Condition 3: See no word cues at study; but use word cues at test
At study, subject just sees the target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject and is asked to recall the stimulus word.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Repeat this Slide with Examples of Condition 1

21. Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design
Condition 1: Generate word cues at study; use them at test
At study, list 3 words that are closely associated with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the stimulus word. (cued recall)
Condition 2: See word cues at study; use them at test
At study, see 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject along with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the target word. (cued recall)
Condition 3: See no word cues at study; but use word cues at test
At study, subject just sees the target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject and is asked to recall the stimulus word.
List 3 words that are related to “snow”:
What word is related to: “white”, “cold”, “wet”?
Uh – “white”, “cold”, “wet”
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Repeat this Slide with Examples of Condition 2

22. Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design
Condition 1: Generate word cues at study; use them at test
At study, list 3 words that are closely associated with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the stimulus word. (cued recall)
Condition 2: See word cues at study; use them at test
At study, see 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject along with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the target word. (cued recall)
Condition 3: See no word cues at study; but use word cues at test
At study, subject just sees the target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject and is asked to recall the stimulus word.
The word "snow” is related to: “white”, cold”, “wet".
What word is related to: "white”, “cold”, “wet”?
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Repeat this Slide with Examples of Condition 3

23. Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design
Condition 1: Generate word cues at study; use them at test
At study, list 3 words that are closely associated with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the stimulus word. (cued recall)
Condition 2: See word cues at study; use them at test
At study, see 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject along with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the target word. (cued recall)
Condition 3: See no word cues at study; but use word cues at test
At study, subject just sees the target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject and is asked to recall the stimulus word.
Remember the word: “snow”
What word is related to: “white”, “cold”, “wet”?
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Same Slide with Only Summary Descriptions Emphasized

24. Mantyla (1986): Experimental Design
Condition 1: Generate word cues at study; use them at test
At study, list 3 words that are closely associated with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the stimulus word. (cued recall)
Condition 2: See word cues at study; use them at test
At study, see 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject along with each target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words and is asked to recall the target word. (cued recall)
Condition 3: See no word cues at study; but use word cues at test
At study, subject just sees the target word.
At test, subject is given the 3 associated words that were produced by a different subject and is asked to recall the stimulus word.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Results

25. Goldstein, Figure 7.9. Results from Mantyla (1986)
Condition 1: 90% correct Condition 2: 55% correct Condition 3: 17% correct
Condition 1: Generate cues; use cues
Condition 2 See cues; use cues
Condition 3 See no cues; use cues
SUMMARY
Cues are helpful at time of test.
Cues that you have studied are even more helpful at time of test.
Cues that you generated yourself are even more helpful at time of test.
Why is this the pattern of memory results?
Cues promote retrieval by means of associative connections. (Obvious)
Generating our own cues helps us learn to access meaningful relationships.
Goldstein, Figure 7.9. Results from Mantyla (1986)
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Self-Reference Has Mnemonic Efficacy

26. Self-Reference Has Mnemonic Efficacy
Principle: Self-referential relations are remembered better than items without self-referential relations.
"serene" - Does this word rhyme with "siren"? "serene" - Does this word describe you?
Ask yourself:
Is this information related to me in any way?
Does this information remind me of anything that has happened to me?
weaker at test
stronger at test
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Repeat Slide with List of Effective Mnemonics - Mental Imagery Next

27. In General, What Makes Memories Memorable?
Mere repetition (memorization) is ineffective.
What is effective?
Elaboration & Association
Generation of Related Thoughts
Creating Related Mental Images
Repeated Retrievals, Reprocessing, & Re-encoding
Develop retrieval strategies and retrieval cues that will be useful on future occasions.
NEXT .
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Mental Imagery Enhances Memory

28. Mental Imagery Enhances Memory
Principle: In general, images are remembered better than words.
Picture Superiority Effect:
"tiger" versus
Experimental Demonstration of the Efficacy of Mental Images on Memory
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18

29. Mental Imagery Enhances Memory (Bower & Winzenz (1970)
Repetition Group: Repeat a word pair, e.g., "boat-tree- boat-tree-boat-tree-...."
Imagery Group: Form a mental image in which the two objects are interacting.
Both groups had 5 seconds per word pair.
Results: Imagery group remembered over twice as much in cued recall.
Figure 7.3
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Experiment re Image Interaction & Bizarreness

30. Effects of Image Interaction & Bizarreness
Interacting
Non-Interacting
Wollen, K. A., Weber, A., & Lowry, D. H. (1972). Bizarreness versus interaction of mental images as determinants of learning. Cognitive Psychology, 3,
Subjects had to learn word pairs that were accompanied by pictures. E.g., PIANO + CIGAR
Bizarre
Not Bizarre
Pictures were either non-bizarre or bizarre.
Pictures were either non-interacting or interacting.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Results for Interaction & Bizarreness

31. Results for Image Interaction & Bizarreness
Interacting
Non-Interacting
Wollen, K. A., Weber, A., & Lowry, D. H. (1972). Bizarreness versus interac-tion of mental images as determinants of learning. Cognitive Psychology, 3,
Memory was better for interacting images than non-interacting images.
Bizarreness had no effect.
Bizarre
Not Bizarre
Evidence suggests that in general, interacting images are a power mnemonic tool, but it doesn't matter whether the image is reasonable or bizarre.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
Why Does Generating Related Ideas Promote Future Memory?

32. Why Does Generating Ideas Improve Memory?
Ideas that you generate serve as retrieval cues. Ideas that you generate create associations with other ideas. Links to these other ideas serve as retrieval cues.
The more links you have to a concept, the more ways you have to access this information.
Mental imagery creates stronger retrieval cues than verbal descriptions.
The mental activity of discovering associations and relationships is itself a skill and a habit.
Using this skill improves this skill.
Using this habit strenthens this habit.
Class Problem: Suggest Ways to Strengthen a Memory About the Hippocampus END
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18

33. Class Exercise: Generate mental associations and mental images to help remember something that you are trying to learn.
COMMIT TO MEMORY: “Memories are not stored in the hippocampus, but the hippocampus is critical for packaging memories and for moving them into storage.” (Metaphor)
Generate some images or analogies that describe the functioning of the hippocampus.
Hippocampus is like a records clerk in a business.
Hippocampus is like a antique collector who has a very small shop with a very large warehouse.
* “hippo” – Greek for horse; “kampus” – Greek for monster; “hippokampus” – Greek for sea horse. The hippocampus is shaped like a sea horse.
Psych 355, Miyamoto, Spr '18
END