1. + A closer look at: Retrieval

2. + Yesterday and today you learned about… Stage 1: Encoding. Stage 2: Storage. Once information is encoded and stored successfully, you must be able to get it back out, or retrieve it!

3. + The two retrieval tasks Recall: retrieve memories not in conscious awareness (example: a fill-in-the-blank or essay test) Recognition: identify items previously learned (example: a multiple choice test) Harry Bahrick study (1975): people who had graduated 25 years earlier could not recall many of their old classmates but they could recognize 90% of their pictures/names!

4. + Relearning Time as a Measure of Retention  In the late 1800s, Hermann Ebbinghaus studied another measure of memory functioning: how much time does it take to relearn and regain mastery of material?  He studied the memorization of nonsense syllables (THB YOX KVU EHM) so that depth of processing or prelearning would not be a factor.  The more times he rehearsed out loud on day 1, the less time he needed to relearn/memorize the same letters on day 2.

5. + “Every memory we have is held in a web of associations.”

6. + Retrieval cues Imagine a spider suspended in the middle of her web, held up by the many strands extending outward from her in all directions to different points. If you were to trace a pathway to the spider, you would first need to create a path from one of these anchor points and then follow the strand down into the web. Retrieval cues: bits of information associated with others (tastes, sights, smells, etc.)

7. + Priming The activation of particular associations in memory, which usually aids retrieval; “memoryless memory” People primed with money-related words were less likely to then help another person. Priming with an image of Santa Claus led kids to share more candy. People primed with a missing child poster then misinterpreted ambiguous adult-child interactions as kidnapping. “Bark”

8. + Context-Dependent Memory  Part of the web of associations of a memory is the context. What else was going on at the time we formed the memory?  We retrieve a memory more easily when in the same context as when we formed the memory. Words learned underwater are better retrieved underwater.

9. + Déjà vu = “already seen” Sometimes being in a context similar to one we’ve been in before may trigger déjà vu Every situation has many cues that might unconsciously help you retrieve an earlier, similar experience. Or, a new situation might be moderately similar to several events. The right question to ask: “Why do I feel as though I recognize this situation?”

10. + State-Dependent Memory  Our memories are not just linked to the external context in which we learned them.  Memories can also be tied to the emotional and/or physiological state we were in when we formed the memory.  Mood-congruent memory refers to the tendency to selectively recall details that are consistent with one’s current mood.

11. + The end!