Memory

It is the means by which individuals draw on past knowledge in order to use such knowledge in the present.

It is complex like a vast warehouse storing different types of knowledge (facts learning, skills acquired, memories of life events)

Encoding- acquisition of new info (factors, events, learning in study phase)

Storage- representation that persists over time- strength and level of activation

Retrieval- recovery of memory- back to more active state (test phase)

sensory stores---> short term store----> long term store

In order to get info from the sensory stores to the STS attention is needed

In order to get info from the STS to the LTS, rehearsal is needed

If info does not get attention, it will decay

If info is not rehearsed it will be displaced

Evidence:

• Experimental- serial position curve
• Amnesic patients- HM, KF

Criticisms

• STS is not unitary (KF deficit auditory and verbal)
• Info processes in STS has already made contact with LTS
• Rehearsal alone is not always suffiecient to allow info to be transferred to LTS
• Long term recency effects

Procedural (knowing how) Vs. Declarative (knowing that)

Explicit (info consciously retrived) Vs. Implicit (expressed on behavioural measures unconsciously) 

Semantic (general knowledge) Vs. episodic (episode specific-time/place)

Factors affecting encoding and retrieval:

• Rehearsal
• depth of processing
• organisation
• repeated study opportunities
• study duration
• spacing
• mnemoics

Recall- the to-be-remembered item is not presented, but must be retrieved from memory

Recognition- the to-be-remembered item is present at rest

List learning paradigms

• Study phase: encoding to-be-remembered items
• Test phase: retrieval of studied items (e.g. recognition, recall)
• Can investigate encoding, storage, retrieval

Laws of Disuse (Thorndike, 1911)- Disuse leads to trace decay over time

Interferance theory (McGeouch, 1942)- fogetting due to activity between learning and retrieval- interferance (two types: retroactive + proactive)

Retroactive- interferance of new learning on old

Proactive- interfereance of old learning on new

BUT- interferance doesn't occur when memories facilitate understanding

Repression- Freud

False memories

Amnesia- Anterograde- reduced ability to remember info acquired after the onset

Retrograde- problems in remembering events occuring prior to the onset of amnesia

Causes- bilateral stroke, closed head injury, Korsakoff's syndrome, Alzheimers

Theories of forgetting dont explain why forgetting is greater shortly after learning

Consolidation is a process lasting several hours of possible even days which fixes info in long-term memory (Dudai, 2004).

Evidence:

• Cosistent with forgetting rates over time
• Consistent with data on retrograde amnesia- impaired memory for events just before onset
• Sleeping after learning improves retention

Personal memory: episodes and events of a person's life

Contains lots of info:

Can have episodic without autobiographical

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable

Conway & Pleydell-Pearce (2000)

1) Lifetime periods: ongoing situations

2) General events: extensed (from days to months)

3) Event-specific knowledge: images, feelings, and details relating to general events (froms secs to hours)

Barselou (1988)- Hierarchical structure

1) Lifetime periods (top)

2) General events (form part of lifetime period)

3) Event specific knowledge (forms part of general events)

Evidence  (Conway & Rubin, 1993)

• Lifetime knowledge least vulnerable to loss
• Event specific knowledge most vulnerable