remembering and forgetting

Question 1

difference between declarative and procedural LTM?

Answer 1

declarative - knowing that

procedural - knowing how

Question 2

what is an issue with story recall?

what are some alternatives?

Answer 2

really hard to score

• free recall of lists
• serial recall
• cued recall
• recognition test

Question 3

describe the curve of forgetting?

Answer 3

initially sharp decline then levels off

Question 4

who first measured forgetting?

main findings?

Answer 4

ebbinghaus
1885

found that forgetting slows over time sothe rate of loss declines as the retention interval becomes longer

Question 5

what does forgetting being orderly mean?

Answer 5

mathematical relationship between time and forgetting

Question 6

decay as a cause for forgetting?

issues with this explanation?

alternative suggestion?

Answer 6

decay - loss from storage

issues:

1. not explained by remembering through cues or at certain times when ‘forgot’ at others
2. some not lost at all e.g childhood memories

retrieval failure of info still in memory e.g interference

Question 7

3 findings suggesting forgetting due to interference?

Answer 7

1) Bahrick found no forgetting of students 30 years later but teachers forgot former students at intervals - many students in interval so interference due to similar memory (retro-active interference)
- SO memory not gone but intereference at time denies access to it

2) Baddeley and Hitch found the more games played determined recall of rugby players, not time
3) more similar words harder to recall from lists than non similar words when retention interval constant

Question 8

what is retention interval confounded by?

how does this confound implicate interferece theories over decay theories of forgetting?

Answer 8

the number of other experiences during the interval

effect of length of retention interval on forgetting may be due to number of associated experienes exposed to during time interefering with recovery of trace you want
NOT DECAY OF MEMORY ALTOGETHER

Question 9

what is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?

Answer 9

proactive - old interfering with new

retro - new interfering with old

Question 10

what are the 4 factors influencing retrieval and therefore forgetting?

Answer 10

1. processing at encoding - not deep or elaborate enough
2. consolidation after encoding - disrupted
3. associative interferece from other memory traces at retrieval
4. similarity or mismatch of encoding and retrieval contexts

Question 11

which 2 factors influences retrieval during encoding?

what is an example of them being used in conjunction to better retrieval of memory traces?

Answer 11

1. depth of processing: processing meaning more effective than processing surface form e.g if asked if word fits better in sentence than if has a capital letter
2. organisation of material: at encoding more important to organise than strive to remember (intention)

example of both in conjunction:
mnemonics
- elaborative encoding
- strong organisational framework requiring exhaustive retrieval
- imagery

Question 12

describe phase 1 as shown by traumatic brain injury in consolation of memory in influencing retrieval?

Answer 12

phase 1:
- traumatic brain injury may lead to retrograde (info learnt before accident) memory loss

• so disruption of process of consolidation of memory trace in hippocampal/medial temporal cortex system binding elements together to form LTM
• HM lacks this process
• very vulnerable to interference which is why sleep is crucial

Question 13

describe associative interference at retrieval as influencing retrieval?

give an example of an effect found relating to intereference and how it may be removed?

Answer 13

• retroactive intereference when learning second response to same cue
• proactive intereferece when learnt prior association to cue

fan effect:

• the more you know about something, the harder it is to retrieve a fact about it if unrelated
• if related, fan effect dissapears as can form multiple retrieval paths of associations through existing schema

Question 14

how do we fill in gaps in memory?

Answer 14

use general knowledge schema (semantic memory)

fragments remembered from other episodic sources

Question 15

what is a false memory?

why does it occur?

Answer 15

recollection of events that didn’t happen due to:

1. source amnesia - retrieval of info without knowing when/where we acquired them e.g from interrogator and may attribute them to the wrong source
2. recall is reconstructive - actual experience combined with other info inferred to ‘fill in gaps’

Question 16

example of false memory experiment?

explanation of this false memory?

Answer 16

Loftus and Palmer

‘smashed into’ more likely to incorrectly report seeing broken glass

this is because:

mis-info implied by interrogator after event is incorporated into subject’s reconstruction of event and info attributed to wrong source

Question 17

examples of other false memories of realistic and salient material?

Answer 17

remembering certain events in childhood that didn’t happen due to suggestion prior that it did

remembering watching footage of a disaster that wasn’t filmed

Question 18

describe the influence of context effects/encoding-specificity effects on retrieval in encoding and retrieval?

Answer 18

info more easily retrieved if tested in same context in which acquired

context dependent - evironment
state dependent - emotional or physiological state

due to irrelevant aspects of contexts being encoded which help form interpretation of event which help when in same context as reactivate interpretation but not in different context

e.g diver study of Godden and Baddeley

Question 19

what are the 2 main ways which forgetting is tested and what are the differences between these methods?

Answer 19

1. recall - reproduction of some part of wht was initially experienced/tested
2. recognition - ability to discriminate old from new

Question 20

describe phase 2 as shown by traumatic brain injury in consolation of memory in influencing retrieval?

Answer 20

phase 2:

• over long timescale, recent LTM traces (but phase 1 already occured) more vulnerable to hippocampal damage than older traces as robust traces not dependent on hippocampus
• much slower consolidation process in which reactivation of LTM traces forms links between elements of episode in lateral cortex so not dependent on hippocampus