Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8E Outline Chapter 5 Page 1 of 12

Margaret W. Matlin, Cognition, 8e Outline Chapter 5 Page 1 of 12

CHAPTER 5 Long-Term Memory

CHAPTER INTRODUCTION working memory long-term memory episodic memory semantic memory procedural memory encoding retrieval autobiographical memory ENCODING IN LONG-TERM MEMORY 1. Are we more likely to remember items that we processed in a deep, meaningful fashion, rather than items processed in a shallow, superficial fashion? 2. Are we more likely to remember items if the context at the time of encoding matches the context at the time of retrieval? 3. How do emotional factors influence memory accuracy? Levels of processing Craik & Lockhart (1972)  Levels-of-processing approach/depth-of-processing approach— argues that deep, meaningful processing of information leads to more accurate recall than shallow, sensory kinds of processing.  In general, people achieve a deeper level of processing when they extract more meaning from a stimulus.

ENCODING IN LONG-TERM MEMORY (continued) Levels of Processing and Memory for General Material  Deeper levels of processing should produce better recall.  meaning vs. physical appearance  distinctiveness  elaboration  Deep processing also enhances memory for faces. Levels of Processing and the Self-Reference Effect self-reference effect 1. Representative research Rogers and coauthors (1977)  visual characteristics  acoustic characteristics  semantic characteristics  self-reference instructions meta-analysis 2. Participants' failure to follow instructions Foley and coauthors (1999)  Participants sometimes use self-reference even when instructed to use shallow processing.  The extent of the self-reference effect may be underestimated. 3. Factors responsible for the self-reference effect  The "self" provides a rich set of cues.  Self-reference instructions encourage people to consider how their personal traits are connected with one another (elaboration).  Material associated with the self is rehearsed more frequently.

The Effects of Context: The Encoding-Specificity Principle encoding-specificity principle  Recall is better if the context during retrieval is similar to the context during encoding.  When the two contexts do not match, you are more likely to forget the items. Research on Encoding Specificity Marian and Fausey (2006)  bilingual English/Spanish speakers  stories and questions (in either English or Spanish)  match or mismatch of story and question languages  People were relatively accurate if they heard the story and answered the questions in the same language.  People were less accurate if they heard the story in one language and answered the questions in a different language. 1. Different kinds of memory tasks  recall task vs. recognition task  real-life vs. laboratory  short delay vs. long delay  Encoding specificity is typically strong in recall, real-life, long- delay situations. 2. Physical versus mental context Levels of Processing and Encoding Specificity Encoding specificity can override level of processing. Bransford and coauthors (1979)  various levels-of-processing tasks during encoding  test with rhyming task  People perform better on rhyming test if they had originally performed the shallow-encoding task, rather than the deep-encoding task.  Semantic processing is effective only if the retrieval conditions also emphasize deeper, more meaningful features. To determine how to store information, we need to figure out the characteristics of the retrieval task.

In Depth: Emotions, Mood, and Memory emotion mood 1. We typically remember pleasant stimuli more accurately than other stimuli. 2. We typically recall material more accurately if our mood matches the emotional nature of the material, an effect called mood congruence. Memory for Items Differing in Emotion Pollyanna Principle—Pleasant items are usually processed more efficiently and more accurately than less pleasant items. 1. More accurate recall for pleasant items. list of words: pleasant, neutral, unpleasant pleasant > unpleasant > neutral Balch (2006) and Demonstration 5.2 Waring and Kensinger (2011)  photos of stimuli judged to be positive, negative, or neutral  photo backgrounds  recognition test  recognition of neutral stimuli substantially lower than positive or negative  stimulus/background tradeoffs memory for real-life events 2. More accurate recall for neutral stimuli associated with pleasant stimuli. Do people remember commercials less accurately when they are associated with violent media? Bushman (1998)  significantly better recall for commercials that had appeared in the nonviolent film  Anger and violence in a program typically reduce memory accuracy for information in a commercial. 3. Over time, unpleasant memories fade more than pleasant memories. Walker and coauthors (1997)  personal events; pleasantness and intensity ratings  changes in pleasantness ratings over time  positivity effect  What about people with a tendency toward depression?

In Depth: Emotions, Mood, and Memory (continued) Mood Congruence mood congruence—People tend to recall material more accurately if it is congruent with their current mood. Murray and colleagues (1999)  students with tendencies toward depression vs. students without depressive tendencies  positive- and negative-trait words; recall task  The nondepressed individuals recalled a greater overall percentage of the words than did the depression-prone individuals.  The nondepressed students recalled a significantly greater percentage of positive words than negative words.  The depression-prone students recalled a slightly greater percentage of negative words than positive words.  In general, nondepressed people typically recall more positive than negative material. In contrast, depression-prone people tend to recall more negative material. RETRIEVAL IN LONG-TERM MEMORY Explicit Versus Implicit Memory Tasks Definitions and Examples Explicit Memory Tasks  recall  recognition Implicit Memory Tasks  assesses memory indirectly  memory revealed without conscious effort to remember  word completion  repetition priming task

Explicit Versus Implicit Memory Tasks (continued) Representative Research Even if people cannot remember stimuli when they are tested using an explicit memory task, they may remember the stimuli when tested using an implicit memory task. dissociation effects Example  On an explicit memory task, people typically recall more words if they have used deep levels of processing to encode them.  However, on an implicit memory test, semantic and perceptual encoding may produce similar memory scores, or people may even score lower if they had used semantic encoding.  Therefore, depth of processing has a large positive effect on memory scores on Test A (an explicit memory task), but depth of processing has no effect or even a negative effect on memory scores on Test B (an implicit memory task). The research on implicit memory illustrates that people often know more than they can reveal in actual recall. Individual Differences: Anxiety Disorders and Performance on Explicit and Implicit Memory Tasks anxiety disorders generalized anxiety disorder post-traumatic stress disorder social phobia Mitte (2008)  implicit memory tasks: High-anxious and low-anxious people performed similarly.  recognition tasks: High-anxious and low-anxious people performed similarly.  recall tasks: High-anxious participants were more likely than low- anxious participants to recall negative, anxiety-arousing words, but less likely to recall neutral and pleasant words.

Individuals with Amnesia amnesia retrograde amnesia—loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage anterograde amnesia—loss of the ability to form memories for events that have occurred after brain damage hippocampus H.M. Warrington and Weiskrantz (1970)  presented a list of words to individuals with anterograde amnesia  explicit memory tasks  implicit memory tasks Expertise The Context-Specific Nature of Expertise  In general, researchers have found a strong positive correlation between knowledge about an area and memory performance in that area.  People who are expert in one area may not display outstanding general memory skills.  Memory experts typically do not receive exceptional scores on tests of intelligence. How Do Experts and Novices Differ? 1. Experts possess a well-organized, carefully learned knowledge structure, which assists them during both encoding and retrieval. 2. Experts are more likely to reorganize the new material that they must recall, forming meaningful chunks in which related material is grouped together. 3. Experts typically have more vivid visual images for the items they must recall. 4. Experts work hard to emphasize the distinctiveness of each stimulus during encoding. 5. Experts rehearse in a more strategic fashion. 6. Experts are better at reconstructing missing portions of information from material that they partially remember. 7. Experts are more skilled at predicting the difficulty of a task and at monitoring their progress on this task.

Expertise (continued) Own-Ethnicity Bias  You are generally more accurate in identifying members of your own ethnic group than members of another ethnic group.  The own-ethnicity bias is related to expertise, because people typically have more opportunities to interact with individuals from their own ethnic group, rather than other ethnic groups. Expertise can develop with frequent experiences and interactions.  Faces representing your own ethnic group acquire distinctiveness.  research with different ethnic groups  research in the United States, Europe, and Great Britain Walker and Hewstone (2006)  White or South Asian British high school students  altered photographs on a continuum from "South Asian" to "White"  same/different task  The British White students made more accurate judgments for White faces than for South Asian faces. In contrast, the British South Asian students were equally accurate for both kinds of faces. role of contact overcoming own-ethnicity bias? own-age bias AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL MEMORY autobiographical memory—memory for events and issues related to yourself ecological validity Characteristics of Autobiographical Memory 1. Although we sometimes make errors, our memory is often accurate for a variety of information (Theme 2). 2. When people do make mistakes, these mistakes generally concern peripheral details and specific information about commonplace events, rather than central information about important events. 3. Our memories often blend together information from a variety of sources; we actively construct a unified memory at the time of retrieval.

Schemas and Autobiographical Memory schema—general knowledge or expectation based on past experiences consistency bias—tendency to exaggerate the consistency between our past feelings and beliefs and our current viewpoint Source Monitoring and Reality Monitoring source monitoring—trying to identify the origin of a particular memory Marsh and colleagues (1997)  open-ended discussion  later identify idea as one's own or someone else's  accurate self-monitoring "wishful thinking bias" source monitoring failures reality monitoring—trying to identify whether an event really occurred or was imagined Flashbulb Memories flashbulb memory—memory for the circumstances in which you first learned about a very surprising and emotionally arousing event Many people believe that they can accurately recall all the minor details about what they were doing at the time of this event. In reality, people make numerous errors in recalling details of national events, even though they claimed that their memories for these events were very vivid. Talarico and Rubin (2003)  September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks vs. ordinary event  recall testing after 1, 6, or 32 weeks  consistent vs. inconsistent details  confidence Students at a college in New York City recalled significantly more factual details about the tragedy compared to students at colleges in California and Hawaii (Pezdek, 2003). Memory accuracy not related to other demographic variables.

Eyewitness Testimony Example of Inappropriate Eyewitness Testimony The case of Gary Graham The Post-Event Misinformation Effect Post-Event Misinformation Effect  First, people view an event.  Then, they are given misleading information about the event.  Later on, they mistakenly recall the misleading information, rather than the event they actually saw. proactive interference (discussed in Chapter 4)—People have trouble recalling new material because previously learned, old material keeps interfering with new memories. retroactive interference (misinformation effect)—People have trouble recalling old material because some recently learned, new material keeps interfering with old memories. Loftus and coauthors (1978)  slides of a car/pedestrian accident  stop or yield sign  consistent, inconsistent, or neutral information presented 20 minutes to one week after slides  recognition task for slides  People in the inconsistent information condition were much less accurate than people in the other two conditions. They often selected a sign on the basis of the information in the questionnaire, rather than selecting the original slide. faulty source monitoring constructivist approach

Eyewitness Testimony (continued) Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony General Factors 1. People may create memories that are consistent with their schemas. 2. People may make errors in source monitoring. 3. Post-event misinformation may distort people’s recall. Other Important Variables 1. Eyewitnesses make more errors if they saw a crime committed during a stressful circumstance, for instance, when someone was carrying a weapon. 2. Eyewitnesses make more errors when there is a long delay between the original event and the time of the testimony. 3. Eyewitnesses make more errors if the misinformation is plausible. People are also likely to say that an event occurred in their own life (when it really did not) when the event seems consistent with other similar experiences. 4. Eyewitnesses make more errors if there is social pressure. In contrast, the testimony is more accurate when people are allowed to report an event in their own words, when they are given sufficient time, and when they are allowed to respond, "I don’t know". 5. Eyewitnesses make more errors if someone has provided positive feedback. The Relationship Between Memory Confidence and Memory Accuracy  In many situations, participants are almost as confident about their misinformation-based memories as they are about their genuinely correct memories.  Memory confidence is not strongly correlated with memory accuracy.  The majority of law enforcement officers and jurors are not aware that a confident eyewitness is not necessarily an accurate eyewitness. The Recovered-Memory/False-Memory Controversy The Two Contrasting Positions in the Controversy recovered-memory perspective—Memory for traumatic events (such as childhood sexual abuse) may be forgotten for many years and then come flooding back into consciousness. false-memory perspective—Most recovered memories are actually incorrect memories, constructed stores about events that never occurred. The Potential for Memory Errors  Memory is less than perfect.  Social pressure enhances the likelihood of memory errors.  The accuracy of childhood memories is not easy to determine.

The Recovered-Memory/False-Memory Controversy (continued) Arguments for False Memory Roediger and McDermott (1995) & Demo 5.5  lists of associated words  false-recall rate of 55% (intrusion errors)  Intrusions are common on this task, because each word that does appear on a list is commonly associated with a missing word. Research has demonstrated that participants can construct false memories for events during childhood that never actually happened. Most participants do not claim to "remember" the event that did not occur, yet a significant percentage do. Arguments for Recovered Memory  Laboratory studies lack ecological validity.  Research shows that people cannot be convinced to create false memories for more embarrassing events, such as having had an enema as a child.  Researchers have studied individuals whose sexual abuse had been documented by medical professionals or the legal system. Still, some of these individuals fail to recall the episode when interviewed as adults. betrayal trauma (Freyd and colleagues)  describes how a child may respond adaptively when a trusted parent or caretaker betrays him or her by sexual abuse  The child depends on this adult and must actively inhibit memories of abuse in order to maintain an attachment to this person. Both Perspectives Are at Least Partially Correct  Indeed, some people have truly experienced childhood sexual abuse, and they may forget about the abuse for many decades until a critical event triggers their recall.  In contrast, other people have never experienced childhood sexual abuse. However, a suggestion about abuse may create a false memory of childhood experiences that never really occurred.  In still other cases, people can provide quite accurate testimony —even years afterwards—about how they have been abused.