Retrieval

·        How to retrieve information from memory stores?

·        Two categories of retrieval

§         Explicit

§         Implicit

Explicit

·        Conscious or intentional retrieval

·        What do I remember?

§         Recall (short answer, essay test)

§         Recognition (multiple choice, true and false) and is easier

Implicit memory

·        Unconscious or incidental retrieval

·        E.g., make up a word begins with “app”

§         Word stem completion (see above)

§         Word fragment completion

·        Interesting – No difference between normal and amnesic patients

Levels of Processing

·        Memory does not depend on stages

·        Durability of memory depends on how you process information

·        Two levels

§         Shallow (superficial) à Deep

·        The deeper the processing, the longer information lasts.

Shallow (superficial) Perceptual

·        Shallow (superficial) – Perceptual

·        Deep – semantic (meaning)

·        Deep processing – elaborate meaning

·        Explains a lot of things

Memory Phenomena

·        Serial order effect

§         Remember a list of words

§         Memory is better for the beginning and end

·        Primacy effect (beginning of string)

·        Recency effect (end of string)

§         Memory bad in middle

·        Flashbulb memory

§         Emotional event

§         Remember like taking a picture (JFK assassination, where were, wearing)

Forgetting

·        When you cannot remember

·        How do we forget?

§         Studied by Ebbinghaus (1885)

§         Forgetting is very dramatic at the beginning (Curve becomes stable after 9 hours around 40% retention)

·        Why do we forget?

§         Occurs at every stage of remembering

Encoding Failure

·        Sometimes you forget because you never encoded it in the long term memory (Washington on quarter)

Storage Failure

·        Sometimes information disappear in the long term memory

·        Two possibilities

§         Decay – You lose when you don’t use.  Memory simply disappears.

§         Interference – You cannot find information because other information will interfere.

Two kinds of interference

·        Proactive interference

§         Old à New

§         Spanish à French

·        Retroactive Interference

§         New à Old

§         French à Spanish

Retrieval Failure

·        Lose retrieval cues

·        Examples:

§         Environmental reinstatement effect

§         If you remember info in water better to take test in water

§         If you remember info out of water better to take test out of water

·        State Dependent Memory

§         If you learn something under hypnosis better to take hypnosis under hypnosis

§         If you learn something outside of hypnosis better to take test outside of hypnosis

§         Same goes for drugs

Another Retrieval Failure

·        Motivated forgetting

·        Freud  “repression”

·        Emotionally threatening material

Mnemonic Devices

·        How to improve memory?

·        One way – use mnemonic devices

·        Method loci