Part 8.

RETRIEVAL PROCESSES IN MEMORY

 well focus on retrieval in long term memory, NOT short term 1. Introduction

The retrieval of memories available in Long-Term Memory (LTM) is the process by which
we can access these memories.

- This process can be initiated voluntarily, or involuntarily (triggered by cues) sometimes by feelings for example

- It can be relatively easy (automatic), or hard.

- It can be succesful (we get everything we wanted), or not.
- It can retrieve accurate memories, or reconstructive / distorted memories.
Availability is different to accesibility in long term memory becasue fo exampel soemtimes we struggle to naswer a question on the exam nad after we leave the
room itpops up in our mmeory, or not being able to remmeber a palce but hten going there and remmeberign eveyrdetil you dind teven know you had in you brain,
so we dont know if we foreget thing compltely in LTM or maybe we keep them ans still they are kept ther but we can taccessthem. So this can betested but there i th
epossibility we keep it but can’t access menya content
Have you ever…
- being unable to remember the title of a film for some time, remembering it later
spontaneously?
- struggled with choosing the correct response to an exam question, and later, you realized that
you even knew the page of the chapter of the study book where you learned the response?
- recognized details of a place where you hadn’t gone to for a long time, which you had
Long temr mmoery is like a non active box where we have lots fo things and ot amek active soem part of this ifno we have to ininitae the process to access this ifn
completely forgotten up to the moment you came back there?
when we ar unable to remmeber somthign this doent mean the mmeory ahs been lsot ofrver but this means htat we cna elarn to use memory cues that cna hekp re
to forgeitng fr o example olf peopel there are well many different attempst o help them but nowadays there are apps to try to be ore succesful remmebering episoe
time, verbal recal and pcitures of the stuations, adn well well see but a related phenoeno wiht all fobthis is hte tip of ht eotung e phnomeno, whihch si the feelign o
lawys) btu soemtimes we can read hte inintal eltter, ot vowels or whatveer and we know we do know (we have the feeling) adn that i. aogod indicatro of availability

These are examples of the differences between availability and accessibility of memories in
LTM: we can have memories of an event / data, i.e., they are available in long-term memory
systems, but they can’t be accessible at any given moment.

Availability vs. accessibility of memories in LTM

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Therefore, LTM contains more information than we can access at any given moment.

LTM can be thought as a large ‘box’ where we have lots and lots of memories, most of
which are usually in a latent status, non-active.

These non-active memories can turn active when some external or internal stimulus acts as
a cue (= a hint) to initiate the process that activates them (involuntary access), or when we
need them and initiate a process that leads to their access (voluntary access). In the latter
case, success is not guaranteed.

Therefore:

✓ Being unable to remember something now doesn’t mean the memory is lost forever.
✓ Providing memory cues can help recall (e.g., for the film title, providing one of the
words).
✓ The feeling of knowing is generally a good indication that you do know it. An example
is the ‘tip of the tongue phenomenon’.

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 2. The retrieval process: General Principles

Retrieval can be conceived as a progression from one or more retrieval cues to a

target memory trace through associative connections, to make the target available.

• Retrieval Cues: Bits of information about the target

Cue memory that guide the search.
• Target Memory Trace: The particular memory
we’re seeking.
Association • Associations: Bonds that link together items in
memory, with variable strength.
retrieval when we are tryign toretriev soemthing this can be considered as a progresion rogpgrogress whihc si nto
somehting simple or soemthing only havign a step it has actually differnt sepps giong from a cue to an association link
tot he target, this is the basic component sin the retrieval rpocess. maybe you are , or think ……..
We always depart from sorme retrieval cues even when is automatic. example she says can you remmeber any of the
words you classmate told you, othe r cues oculd be tiem fo the day, wetaher, color in the clothes of hte [Link]. cues
cna be very different things, they are jsut buts of infromaiton about hte target that can guide the search, the defintion fo
cues depends oth teh target, theya recues hwen they guide the sercrh so theya re hting that depend on teh success fo
the test. then there are target memoryy trace that link…

and fianlly associaiton whihc are the realtionships, the represetantion is base don fro example the way you represent

Trace neuronal circuits in the brain , this lis liek ametaphor, this is jsut to represent teh rpocess fo retrievalf roma give ce. and
this is a model considering this basic representation from the retrieval rpcoess this si amodel tha oyu alreday know,
becasue we studied this modek can you remmeber when? we were talking aobut the semantic model, but now we see
we cna also apply it here (it cna be applied in ltm in genenral)

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 The Spreading Activation Model of retrieval

• Activation Level: • Spreading Activation:

• The internal state of a memory, • The automatic transmission of
reflecting its level of excitement “energy” from one memory to related
Actiavtion level is the internla state of memory reflected level of excitement… isnot physiological, this
statement are describing the process fo retrieval in a simialr way as we describe the physiological
• Determines the accessibility of the item items via their associations
processe when nuorns excite other neurosn etc, this i a metaphor bu tit si the same idea, the same idea is
that in our memory long term memory the things we have areat a give level of excitement, different among
htem na dthis determines the accesibility of the itme, the items that are higher excitatioment this are more

• Increases when something related to • Proportional to the strength of the

likely to be acces and this ahppens wehn soemthing realted wiht the mmeory si encuntered os theres a
baseline levels but if we find a cue hte level increases becasue it is like touching ht target nad it perisst fo
soem time nad hte spread to toher, this si hwy for exmaple, when ic oem to class, soemitmes i remmerb

the memory (= a cue) is encountered connections

thigsn from previosu classes, ebcaue the context maskes that tsoem praticualr event in my episodi
cmemory are hgiher at this moment nad the srepad and other veets relateda resalso toubhed os this i the
wayt eh activation srpead and well this could be the general rincipels now we er going to see specific
factros that affect this process of retrieval, there is a slit, of different factros, starting for the frost you can

• Persists for some time before

see here, that is atteniotnt o ces, there are manyc ues in the enviornemnt and our selves but if we dont pay
atteniotnt ot this cues hteya re not real cues to us, reduced attenton to a cues impiead to reteireval. IFwe
are not foucsed ont eh tsk for etieval tshi reduces memory preofmance, for ecmpale in the exma you
shoudl be focused obvisoul ton the process of retrieval fo infromaitno, but soemitmes we are woeeied
dissipating about other thinfs, so this is like adual tsak, , distrubing ths thing it make sit beicme like a dual taks and
performance oibusoly decreases, the divison of attenion is even more empiding duing encoding, we shoudl

CAT
try for the exmas at east ot cfocus spcecially when we are studying, dual task if we are tryign tos tudy but
at hte same time we are slitening to music or texting or seeing a series, this is more disruptive than divided
tattention duirng retrieval because elarning is better wiht full atention, so take inot accoun this ad seocnd
factor htat affects the retrieval rrocess, si rerelvance of cues, this is msot effectove wehn they are related
othe target but what you shudl know related othis is theory… the theory enconidg speicficity prinicple , this
is the naem to refer to this common knowledge, specififcally rpesent at the encoding…. this are htree
artiucalr detail ipmortant ot hte encoding of specificity prinicple, i dont knwo if you ahve any roiblems wiht
any f o this.

MILK PURR
6
JUICE BARK
 3. Factors Determining Retrieval Success
a. Attention to cues
Reduced attention to a cue impairs its ability to guide retrieval effectively.

Dividing attention during retrieval (i.e., the person is doing another task while doing the
memory task) reduces memory performance, especially if the secondary task is similar to
the memory task, e.g. both deal with words, and also if the secondary task is high
demanding.

Dividing attention during encoding, i.e., the person is doing another task while learning
the materials, is even more disruptive than dividing attention during retrieval
 b. Relevance of Cues

Retrieval cues are most effective when they are strongly related to the target.

Encoding specificity principle (E. Tulving): Retrieval cues are most useful if they are:
• Present at encoding ( = when the materials are learned)
• Explicitly encoded with the target
• Maximally similar to the original cue available at encoding
agine that ou are stuyding soemthing not simple liek alist of wrod but some expeirments, the results the apradigm etc, and you want ot understand, the level of rpocessing here is deep but there are many details and
o you amke a shcema and there are sme connectio etc. so evryhting is in you mmind and memory btu you wanna you some cues in the shceema importantly the cues shoudl be very clear they shold be presnt if you want o
later the cues should be in the chema, becasue for emxpale when i epxlained hte differnceyou shoudl use some arrowa tot ry to hep you not to ocnfuse eahc. …. proactive is the arrow to the right nad rertoactive si to hte
s should be rpsented in the encoding because later it can ebcome a cue. If you wanna use soemthing as a cue incoroapirate the cue frm the moment you are enocding the materia. if im giving you a cue tha tis not explicitly
r the strat oint then it si not. if i gave other cues they shodl be maimally simialr to the origianl one, not very different, becaue veyr different wonrt owrk,… if you study a list of words you hvae to remmeber oen fo them car
e gave us vehicle is well not bas and if she says bciicle this is not good as a cue(bivile) becasue vehicle si good becasue is the category btt bycyile si acomepltely different things.

d factr menas that (going back to the represetatnion) the realtionhips “associaiton” between cue and srtenght (the strengh of this erlationhips). lenght of tiem and attenion depend. encoding htem separately is unhepful if we
soemthing and wanna use a cue alter on we should connect the target and the cue spenindg time nad playing full ateniton to hi ocnnection becasue thi increases the srteght of hte associaiton, anothe factros, number of

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 c. Cue–Target Associative Strength

Retrieval success depends on the strength of association between cue and

target.

• This depends on the length of time and attention spent on encoding the relationship.

• Encoding the cue and the target separately is unhelpful.

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 d. Number of Cues

• Access to additional, relevant cues facilitates retrieval, provided that these cues
are attended.
• Cueing multiple access routes to a target (extra cues) can provide a super-
additive recall benefit – greater than the sum of cues.
• Elaborative encoding maximizes the number of retrieval routes.
someitmes we ave the possibiliy of using more htan one,, and so the more the better, if they
are attended cues, in fact it is not ismply 2 cues is like twice the liklihood of remmebrin
somthign,NO. There is a superaditive benfit meanig multiplicative, for example: lets sya if i
give you 1 cue the porbability could be 30; for 2 50 and fro 4 99... meaning htat

Elaborative encofing means htat we use the deepest elvel of processing for processign info
at the deespt level in whihc we are maximazing hte number of retrieval routes therefore
facilitating (maximizying). this is related to congitive interview…. (different views and
prespectives), soem of the factros can interact

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 e. Strength of the Target Memory

Weakly encoded targets (e.g., data we could not learn well) are more difficult to retrieve.
It is thought that these targets start at a lower activation level, so they require a greater
boost in activation in order to be retrieved.

Related to this, there is the word frequency effect on recall: High-frequency words in the
this refers to the target itself orf rexampel before here we also talk about strenght but here ins rtenght in the case of c w

language, i.e., words that are frequently encountered in sentences or texts (e.g., ‘evening’)
target, if we are stuyding soemthig annd we have socnsolidated this ifrnoamtion this ahs strehgnt htis is torng in our me
students, so when we know something by heart, becasue we have deicated lots f times,a dn long times, adn we ahve elb
level of hte memory rtace, tou know thi things, but related to this you can itnroduce th word freqeuncy effect fo this word

are better recalled than low-frequency words (e.g., ‘gloaming’).

wa laso anothe whihc was iamgeability, we call hihg frequency words those htat appear very frquenlty ins entece in test
because if we ar reading from tiem to time the it appears intext adn websites very infrequenlty this makes htat there are
frequency worsd at at the bottom. but hgihfreqeuncy owrds are harder to reocngize inc omaprison to low frequency,a dn
are tryign to recongize nad hten next fctor sretrievla strategy refers to how ew cop, wiht theretrievla porcess, what we tr
considering the organitzaton fo the matiral ivuosly if we sutydy somthign wiht roganitzation this si the best becasue w e
remmeberign a previous epiosde we cna take different stretegie nad respective, this is not ususal, suually we use only o
iportant ot reebr as many detailas a spossible, and for example, in the i witness testimony areas reseachers know and p
htemmeory events, hwihc ncafaiclitate recal differnt actiosn ad detials, for example: usually we adopt ourselve prepsect
This effect can be explained as an effect of the strength of the target memory on the
in the same siutiaon or for emxaple adipt the repspective of the erpson who commited hte crime or hte robbery this cna

retrieval process: When we are asked to study a list of words that include high- and low-
frequency words, the high-frequency words start with a higher activation level, and thus,
in the memory test*, they are more easily retrieved.

*Note: High-frequency words are easier to recall, but worse to recognize!!!

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 f. Retrieval Strategy

Retrieval success is increased by:

• Considering the organization of the materials in the encoding phase.
• Adopting different strategies to search through memory.

For example, in a study by Anderson and Pritchert (1978), the results showed that memory
of an event was influenced by the perspective taken at encoding and recall (e.g., the
homebuyer’s perpective or the burglar’s perspective).

It is thought that the perspective provides a structure that constrains recall to schema-
consistent items. Then, adopting a new perspective can facilitate recall of different objects
previously forgotten.

Tip -- Try recalling from different perspectives

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 g. Retrieval Mode

To recall, you need to be in a frame of mind conducive to interpreting environmental

stimuli as episodic memory cues to guide subsequent retrieval.

In a study conducted by Herron and Wilding’s (2006), the results showed that having
multiple episodic tasks in a row gradually improves performance. This suggests it
takes time to fully adopt the retrieval mode.

mindset, when the frame of minf is lenaing ot innterpet the cues to guide retreival, someitmes we er trying to remmeber
tha can help us. for example cna you remmebr what waere you doing before you realized we didnt ahve elctricity on mon
ar int he retrieval mode becaue the preicous guided you. so this was a point

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 4. Context Cues

Context = the circumstances under which a stimulus was encoded.

Type of Context Cue Definition Example

Spatio-Temporal The physical surroundings (= the On the beach;
environment) and time cues during an listening to a
event particular song
The circumstacnes under whihc a simulus was endocing this is the context defintion, ti can be spaceotemproal, mood, p
cuse duirng and event fore emcaple bengi at eh beach (cue), or listening to a particular song (last tiem you were listenin
pharmacolofical or phsyical stateg you were drunk, or last tiem you were tired, ideas thouhgts languae, ths si the congit
wehn you ar suing spanish, and the opposite.

Mood The emotional state that one was in Happy; angry

during an event

Physiological The pharmacological/physical state that Drunk; tired

one was in during an event

Cognitive Ideas, thoughts, language… Using English (for a

native Spanish) 14
 Environmental Context-Dependent Memory
Recall of materials or experiences depends on the match between the environmental
context at encoding and retrieval: the more similar the environment at encoding and
retrieval are, the better the recall is.

Godden and Baddeley (1975) conducted a

study with professional divers
• In the learning phase, the divers
studied word pairs in one of two this is very popula rmaybe you know thi study wiht porfesional divers, well you cna see here na interaction. this is unde
underwater sing some portective devices resistent o water nad tehy remmebered i land or underwater if i stidy simething
enviornment adn if i stuyd underwater nad hte tes is now here is aso worst, so the problem is to hcange hte neviornmen
environmental contexts: dry land doenst mean that for example chngint o this room to anothe rcalsroom has the same resutls NO, becasue hteneviornme
enrionemnt ar every trong, liek leanring soembailityes in prison adn then they go to home nad aybe the trnasfer is not go
eprosn shoudl elanr abilities information tryign to imagine that hteyare using this abitlies inreal envionrment wehre they
or underwater impossibel to ractic ein the rela neivonrment. this si also rvelant in the context of hteray for example if youa re intherapy
they are arguing and so on and htey ahve ot iangine th erpson infront of them. the effect ot hte nevinrmentla ocntetz wrr
absolutely focused ont he material it donet matter hte neivnment hacnges a lot but if hte contetx s linekd ot he leanrihten

• Later, their memory of the words

magnifitude wiht incrasing events, the effect will begreate rif hte delay si lgna dnals toints

was tested by using cued recall, in

one of two contexts: in the same
environment or the other one
• Results:
• The words were better recalled Data from Godden and Baddeley (1975).

when the test was done in the

learning environment 15
However, these effects of environmental context on recall:
- Are reduced if the participant focuses inward, rather than paying attention to the
environment (e.g., Smith and Vela, 2001). So it seems that it is necessary to pay some
attention to the physical environment during encoding for context to help.
- Grow in magnitude with increasing delays between encoding (=learning = study) and
retrieval.
- Mentally reinstating the learning environmental context (if it is impossible to actually
recreate the physical environment) reduces context-dependent memory effects: The
recall in an environmental context different to the original one is better when mentally
recreating the original environment than not.

Note that all comments on the effects of environmental context refer to recall tests. The
effects are much lower in recognition tests.

when thetes tis econgition the change is not so relevant, in recongitoin test, the change in hte nevonrment is not sorelevant os this isnothe poit you shuodl consider becasue it is
somehtin you should conisder, the neviornments ar enot sodiffernt and becaue it also mutliple chocihe test /9thi is reocngiion test not recall test).

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 State-Dependent Memory

Recall of materials or experiences depends on the match between the internal environment (i.e.
physiological state, including heart rate) at encoding and retrieval: the more similar the internal
environment at encoding and retrieval are, the better the recall is.
For example, a study conducted by Goodwin et al. (1969) indicated that if we are presented
with some materials or we have some experiences while being sober (i.e., during
encoding=learning=study), recall of such materials or experiences will be better if we are sober
than drunk. For the same reasons, if we are drunk during encoding, recall will be better if we
are drunk than sober! (Please do not take this as an argument in favor of alcohol abuse…)

In other words, changing the internal environment (=the physiological state) of the encoding
phase has some costs in memory.

Other differences producing state-dependent memory effects:

- Being under the influence of marijuana or not
- Being under the influence of caffeine or not
- Exercising / At rest
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Note that all comments on the effects of internal environment refer to recall tests.
The effects are virtually null in recognition tests.
 Mood-Dependent Memory:
The role of emotion in memory
Recall of materials or experiences depends on the match between the mood state at
encoding and retrieval: the more similar the mood state at encoding and retrieval are, the
better the recall is.

This applies to any types of materials or experiences: with positive, negative, or neutral
emotional tone (i.e., regardless their valence).

For example, in a study conducted by Eich, Macaulay, & Ryan (1994):

✓ Participants were asked to generate memories from their life (= encoding phase), and
their recall of these memories was tested two days later (= retrieval phase).

✓ The participant mood state during encoding and during retrieval was manipulated
using music and thoughts, which induced either a happy or sad mood state.

✓ Results: Free recall was better when the mood states in encoding and retrieval
matched, irrespective of the valence of the event recalled. 18
Importantly, the effect called ‘Mood-congruent memory’ is not a real demonstration of
mood-dependent memory!

Mood-congruent memory is a general bias in human memory, which refers to the effects
of the congruency between the emotional tone of a material or experience and the
person’s mood during the retrieval of the memory of such material or experience: It is
easier to recall materials or events with an emotional tone that matches the mood of the
person at the moment of retrieval.
For example, everybody (both depressed and non-depressed individuals) tends to recall
more negative experiences when in a sad than in a happy mood, and these negative
experiences come to mind faster when sad than happy (and vice versa).

Since depressed individuals generally have more negative than positive

experiences, they tend to mostly recall unhappy life experiences, and they
also recalled theses experiences faster than the happy ones.

Mood-congruent memory effects are not considered real demonstrations of context-

dependent memory because the mood at encoding is not the defining feature of the
mood-congruent memory effects, but the emotional tone of the materials or events.
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 Cognitive Context-Dependent Memory

Recall of materials or experiences depends on the match between the cognitive

context at encoding and retrieval: the more similar the cognitive context at encoding
and retrieval are, the better the recall is.

For example, the linguistic context: Marian and Neisser’s (2000) conducted a study
using a group of Russian-English bilinguals, who were asked to report memories of
their lives either in one language or the other one. The memories generated tended to
be from the same linguistic context (i.e. events that occurred where that language was
spoken) → Memories seem to be easier to access when retrieval takes place in the
same language mode as they were encoded.

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 5. Recognition Memory

Recognition memory is the ability to correctly decide whether one has previously
encountered a present stimulus in a particular context before.

▪ Unlike in a recall memory test (in which we have to produce the stimulus), the intact
stimulus can be presented in a recognition memory test.
▪ Discrimination is a key component of a recognition test: we have to discriminate
between old (=learned = studied = encoded = previously presented) stimuli and new (non-
learned = non-studied = non-encoded = non-previously presented) stimuli.
▪ Old stimuli are usually called target stimuli. New stimuli are usually called distractors,
lures, or foils.

Importantly, performance in a recognition test is influenced both by the person’s

recognition ability (a memory factor) and the person’s decision-making bias for accepting
items as old (a non-memory factor) 21
 Signal Detection Theory
This theory, initially used to explain perceptual sensitivity, has been also used to
give an account for recognition memory

In a recognition test:
• The signal (= target) can be actually presented, or not (= a lure)
• The person can say ‘Yes, this is the target’ or ‘No, this is new’.

✓ A more liberal guesser will accept more

targets as “old” (i.e., more hits), but also will
accept more lures as “old” (i.e., more false
alarms).
✓ A more conservative guesser will have fewer
hits, but also fewer false alarms

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