LTM 1:
Learning &
Remembering
Ashcraft, Ch. 6
Taxonomy of LTM
(adapted from Squire, 1993)
MEMORY
Non-
Declarative
Declarative
(Explicit)
(Implicit)
Simple
Skills &
Facts Events Classical
Habits
Conditioning
Non-associative
Primiing
Learning
Definition
▪ Declarative or explicit memory:
LTM knowledge that can be retrieved and
reflected on consciously
▪ Nondeclarative or implicit memory:
LTM knowledge that can influence thought
and behavior without any necessary
involvement of consciousness.
Declarative or Explicit Memory
▪ Episodic Memory:
memory of the personally experienced
events
→ Enables you record personal history;
integrated mental representations
▪ Semantic Memory:
general world knowledge
Mnemonic
▪ Mnemonic = to help the memory
▪ Mnemonic is an active, strategic learning
device or method
▪ 3 strengths of mnemonic technique:
1. The material to be remembered is
practiced repeatedly
2. The material is integrated into an existing
memory framework
3. The mnemonic device provides a means
of retrieving the information
Mnemonic:
Classic Mnemonics
1. Method of loci (loci = a place)
▪ Visual imagery + memorized locations
2. Peg-word mnemonic
▪ Prememorized set of words serves as a
sequence of mental “pegs”, onto which the
to-be-remembered material can be “hung”
The Ebbinghaus Tradition
▪ Research on human memory → Uber das
Gedachtnis/ Memory: A Contribution to
Experimental Psychology (1885)
▪ Use of nonsense syllables → control effect of prior
knowledge
▪ The relearning task → savings score as the
measure of learning = reduction in number of
trials (or time) necessary for relearning, compared
to original learning
The Ebbinghaus Tradition
o Ebbinghaus’s
forgetting curve
(retention curve)
▪ Other fundamentals finding:
▪ Effects of repetition → overlearning
▪ Massed practice vs Distributed practice →
memory is much better with distributed practice
Storing Information
in Episodic Memory
▪ Effect of Frequency → increasing number of
repetitions led to stronger memory
vs
▪ Isolation effect or von Restorff effect:
better memory for information that is distinct
from the information around it
How to learn & remember something new?
Rehearsal, Organization, & Imagery
Rehearsal
▪ Rehearsal = a deliberate recycling or practicing of
the contents of the short-term store
▪ 2 effects :
1) maintains information in STM
2) transfers it into LTM
Rehearsal:
Rehearsal & Serial Position
▪ Serial position effect
▪ Primacy effect → The early items are rehearsed
more frequently → recalled better
▪ Similar principle in short- and long-term memory
Depth of Processing
2 kinds of rehearsal:
1. Maintenance rehearsal: low-level repetitive
information recycling
2. Elaborative rehearsal: a more complex
rehearsal that uses the meaning of the
information to help store and remember it
→ more permanent
Depth of Processing
▪ Levels of Processing or Depth of Processing
(Craik & Lockhart, 1972):
▪ Mental processing given to information we
receive:
1. Shallow processing → incidental attention
2. Deep processing → intentional, meaningful
processing; elaborates the memory of that item
Organization in Storage
▪ Organization: the structuring or restructuring of
information as it is being stored in memory
▪ Work of Bousfield → although the words were
shown in a random order, people tended to
recall them by category
▪ People noticed that several words were drawn
from same categories → the consequence
organization: the way the material had been
stored governed how it was recalled
Power of organization for improving storage in
LTM (Bower et al., 1969)
Organization
▪ Subjective organization (Tulving, 1962):
organization developed by a person for
structuring and remembering information
→ organization imposed by the person; not only
limited to obvious, known categories
Imagery
▪ Visual imagery: the mental picturing of a stimulus
that affects later recall or recognition
→ Remember mental rotation? Mnemonics
device?
▪ Alan Paivio (1971): dual coding hypothesis
→ words that denote concrete objects, as
opposed to abstract words, can be encoded
into memory twice: (1) verbal attributes and (2)
imaginal attributes (ex: book vs idea)
Context and Encoding Specificity
▪ The best way to understand storage → retrieval
▪ Tulving & Thompson (1973) : Encoding specificity
→ each item is encoded into a richer memory
representation that includes the context it was in
during encoding
▪ Godden & Baddeley (1975):
Memory is better when
encoding and retrieval
contexts are the same.
Context and Encoding Specificity
▪ Retrieval cue: a useful prompt of reminder for
the information to be retrieved
▪ Mood congruent learning → same
emotional state
▪ State-dependent learning → same
physiological state
Retrieving Episodic Information:
Decay
▪ The older a memory trace is, the more likely that it
has been forgotten.
▪ Thorndike (1914): Law of Disuse → memories are
weakened through disuse; the passage of time
causes forgetting → unfortunately, it’s wrong in
LTM
▪ McGeoch (1932) → activities that occur during a
period of time are responsible for our forgetting,
not the time itself
Retrieving Episodic Information:
Interference
▪ Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924): After identical time
delays, people who had remained awake after
learning recalled less than those who slept
▪ Consolidation process: the more permanent
establishment of memories in the neural
architecture
▪ Wixted (2005): disruption when people are
awake (and not asleep) is interference of the
memory consolidation process
Retrieving Episodic Information:
Retrieval Failure
▪ 1960 → Forgetting = loss from memory
▪ Now → Forgetting = there is difficulty in
remembering
▪ Anderson (2003) → Forgetting is an active executive
control process, designed to override mistaken
retrieval of related information.
Right now
▪ Genuine forgetting → loss due to organic or
physical factor e.g. Alzheimer’s Dementia
▪ Forgetting is due to retrieval failure or process of
retrieval inhibition (a deliberate attempt to forget)
Retrieving Episodic Information:
Retrieval Failure
EVERYDAY EXAMPLE
“Tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon”
momentarily unable to recall information that
they know is stored in long term memory
Retrieving Episodic Information:
Retrieval Cues
Thomson & Tulving (1970) → high associates used as
retrieval cues benefited recall, both when they had
been presented during study and when no cue word
had been given
TESTING IS LEARNING → testing effect : additional
experience from tests, help you remember information
beter
ALL THAT GLITTERS IS NOT GOLD → Part-set cuing effect
(Slamecka, 1968): If you cue people with a subset of a list
of words, they will have more difficulty recalling the rest
of the set than if they had not been cued at all
Amnesia and Implicit Memory
AMNESIA is the catastrophic loss of memories or
memory abilities caused by brain
damage or disease
Amnesia and Implicit Memory
Relation to Time
Difficult to Difficult to
retrieve retrieve
amnesia
Information information
before amnesia after amnesia…
information stored in memory
▪ Two (major) types:
▪ Anterograde amnesia
▪ Disruption in acquiring new memories for events
occurring after the brain injury
▪ Retrograde amnesia
▪ Loss of memory for events before the brain injury
Amnesia and Implicit Memory:
Dissociation of Episodic & Semantic
Memory
Case Study: Patient KC (Video)
Episodic Memory → no longer works
Semantic Memory → works
Different brain activity resulted for these two types
of memories
Amnesia and Implicit Memory:
Anterograde Amnesia
Case Study: Patient HM (video)
Episodic Memory → Works
Learn more than 7 items → Cannot
Procedural learning → no memory of learning but
able
Implicit memory → Works
Amnesia and Implicit Memory:
Implicit & Explicit Memory
▪ Explicit Vs. Implicit Memory → Consciousness
▪ Implicit Memory
▪ Repetition priming
▪ Perceptual test
▪ Motor tasks (procedural memory)
▪ Déjà vu experience
▪ Explicit Memory
▪ Yes / no recognition test