PSYC 104Quiz 2 study guideMechanisms of forgetting- Trace decay – memories fade- Interference – retroactive ( new memories disrupt old ones) and proactive (old memories disruptnew ones. o Retroactive = extinctiono Proactive = latent inhibition- Retrieval failure – if none of the right retrieval cues are present, you can “forget”Encoding specificity - How you encode something determines what is stored, which determines what retrieval cues will be effectiveo Target words, strong and weak cues  Weak cues  better retrievalContext and memory- If people learned in the water, they performed better in water than on land, and vice versa- Thinking about the context you learned in can help reverse the context effectso Useful in extinction therapy (spiders and fear)Memory is reconstructive- War of the Ghost (Bartlett) o People omitted information, rationalized parts of the story, focused on a single (dominant) detail, and transformed the detail All to fill in “scripts” we have and to normalize the storyFlashbulb memories- Very vivid memory of a surprising, emotional and consequential evento High confidence, low accuracyo People will stick to their story even in the face of evidence it’s wrongMisinformation effect- Depends on a source-monitoring confusiono When the information from one source is misattributed to anothero EX: People saw images of a car turning at a stop sign, but when the questionnaire suggested the car turned at a yield sign, they misremembered the event and thought thecar did indeed turn at a yield signConsolidation- Short term memory to long term memory- Dramatic disruption  amnesiao Allows studies to be performed (on the plus side)Retrieval practice- Has a larger effect on memory than repeated studyingEngram – how memory traces are stored in the brainThe word “memory” in scientific literature- Can mean encoding, retrieval, the hypothetical store where memories are held, the information in said store, the retrieval from the store and the person’s awareness of remembering somethingSquire’s taxonomy of memory- Memoryo Declarative (explicit) Semantic memory  Episodic memoryo Nondeclarative (implicit) Skills/habits Priming Simple classical conditioning Nonassociative learningShoben’s experiment 1. Decide if each sentence is true or false (semantic)2. Decide if each sentence was studied (episodic)- Semantic memories can be personal or general, aren’t necessarily attached to context, and can be learned from single exposure but are strengthened with repetition- Episodic memories are autobiographical, are attached to context (location, time, etc) and are learned from a single exposure and weakened by similar events occurring- BOTH can be communicated flexibly and are consciously accessibleEpisodic-like memory- other animals may be able to remember the what, where and when of events- Scrub jays – learned that worms decay in 24 hours, whereas nuts do noto Were allowed to hide (where) nuts or worms (what) and were tested either 4 or 124 hours (when) after to recover their food They preferred the worms, but if 124 hours had passed they would go to where they hid the nuts.Factors that affect encoding- Imagery- Spacing – serial position effect- Isolation effect – information that is distinct is better remembered- Generation effect – information you create yourself is better remembered- Method of loci – assigning items to familiar locations to help remembero This cognitive practice almost entirely erases the serial position effect when remembering a list of things Meaningfulness o An expert chess player will be able to remember the locations of pieces on a board better than a novice Depth of processingo Encoding the meaning will lead to deeper processingo Elaborative rehearsal helps to encode the meaning Remembering words is improved if when learning them, you were asked semantic questions (does this word fit in this sentence?) as opposed to a question without meaning (does this word rhyme with __?)Consolidation experiments- Patients had difficulty remembering names of TV shows from a few years ago after being shocked by ECT, but no problems with the names of TV shows from 4 or more years agoo The shock disrupted consolidation- Mice in light/dark boxes remembered to avoid the dark side (that they prefer, but would give a shock) better after being injected with epinephrine, but if EP was injected after a delay, there was no effecto Consolidation was improvedNew and old memories in consolidation- Presentation of a retrieval cue before disruption (ECT) can lead to “amnesia”o Consolidation may involve old memories as well- Presentation of a retrieval cue before testing can relieve “amnesia”o Consolidation disruption may not always be a retrieval failureFactors that affect retrieval- Number of cues (free recall, cued recall, recognition)- Practice at retrieval- Match between encoding and retrievalo Encoding specificityo Transfer appropriate processing – memory is better when cognitive processes during encoding match those at retrieval EX: deep and shallow encoding and deep and shallow retrieval- Deep encoding was better for deep retrieval, and vice versaSemantic Networks- Semantic memories are organized by meaning as concepts- Concept nodes are linked- Spreading activation – when a node is activated, the activation spreads to other, connected nodesCollins and Quillian- Hierarchical organization – general concepts (high levels)  specific concepts (low levels)- The time it takes to verify sentences as true or false depends on how many concept nodes we have to move throughCollins and Loftus- Semantic relatedness – links are at different lengths, reflecting the association strength between the concepts- Typicality effect – reaction times are quicker for more typical members of a category ( ex: a robin is a bird vs. a chicken is a bird)o Hierarchical organization did not account for