Memory Outline Lecture 16 Notes Retrieval o Retrieval Cues o Encoding Specificity o Accuracy Forgetting o Basic Problem o Decay o Interference o Retrieval Failure Improving memory o Distributed Practice o Enriched Encoding Memory is cue dependant retrieval from memory is based on probing memory with a retrieval cue you get information out of memory in response to the retrieval cue retrieval cue is like asking memory a question and getting an answer back Retrieval cue is a set of information what you get out of memory in response to that information depends on the relationship between the retrieval cue and the information in memory Encoding specificity principle what gets retrieved from memory depends to a large degree on the match similarity between the information in the retrieval cue and the information in memory Example if someone asks you who is your professor for intro PSYC information in your memory The cue intro PSYC professor class for 2 months because you have much more detailed The association is very weak before you take the class The association is much stronger after you have been in If you store something in memory that is associated with a lot of information any subset of that information can serve as a retrieval cue Elaborative encoding works because of encoding specificity Maximize study time by doing enriched encoding don t just repeat stuff over and over read notes etc this is maintenance rehearsal Look for things in your notes that don t make sense explain lectures to imaginary friend Construction you don t store information in memory verbatim you store bits of pieces and you supplement what you get from the external world with what you already know about similar situations Reconstruction retrieval we retrieve bits and pieces of a memory and we fill in the rest the richer the encoding the more bits and pieces you get You DON T RETRIEVE a WHOLE UNIT Construction and Reconstruction are a way in which prior knowledge is integrated with events this allows us to remember stuff that isn t there this is a possible source in inaccuracy The person having the memory cannot distinguish whether what we are remembering was something that was originally present in the event whether it was something we provided when we stored the memory or if it was something we provided when we retrieved memory Accuracy There is no way to tell if a memory is accurate 1 The richness of a memory does not affect the accuracy of that memory the degree to which a memory is detailed has no relation to whether that memory is accurate 2 You can systematically induce memories 3 Eyewitness testimony subjects watch a video presentation of an accident occurring in an intersection Sometimes there was a stop sign in the video and sometime there wasn t After the subjects watch the film they are asked questions about what they saw In the case of no stop sign they were either asked did the car stop at the stop sign or did the car stop at the intersection They let time go by and then the subjects are asked if there was a stop sign at the intersection Asking about stop sign is misleading post event information People who got misleading post event information original question with stop sign are more likely to remember a stop sign Next the subjects were asked to estimate the speed of the car they were asked either how fast would you estimate the car was going when it bumped into the other car or how fast would you estimate the speed to be the car when it smashed into the other car the ones with smashed estimate a higher speed and when asked if there was glass on the road are more likely to remember glass than the bumped people There was no glass on the road 4 Woman in airport has a large opened top purse woman s purse is stolen and the police gather everyone around the woman as witnesses everyone other than the people in the airport are confederates of the experiment Woman describes what is in purse including a cassette recorder Then the police asked people about what the purse looked like what was in it People said they saw the cassette recorder one guy told the make and model and described the recorder in detail BUT THE CASSETTE RECORDER WAS NOT THERE 5 Repressed memories of sexual abuse in CA teachers were accused of sexually abusing children also a woman reported that she had been sexually abused by her father and males in her community as part of a satanic cult ritual There is no way to determine the accuracy of a case in general many repressed memories of sexual abuse were not accurate or never occurred All of these people recovered the memories after extended time seeing psychology professionals the memories built up slowly over time as result of a psychologically trained individual thinking that the patient was exhibiting symptoms of sexual abuse and then asking the patient questions that led the patient to believe that they were psychologically abused
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