Exam 2 Study GuideEvolved Function of Multiple Memory systems 1) Evolutionary Functions of Memory - Recognition & Context Settingo People, places, things, predators o Example: Status Hierarchies o Example: Vampire bats and the memory needed for cooperation - Prediction (based on what happened already)o Reward availability (like food, mates)o Food toxicity (Garcia Effect) & other avoidance learning mechanisms o Predictive cues to presence and intrusion by predators o Challenging for status and mates - Spatial mapping and Foraging (how to return somewhere)- Skill Learning (aka automating tasks) through repetition o Example: Running, throwing, sewing, carving, speaking 2) Evidence Supporting the Multiple Memory Systems View - The Debate: Is memory a singular, unitary system or multiple systems?o The Answer: Memory and learning mechanisms are multiple adaptive specializations shaped by selection to solve specific problems in the environment.- Functional Incompatibilityo This specialized nature prohibits some memory systems from solving problems they were not specialized to solveo Adaptations that serve one function can not solve other functions because they are too specialized - Functional Incompatibility in Bird Memory Systemso Songs must be learned because they enable organisms to attract mates and defend breeding territories What gets in: Only songs of conspecifics are copied- Swamp sparrows won’t learn from closely-related song sparrows When it gets in: Song learning only occurs in critical periods of development (2-10 weeks, depending on species) How it gets retained (and for how long)- No songs produced until roughly 1 year old (next breeding season, months later, without initial practice)- Songs of other territorial birds can be recognized without replacing sung songs- Functionally Incompatible: Song Learning Mechanisms and Foraging Mechanismso Chickadees May store several hundred food items per day over a wide range Never reuse sites Re-collect food several days latero Differs from Song Learning: What gets in: No restrictions on what kinds of locales can be mapped and learned (as opposed to very specific songs) Sensitive Periods: No special memory for locales mapped earlier in life: new learning is constant over lifespan Retention and Unlearning: Where as songs resist decay for months and years, food cache “maps” decay after as much as one unsuccessful revisiting. There is incredible turnover.- Conclusiono Because the two memory systems seem to have very different rules for what gets retained, for how long, and when, they should be considered separate memory systemso We see the same multiple memory system architecture in humans - Memory Systems I & II in Humanso Gradual & Incremental Learning (Implicit/Procedural; System I) Recollection of specific events is not required: - Learning to type, play piano, juggle - Learning and Remembering language - Mirror drawing in amnesics - Pattern learning and recognition (chess players, the card game “Mao”)- Habits and addiction cues Goal is to automate behaviors and responses across a wide variety of nonspecific circumstances - Thus, specific cues about time, place, context SHOULD be ignored during this kind of learning o Rapid, One-shot Learning (Declarative, Episodic: System II) Goal is to differentiate and remember contextual details that uniquely mark that experience of knowledge- Episodic memory for 9/11- Autobiographical memory for a fight with you significant other- Semantic memory for the state capitals Enables finely-tuned predictions and experience simulations when planning behavior Short-term Memory1) Span of Short-Term Memory: STM is the term for short-term storage of information with no manipulation or organizational element- Time span (without rehearsal)o Short term memory seems to last roughly 12 seconds without rehearsalo Duration: How long does short term memory last?o The Brown-Peterson Technique: I will read you 3 letters to remember, then a number Once you hear the number, count backwards by 3’s from that number Stop counting when I say “Recall” When I say “Recall” write the letters down This technique showed that our memory is fragile for material stored for just a few seconds- Holding information in Short Term Memoryo We hold info in STM through Maintenance Rehearsal: The process of continually attending to and mentally ‘repeating’ information to keep it in short term memory If we are unable to rehearse new information, we have very poor memory for it (it decays) Also, as new information interferes with working memory rehearsal, info is rapidly lost (Example: the primacy-recency effect)- Capacity (With rehearsal)o Capacity: How much can we store at one time?o Originally tested by Waugh & Norman using the digit-span testo Digit span Hear the string of number Write them down We add a number each time and test when capacity is maxed out - Chunking: Small units can be combined into larger meaningful units- Chunk: Strongly associated collection of elements 2) Working Memory: refers to the structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulating information- Executive control system – planning, initiating, and integrating information – high cognitive abilitieso Example: Doing mental math in your head...like what is 24 X 12?- Two subordinate systems that carry out Maintenance Rehearsal:o Articulatory or phonological loop- rehearses verbal information – auditory and semantic codingo Visual-spatial sketchpad – maintains images and spatial representations – visual coding-Long-Term Memory1) Declarative Memory- Episodic memory- memory for events/episodes o I remember what happened in Castle last night- Autobiographical o I remember my first soccer game- Semantic memory- memory for knowledge not tied to personal experience o I remember that the D-Day was June 6th, 19442) Elaborative Encoding (Elaborative Rehearsal)- Encoding: The process of converting information in short term memory into permanent long term memories- Retrieval: The process of accessing stored declarative info from long-term memory into working memory- Our ability to retrieve info primarily depends on how we encode it:o Encoding failure: A primary source of forgetting Having divided attention when encoding; or auto-pilot Example: Following a lead car and forgetting how you went - The more associations we can make between new info and
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