PSY 326 HUMAN MEMORY STUDY GUIDE Semantic Memory Hierarchical Network Model Collins Quillian 1969 Semantic memory is organized into a series of hierarchical networks Major concepts are represented as nodes Properties features are associated with each concept Features are stored as high up the hierarchy as possible to minimize redundancy Examples Nodes Animal Bird Fish Canary etc Features Has wings Is dangerous etc Relational Model of Concepts Rosch 1973 Organized by relatedness where the similarity between concepts is represented by the length of the line Emphasis on sets of attributes that are interconnected rather than the exemplars themselves Spreading Activation Model Collins Loftus 1975 Assumes semantic memory is organized by semantic relatedness distance Whenever a person encounters or thinks of a concept that node is activated Activation then spreads to related concepts Spreading activation decreases as it gets further away from the original point of activation Multiple Features Approach Cree McRae 2003 Suggests two classes of features each with subdivisions Sensory Visual auditory taste and tactile sensations Functional Entity behaviors what a thing does Functional information what humans use it for Human behaviors what we do with things Predicts that each property is stored in a separate region of the brain Category specific patients Gainotta 2001 Patients with brain injury that have difficulty naming objects in very specific categories o Living things but not nonliving objects o Animate objects but not inanimate objects o Tools o Vegetables and fruits Why Possibly objects grouped by some attribute o Animate objects Movement o Tools Hand movements o Vegetables and fruits Taste Scripts A relational model of an event with typical components grouped together less usual components are more specific to a particular instance The common timeline of an event Are shared cultural experiences highlighting the common characteristics of events Schemas Person schemas A relational model of a category person or place with typical exemplars attributes Information and beliefs about a person s characteristics Allows evaluation of behavior acceptable or not expected or unexpected Allows comparison of new acquaintances Basis for stereotypes Information and beliefs about ourselves Clearly important in how we interpret events Also what we encode and remember Example Self schemas in depression Self schemas Example The self reference effect me not me judgements What are Scripts good for Selecting relevant information Disregarding irrelevant information Expectations of what will happen next Filling in omitted or missing details Schema expectancy Brewer Treyens 1981 study took subjects into an office to wait and then asked to write everything down all the items in the room Results shelves o Remembered items that were typical chair desk o Also remembered unexpected items skull toys o Also remembered incorrectly objects that weren t there but were consistent with schema of a student office telephone books paper etc on average 14 items added to their list Consistency Bias Wiley 2005 People tend to remember information consistent with their own views better than inconsistent information For people with limited knowledge on a controversial subject o It is easier to add schema consistent information to the existing knowledge base o This is because they don t have a schema for information contrary to their view For people with a more complete understanding of both sides of an issue sides o It is just as easy remembering information from both o This is because they have schematic support for both types Expert Memory Peeck Zwarts 1983 study has bird experts view pictures of European similar American and dissimilar American birds Control condition o Tested all participants on pairs of textiles to rule out a difference in general visual memory ability o Found no differences in the groups ability to recognize textiles Having high knowledge makes it easier to recognize while having low knowledge makes it harder to recognize Expert Memory Results Experts do not have better memory than novices They use their prior semantic knowledge to compare contrast new information to existing increases memory They identify categorize and identify distinctive features Knowledge allows us to quickly see patterns and features that are distinctive increases memory Implicit Memory Implicit Memory The influence that an experience has on your subsequent behavior regardless of whether you recall or are even consciously aware of the original event Priming Graf Squire Mandler 1984 Explicit test Remembered as many words as possible cued recall amnesics are far worse than normal controls in remembering the words Priming Graf Squire Mandler 1984 Implicit test Say the first word that comes to mind word stem completion amnesics produce the old words just as often as controls even though they do not remember the words on the list Common Features of Priming Single prior exposure no mention of a memory test at study no mention of connection between the study phase and test phase To Assess Priming You need baseline information then assess the change in performance due to a prior experience What is Baseline Average performance on the task without recent exposure to study items Types of Priming Perceptual Lexical Conceptual Perceptual semantic Priming Study winter garbage computer chocolate Word stem GAR Degraded Words pictures Anagram solution C CO T Conceptual Tasks semantic Priming Study Computer garbage clarinet chocolate Test TRUM Reber 1967 experiment Subjects are shown the diagram of the grammar Group1 44 sentences generated by the the grammar Group2 44 random sequences Group 1 subjects were unable to report any rules about the sequences the knowledge was implicit Allen Reber 1980 experiment Subjects were unable to report any rules about the sequences but learned to categorize a string of letters Effects were very long lasting worked 2 years Learning Rules Implicitly We learn many things about the world without having to explicitly memorize information Grammar rules that govern permissible sequences of words o Grammars are generative meaning that we can judge new sequences even if we have never experienced the sequence before Berry Broadent 1984 Learning systems implicitly Found no correlation between their explicit knowledge of the rules and their actual performance Rules of operation were learned implicitly increasing performance