Memory

• Forgetting - inability to retrieve memories
• Types of forgetting - Retrieval Failure

  • The inability to consciously recall information stored in the LTM due to absence of retrieval cues
  • Retrieval cue include internal and external
• Types of forgetting - Interference

  When information in long term store can't be retrieved by similar information

  • proactive interference - when information in the long term store interferes with retrieval of new learning
  • Retroactive interference - when new learning interferes with retrieval of previously stored information
• Types of forgetting - Motivated forgetting

  Intentional or unintentional suppression of memories or thoughts from conscious awareness to minimise emotional distress

  • Psychological repression - involuntary and subconscious
  • thought suppression - deliberate and intended effort to push certain thoughts and memories out of awareness
• Types of forgetting - Decay Theory

  Theory that suggest memories fade over time

  • A memory trace is created when information is transfered fropm the sensory register to the STM. This gradually erodes over time unless active rehersing occurs
• Recall - process of retrieving information from the LTM without the provision of cues to aid in retrieving the information
• Retrieval cue - stimuli aiding in the retrieval of memories
• Types of Recall

  Free Recall - the retrieval of as much information as possible about a specific topic in any order

  Serial Recall - the retrieval of information in a set order (eg reciting the alphabet)

  Cued Recall - when retrieval cues have been givem (eg fill in the blank spaces)
• Recognition - the ability to identify previously stored information by matching stimuli to recalled memories.

  eg multiple choice
• Relearning - requiring knowledge or skills that were previously learned but may have begun to decay over time.

  eg writing down everything you've learnt in class and identifying the point you missed
• Levels of processing model of memory (Craik and Lockhart 1972)

  • The idea that the way information is encoded effects how well it is remembered
  • The deeper the level of processing the easier it is to recall
• Levels of processing model of memory (Craik and Lockhart 1972)

  Shallow Processing

  • structural encoding - encodes information based on appearance
  • Phonemic encoding - encoding based on sound

  Maintenance rehersal is used in shallow processing where repetition of information allows it to be held in the STM for a longer period of time
• Levels of processing model of memory (Craik and Lockhart 1972)

  Deep Processing

  • Semantic encoding - attaching meaning to information or linking it to information you already have

  Elaborate Rehearsal is used in deep processing allowing information to be encoded into LTM by attaching meaning to it.
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)

  Aim - to determine the impact that levels of processing ave on the recall of memory
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)


  Method

  • Participants - 24 male and female students from the university of Toronto. Convenience sampling was used
  • Materials - list of 60 words, set of 3 questions of 180 words that incorporated the original 60
  • Independent Variable - type of encoding used to memorise a list of words
  • Dependent variable - number of words recalled
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)


  Procedure

  • Participants were randomly allocated into one of the three conditions, structural, phonemic and semantic
  • Structural encoding was asked "is the word in capital or lower case?"
  • Phonemic encoding was asked "does the word rhyme with?"
  • Stomantic encoding was asked " does the word go in this sentence?"
  • A list of 180 words, including the original 60 were provided and the participants had to indicate which words were part of the original 60
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)


  Key Findings

  • Participants in the semantic encoding condition recalled more words than the pother two conditions. Semantically encoded words led to higher recall accuracy
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)


  Strengths

  • explains why we remember some things much better, and much longer than others
  • widened focus from seeing long term memory as a simple storage unit to seeing it as a complex processing system
• Depth of Processing and the retention of words in episodic memory (Craik and Tulving, 1975)


  Weakness/ Limitations

  • Deception was used but specific details of the debriefing process for the study aren't available, so it's not known whether or not the participants were told of the deception and explained the reason of its use