Overview of Memory & Testing Methods

Slowing Down Forgetting

• Testing one's memory has been shown to enhance long-term retention more effectively than just re-studying the material.
• Spacing Effect:
  • Massed Practice: This refers to repeatedly studying a list during a single session until it is learned.
  • Distributed Practice: Distributing or spacing out learning over periods of time proves superior for long-term retention.
    • Specifically, the "spacing effect" is observed when there's less forgetting after distributed practice compared to mass practice.

Ebbinghaus’s Legacy

• Discovered the forgetting curve
• Savings effects after long delays (basically when you relearn spanish later in life)
• Spacing effect suggests that distributed learning works better than packed/massed learning

Types of Memory

• Primary memory: memory stored in conciousness and is currently not stored in long term storage
• Secondary memory: memory that is being retrieved from your memory store

Multi-Store Modal Model

• Information initially reaches our sensory memory through our sense organs, briefly capturing impressions from sensory stimuli.
• If we actively focus on or attend to these impressions, they transition to the short-term memory (STM).
• To move information from STM to long-term memory (LTM), it must be deeply understood or given significance, a process known as elaborative rehearsal.

• What is interesting is when you retrieve from the long-term memory incorrectly, that can alter the memory as a whole, and you might code the inaccurate memory as a whole

Modern Taxonomy of Memory

1. Short-Term Memory (STM)

• Refers to the temporary storage of information.
• Has limited capacity and is vulnerable to interference.
• Typically holds information for seconds to minutes.

2. Long-Term Memory (LTM)

• Refers to the permanent storage of information.
• Has vast capacity and can store memories for a lifetime. a. Declarative Memory (Explicit)
  • Deals with conscious recollections of facts and events. i. Episodic Memory
    • Personal memories of specific events, situations, or experiences.
    • Example: Remembering your first day at school. ii. Semantic Memory
    • General knowledge about the world, including facts, ideas, concepts, and language.
    • Example: Knowing the capital of a country or understanding the concept of gravity. b. Non-Declarative Memory (Implicit)
  • Unconscious memories that influence behavior and are not readily available for verbal description. i. Skill Learning (Procedural Memory)
    • Memory for performing actions or skills.
    • Example: Riding a bicycle, playing an instrument, or typing on a keyboard. ii. Priming
    • A change in response to a stimulus due to prior exposure to a related stimulus.
    • Example: Seeing an image of a red apple might make you quicker to recognize the word "fruit" in a subsequent task. iii. Conditioning
    • Learning through association, where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus.
    • Example: Pavlov's dogs salivating when hearing a bell because it was associated with food.

Stages of Memory

• The main stages of memory is encoding, storing, and retrieving
  • Encoding transforms information into a form that can be stored in memory
  • Storing maintains the encoded information within memory
  • Retrieving reaccesses information fro the past which has been encoded and stored
• When you pull information out with retrieval, your memory is variable and you can update it with new information

Testing Memory

Avoiding Bias

• Random Assignment: Subjects can be placed in any given condition.
• Double-Blind Procedure: Neither the experimenter nor the subject is aware of the condition the subject is in.

Explicit Memory Tests

• Free Recall: Subjects must recall information without any cues. For example: "Please write down everything you can remember."
• Cued Recall: The memory target is paired with other information, where the paired info acts as a cue to retrieve the target memory.
• Cued Serial Recall: Subjects are provided one item from a list and must report the subsequent item.

Recognition

• General Concept: During the memory test, subjects are presented with both previously seen (old) items from the study phase and new, unstudied items. This is often referred to as the "old/new" memory test.
  • Recollection:
    • Retrieves specific details and core facts of a memory.
    • Gives qualitative info like "where" and "when" an event happened.
  • Familiarity:
    • Acts as a signal strength that supports memory judgments.
    • Provides a sense of recognition without added context.
• Force-Choice Recognition: Subjects must determine which item they previously studied from two or more options.
• Source Memory: Refers to recalling the context of a memory, such as time and place.
• Prospective Memory: Remembering to execute a planned action or recall a planned intention at some future point.

Implicit Memory Tests

• Indirect Test - Word Fragment Completion: Subjects complete word fragments, and their ability to do so can indicate prior exposure to the word.
• Indirect Test - Eye Movements: Monitoring a subject's eye movements can provide clues about their unconscious memory recall.