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Chapter 5
Long-term memory

Long-term memory: Retrieval

Successful retrieval of a memory often depends on the presence of an

appropriate cue (Tulving, 1991) – MC exams (more cues) versus open questions (less cues).
Tulving and Pearlstone (1966) presented words + their designated category (like
‘lawyer’ + ‘profession’[category] or ‘bomb’ + ‘weapons’ [category]). In the
subsequent test, more words were recalled if the category name was also
presented during the test, compared to when the category name was not
presented.

Note that successful recall is related

to higher hippocampal activity
(Schacter et al., 1996)
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Chapter 5
Long-term memory

Long-term memory: Retrieval

Tulving and Thomson (1973): a retrieval cue is most effective when it closely
matches the original encoding context (encoding specificity principle)
Smith et al. (1978). Participants were able to remember more words (49/80)
when learning and test took place in the same room under the same
circumstances, compared to when the test was in a different room (35/80).
Effect sizes like this have not been replicated though.

Morris et al. (1977): Transfer-specific/transfer-appropriate processing.

Deep (semantic)
processing not
always better;
depends on task
demands
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Chapter 5
Long-term memory

Long-term memory: Retrieval

Retrieval is better when the individual is in the same state as during

encoding (state-dependent retrieval)
Eich (1995). When in a sad mood, likelihood increases that sad episodes are
retrieved.
Zarrindast and Rezayof (2004): Mice who learned tasks sober/on morphine,
were more likely to recall the tasks when sober/on morphine.

https://www.scotthy
oung.com/blog/2019
/02/15/memory/
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Chapter 5
Long-term memory

Long-term memory: Retrieval

Distinctive events are easier to remember.

A less dramatic variant is the Von Restorff-effect:

- Remember: 4 8 1 7 5 A 6 7 9 3 Stimuli in condition A Stimuli in condition B

→ The A pops-out Tomato Fork

Lettuce Scissors

Asparagus Knife

Cauliflower Spade
‘hammer’ remembered more easily
Carrot Spoon
in List A where all other items are
Hammer Hammer
vegetables (related to
Rhubarb Computer
Organizational encoding)
Pea Needle

Chicory Rake

Haricot Spinning wheel

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Chapter 5
Implicit and explicit memory

Explicit memory: conscious/intentional retrieval of information

Implicit memory: past experiences influence later behavior even though
people are not aware of remembering those past experiences (actions
imply that memories must be present)

Explicit: Semantic: Amsterdam is bigger than Tilburg

Episodic: (do not mistake with episodic buffer in working memory): This morning, I had coffee
Implicit: Procedural: I know how to ride a bike
Priming: I recognize person X better/faster because I recently saw him (or his sister who I also know)
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Implicit and explicit memory

Episodic memory allows for ‘mental time travel’ and helps to construct
cohesive narratives of our lives based on connecting past and present (also
important for envisioning future events)
- autobiographical memory: personal record of significant events in
one’s life
- flashbulb memories: detailed recollections of when and where we
received shocking news
- emotional arousal increases memory (for details)
In emotional situations, the amygdala
modulates encoding and storage of
hippocampal-dependent memories, and the
hippocampus can influence the amygdala
response when emotional stimuli are
encountered.
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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885) was the first to conduct

experimental studies on memory: If something cannot be
remembered, does it imply that the memory no longer exist
(storage problem), or that it cannot be found (retrieval problem).
He memorized nonsense syllables out loud, after which
he tried to name them in the correct order. He repeated
this until he could name the list of syllables in correct
order in one go. The number of repetitions it took
before accurately naming the list was his measure of
difficulty.
After a certain time he re-learned the list for a 2nd time. He
again kept track of the number of times he needed to re-
read the list to reach criterion. This second time learning
resulted in a saving relative to the first time. The saving
declined the longer the time between initial learning and
test: the forgetting curve. It shows that memory is transient.

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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

This forgetting curve seems to be rather universal: Memory declines rapidly

right after learning, followed by a slower decline. Here the decline of
knowledge of a foreign language after training.

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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

As time passes, we increasingly rely on general memories and details get

lost.

Schemes (also schemas, see slide #205) are general knowledge structures
that can color or distort a story. As time goes by, schemes become more
important and details become blurred.
Restaurant visit 3 days ago Restaurant visit 8 years ago
I arrived late and it was raining. Scheme dominates:
I ordered a large salad because there were no other We arrived, ordered, ate,
vegetarian options, but the waitress was really friendly. paid and left
Food arrived quickly and was fresh and tasty.
My credit card bounced and I forgot my phone in the
bathroom.
When we left I stubbed my toe and it was still raining.
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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

Interference is an obstruction in the retrieval of a memory event that is

stored in LTM. Usually, one memory event interferes with the other because
they are similar (e.g. when learning Italian and Spanish as second/third language).
Proactive interference: interfering
information preceded learning of the
‘target’ information. (learn Italian → learn
Spanish → recall Spanish [earlier learned
Italian interferes with Spanish recall])
Retroactive interference: interfering
information followed learning of the
‘target’ information. (learn Italian → learn
Spanish → recall Italian [recently learned
Spanish interferes with Italian recall]) Sleeping after
learning reduces
interference
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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

Blocking and tip-of-the-tongue experiences: information cannot be retrieved

despite conscious effort.
- Happens relatively more often for names of places or people
because the link with related concepts and knowledge is rather
weak.
Although…

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Chapter 5
Memory: forgetting

Why do we forget?

Absentmindedness: a lapse in attention resulting in memory failure

- Forgetting that you needed to buy something after a busy day
- Attention lapses often arise form dual task situations in which
attention needs to be divided (see dual-task interference on slide
#202)

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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Memory as reconstructions

Memory is not always accurate. Memory is a constructive process during

which errors can occur. These can arise during encoding or during retrieval
where people try to create a consistent story using general knowledge
(related to schemes).

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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Memory as reconstructions

False memories/recognitions are easily evoked if they fit into a certain

scheme (Deese-Roediger-McDermott, or DRM paradigm).
For example: Remember: wire, pin, eye, sewing, sharp, point, prick, pain
Test: Did you encounter the word ‘needle’?

DRM
with
Often falsely
pictures remembered

Adapted from
Baioui et al.
(2012), PLOS ONE
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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Suggestibility: the tendency to incorporate misleading information into

personal recollections

The ‘Bijlmerramp’: on October 4, 1992, 43 people died when a cargo plane crashed
into a block of flats in the ‘Bijlmer’, a residential area in Amsterdam.
In a study that was conducted 10 months after the event, 55% of participants
responded ‘yes’ when asked if they had seen the movie clip of the crash on TV, and
66% responded ‘yes’ when the set of questions included more detailed questions
(e.g., about speed and angle of impact).

There was no movie clip ever shown on TV

(and no other video footage of the crash
actually exists).

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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Suggestibility: the tendency to incorporate misleading information into

personal recollections
Exclusive: The Bunny Effect - YouTube

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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Suggestibility: the tendency to incorporate misleading information into

personal recollections
The type of question used is of crucial importance in eye-witness reports. Loftus
and Palmer (1974) showed a video of a collision scene of 2 cars. Participants
responded that the cars drove 48 km/h versus 62 km/h, respectively, when asked
‘how fast drove the cars when they ‘bumped into each other’, versus ‘crashed into
each other’ (‘collided’, ‘bumped’, ‘contacted’ were also used).

Other distortions also occurred. E.g. the ‘crashed’ group recalled seeing shattered
glass more often than the other group, while there was actually no glass depicted in
the scene.

Eye-witness reports; should we stop relying on them?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtDt-THaH_o&feature=channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PB2OegI6wvI
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Chapter 5
Memory as reconstructions

Schacter’s 7 sins of memory (See movie for more on suggestibility: Are all of your
memories real? - Daniel L. Schacter - YouTube)

Although not discussed here, this is fair game for the exam (page 230 in book)!
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Chapter 5
Amnesia

Amnesia includes a wide array of memory problems. Broadly speaking, there

are two main types that are classified relative to some event that caused
amnesia (stroke, brain surgery, head injuries, seizures, Alzheimer’s disease
etc.).
- Retrograde amnesia: inability to remember events or experiences
that took place prior to the event that caused amnesia (retrieval
problem); often temporally graded: most recent memories are
affected first whereas oldest memories are usually spared (Ribot’s
law).
- Anterograde amnesia: inability to create new memories after the
event that caused amnesia (problem with transfer from STM to
LTM)

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Amnesia

Usually, explicit memory is affected but implicit memory is intact:

Intact procedural memory
- A patient may not remember that he loves bikes and owns
5 different ones, but can still be able to ride them.
- H.M. practiced a lot of mirror writing and improved, even
though he had no memory of ever doing the task before
Intact priming
Graf et al. (1984) asked amnesia patients and controls to
score words based on how much they liked them. During a
free-recall task, patients remembered less items. However,
in a word-completion task (What is the first word that
comes to mind when you see the letters “per…”?), in which
some of the provided letters formed the beginning of the
earlier seen words, patients and controls performed alike.

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Amnesia

Childhood amnesia
The first years of childhood are extremely important for development, but
we barely remember anything explicitly from that period. The earliest
episodic memories starts around 3 years of age and are fragmented.
Culture (more specifically, the way in which
parents interact with young children) seems to
modulate the age at which first memories are
formed, but this cannot explain why childhood
amnesia also seems to occur in animals;
younger rats forget a conditioned avoidance
response faster than older rats do (Campbell &
Campbell, 1962; Feigley & Spear, 1970). Alberini and Travaglia (2017)

Two factors that may be related to childhood amnesia:

- The hippocampus is not fully developed at birth
- Schemes have not yet been constructed
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Chapter 5
Amnesia

Transient global amnesia (TGA): A sudden loss of memory with both an

anterograde and retrograde component.
- Patients are typically fully conscious but appear to be confused and agitated and
often repeat questions (as they cannot remember the answer).
- Although the causes are not well-understood, there usually is some event prior to
onset (extreme pain, stress, physical activity) that induced seizure-like activity or a
brief disruption in blood flow (a more severe loss in oxygen supply is called anoxia).

Although TGA symptoms can also be induced by alcohol/drug intake, TGA is

rather harmless in the sense that patients recover quickly.

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Amnesia

In contrast, amnesia related to long-term alcoholism (Korsakoff syndrome) is

irreversible.
- Korsakoff syndrome is related to chronic vitamin B1 (thiamine) deficiency and
can be caused by multiple general health/diet issues. Alcohol damages the lining of
the intestine causing inhibition of thiamine absorption in the intestinal tract
(e.g., Gastaldi et al. 1989).
- Symptoms include confabulations (i.e., fabrications/invented memories, mostly in
the early stage of the disease), anterograde and retrograde amnesia (temporally
graded), executive dysfunction, apathy and affective and social-cognitive
impairments.
- Named after Sergei Korsakoff (1854-1900), a
neuropsychiatrist, best known for hist studies
on alcohol psychosis.

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Amnesia

Amnesia does not always have a biological cause, and can be functional
instead (memory loss cannot be explained by brain pathology).

Dissociative amnesia: memory loss of information about one’s life caused by

a traumatic or stressful event. Often the problems are transient, but not
always.
- Localized: memory loss regarding specific areas/points in time. For example,
someone does not remember being robbed, but can recall other details from
that day.
- Generalized: memory loss regarding major parts of a person’s life and/or
identity (friends, name, job etc. not recognized/remembered).
- Fugue: most or all personal information is forgotten (name, personal history,
friends) and a person may sometimes even travel to a different location and
adopt a completely new identity.

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