Long-term Memory

Serial position

Chapter 6

Division of LTM

Working Memory

Autobiographical

Prospective

Other types: source memory, false memory, meta-memory, memory for discourse,

memory for pictures, everyday memory, recent vs. remote LTM …

STM vs. LTM

Question: Are STM and LTM

independent memory systems?

How can we dissociate STM and LTM?

Experimental method: serial position

Case studies: amnesia

Neuroscience

Distinguish STM and LTM Murdoch (1962)

Method: Free recall % correct overall

% correct for each position

Primacy Memory for first items

LTM

Recency Memory for last items

STM

Serial position curve Two independent systems of memory

CogLab: Serial position curve

(fall ‘10 data)

Ward, Avons, & Melling (2005)

Remember sequence of nonwords

Ward, Avons, & Melling (2005)

Remember sequence of faces

Change the serial position curve

What expmt’l manipulation will effect:

Primacy portion of the curve?

Recency portion of the curve?

Effect of rehearsal

Rundus (1971)

Rehearsal affects primacy or LTM

Serial position curve:

Presentation rate Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

Condition affects primacy or LTM

Serial position curve:

Delay between study/test Glanzer & Cunitz (1966)

Condition affects recency or STM

Serial position curve

What other variables could you play with to

change the serial position curve?

Length of list

Activity during delay

Divided attention during encoding

Requirement to recall in order presented

Provide encoding strategy

Age groups

Other participant grps (amnesia)

Craik (1970) “Negative recency effect”

Free recall of words after each list

Typical serial position curves for individual lists

Surprise final recall test

Words from end of lists significantly worse recall

compared to mid-portion words!

Conclusion

Reduce primacy effect - words not in LTM

Serial position curve and

Code of information in memory

Use list recall method

Examine code (representation) of

information in memory

Visual

Acoustic

Semantic

Examine types of errors

Kintsch & Buschke (1969)

Angry

Pleased

Forest

Sofa

Ocean

Woods

Carpet

Sea

Happy

Rug

Mad

Couch

Tacks

So

Buy

Owe

Tired

Sew

Their

Tax

By

There

Oh

Tide

Synonyms: same meaning Homophones: same sound

RECALL

word

after

Forest

RECALL

word

after Buy

Kintsch & Buschke (1969) Probe recall task

Method: given 1 item- asked to report next item in series

Conclusion:

Primacy (LTM): semantic code

Recency (STM): acoustic code

Wickens (1976)

Question

What is the effect of interference?

How is information coded in STM?

Method:

4 groups of lists - recall

Conditions

4 groups semantically same (Fruit)

3 groups semantically same, 4th group different

Vary “difference” of 4th group

Wickens: Semantic code

“Release from proactive interference”

Modality effect

Brems (1984) from Watkins (2001)

Method: Lists of written or spoken words (10 items)

15s/word

Immediate and surprise “grand” test

Result:

Echoic memory improves performance for final items

Brems (1984)

Varied phonological similarity (rhyming)

Less modality effect when phonologically similar for fast presentation (reduce auditory benefit)

Talmi, Grady, Goshen-Gottstein, &

Moscovitch (2005). Neuroimaging the serial position curve.

Early vs late

probes

Hippocampus

Early vs late

probes

Perirhinal

cortex

Early vs

control

Left medial

temporal lobe

Early vs

control

Entorhinal

cortex

Early vs late probe = item presented at beginning of list vs end of list

Serial position curve

Method: free recall

Result: serial position curve

Evidence for separate STM and LTM systems

Manipulations to affect:

Primacy portion of the curve?

Rehearsal via presentation rate

Recency portion of the curve?

Delay immediate recall

Other ways to separate STM/LTM?

Neuropsychological evidence

Double dissociation

Amnesia

“The Last Hippie” by Oliver Sacks

“A few more questions convinced me that Greg F

had virtually no memory of events much past

1970, certainly no coherent chronological memory

of them. He seemed to have been left, marooned,

in the sixties – his memory, his development, his

inner life had since then come to a stop.”

Amnesia

Anterograde amnesia

Memory loss after point of damage

E.g. H.M.; Korsakoff’s syndrome; encephalitis

Retrograde amnesia

Can’t remember events prior to point of injury

“Soap opera amnesia”

E.g. K.C.

Problem for multi-mode model of memory?

How does information get into LTM if no STM?

Baddeley & Warrington (1970)

Amnesic vs control

Neuropsychological evidence of

separate STM and LTM

H.M. and Clive Wearing

Intact STM; impaired LTM

K.F.

Intact LTM; impaired STM

Double dissociation

Clive Wearing

Dense retrograde and anterograde amnesia patient

Born in 1938, contracted viral encephalitis in 1985

Previously a very successful musician

Husband to 2nd wife; has children from 1st marriage

BBC 2005 – “Man with the 7s memory” 20 yrs post injury – 67 yrs old http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDNDRDJy-vo&feature=related

1998 documentary 13 yrs post injury – 60 years old http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lu9UY8Zqg-Q&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCyvzI2aVUo&fea

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BrCBq2FY_U&feature=related