Chapter 7: Attention & Memory

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Henry Molaisen

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surgery quieted seizures, but lost ability to remember things over long periods of time

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HM could not remember

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days of the week but could talk about childhood, explain rules of baseball, describe members of family

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IQ was

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slightly above average

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Thinking abilities

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remained intact

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Could hold

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a normal conversation, showing he could remember things for short periods

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Brenda Milner

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psychologist who followed HM over 40 years, introduced herself every time they met

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Memory

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the NS capacity to acquire & retain usable skills & knowledge

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Star tracing task

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performance improved over 3 days, indicating that he retained some info about the task

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On each day

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HM could not recall ever performing the task previously

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Memories are often

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incomplete, biased, distorted

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We tend to remember

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personally relevant info, filter memories thru various perceptions & knowledge of related events

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Some brain processes underlie memory

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for info we will need to retrieve in 10 seconds

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They operate different from

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processes that underlie memory for information we will need to retrieve in 10 years

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Information processing model

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basic model of memory

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Encoding phase

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occurs at time of learning, as info is acquired by being encoded (brain changes info into neural code it can use)

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Storage phase

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retention of coded representation, corresponds to some change in NS that registers what you read as memorable event

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Storage can last

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fraction of second or long as lifetime

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Retrieval

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reaching into memory storage to find & bring to mind a previously encoded & stored memory when needed

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Karl Lashley engram

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physical site of memory storage where memory lives

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Lashley trained rats

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to run a maze, then removed areas of cortices

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In testing how much of maze learning rats retained after surgery

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Lashley found that size of area removed was most important factor in predicting retention, location less important

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Equipotentiality

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memory is distributed throughout brain rather than confined to specific location

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Psychologist Donald Hebb

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memories are stored in multiple regions of brain linked thru memory circuits

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Neurons fire together

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wire together, so all learning leaves biological traits in the brain

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Brain areas

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not equally involved in memory, great deal of neural specialization so diff brain regions responsible for storing diff aspects of info

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Diff memory systems

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use diff brain regions

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Maze task involved multiple

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sensory systems ie vision & smell, so rats could compensate for loss of one sense by using others

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Lashley did not examine

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subcortical areas, now known to be important for memory retention

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Regions w/in temporal lobes

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ie hippocampus are important for ability to store new memories

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Temporal lobes

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being able to say what you remember but less important for motor learning and classical conditioning

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Cerebellum

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role in how motor actions learned & remembered

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Amygdala

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fear learning, one type of classical conditioning

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An animal w/o amygdala

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cannot learn to fear objects that signal danger

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Consolidation

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neural connections that support memory become stronger & new synapses constructed

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Through consolidation, your immediate memories

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acquired through encoding become lasting memories

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Middle section of temporal lobes

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medial, responsible for coordinating & strengthening connections among neurons when something learned. Esp important for formation of new memories

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Actual storage

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occurs in particular brain regions engaged during perception, processing & analysis of material being learned

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Visual info

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stored in cortical areas involved in visual perception

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Sound stored

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in areas involved in auditory perception

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Memory for sensory experiences, ie remembering something seen or heart

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involves reactivating the cortical circuits involved in initial seeing or hearing

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Medial temporal lobes form linkes

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or pointers bw diff storage sites & direct gradual strengthening of connections bw links

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Once connections strengthened sufficiently

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medial temporal lobes become less important for memory

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HM surgery removed parts of

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medial temporal lobes, w/o which he could not make new memories, but could retrieve old memories

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Sleep helps with

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consolidation of memories & disturbing sleep interferes w learning

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Chronic sleep deprivation

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certainly interferes w learning

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Reconsolidation

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Karim Nader & Joseph Deloux; once memories are activated they need to be consolidated again to be stored back in memory

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When memories for past events are retrieved

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can be affected by new circumstances so newly reconsolidated memories may differ from original versions

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Memories begin

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as versions of what we have experienced, then actually might change as we use them

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Reconsolidation process

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repeats itself each time memory activated & placed back in storage & may explain why memories for events can change over time

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Using extinction during period when memories susceptible to reconsolidation

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can be effective method of altering bad memories

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To get info into memory

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person needs to attend, focus on subject, be alert

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Attention

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is limited & performance suffers when it is divided among too many tasks and not to others

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Visual attention works

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selectively & serially

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Anne Treisman

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we automatically identify primitive features w/in an environment that include color, shape, size, orientation & movement & separate systems analyze the diff visual features of objects

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Parallel processing

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systems all process info at same time

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We can attend selectively to one feature

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by effectively blocking the further processing of the others

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Visual search tasks aka feature search tasks

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participants look at display of diff objects on computer screen & search for targets, objects that differ from others in only one feature

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Distractors

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other objects in display

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Targets seem to

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pop out immediately regardless of # distractors

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Some features that seem to pop out when targets differ from distractors

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color, shape, motion, orientation, size

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Searching for a single feature

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ie red stimulus is fast & automatic

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Searching for two features

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serial, need to look at stimuli one at a time & effortful, takes longer, requires more attention

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Conjunction task

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stimulus you are looking for is made up of two simple features conjoined

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Auditory attention

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allows us to listen selectively

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Especially hard to perform two tasks at same time

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if they rely on same sensory mechanisms or same mental mechanisms

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Cocktail party phenomenon

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EC Cherry says you focus on single conversation but hearing your name captures your attention

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Shadowing

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selective-listening studies examine what mind does w unattended info when person pays attention to one task. Participant wears headphones that deliver messages to diff ears & person usually notices unattended sound but will have no knowledge about its content

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Through selective attention

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we filter incoming info

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Donald Broadbent

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filter theory explains nature of attention: people have limited capacity for sensory info, screen incoming info to let in only most important material

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Attention is like a gate

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opens for important info & closes for irrelevant

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Some stimuli demand

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attention & virtually shut off ability to attend to anything else

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Object produces stronger attentional response

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when viewed as socially relevant (eye) than as nonsocial (arrowhead)

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Faces

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stimuli capture attention bc provide important social info

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Face indicates whether

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someone is a potential mate or may cause physical harm, angry

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Attentional system prioritizes

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faces especially when appear threatening, over less meaningful stimuli

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Threatening info receives priority over other stimuli

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within 1/20 of a second after presented

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Decisions about what to attend to

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made early in perceptual process but unattended info is processed at least to some extent

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People often influenced by

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info delivered subliminally or incidentally

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Even when participants cannot repeat an unattended message

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they still have processed its contents

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Change blindness

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bc we cannot attend to everything in vast array of visual info available, often we are blind to large changes in environment

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Atkinson & Shiffrin

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three part model of sensory, short and long-term memory

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Sensory memory

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temporary system closely tied to sensory systems, lasts only a fraction of a second

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George Sperling

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initial empirical support for sensory memory, three rows of letters flashed on screen for 1/20 second, participants asked to recall all of letters, most believed they had seen all but could recall only three or four

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Showed all letters as before but

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signaled with high medium or low pitched sound as soon as letters disappeared

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High pitch

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participants should recall letters in top row, medium for middle row, low for bottom

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When sound occurred shortly after letters disappeared

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participants correctly remembered almost all letters in signaled row

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Long delay bw letters’ disappearance & sound

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worse participants performed

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Visual memory concluded to persist for

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about 1/3 of second then trace of sensory memory faded progressively until no longer accessible

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Sensory memories enable us to

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experience the world as a continuous stream rather than in discrete sensations

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Working memory

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active processing system, keeps diff types of info available for current use; contemporary model of short-term retention of info

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Short-term memory

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info attended to passed from sensory stores, has limited capacity but more than sensory memory

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Researchers initially saw short-term memory as

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a buffer or holding place in which verbal info was rehearsed until stored or forgotten

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We learned that short-term memory is

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not a single storage system but active processing unit that deals w multiple types of info

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Info remains in working memory for about

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20 to 30 seconds then disappears unless you actively prevent that by thinking about it or rehearsing

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Restaurant worker replacing old number with five more people

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retrieval, transformation and substitution make distinct and independent contributions to updating contents of working memory

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Chunking

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organizing info into meaningful units to make it easier to remember

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George Miller memory span

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limited amt info working memory can hold is generally seven items plus or minus two

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Memory span varies

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among individuals and can be increased through exercises & as children develop, decreases with advanced aging

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Serial position effect

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ability to recall items from a list depends on order of presentation w items presented early or late in list remembered better than those in middle

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Greater expertise with material

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more effectively you can chunk info & remember

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Long-term memory

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relatively permanent storage of info

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Long term distinct from working memory

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longer duration & far greater capacity

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Controversy as to whether

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long term memory represents truly different type of memory storage from working memory

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Primacy effect

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better memory people have for items presented at beginning of list

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Recency effect

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better memory people have for most recent items at the end of the list

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Primacy effects are due to

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long-term memory whereas recency effects are due to working memory

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Long-term memory can be separated

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from working memory but the two systems are highly interdependent at least for most of us

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To chunk info in working memory

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people need to form meaningful connections based on info stored in long-term memory

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Mental representations are stored

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by meaning

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Fergus Craik & Robert Lockhart levels of processing model

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more deeply an item is encoded, more meaning it has & better is remembered

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Maintenance rehearsal

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repeating item over and over

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Elaborative rehearsal

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encodes info in more meaningful ways, ie thinking about item conceptually or deciding whether it refers to oneself

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Schemas

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cognitive structures that help us perceive, organize, process and use info

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Frederic Bartlett

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British participants listened to Native American folktale, altered them from own cultural standpoints

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Network of association and Allan Collins

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network is like linked neurons but nodes are bits of info, not physical realities

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Closer nodes

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stronger association between them, more likely it is that activating one node will activate the other

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Associative network is organized by

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category

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Categories are structured in

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a hierarchy and provide clear and explicit blueprint for where to find needed info quickly

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Retrieval cue

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anything that helps person or animal recall info stored in long term memory

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Encoding specificity principle

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idea that any stimulus encoded along with experience can later trigger memory for experience

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Context dependent memory

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can be based on physical location, odors, background music, many of which produce sense of familiarity

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State dependent memory

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when person’s internal states match during encoding & recall & memory is enhanced

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Mnemonics

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learning aids, strategies and devices that improve recall thru use of retrieval cues

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Method of loci or memory palace

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associating items you want to remember with physical locations

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Older view

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memories differed in terms of strength & accessibility

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1970s to 80s

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argued memory is not just one entity but a process that involves several interacting systems sharing a common function: to retain & use info, encode and store diff types of info in diff ways

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Implicit memory

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system underlying unconscious memories (Graf and Schacter 1985)

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Explicit memory

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system underlying conscious memories

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Declarative memory

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cognitive info retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared

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Episodic memory

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memory for one’s personal past experienced (1972 Endel Tulving)

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Semantic memory

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for knowledge about the world

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Procedural memory

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type of implicit, involves motor skills and behavioral habits, aka motor memory

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Implicit memory occurs

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without deliberate effort, you can’t put these memories into words

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Classical conditioning employs

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implicit memory

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False fame effect

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Jacoby has participants read aloud made-up names, told study was about pronunciation, later thought they were famous

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Prospective memory

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remembering to do something at some future time, involves automatic and controlled processes

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Forgetting

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inability to retrieve memory from long term storage

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Hermann Ebbinghaus methods of saving

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examined how long it took people to relearn lists of nonsense syllables, showed forgetting occurs rapidly over first few days then levels off

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Seven sins of memory

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transience, absentmindedness, blocking and persistence, and misattribution, suggestibility, bias

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Transience

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forgetting over time, caused by interference

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Proactive interference

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when prior info inhibits ability to remember new info

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Retroactive interference

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when new info inhibits the ability to remember old info

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Blocking

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temporary inability to remember something known

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Absentmindedness

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inattentive or shallow encoding of events

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Amnesia

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deficit in long-term memory from disease, brain injury or psychological trauma in which individual loses ability to retrieve vast quantities of info from long term memory

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Tip of the tongue phenomenon

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trying to recall specific, obscure words

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Retrograde amnesia

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lose past memories for events, facts, people, personal info

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Anterograde amnesia

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lose ability to form new memories

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Persistence

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unwanted remembering

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Propranolol

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blocks postsynaptic norepinephrine receptors, if given before or right after traumatic experience, hormonally enhanced memories and fear response for that event are reduced & effect lasts for months

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Memory bias

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changing of memories over time so they become consistent w current beliefs or attitudes

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Flashbulb memories

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vivid episodic memories for circumstances in which people first learned of a surprising, consequential or emotionally arousing event

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Von Restorff effect

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distinctive event might be recalled more easily than a trivial event however inaccurate the result

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Source misattribution

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memory distortion that occurs when people misremember the time place person or circumstances involved with a memory

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Source amnesia

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occurs when person shows memory for event but cannot remember where he or she encountered the info

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Sleeper effect

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argument initially is not very persuasive because comes from questionable source but becomes more persuasive over time

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Childhood amnesia

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most people cannot remember specific memories from before age 3, may be due to lack of linguistic capacity and immature frontal lobes

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Cryptomnesia

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type of misattribution occurs when person thinks he or she has come up with a new idea but has only retrieved a stored idea and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source

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Cross-ethnic identification

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people’s superior memory for members of own racial group caused by greater activation in fusiform face area, responds more strongly to faces than to other objects

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Suggestibility

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development of biased memories from misleading information

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Confabulation

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unintended false recollection of episodic memories

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HW

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father of four children, Moscovitch studied severe frontal lobe damage following cerebral hemorrhage

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Capgras syndrome

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people believe family members have been replaced by imposters, likely because the brain region involved in emotions is separated from the visual input so family members are no longer associated with warm feelings