Memory Stores and Levels of Processing

 

I.  Duplex theory of memory


A.    Historical origins: William James, Sigmund Freud, and Hermann Ebbinghaus


B.     Modal approach to memory:  General characteristics of memory stores (sensory registers, working and long-term memories)


C.     Neurophysiological evidence


1.  Anterograde amnesia


a.  Hippocampectomy:  Case of H. M. (Milner, 1966)


b.  Korsakoff's syndrome


c.  Memento (2001 film)


2.  Retrograde amnesia


a.  Brain trauma (Lynch & Yarnell, 1973)


b.  ECT and failure of consolidation (Cohen, 1997)


D.    Serial position curve (e.g., Glanzer & Cunitz, 1966)


1.  Primacy and recency


2.  Effect of recall delay
 

3.  Effect of decreased rate of presentation or increased rehearsal
 

4.  Developmental trends


E.     Attention and limited capacity (relation to short-term memory as working memory)

 

II.  Characteristics of short-term (working) memory


A.  Short-term in duration (Peterson & Peterson, 1959)


1.     Class demonstration:  Short-term recall of trigrams


2.     Decay vs. interference (Waugh & Norman, 1965)
 

B.  Limited amount of information (G. A. Miller, 1956)


1.  Definition of capacity:  Chunks


2.  Chunks in chess:  deGroot (1966)


3.  Capacity limit and attention


C.  Forms of representation in STM


1.     Articulatory/acoustic:  Confusion data (Conrad, 1964)


2.     Visual representation in STM:  mental imagery (Kosslyn, 1983)


3.     Working memory:  Central executive (related to attention) and two storage systems--phonological loop and visuo-spatial scratch pad (Baddeley, 1990)


D.  Retrieval of information from STM


1.  Sternberg (1966) RT to retrieve from memory set


a.  Serial vs. parallel processing


b.  Exhaustive vs. self-terminating


c.  Veridical vs. idealized representation

2.  Interpretation of Sternberg's studies


a.  Is parallel processing still possible?  (Townsend, 1990) 
       

a.     Effect of stimulus type (Cavanaugh, 1972; DeRosa & Tkacz, 1976)


E.  Purpose of STM


1.  Workbench for processing:  reasoning, language


2.  Storage into and retrieval from LTM

 

III.  Characteristics of long-term memory
 

A.  Capacity:  no apparent limit


B.  Importance of rehearsal


1.     Requires use of limited capacity WM (Rundus, 1965)


2.     Rehearsal is learned (Flavell et al., 1966, 1970)


3.     Rehearsal alone not sufficient (Craik & Tulving, 1975):  maintenance vs. elaborative


C.  Mnemonics (special case of elaborative rehearsal)


1.  Method of loci (Bower, 1970)


2.  Peg words (Bugelski et al., 1968)


3.  Key words (Atkinson & Raugh, 1975)


4.  Organization by category and stories


5.  Method of analytic substitutions


6.  Use of jingles


7.  Mnemonists (e.g., S. [Luria, 1968] et al.)


D.  Reasons for forgetting


1.     Decay (Thorndike, 1914) vs. interference (Jenkins & Dallenbach, 1924)


2.  Proactive vs. retroactive inhibition


3.  Retrieval and retrieval failure


a.  TOT:  tip of the tongue (Brown & McNeill, 1966)


b.  Recognition generally better than recall


c.  Cued recall (Tulving & Pearlstone, 1966)

 

IV.  Levels of processing--alternative to memory stores


A.  Depth of encoding:  Semantic vs. formal processing


1.  Defining depth (Craik & Lockhart, 1972)


2.  Effect of orienting tasks (e.g., Hyde & Jenkins, 1973)


B.  Encoding specificity

1.  Definition (Tulving & Thomson, 1973)


2.     Recognition can be poorer than recall


3.     Relevance of encoding specificity to learning

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