1. PSY 323: Cognition Chapter 7:
Long-Term Memory: Encoding, Retrieval, & Consolidation

2. Encoding Mental Rehearsal Maintenance Rehearsal Elaborate Rehearsal
Repeating things over and over
Helps maintain information in STM/WM
Elaborate Rehearsal
Involves thinking about how new material relates to information already stored in memory
Effective at transferring information into LTM

3. Levels of Processing (LOP)
Craik & Lockhart (1972); Nairne (2010)
Quality of memory depends on how information is encoded
See demo on next two slides 

4. For about 5 seconds per item, count # of vowels in each word
Chair
Mathematics
Elephant
Lamp
Car
Elevator
Thoughtful
Cactus
Count backward from 100 by 3’s; when you get to 76, write down as many words as you can remember. Do that now.
Replication of Craik & Lockhart (1972)

5. For about 5 seconds per item, visualize how useful the item would be on a deserted island
Umbrella
Exercise
Forgiveness
Rock
Hamburger
Sunlight
Coffee
Bottle
Count backward from 99 by 3’s; when you get to 75, write down as many words as you can remember. Do that now.
Replication of Craik & Lockhart (1972); Nairne (2010)

6. How did you do? Chair Mathematics Elephant Lamp Car Elevator Cactus
Thoughtful
Umbrella
Exercise
Forgiveness
Rock
Hamburger
Sunlight
Bottle
Coffee

7. What Levels of Processing tells us…
Memory for words is better when they are linked to other knowledge
Depth of Processing seems to matter
Shallow Processing
Little attention to meaning
Deep Processing
Close attention to meaning

8. Experimental Evidence for LOP
Craik & Tulving (1975)

9. Types of questions Procedure Shallow: Deeper: Deepest:
Is the word printed in capital letters?
Deeper:
Does the word rhyme with train?
Deepest:
Does the word fit into the sentence “He saw a ____ on the street?”
Craik & Tulving (1975)

10. Levels of Processing Shallow Deeper Deepest
Craik & Tulving (1975)
Shallow
Deeper
Deepest
Deep processing takes longer but results in better memory.

11. Aiding Encoding: Forming additional connections
Complex or descriptive sentences aid memory
Chicken
She cooked the chicken.
The great bird swooped down and carried off the struggling chicken.
Which sentence would help you to remember the word “chicken?”

12. Forming Visual Images Group 1: Silently repeat Group 2: Mental image
Bower & Winzenz (1970)
Procedure
Paired associate learning paradigm
15 noun pairs; 5 seconds to remember
Group 1: Silently repeat
Group 2: Mental image
After delay, participants are given first word and asked to remember the second
Results
Group 2 did better; recalled twice as many words
See next slide 

13. Forming Visual Images Results  Interpretation
Illustrates the advantage of visual coding
Results 
Bower & Winzenz (1970)

14. Linking Words to Yourself
Rogers et al. (1977)
Experiment 1
Procedure
Participants read a question for three seconds and then saw a word
They answered yes if the word was in the question and no if it wasn’t
Four types of questions:
Physical characteristics of word
Rhyming
Meaning
Self-reference

15. Linking Words to Yourself
Exp. 1: Results 
Rogers et al. (1977)

16. Linking Words to Yourself
Experiment 2
Results 
Rogers et al. (1977)

17. Why are we more likely to remember words they connect to ourselves?
Rogers et al. (1977)
Experiments 1 & 2
Interpretation
One possible explanation is that the words become linked to something the participants in these experiments know well—themselves

18. The Generation Effect Slameka & Graf (1978) Procedure
Paired associate learning paradigm
Participants studied related word pairs
Group 1: Read group
Group 2: Generate group
After delay, participants asked to recall entire word pair
Results
Group 2 did significantly better
Interpretation
Generating material yourself, rather than passively receiving it, enhances learning and retention

19. How do we recall or retrieve information that is not presently in conscious awareness?
Retrieval Cues
Stimuli that help us to get information stored in LTM
Seems to help the best if it taps into information that was encoded at the time of learning

20. Retrieval Practice Testing Effect
Roediger & Karpicke (2009)
Procedure
Participants read prose passages for 7 minutes followed by a 2-minute break during which they solved math problems.
Group 1: Testing group
Group 2: Rereading group
After various delays, all participants were given recall test

21. Retrieval Practice Testing Effect
Results 
Interpretation
Retrieval can get better with practice
Roediger & Karpicke (2009)

22. Cued Recall
High school students listened to lists of 12, 24, and 48 words
Procedure & Results of Tulving & Pearlstone (1966)

23. Matching Conditions of Encoding & Retrieval
Encoding Specificity Principle
Godden & Baddeley (1975)
Procedure
Participants randomly assigned to 4 groups:
Listen/Recall
Group 1: water/land
Group 2: land/water
Group 3: water/water
Group 4: land/land

24. Matching Conditions of Encoding & Retrieval
Procedure & Results of Gooden & Baddeley (1975)

25. Matching Conditions of Encoding & Retrieval
Procedure & Results of Grant et al. (1998)

26. Matching Conditions of Encoding & Retrieval
Interpretation of both studies:
The effect of context is significant
Recall is better if the retrieval context is similar to the encoding context
Gooden & Baddeley (1975); Grant et al. (1998)

27. State Dependent Memory
Moods Cue
Memory is better when a person’s internal state during retrieval matches their internal state during encoding
Information learned in a particular emotional state (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) may be more easily recalled when in that same state of mind

28. State Dependent Memory
Procedure & Results of Eich & Metcalfe (1989)

29. State Dependent Memory
Interpretation
The effect of context is significant
Recall is better if the retrieval context is similar to the encoding context

30. Transfer Appropriate Processing
This phenomenon shows that memory performance is enhanced if the type of task at encoding matches the type of task at retrieval
Morris et al. (1977)
Procedure
The encoding part of the experiment had two conditions:
The meaning condition
The rhyming condition
Participants in both conditions heard a sentence with one word replaced by the word “blank”; 2 seconds later, they heard a target word

31. Transfer Appropriate Processing
Procedure
Memory Group
Answer “yes” or “no” based on the meaning of the sentence created by replacing “blank” with the target word
Rhyme Group
Answer “yes” or “no” based on the rhyme created by replacing “blank” with the target word
Morris et al. (1977)

32. Transfer Appropriate Processing
Results 
Interpretation
This result would not be predicted by levels of- processing theory, but is predicted by the principle that better retrieval occurs if the encoding and retrieval tasks are matched
Morris et al. (1977)

33. The Process of Consolidation…
Transforming new memories from fragile state (easily lost) to a permanent state (not easily lost)
Standard Model of Consolidation
Multiple Trace Hypothesis

34. Standard Model of Consolidation
This model posits that the hippocampus important at first; not so much later
Reactivation
A process in which the hippocampus replays the neural activity associated with memory
This activity results in the formation of connections between the cortical areas
This reactivation process occurs during sleep or during periods of relaxed wakefulness, and can also be enhanced by conscious rehearsing of a memory

35. Standard Model of Consolidation
Reactivation
Eventually, the cortical connections become strong enough so that the different sites in the cortex become directly linked, and the hippocampus is no longer necessary
Thus, according to the standard model of consolidation, the hippocampus is strongly active when memories are first formed but become less active as memories are consolidated, until eventually only cortical activity is necessary to retrieve remote memories

36. Standard Model of Consolidation
Evidence for this model comes from occurrences of graded amnesia
Retrograde amnesia is most severe for events that occurred just before an injury
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory for events that have happened prior to trauma or disease

37. Standard Model of Consolidation
Gradual decrease in amnesia for past events supports idea that connections between hippocampus the cortical are formed and strengthened as time passes after an event and then vanish
Hippocampus is strongly active when memories are initially formed and recalled
Then becomes less involved as memories are consolidated
Eventually, the connections between the cortical areas themselves are enough to access remote memories

38. The Process of Consolidation…
Multiple Trace Hypothesis (MTH)
Hippocampus’ influence is important during latter stages of memory formation as well
Gilboa et al. (2004)
Participants shown photographs of themselves engaging in various activities at times ranging from very recently to when they were 5 years old
The results of this experiment showed that the hippocampus was activated during retrieval of both recent and remote memories

39. Reconsolidation
This theory posits that when a memory is retrieved, it returns to the STM state
If undisturbed it will undergo consolidation again back into LTM
However, it may not go undisturbed and is susceptible to alteration at this time
Since reactivated memory is in a labile state, it can be blocked (just as in consolidation)

40. Credits
Some of the slides in this presentation prepared with the assistance of the following web sites:
.ppt
archlab.gmu.edu/people/jthompsz/6-LongTermMemory_2.ppt