The Role of Schemas and Forgetting in Memory - Prof. Constance Pilkington, Study notes of Psychology

Download The Role of Schemas and Forgetting in Memory - Prof. Constance Pilkington and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! V. The Role of Schemas in Memory A. Schemas 1. Features – specific piece of information that represents a typical element of the person place or thing. Basically, typical attributes. Ex. Person = height, weight, age, gender. When we encounter a stimulus, we pull up an appropriate schema and we assign values to those features. (Assign tall, thin, old, female, etc.) 2. Values – provides an organizational tool. I know where to put it, how to use it, and what information to look for when stimulus is encountered. 3. Default values – best guess at what the most likely value for a feature is. Ex. Rode with a friend to Richmond. Default value = rode in a car. Values we assign when the actual value for a feature has not been specified/provided. B. Big Role in Memory 1. Make it easier to store something in memory, make an event/thing easier to understand, and provide organization that is critical to memory. 2. Help explain errors in memory – We might store incorrect default values. Maybe she really did ride in a horse & buggy. Also tend not to encode info that is inconsistent with the schema unless glaringly inconsistent. If you came to her office and saw a screwdriver on her desk, you probably would not encode it. 3. Intrusions – This is information that was not present but is falsely remembered as being present. Tend to be schema consistent. Might testify to there being a full bookcase in her office, even though there is no bookcase 4. Reconstruction theory – The idea that we use our generic schemas to guide our recall of a specific event. Sometimes we don’t have specific details, and we tend to use the generic schemas to reconstruct our memory of the entire event. Ex. Your first class day on campus C. Eyewitness Testimony 1. Our court system relies heavily on eyewitness testimony. In reality, generally quite poor. 2. Intrusion – schema consistent. 3. Forget schema-inconsistent information 4. Arousal consumes cognitive resources, interferes with proper encoding. 5. Post-event information – info you get after the event occurs can introduce errors into your retrieval. For instance, how a question is asked can affect your memory. a. smashed vs. hit b. broken glass? BE VERY CAREFUL/WARY OF YOUR MEMORY IF YOU WITNESS A CRIMINAL ACT VI. Forgetting – defined as a loss in accessibility of previously stored information. A. Def. – either it is completely gone from memory (no memory exists anymore) or it’s there and you just can’t retrieve it. B. Ebbinghaus’ Research – How quickly do we forget? 1. Served as his only subject. 2. Method – First he developed hundreds of nonsense syllables that adhere to certain language rules with no meaning. (Vot, frad) Argued that he needed stimuli that he had not yet stored in memory, while minimizing effect of prior knowledge. He broke these down into lists which he went about memorizing, and then tested himself at various intervals of time. 3. Results – Lose much after an hour 4. Bahrick – argued that while sometimes there is some initial forgetting, some memories can endure for years and reach something called: a. ‘permastore’ b. Why? Depends on how well the information was learned in the first place. c. Criticized Ebbinghaus’ use of nonsense syllables. Cannot be elaborated on, nothing in memory to help store the information. When material is relatable, we’re more likely to remember it. B. Decay Theory – memory loss due to passage of time 1. Engram – memory trace, physiological change when learning. This trace then fades over time unless it is reactivated. 2. Reactivation – if you recall that memory trace every once in a while, you will not forget it. Otherwise it will rot and decay. 3. Sensory register and short term memory (STM). 4. Not so good for long term memory (LTM). If it did account for LTM, and it’s just the passage of time that accounts for it, then what you’re doing during that interval should not make a difference. However it does. (asleep vs. awake) C. Interference 1. Other memories get in the way of retrieving a particular memory. Especially true if memories are similar. Plus deals with parts of the brain (hippocampus v. hypothalamus). 2. Proactive interference – Old memories interfere with retrieval of memories that have been more recently stored. Ex. If you move and you get a new phone