Overview and history of memory research

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Lecture 12009-11- 02

• Overview and history of memory research

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Plan

• Basic information
• Definitions of memory
• Metaphors for memory
• History of memory research
• Memory models
• Memory systems
• Different kinds of memory

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Basic information

• Prof. UW, dr hab. Ewa Czerniawska
• Department of Psychology of Learning and Memory
• Main scientific interests strategic activity in
  learning learning and memory improvement music
  and cognitive processes olfactory memory
• Office hours Tuesday 12.00-14.00 Wednesday
  10.00-14.00 (Deans affairs) room 77Thursday
  14.00-16.00 17.30-18.30, room 124

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Reading

• Gluck, M.A., Mercado, E., Myers, C.E. (2007).
  Learning and memory. From brain to behavior. New
  York Worth Publishers.
• Chapter 1 The psychology of learning and memory
  
• Chapter 3 Episodic and semantic memory memory
  for facts and events
• Chapter 5 Working memory and executive control
  
• Chapter 10 Emotional learning and memory
• Chapter 12 Learning and memory across the
  lifespan.

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Definitions of memory

• location where information is kept memory store
• the thing that holds the contents of experience
  memory trace
• mental process used to acquire, store and
  retrieve information
• ability to acquire, store and retrieve information

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Memory as an ability and as a process

• Ability
• Condition for the appearance of the process
• Strong individual differences
• Element of intelligence
• Incorporate specific abilities
• Specific abilities applied to different domains
• Memory can be trained as a whole

• Process
• A process which consequences can be seen in the
  realized behavior
• Universal phases
• One of the phases of cognitive processes
• Three phases
• Specific processes for different kinds of memory
• Training of each phase

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Learning definition and relation to memory

• Any change in the potential of people to alter
  their behavior as a consequence of experience
• Close relations of both notions in real-life
  thinking
• Disconnection in psychology learning often
  confined to the study of conditioning, especially
  in animals memory seen as a more human trait

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Differences in research concerning learning and
memory

• Learning
• Investigations with animals and searching for
  similarities between animals and humans
• Searching for universal basic mechanisms
• Investigations conducted mainly in laboratories

• Memory
• Investigations with humans
• Searching for factors affecting the effectiveness
  of memory processes, including individual
  differences
• Investigations conducted in laboratories and
  natural settings

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Metaphors used to describe memory 1

• Recorder of experience wax tablet, recorder
  player, writing pad, tape recorder, video camera
• Storage locations house, library, dictionary
• Interconnections switchboard, network
• Jumbled storage bird in an aviary, pocketbook,
  junk drawer, garbage can

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Metaphors used to describe memory 2

• Temporal availability conveyor belt
• Content addressability lock and key, tuning
  fork
• Forgetting of details leaky bick, cows
  stomach, acid bath
• Reconstruction building an entire dinosaur
  skeleton from fossils
• Active processing workbench, computer program

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History Ancient Greece

• Plato rationalism understanding the world by
  rational thought dualism the mind as a
  different and separate entity from the body
  innate knowledge as the foundation of all human
  thought memory as a bridge between the
  perceptual world and the rational world of
  abstractions memory as a wax tablet
• Aristotle empiricism memories are composed of
  associations among various stimuli or
  experiences three laws of association
  similarity, contrast and contiguity

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History modern precursors

• Darwin and the theory of evolution
• Philosophy of mind John Lock, John Stuart Mill,
  David Hume
• Controversies between the empiricists and the
  rationalists

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Early memory researchers

• H. Ebbinghaus Memory A contribution to
  experimental psychology (1885)
• Nonsense syllables
• Learning curve
• Forgetting curve
• Overlearning
• Savings
• F. Bartlett how prior knowledge influences
  memory
• The influence of Gestalt psychology

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Learning curves
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Forgetting curves
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Acquisition and extinction of conditioned
reactions
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Behaviorism

• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• E. Tolman mental representations, mental maps
• Research on verbal learning paired associate
  learning paradigm

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Early efforts in neuroscience

• C. Lashley in search of the engram
• D. Hebb memories are encoded in the nervous
  system in a two-stage process
• First, neural excitation reverberates around in
  cell assemblies
• Second, the interconnections among the neurons
  physically change and some connections grow
  stronger

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The cognitive revolution

• Interest focused on the black box
• Investigations concerning cognitive processes and
  not only behavior
• A. Newell and H. Simon the General Problem
  Solver
• G. Miller the magical number seven plus or
  minus two

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The modal model of memory

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Multiple memory systems Tulvings triarchic
theory of memory

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Multiple memory systemsSquires division of
long-term memory systems

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Different kinds of memory 1

• Species memory (inherited) and individual memory
  (acquired through individual experience)
• Division on the basis of its subject pictures,
  words and emotions
• The presence of understanding verbatime and
  including comprehension
• Intention voluntary and involuntary
• Permanence short- and long-term
• Kind of retrieval recognition and recall

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Different kinds of memory 2

• The format of storage episodic and semantic
• The format of storage and mechanisms of
  retrieval declarative and non-declarative
  (procedural)
• Durability of the storage sensory register,
  short-term memory and long-term memory
• Functions working memory and permanent
• Consciousness explicit memory and implicit memory

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Different kinds of memory

• Autobigraphical memory
• Ecological memory
• Sensory memory memory as a property of each
  modality
• One or many memories?

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Main approaches to memory 1

• Memory components
• Short-term memory
• Long-term memory
• Episodic
• Semantic
• Procedural
• Priming

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Main approaches to memory 2

• Stages of memory
• Encoding into memory
• Storage in memory
• Retrieval from memory

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Main approaches to memory 3

• Processes of memory
• Depth of processing
• Shallow rehearsal
• Elaborative rehearsal
• Transfer-appropriate processing