infant memory conditioning

-one proceedure

- two key findings

mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm:

babies put in a setup where if they kick, mobile moves

-won't remember if you change the objects on the mobile; very specific

-can be primed to remember (and kick)

spoon test and Hayne's treasure chest

-what type of memory

-what conclusions can we draw about infantile amnesia

spoon test: story about the girl with spoon, tests prospective memory

hayne treasure chest: offered things like key

-infantile amnesia offsets at about 3-4 years of age; at 3 can go for key immediately, at 4 can pick it after 24 hours

-mainly affects implicit learning systems, use hippocampal functions to compensate

- triplets learning task (we know this is only implicit)

-also impacts explicit in forming new memories (attention)

Hebb and Skinner aging

-two main effects

-two suggestions

-fit this in with general theory

skinner forgets names of party guests, has his wife remind him

hebb has memory blackouts, but uses tricks like leaving the umbrella by the door

forget prospective memory type tasks but use more explicit processes to compensate

compensation strategies like flattery and umbrella; think of grandpa

primary reasons for transience

ebbighaus

adaptive function

-inability to remember specific details over the passage of time, i.e. Clinton can't remember how many times

-remember more schemas of what happen in a typical experience there, also remember things out of the norm

-ebbighaus found curve of forgetting testing himself on nonsense syllables, forget about 2/3

-adaptive because if it hasn't repeated and continued to be important, then we don't need to keep it

-two studies of change blindness

-theoretical explaination

-video edit studies- actor changes

door studies - person changes (both Levin and Simon)

-superficial attention, record gist

suggestability for imagination- one study

why are early memories so susceptible

one other population that is vulnerable

• lost in the mall
• because theyre hazy anyway
• aging population is vulnerable because more succeptible for familiarity bias and have lower expectations of their own memories

1. Group presentations covered topics relevant to the legal implications of memory processing
1. Describe a study presented by one group.

                                                              i.      Include the premise/purpose of the study

                                                            ii.      Include details of the procedure

                                                          iii.      Include details of specific findings

                                                          iv.      Include major conclusion

2. Relate the content to a specific memory principle covered in class.

a. zaragoza and lane

i. wanted to find out if subjects were more likely to give misinformation to questions rather than narrative

ii. shown a slide show of a repairman fixing something, then stealing $20 and a calculator, asked in leading questions or in narrative form

iii. more accuracy in narrative form

iv. leading questions lead people to actually believe their content

b. suggestability- can fill in the gaps when transience occurs (?)

1. The Sam Stone study shows how children’s memory can be susceptible during eye witness testimony.
1. Describe the procedure for the study (include the age of the children, the groups that children were assigned to and the experimental manipulations took place).
2. What were the findings?
3. What are the legal implications of the findings?
4. What procedures can be following to increase the accuracy and reliability of child eye witness testimony?
5. Prepare an answer for the Zajac and Karageorge (2009) line-up study/

a. 3-4 year olds and 5-6 year olds, sam stone visited and told story, had one interview per week for four weeks, then one after 10, new interviewer, probed about things that did not happen; one group told ahead of time that he was clumsy; one fed information that he broke things after the fact

b. no false allegations in control; control with probing 10% did; with the suggestion 21% younger did, 14% older did, many more with probing; suggestion and stereotype overwhelmingly the largest

c. legal implications; children are very vulnerable to suggestability before and after the fact, also probing

d. no probing questions just narrative; do not repeat questions because then children change their answer to please interviewer

e.wildcard is a good idea, we should include it in lineups

1. Putting a cell phone through the washing machine, misplacing a priceless violin are examples of the sin of absentmindedness.
1. Name Schacter’s primary reason for absent-mindedness
2. What is area of the brain that is less activated when absent-mindedness occurs
3. Absent-mindedness is a by-product of what adaptive memory process?
4. What mechanism do memory enhancing drugs work? Should memory enhancing drugs be made widely available? What are the pros?
5. What are the ethical pitfalls?

a. divided attention

b.  lower left frontal lobe

c. automatic task memory (implicit)/ divided attention

d. NEED MORE, con is that they need to be specific to target all seven sins of memory, also forgetting has adaptive function

e. if it can help everyone, shouldn't everyone have it?

1. Blocking is another sin of memory

                                                              i.      Describe the Baker/baker problem

                                                            ii.      What is the theoretical explanation for the problem

                                                          iii.      What is adaptive about blocking?

i. proper noun blocking

ii. less activated pathways in semantic network for remembering proper noun; can fit baker as occupation into more schemas and more elaboratively encode it; have to do more work and use mnemonic devices with proper noun; no alternatives and failure increases as delay increases (TOT phenomena)

iii. blocking of painful events

1. Linton (1982) examined memory for everyday events and Neisser in Memory Day by Day discusses the study by Waagenaar using the cues of Who,What, Where, When, Emotion. For our class experiment you also recorded everyday events and after 1 month retrieved them

                                                              i.      What happened to your memories over the course of time?

                                                            ii.      What were the most effective retrieval cues during memory retrieval test?

                                                          iii.      How did your experience compare to that of Waagenaar and Linton? Be specific

i. forgot most of them

ii. photos, then can use schemas if given who/where clues

iii. i remembered a lot less than linton, did notice loss of distinctiveness and absolute forgetting, like wagenaar i also found that very unpleasant was memorable

1. Mneumonists or memorist are rare individuals with exceptional memories. Compare and contrast Luria’s case study S and case study VP

                                                              i.      What primary memory strategies did each employ?

                                                            ii.      What did they have in common?

                                                          iii.      How did they differ?

                                                          iv.      What implications does this have for memory encoding?

i. Luria's case study s- synesthetic reactions, VP - usually fast perceptual speed

ii. digit span

iii. S used visual memory, VP had none, VP can do meaningful material but that doesn't help s, synesthesia is very rare whereas VP was from a society that reinforced memory so his may have been taught and may not be super unusual

iv. some memory tricks can be taught and reinforced; encode elaboratively in different ways, VP could speak many langauges

1. Bias dramatically impacts memory processing

                                                              i.      Define consistency and change bias

                                                            ii.      How do such biases impact relationships?

                                                          iii.      How are such biases adaptive?

i. consistency - memories of the past are framed by memories of the present (i.e. pain or political beliefs)

change - if something should have changed, you report it did (self-help programs)

ii. consist- report how they're feeling now as how they've always felt; when things get tough after honeymoon period, forget the good things

change- people remember the beginning of the relationship as worse than now

usually change in earlier part of relationship, consistency after

iii. reduces over all cognitive dissonance so you can make peace with a decision (like piece of art someone initially didn't like but "got used to" after buying it

Hindsight is 20:20 and we all know ourselves

                                                              i.      Define hindsight bias

                                                            ii.      Define self-bias

                                                          iii.      What is the negative impact of these biases?

                                                          iv.       What is the adaptive value of these biases?

                                                            v.      How is the left hemisphere involved?

i. idea that you knew how something would turn out before it happened, given hindsight

ii. enhanced recall of our own participation in events

iii. hindsight- reduces ability to learn from mistakes

iv. hindsight- enhances self image

self- illusory self assessment (high school report card)

self- is important memory cue and retrieval organizer

v. left hemisphere is an interpretor, so it is involved in all instances of bias; right hemisphere deals more in facts

1. The sins of misattribution and suggestibility play pivotal roles in eye witness testimony

i.                    Define each of the two sins

ii.                  Provide examples of each of the two sins

iii.                Using specific cases explain why these sins make memory particularly susceptible

iv.                Note any specific points to consider when dealing with children

i. misattribution - something was learned at a different time, or from a different source, is lumped together; suggestability - new information about an episode can be suggested and encoded after the fact and seem as authentic as the rest of the memory

ii. misattribution - mechanic who reported a second man with mcveigh

suggestibility - children in sam stone experiment

iii.

iv. children are most accurate in recalling in a narrative; they are highly influenced by probing questions

2. Eye witness testimony research has uncovered a number of principles that are common across the life span.

a.       Describe 3 studies conducted with children or aging population

b.      Describe 2 studies conducted with adults

c.       Highlight the general principals learned with regard retrieval of eye witness testimony, eye witness identification and the juror process.

d.      How do these principals differ across the lifespan?

e.       How are these principals the same?

a. Sam Stone Study, Zajac and Karageorge, pipe et. al abuse study (thing with shoulder touch)

b. Yuille and Cutshall (shooting on street), Loftus lost in the mall

c. suggestability, misattribution, central vs. peripheral details

d. children are extremely suggestable, children aren't good at abstract thinking, difficult to tell if child is being truthful

e. the rest of the things above

3. Investigations of traumatic memories have revealed systematic differences between the processing of emotion

i.                            Describe the key role of the amgydala during emotional processing. In particular describe the different pathways

ii.                          Describe the effects of amygdala damage in different species (rats/human and non-human primates)

iii.                        Describe the characteristics of PTSD

iv.                        A number of treatments for PTSD were discussed. Describe the pros and cons of exposure treatment and propanolol as treatments for PTSD

i. direct path from thalamus to amygdala(faster, less detail); indirect path from thalamus to cotex to amydgala (slower, more detail)

ii. human- deficits in learning about fear producing stimuli, recall a story but not the emotional parts, rats- no freeze response to conditioned stimulus of tone that precedes shock, primates lose fear and also try to eat previously unattractive objects like rats and feces

iii. generalized stimulus can bring back very vivid memories of trauma; usually war or abuse

iv. propanolol (beta blockers)- Thompson likes this because painful memory isn't consolidated, Schacter says if it isnt well processed it will be continually reexperienced, interfering with adaptive function of persistence

exposure- effective although initially scary

4.      At the end of his book Schacter concludes that the seven sins of memory are primarily side effects of an efficient memory system

a.       Describe the pros and cons of the evolutionary theory that Schacter uses to explain his results in terms adaptations, ex-aptations and spandrels

b.      Describe an instance of transience, blocking, and persistence

c.       How does Schacter account for these problems

d.      Based on other parts of the course do you agree with Schacter’s assessment?

a. pros- explains nicely how the seven sins of memory are adaptive in other contexts; cons- a little too speculative some say

b + c. transience- Clinton and Monica Lewinski- is adaptive because since those details had not been repeated, assumed they wouldn't be important again and no need to remember; adapted from nomads and spacial memory (as time goes on, becomes less likely that they will return)

blocking - tip of tounge, bi-product of effects related to recency and frequency of retrival that give rise to transience 

persistence - Donnie Moore's memory of losing Angel's game so much that he killed himself; amygdala and related structures contribute to long lasting fear learning (adaptive)

d. yes because using animals we can measure adaptive function

4.      The prefrontal cortex and different hemisphere’s of the prefrontal cortex were discussed repeatedly during the course of the semester

a.       Name major functions of prefrontal cortex

b.      Name sins of memory influenced by prefrontal cortex

c.       Discuss hemispheric differences in the role of the prefrontal cortex

d.      Discuss implications of damage to prefrontal cortex using case studies

a. Baddely's model of sensory processing, higher level processing, left hemisphere as "interpretor," decision making, elaborative encoding, attention, planning and organizing

b. transience (failure to elaboratively encode in left frontal lobe), absent mindedness (working memory, attention), misattribution(fusiform space gyrus), bias (left frontal lobe interpreter), persistence (left frontal cortex)

c. Left is interpreter, reflects back whereas right ??  

d. eek

4.      Mneumonists provide us with many clues to the role of memory organization and efficient retrieval

a.       Describe the characteristics of two mneumonists

b.      What principles do these mneumonists reveal about the organization and design of the human memory system?

c.       Based on these principles what ways can memory be improved?

d.      Taking into consideration the seven sins of memory what are the limitations? Discuss adaptiveness of blocking and transience

a. Luria's case study s- synesthetic reactions, VP - unusually fast perceptual speed

b. elaborative encoding is essential

c. from VP we learn that quick perceptual speed can be learned

d. Miss out on benefits of blocking and transience; blocking prevents rapid fire memories from the stimuli we are bombarded with at all times, transience prevents holding on to useless information

4.      Infantile amnesia is defined as the early period of life that is veiled from memory. Compare and contrast the following theories of infantile amnesia.

a.       Social interaction theory (Nelson’s theory about the importance of the role of language).

b.      Brain maturation deficit (idea that brain systems are not functional)

c.       Retrieval cues hypothesis (Hayne theory)

a. Nelson- argues that language is essential to elaborate encoding; also can't understand yourself in terms of the society because you can't communicate, therefore can't remember how a particular event happened to you; loftus says info is there but you can't make sense of it because language is our tool for doing so

b. Parts of hippocampus and frontal cortex are immature at birth, rouge test and sense of self

c. children can't generalize cues

4.      Neisser’s analysis of John Dean’s memory during the Watergate investigations illustrate a number of important memory principles.  Use the case information and information learned throughout the course to discuss the following memory principles.

a.       How do we know that reconstruction plays a major role in memory retrieval?

b.      Why is reconstruction and updating adaptive?

c.       What is memory bias?  Identify and define specific examples from Dean’s testimony.

d.      Why is memory bias adaptive?

e.       Even though Dean’s memory was inaccurate the testimony conveyed what occurred in the White House.  Discuss. 

a. Dean is evidence; he had specific memories from repeated events; mind is not a tape recorder and different events are recorded different ways, some schema and some in deviation from that schema; what you dont specifically remember assume are schema

b. don't need to remember whole specific story, only important moments, use new knowledge to attribute meaning to otherwise meaningless events

c. bias is new information framing the way you remember old info; Dean thought president was more polite than he was because he's ambitious, inflates his own role

d. bias is adaptive because we develop our own personal narrative; have higher self esteem

4.      At the beginning of class this semester we reviewed the information processing model of memory and defined different memory systems.  Throughout class we have discussed a number of studies that are consistent with the model and many others that are not. Compare and contrast the information processing model of memory processing with the model of memory fallability discussed by Schachter and the naturalistic approach to memory processing taken by Neisser.

a.       Describe the information processing model and the different memory systems (a diagram is acceptable).

b.      Describe two studies that are consistent with the model

c.       Describe Schachter’s evolutionary theory of memory processing

d.      Describe two studies that are consistent with this theory.

e.       Describe Neisser’s social and narrative theory of memory processing

f.       Describe two field studies that are consistent with his approach

g.      Conclude by summing up your own personal theory of memory processing.

a. like a computer, takes things in, puts things out

b. miller's magic number, triplets test

c. memory was produced evolutionarily and so its faults can be explained by evolutionary adaptivity

d. eals and silverman's spacial recognition task- women performed better at finding objects from foraging wheras men performed better on tasks related to hunting, probability a monkey returns to abandoned place diminishes as time goes on-evidence for transience as adaptive

e. need to know where you are socially to be able to successfully record memories

f. older children have significantly more memories of siblings' birth, high school grades remembered as better than they were - social

g. a combo of the three!

4.      Throughout class we have discussed the role that implicit, explicit and working memory play in typical day-to-day functioning.

a.       Define implicit, explicit and working memory

b.      Discuss which brain areas subsume control of these processes.

c.       Describe one case study that illustrates the outcome when these memory systems are damaged.

d.      Describe how each of these memory systems can fail in typical day-to-day functioning without brain damage and explain why.  (you may refer to developmental processes of early development or aging to answer this section).

a.implicit (skills, category [probability], priming, basic associative, nonassociative [habituation]), explicit (semantic and episodic), working(Baddely) and prospective   

b.

·     skill learning - basal ganglia/ motor cortex (cerebellum and striatum)

·     nonassociative learning- cerebellum and frontal cortex/reflex pathways

·     operant conditioning (VTA), pavlovian emotional (amygdala), pavlovian skeletel (cerebellum)

·     category (probability) - striatum (cerebral cortex)

·     priming - cerebral cortex 

PFC

dorsolateral PFC (central executive)

left ventrolateral PFC (phonological loop) (posterior and anterior)

right ventrolateral PFC (visuospatial sketchpad)

left posterior cortical speech and language area

right posterior cortical visual area

c. HM - hippocampus, KF - parietal lobe (has daily events but no digit span)

d. explicit- blocking, transience, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence 

working- absent mindedness

implicit - infants cant generalize

rovee-collier

niches

infant memory

shifting beyond the mechanism (what) of infant behavior to the function (why)

niche 1: body builder [birth- 2 months] (energy is being put towards growth, attention is paid towards what increases energy (food) and decreases energy (activity))

niche 2: inventory control officer [3-6 months] (learns very specific, ungeneralized, information about how to control their environment/caregiver)

niche 3: map maker, level 1 [6-10 months] (begin to learn language, build cognitive maps, schemas; context no longer affects memory)

niche 4: map maker, level 2 [10-12 months] (refine language and spatial skills, learn who what and where)

1. infants learn and express relations that suit their needs

2. infants are perfectly adapted at every point in their development

3. infants learn by economics, not capactiy (cost/benefit analysis)

4. logical change in learning and memory

7 methods of study for infants

(rovee collier? hayne??)

vrm

deferred imitation

operant conditioning

elicited imitation

delayed non-match to sample paradigm

classical eyeblink

event related potentials

habituation occurs to certain stimuli

has memory even after delay, very specific (mothers voice and dr seuss books)

measured by movement, heart rate, brain activity

visual recognition memory

infants can learn and remember for short periods of time even though this process is hippocampally dependant in adults and theirs isn't fully developed

tests vrm

shown pictures of two faces, one is continually repeated

amount of time baby looks at novel stimulus is recorded

shows habituation to old stimulus and recovery-- recognition of new one

predicts IQ using speed of processing and inhibition (like self restraint)

infant in setup with mobile, if the infant kicks the mobile moves

very specific, if the objects change they will not do it

gets better with age

better to have many short sessions than one long one

can be reminded

puppets with bells underneath (at a phase of development when children are particularly interested in enclosure)

slower learning and encoding than mobile task

need the same puppets at least initially

magic shirking machine

preverbal children can imitate procedure, can still do it once they've learned language but cannot verbalize what they're doing

18-24 months - rouge test

2 years - self reflexive language

2-3 - self emotions like embarassment and shame

3 - theory of mind

declines- pretty much everything

increases- vocabulary/cross word puzzles, skills (like pilots, even v old ones are better than young ones but not as good as middle aged)

encoding failure

memory traces form(physical changes in the brain during encoding)

memory decay (traces weaken)

disuse theory

interferance

some subjects park at the clinic on mon and wed, some only mon, some only wed; tests retroactive and proactive interferance

results?

have people elaboratively encode in scanner

when they recall correctly, activity in parahippocampal gyrus and left frontal lobe (words)/right frontal lobe (images)

• opposite of HM
• damage to parietal lobe and phonological loop
• can remember daily events but no digit span

• need increasingly more cues to retrieve lost vocab as time goes on

meaningless cues elaboratively encoded with sensory information (color, sound, taste etc.)

con is makes reading comprehension difficult

-elaborative encoding

-explicit retrival strategy

-practice effects

-ability (these mnemonicists have abnormal ability)

new zealander

exceptional memory

large digit span

had to memorize and keep records of the dead in war and was tormented by ptsd

good abstract thinker, remembered things that interested him

like driving or typing-> cost is sometimes no recollection of events

less activation in left frontal lobe in complex divided attention task, also in massed vs spaced learning and automatic repeated task BUT this area is neccessary for elaborative encoding

older people do worse on time-based memory; do better when they change to event-based memory

leave reminders around for prospective memory tasks

cant retrieve the word you want in TOT because others are interfering

ways to counter: think of something else, run through the alphabet in your head

blocking/retrieval inhibition

failure in front of right temporal lobe

problem in eyewitness testimony

hippocampus important

two discrete things can be bound into one in encoding

sharman, gary and hunt

remember most things from first person perspective, but older memories and ones you want to distance yourself from are third; if childhood memory is from first person, that is a mismatch

can help with source monitoring problems

list of famous people; when read once, after a 24 hour delay, source monitoring errors because name felt familiar

if list is read again right before test, source monitoring errors reduced

with gunman and lineup

investigators suggest witness is right, witness gets more confident which makes them more believable

conditioned emotional response may result in phobia, also vicarious classical conditioning

desensitization- exposure

freud- repression

brown and kulik - flashbulb memories

yerkes-dodson law - u-shaped relation between emotions and memory

easterbrook hypothesis - stress leads to narrowing of perception to central (not peripheral) events

rare, amydgala degenerates with age

Miss A - shows no fear conditioning, doesnt' recognize fear, can cognitively process and remember what it is but doesn't experience it; need both hippocampus and amygdala to expeirence fear

interfere with memory, given as sedatives during medical procedures

incluse rohypnol (roofies), limits inhibition and makes you not remember anything

cortisol and adrenaline are released

adrenaline (norepinephrine) helps encoding

+temporal lobe= sadness

+frontal areas = anger

+striatum = disgust (people with huntington's don't recongize disgust

usually positive self bias

depression is low self schema, ruminate on negative memories (higher in women than men), less left frontal processing, overgeneralized memories (all or nothing)

forgetting is adaptive to allow for updating, not storing unneccesary information

not attending to these memories with frontal cortex

amygdala controls encoding of salient survival information

left brain can interpret these things?

adaptive because it gives us positive self schemas, quick categorization

left hemisphere, information more consistent with own beliefs

adaptive because it prevents sensory overload

interferance?

adaptive because it allows us to divide energy, focus on more important thing

failure in frontal lobe to attend to neccesary thing

can't encode everything perfectly at once, allows us to rely on gist

use frontal lobe to re-create and weave story together; failure to attend to everything as memories are encoded