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BHS 499-07Memory and Amnesia
History of Memory Research and Early
Memory Models
Three Definitions of Memory
The location where memory is stored. The physical entity that holds the
memory:• Trace
• Engram
The processes used to acquire (learn), store (encode) or retrieve information.
Metaphors for Memory
Metaphors are used because memory is hard to understand and talk about.
Different metaphors capture different aspects of memory.
The number of metaphors tells us about the complexity of memory.
Some metaphors are better than others.• Memory is NOT like a muscle – more like a key.
Metaphors 1
Recorder of experience• Wax tablet
• Record player
• Writing pad
• Tape recorder
• Video camera Organized storage
• House
• Library
• Dictionary
Metaphors 2
Interconnections• Switchboard
• Network
Jumbled Storage• Birds in an aviary
• Purse
• Junk drawer
• Garbage can
Metaphors 3
Temporal Availability• Conveyor belt
Content Addressability• Lock and key
• Tuning fork
Forgetting of Details• Leaky bucket
• Cow’s stomach
• Acid bath
Metaphors 4
Reconstruction• Rebuilding a dinosaur
Active processing• Workbench
• Computer program
The Ancients Plato (428?-347? B.C.)
• Rationalist• Dualist – mind and body are distinct• Wax tablet metaphor (can be erased, the better the
impression the more readable. Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
• Empiricist• Laws of association
• Similarity• Contrast• Contiguity
Modern Precursors
St. Augustine (354-430)• Advanced description of memory in the Confessions
similar to modern views.
Robert Hooke (1635-1703)• Modern insights into memory, but were ignored when
he was overshadowed by Newton.
Darwin and natural selection (1809-1882)• Organism changes to exploit the environment
• Memory has developed to perform specific tasks.
Philosophy of Mind
Empiricists – extended Aristotle’s ideas• Berkeley, Locke, Mill, Hume
• Knowledge through observation
• Associationism
Rationalists – antagonists to empiricists• Descartes, Kant
• Active involvement of the mind building ideas
• Knowledge through theories (e.g., schemas)
Early Researchers
Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)• Nonsense syllables
• PIM DAG ZOL CEK
• Learning curve – massed vs spaced practice
• Forgetting curve – forgetting occurs rapidly
• Overlearning – studying after something is learned
• Savings – decreased effort needed to relearn Bartlett (1886-1969)
• How does prior knowledge influence memory
• Reconstruction is guided by schemas (concepts)
Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt movement• Kohler, Koffka, Wertheimer
• The whole is different that the sum of its parts.
• Anti-reductionistic• But did acknowledge the importance of
understanding the components of thought.
• Memory influenced by the configuration of elements and context.
• Isomorphism of mental representation
Behaviorism
Behaviorism (Pavlov, Thorndike)• Psychology should be the study of observable
behavior. • Reacting against introspection
• Associated with the term “learning”.
• Later behaviorists (like Tolman) used mental explanations and representations (maps).
Classical and operant conditioning both involve memory.
Verbal Learning
A behaviorist approach to the learning of verbal materials.• Developed from Ebbinghaus’s work.
Memorization is the “attachment of responses to stimuli”
Forgetting is the “loss of response availability”
Paired Associates Paradigm
Paired associate learning – people memorize pairs of items (BIRD-GLOVE):• A-B -- the first item is the cue and the second
is the response
• A-B C-D paradigm (two lists are learned)
• A-B A-D paradigm (two associations learned)
• A-B A-B’ paradigm (synonyms)
• A-B A-Br paradigm (recombinations – hard!)
Early Neuroscience -- Lashley
Lashley (1890-1958) Search for the engram Rats learned a maze. Lashley progressively removed larger
and larger portions of rats brains, from different locations.
Memory affected more by the amount of brain tissue removed, not the location.
Hebb
Hebb -- The Organization of Behavior (1949) Forerunner of computational neuroscience
• Mathematical modeling of brain activity
What fires together, wires together Signal reverberation within collections of cell
assemblies followed by a change in neural interconnections
The Cognitive Revolution
Thought is a valid subject for study This is the field of psychology associated
with the term “memory” Adopted the methodological rigor of the
behaviorists The computer metaphor
• hardware vs. software
Miller’s Magic Number
George Miller• The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus
Two (1956) – describes the capacity of short term memory
• Different for verbal items and digits
Limited capacity of memory Organization aids memory (chunking)
The Modal Model of Memory
Modal refers to sensory modality (way of receiving info from outside world).
Heuristic means “rule of thumb” – this is a way of thinking about memory but not to be taken literally.
The guiding framework for decades.
Multiple Memory Systems
Memory is not unitary but consists of several subcomponents (parts).
Tulving’s Triarchic Theory:• Episodic Autonoetic (self)
• Semantic Noetic (formal knowledge)
• Procedural Anoetic (automatic skills)
Other Classifications
Declarative vs Nondeclarative• Declarative includes episodic and semantic
memory
• Nondeclarative includes procedural memory, classical conditioning and priming
Explicit vs implicit• Explicit memory involves consciousness,
implicit does not.
Current Issues
Neurological bases for memory Impact and importance of emotion on
memory Use of multiple memory sources (fuzzy
trace theories) Embodied cognition – how our grounding
in the world influences memory