Transcript
Page 1: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

PSY 368 Human Memory

Imagery &Mnemonics

Page 2: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• Imagery • Effects• Theories

• Cases of superior memory

• Ways to improve you memory

Brief outline for week

Page 3: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Demo: Remembering a shopping list

Route➟ Classroom➟ Out by elevators➟ In elevator➟ DeGarmo lobby➟ Plaza ➟ Quad➟ Bridge over College

Ave➟ Area outside of

Milner➟ Bone Student Center➟ Student Bookstore

• Bizarre image➠ Dr. Cutting milking a cow in

the classroom

➠ Cptn’ Crunch sword fighting with Tony the Tiger

➠ Three people roasting hotdogs over camp fire

➠ Flood of pickle juice and floating pickles, have to step on pickles to get out

➠ Etc. The more bizarre and vivid the image, the better. Add sounds and smells to your images

• Milk• Cereal• Hot dogs• Pickles• Mustard• Orange

juice• Sponges• Toilet

paper• Light

bulbs• Cookies

Page 4: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• A lot of the mnemonic techniques have an imagery aspect to them, so we will start with a discussion of imagery and memory

Imagery

Page 5: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Historical Overview

• Three Ages of Mental Imagery: • The Philosophic Period• Mental images were taken to be the main factor in the

makeup of the mind. Images were also sometimes believed to be the elements of thought.

• The Measurement Period • Galton (1880), gave a questionnaire to 100 people

asking them to remember their breakfast table and answer some questions about the images that they had. Created a measure of imagery that was related to sex, age, and other differences specific to individuals, but learned little else. With behaviorism, this died out.

Page 6: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Historical Overview

• Three Ages of Mental Imagery: • The Cognitive and Neurocognitive Period• Imagery studies and research was reborn in the late

1960s on two ideals. • The first was proposed by Sheehan and Neisser (1969). It

dealt with the quantitative assessment of imagery. (see also Neisser & Kerr, 1973).

• The second advance for imagery involved the incorporation of the concept into a cognitive model where the internal representation of information was a central element.

Page 7: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• What is a mental image?• Is the mental representation of things that are not

currently being sensed by the sense organs• How is it like reality, how is it different?

• Hard to study, not directly observable and fade away quickly.

• Does an image use the same neural hardware as experience?

• Spatial ability is independent of verbal ability. We can test it using methods similar to operation span or digit span.

• Example of test: • Cube folding: Will the arrows

touch if you fold these into cubes?

Page 8: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Mental rotation tasks• Picture superiority effect• Image scanning effect• Bizarreness effect• Concreteness Effect

Page 9: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Mental rotation tasks• Mental rotation tasks suggest that

you use images in working memory in an analog way.

• Shepard and Metzler (1972): Rotate images, look at response time.

A: “Same” rotated in picture plane.B: “Same” rotated in depth.C: Different.

Page 10: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Picture superiority effect

• Shepard (1967): • Present 612 pictures or words with a recognition

test. After 2 hours approximately 100% accuracy for pictures, 88% for words. After a week about 88% for both.

• Standing (1977): • Learn 1,000 words, 1,000 simple pictures, or

1,000 bizarre pictures. After 2 days recognition memory was 61.5% for words, 77% for pictures, and 88% for bizarre pictures.

• Summation: Memory for pictures is better than memory for words, especially early on.

Page 11: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Image scanning effect

• Paivio (1978)• For example, imagine these times on an analog

clock face. Which of each pair has a bigger angle between the hands?• 4:10 and 9:23

• 3:20 and 7:25

• 2:45 and 1:05

• 3:15 and 5:30

• Results• Reaction times

related to angular distance, smaller angle = larger RT

• P’s who were high imagers were overall faster than low imagers

Page 12: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Image scanning effect

• Scanning tasks show that the farther apart two things are on an image, the longer it takes to mentally scan from one to the other (e.g., Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978).

• Memorize this map…• There’s a hut, a tree, a

rock, a lake, a well, sand, and grass.

• Hear the name of an object, then another. Imagine a black dot zipping from one to the other on the shortest path.

• Push a button when it gets there.

Page 13: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Image scanning effect

• Scanning tasks show that the farther apart two things are on an image, the longer it takes to mentally scan from one to the other (e.g., Kosslyn, Ball, & Reiser, 1978).

• Time to scan between all pairs of locations on imaged map

Page 14: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Bizarreness effect• Better memory for bizarre images• McDaniel & Einstein (1986)• Presented participants with sentences w/ underlined

word triplets, within either bizarre or common sentence contexts (10 sets)

• Bizarre: The dog rode the bicycle down the street

• Common: The dog chased the bicycle down the street.

• Instructions: Form an mental image that included the underlined words, and rate the vividness of the image

• Following a 30 sec distractor task they were asked to recall the underlined words

Page 15: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Bizarreness effect

Page 16: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery and Memory Effects

• Concreteness Effect• Read list of words

• Dollar • Cabin • Storm • Arrow • River • Book • Peach

• Justice• Franchise• Session• Incident• Hope• Cost• Mood

• Typically better recall for the concrete items

Page 17: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• Images could be:• Analog representations:• Pictures in the head: Images are what they feel

like, a picture in the head whose properties are like the properties of the real thing

• Perceptual processing: Images use the same perceptual hardware you use to see

• Propositions: It’s essentially a verbal/symbolic thing. The feeling that you have an image is epiphenomenal, there isn’t really an image

Page 18: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

1. Functional-Equivalency hypothesis• Analog representations. Something like

pictures, but not exactly the same

2. Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis• No images, propositional representation

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Perhaps both image and verbal

(propositional?) representations for some things

Page 19: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

1. Functional-Equivalency hypothesis• Shepard and Kosslyn (e.g., Cooper & Shepard,

1978; Kosslyn & Pomerantz, 1977)• States that imagery and perception are

extremely similar. • Shepard and Kosslyn introduced mental rotation of

visual stimuli in memory.

• Relationship between time required for a specific mental rotation and the actual degrees of rotation

• Visual images reflect internal representations that operate in a way that is analogous to the functioning of the perception of physical objects

Page 20: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use to see.

• Estes, Verges, & Barsalou (2008)• Reading words should lead to mental simulations of

the words, using perceptual hardware.• Part of this simulation is location.• Trial:• Prime: Cowboy• Word: hat (upper location) or boot (lower location)• Target: Letter (X or O at top or bottom of the screen)

• If you simulate the location, then hat should interfere with letters at the top (you’re using that perceptual hardware). Boot would be opposite.

Page 21: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use to see.

• Estes, Verges, & Barsalou (2008)• Reading words should lead to mental simulations of

the words, using perceptual hardware.

• Results• Letters in objects’ typical locations took longer to

identify.

Page 22: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use to see.

• Zwaan & Yaxley (2003)• Spatial iconicity effects also suggest that location is

part of the representation of words and that location simulation is part of comprehension.

• Present a pair of words, are they related?• Attic• Basement

• Or• Basement• Attic

Page 23: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

• Images use the same perceptual hardware you use to see.

• Zwaan & Yaxley (2003)

• When vertical arrangements were correct, participants were faster than when they were incorrect.

• Again, location seems to be part of the understanding of a word.

Page 24: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image

than it is to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)

• Get a clear mental image of the picture below:

Page 25: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image

than it is to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)

• Are the following shapes in the picture you just saw?

Page 26: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.• For example, it’s harder to decompose an image

than it is to decompose a picture. (based on Reed, 1974)

• Are the following shapes in the picture you just saw?

Page 27: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Imagery

• But, pictures support processing that images don’t.• For example, you can reverse pictures, but most

people report that reversing images is very hard (relative to with a picture).

• Chambers & Reisberg (1985)• Look at ambiguous figure, provide interpretation

• Imagine the figure, provide a second interpretation, very hard to do

• Draw image from memory, then give second interpretation, could do it

Page 28: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

2. Conceptual-Propositional Hypothesis• Anderson and Bower (e.g., Anderson, 1978,

Bower, 1972, Pylyshyn, 1973) • Memory is not like a photograph• We store propositional interpretations of events,

whether they be verbal or visual, rather than the imagery components. • Anderson and Bower explain that concrete concepts

are coded by a rich set of predicates that bind concepts together. ..."the only difference between the internal representation for a linguistic input and a memory image is detail of information”

Page 29: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Theories of Imagery

• Images could be:• Propositions: Essentially a verbal/symbolic

thing. The feeling that you have an image is epiphenomenal, there isn’t really an image.

You saw You heard

“The goal keeper missed the ball”

Same underlying propositional representations:

• missed(goalkeeper, ball)Image may provide even richer information:

• wept(goalkeeper)

• cursed(goalkeeper)

Page 30: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

Comparing Analog and Propositional codesAnalog Code•Picture-like code

•Images like perceptions, retain some sensory qualities

•Relations represented implicitly

•Simultaneous

•Different representations for each sense

Propositional Code•Word-like code

•Images are descriptions of visual scenes

•Relations represented explicitly

•Sequential

•Same representations for each sense

Anderson (1978): concluded that “it may not be possible to decide between imaginal and propositional representations strictly on the basis of behavioral data.”

Page 31: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Proposed that words and images are processed

separately (based on patients with temporal lobe damage who could not process images).

• The basic tenant of this theory is that information is mentally represented either in a verbal system or a nonverbal (analog) system (or both).• Each system contains different kinds of information.

• Each concept is connected to other related concepts in the same system and the other system.

• Activating any one concept also leads to activation of closely related concepts.

Page 32: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Explains many of the imagery effects• Concreteness effect• Verbal and visual (image) codes for concrete items

• Picture superiority effect• Pictures automatically coded two ways, as and image and

as a verbal description

• Imagery instructions

• Schnorr & Atkinson, (1969)

• Studied pairs of associates using two instructions• Imagery instructions – 80%

• Rote rehearsal - 40%

Page 33: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Explains many of the imagery effects• Symbolic distance effect – it is easier to make judgments

about items that are farther apart on a dimension than it is to make judgments about items that are close on a dimension. • true or false:

• The fly is bigger than the flea.• The horse is bigger than the

mouse.• The rabbit is bigger than the

dog.• The mouse is bigger than the

fly.• The dog is bigger than the

horse.

Page 34: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Explains many of the imagery effects• Symbolic distance effect – it is easier to make judgments

about items that are farther apart on a dimension than it is to make judgments about items that are close on a dimension. • Picture symbolic distance effect tasks are easier than

verbal symbolic distance effect tasks (pictures access the system directly, verbal has to be recoded).

Page 35: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt memory?• Segal (1971): imagery tasks can interfere with visual perception• Brooks (1967): perceptual tasks can interfere with imagery• Try imaging President Lincoln’s face and read the text given below.

Imagery involves one or more of your five senses, hearing, taste, touch, smell, sight. An author uses a word or phrase to stimulate your memory of those senses. These memories can be positive or negative which will contribute to the mood of your poem…

Page 36: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt

memory?• Schooler & Engstrom-Schooler (1990)• P's are shown a videotaped robbery. (This creates a visual

memory.)

• P's then either:

1) Are asked to imagine the robber.

2) Are asked to describe the robber.

3) Are asked to do a series of math problems. (control)

• P's complete a recognition memory test picking the robber out of a lineup of eight persons.

Page 37: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

Three Theories of Imagery

3. Paivio’s Dual-Coding Hypothesis• Can using dual coding ever interfere with/disrupt memory?• Schooler & Engstrom-Schooler (1990)

• Results: Creating two codes can disrupt memory for information that is only represented in one code.

Page 38: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• Okay, recall the shopping list. Run through the route from here to the bookstore in Bone. • List

Demo: Remembering a shopping list

Page 39: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• Eidetic imagery

• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)

• Flashbulb memories

Special Abilities

Page 40: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• Eidetic imagery = Photographic memory• Criteria strict for classification - image =

photograph• Eidetic images have more detail than normal and

last longer than iconic memory.• Frequency of occurrence • Mostly in preadolescent children • Rare in adults - not well-studied

Special Abilities

Page 41: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)• ‘S’ (Solomon Shereshevsky, Russian journalist 7

mnemonist)• Average IQ• Could recall speeches verbatim• Memorize complex mathematical equations and matrices• Memorize text and poems, even in foreign language• Diagnosed as having severe Synesthesia • Musical tones were colors, touch were tastes• Thinking about numbers: • “take the number 1. This is a proud, well-built man; 2 is a high-spirited

woman; 3 a gloomy person; 6 a man with a swollen foot; 7 a man with a moustache; 8 a very stout woman—a sack within a sack. As for the number 87, what I see is a fat woman and a man twirling his moustache”

Special Abilities

Page 42: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• The Mind of a Mnemonist, Luria (1968, 1987)• Synesthesia is a condition where sensations

usually experienced in a single modality are experienced in two modalities. • This condition give psychologists some very

interesting data and research. • Some examples of synesthesia are receiving an

auditory signal or sensation in a visual modality, where it obviously shouldn’t be.

• Synesthesia is rule governed, not random. • For example, there is a positive relationship between

increasing the pitch of a sound and increased brightness.

Special Abilities

Page 43: PSY 368 Human Memory Imagery & Mnemonics. Imagery Effects Theories Cases of superior memory Ways to improve you memory Brief outline for week

• Flashbulb memories• Very vivid memories• Personally relevant – emotion• Difficult to study• Neisser and Harsch (1992) study• Where you were on Sept. 11

• Challenger explosion in 1986 - asked people day later about where they were, etc.

• After 3 years they were inaccurate at remembering these things, but very confident they were accurate

• No evidence they are different from normal memories.

Special Abilities


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