Retrieval: Accessing Information - Lecture Slides | PSY 105, Study notes of Psychology

Download Retrieval: Accessing Information - Lecture Slides | PSY 105 and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity!

Psychology 105

Dr. Gordon

Module

“Retrieval: Accessing information”

A. Retrieval processes

• 1. What is retrieval?

• 2. Recognition versus recall

1. What is retrieval?

• Brown and McNeil (1966) asserted that retrieval can be problematic. This difficulty is reflected by the common retrieval failure experience known as the “tip of the tongue” phenomenon. The tip of the tongue phenomenon refers to the temporary inability to remember something one knows, accompanied by a feeling that it’s just out of reach.

1. What is retrieval?

• This happens many times when we try to remember names of people who greet us. We recognize them but we do not know their names. Brown and McNeil gave subjects definitions of obscure words. They found that subjects guessed the first letter of the correct word about 57 percent of the time. This percentage is greater than chance suggesting that persons have the correct answer at the tip of their tongues. Gee, you look familiar, I recognize you. I have your name at the tip of my tongue!

2. Recognition versus recall

• Recognition does not require as much processing as another retention process known as recall. Madonna Paul Newman Your professor

2. Recognition versus recall

• Recall is a measure of retention requiring subjects to reproduce information on their own with or without cues. Research suggests that subjects typically perform better on recognition than recall tasks. However, recognition tasks can also vary in their difficulty. So how many of Santa’s reindeer can you recall? Can you recall more than just Rudolf?

B. Retrieval cues

• 1. Introduction to retrieval cues
• 2. The power of the external context
• 3. The power of internal context (Mood)

1. Introduction to retrieval cues

• Accessing information from human memory is much like using the internet. If one wants to obtain information off the internet, the perform a “search” with “keywords.” For human memory, retrieval cues work like a web’s keywords. Today, memory scientists call this process “priming.” According to Myers, priming is defined as “the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory. William James used the term “wakening of associations” for priming.

The

power

of

external

context

• Investigators have discovered that context affects infant memory. Butler and others found that after learning to kick a mobile in a specific crib context, infants showed a higher frequency of kicking in the same crib as opposed to a different crib. Memory And External Context Applies Also Applies To Infants.

The

power

of

internal

context

• Retrieval can be facilitated by internal states. Our internal states can involve our moods. Recall of information that has been encoded in a specific mood will be best when we are in that mood again. Mood appears to be a cue for the retrieval of memories. Researchers call this mood congruent memory. In the cartoon to the left, the police officer tries to duplicate the witness’ mood context during the time of the crime.

The

power

of

internal

context

-^ State dependent memory is the tendency for recall to be best when one’s emotional or physiological state is the same during the recall of a memory as it was during the encoding of that memory State dependent memory also finds itself in humorous cartoons.