Introduction to Cognitive Psychology - Department of Psychological ...

Prof. Greg Francis 8/16/11!! Normal recency!! Abnormal primacySerial position curve!! Consistent with STM-LTM dichotomyPercent correct10090807060504030201000 5 10 15Item number Purdue UniversityControlsAmnesics!! Could learnsome things!!! E.g.,location ofhospitalcafeteria!! E.g. mirrordrawingtaskPatient HMPurdue UniversityPatient HM!! Mirror drawing task (Milner, 1968)!! HM had no knowledge of doing the task before!Purdue UniversityAmnesia-like memory!! Some aspects of memory seem very much likeamnesia!!infantile “amnesia”!!repressed memories!! Careful studies are difficult to come by becausethe memories (and absence thereof) must beverified!!remember the “fundamental fact” at the start oftoday’s lecturePurdue UniversityInfantile amnesia!! Most people report that they cannot rememberanything that happened to them before age 4yearsNumber of memoriesreported201510500 2 4 6 8Age at time of eventPurdue UniversityInfantile amnesia!! Reason is unknown, but the best theory goeslike this…!!children younger than 4-years-old view the worlddifferently from adults!!by encoding specificity, one needs to be in asimilar state as study to best recall something!!adults are very different from children, and thisprevents recall of early memoriesPurdue UniversityPSY 200: Intro. to Cognitive Psychology 3