Encoding (memory): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:54, 20 February 2022

Revision as of 15:41, 2 April 2022

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===Free Recall===

In [[free recall]], one is allowed to recall items that were learned in any order. For example, you could be asked to name as many countries in Europe as you can. Free recall can be modeled using [[Semantic memory#Search of Associative Memory .28SAM.29(SAM)|SAM]] (Search of Associative Memory) which is based on the dual-store model, first proposed by [[Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model|Atkinson and Shiffrin]] in 1968.<ref>Raaijmakers, J. G. W., Schiffrin, R. M. (1981). Search of associative memory. Psychological Review, 8(2), 98-134</ref> SAM consists of two main components: [[Short-term memory|short-term store]] (STS) and [[Long-term memory|long-term store]] (LTS). In brief, when an item is seen, it is pushed into STS where it resides with other items also in STS, until it displaced and put into LTS. The longer the item has been in STS, the more likely it is to be displaced by a new item. When items co-reside in STS, the links between those items are strengthened. Furthermore, SAM assumes that items in STS are always available for immediate recall.

SAM explains both primacy and recency effects. Probabilistically, items at the beginning of the list are more likely to remain in STS, and thus have more opportunities to strengthen their links to other items. As a result, items at the beginning of the list are made more likely to be recalled in a free-recall task (primacy effect). Because of the assumption that items in STS are always available for immediate recall, given that there were no significant distractors between learning and recall, items at the end of the list can be recalled excellently (recency effect).