Transcript Motivation and Memory Consolidation

Motivation and Memory
Processes
By James W. Erikson
Hanover College
Working Memory
Encoding-making meaning of information
(Myers,
1998)
Central Executive-establishes what goes
where and how important it is (Baddeley, et al, 1986)
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Hierarchical Arrangement-more important
information is stored first (de Fockert, et al, 1987)
Limited storage
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30seconds (Peterson & Peterson, 1959) ,7 plus or minus 2
items (Hintzman, 1978)
Long Term Storage (Memory)
Storage-Associative Network model
(Greenwald &
Pratkanis, 1984; Kihlstrom & Cantor, 1984)
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Information is stored in nodes
Each network is arranged semantically
Consolidation
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(Muller & Pilzecker, 1900)
This is the process of making memories relatively
permanent
This process begins immediately after storage
Retrieval-Information recall
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information is found within long term storage via
recall cues
the more a connection is recalled, the stronger it
becomes
Motivation
Motivation has been found to affect
working memory (Heinrich, 1968)
When presented at encoding,
motivation can affect memory
Motivation can only affect active
processes of memory (de Fockert, et al, 2001)
Hypothesis
Motivation will only affect memory
when it is presented at the time of
encoding.
Motivation presented while
consolidation is occurring will have no
significant effect.
Method
Participants
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40 participants, 10 per condition
24 females, 16 males
Materials
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50 words taken from neutral stimulus word
lists
Filler tasks
Manipulation check & questionnaire
Belleza, Greenwald, & Banaji (1986); Balota & Lorch (1986)
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Method cont.
General Procedure (Control Condition)
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Word list presentation
Filler task (30 min.)
Recall
Manipulation checks
Payment and/or Debriefing
Method cont.
Procedure
IV #1: when motivation is presented
 Encoding
 Consolidation (15 min. in)
 Recall (30 min. in)
IV #2: Red or Black word (within Ss)
Results
Repeated measures ANOVA
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More Black words remembered than red
F=(1, 36) = 3.89, p<.06
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Qualified by interaction between color and
condition F=(3, 36) =5.54, p < .01
Graph for repeated measures
interaction
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Red Words
Black Words
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2
1
0
Encoding
Consolidation
Recall
Control
Results
One-Way ANOVA proportions
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Red/Total Correct
 Encoding Condition
F(3, 36) = 5.41, p < .01
Results cont.
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Encoding
Consolidation
Recall
Control
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0.2
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Proportion of Red words recalled
(SNK p<.05)
Discussion
Motivation has to be present at encoding to
affect memory
Motivation has no effect when presented at
the time of consolidation processes
Extraneous information is disregarded due to
the efficiency of the brain
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Limited storage and capacity
Color was not encoded (not deemed
important by the central executive) and
therefore was never stored into the long term
Discussion cont.
Future research
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It would be interesting to find out whether
motivation can affect information which
has been previously stored.
For instance, if color had been encoded
into the long term, then could motivation
affect the amount of particularly colored
words remembered?