Archives: Book

The Retrieval Psychology Definition:

In this article we will cover retrieval psychology definition, which is also known as how we jog our memory.

Getting the information out of our heads so we can use it is a pretty important part of memory.  There are basically two main types of retrieval; recognition and recall that make up retrieval psychology definition.

• Recognition: is the process of matching a fact or concept with one already in memory.  You are given a cue and just have to recognize the right answer. Multiple choice quizzes test your ability to use recognition.

• Recall: coming up with an answer from your memory.  Fill in the blanks test your recall.

In most cases, it is easier to retrieve information through recognition, rather than recall.

The way information is presented to us greatly effects our retrieval ability.  For example, the primacy effect predicts that we are more likely to recall items presented at the beginning of a list.  The recency effect is demonstrated by our ability to recall items at the end of a list.  Finally, there is the serial positioning effect, which states that when given a list, we are more likely to retrieve the items at the beginning and end of a list and forget the stuff in the middle.

Context is an important factor in retrieval.  Have you ever tried to remember someone’s name and start listing things about their appearance and personality until you finally come up with their name?  This temporary inability to remember information is sometimes called the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

One theory that explains why this might work is the semantic network theory.  This theory explains that our brain might form new memories by connecting their meaning and context with meanings already in our memory.  Thus, our brain creates a web of interconnected memories, each one in context tied to hundreds or thousands of other memories.  So by listing traits, you gradually get closer and closer to the name and you are finally able to retrieve it.

Context also explains another powerful memory experience we all have.  Think about where you were when you heard about 9.11.  You can probably tell me where you were and what you were doing.  Ask your parents what they were doing when the Challenger exploded, when JFK was shot, or during the OJ white Bronco chase.

These flashbulb memories are powerful because the importance of the event caused us to encode the context surrounding the event.

The emotional or situational context of a memory can effect retrieval in yet another way.  Studies consistently demonstrate the power of mood congruent theory; which is the idea that you are more likely to recall an item if you are in the same mood when you encoded the item.  In other words, if you are in a happy mood, then you will look back on your life and more easily remember all the happy things that have happened to you.  Pretend that your dog just died.

That would make you sad and depressed.  While you are in that depressed mood you will probably remember the test you failed last week, that guy/girl that cheated on you, a fight you had when you were ten, and ever other sad thing that happened to you.

One last way the context effects retrieval is called state dependent memory.  This refers to the idea that you will more likely retrieve information if you are in the emotional of physical state that you encoded it.  Pretend that you are studying for a AP Psychology test at school have you have a really bad case of the diarrhea,  You don’t want to use the school bathrooms for something that intimate, so you hold it in while studying.

You encode the AP Psychology information while experiencing some bad cramping.  The next day when you take the test you do NOT remember the stuff you studied.  According to state dependent memory, if you took some EX-LAX and started cramping, you are more likely to recall the information.  Think about what this theory would say about your studying habits (studying in bed or with the TV on)?

Now sometimes memories are not real- or sometimes we forget real ones.

Memory Retrieval Problems

There is no perfect system. The same is true of our memory system. There are plenty of issues that can be encountered with our memories. Now that you know the retrieval psychology definition, it’s important to know some of the issues that can come up with it. Here are three very common issues that can occur:

Absentmindedness

This type of memory issue happens when people don’t pay close enough attention to something, and then don’t retain it. Someone might forget where they just put a pen because he didn’t focus on where he put it in the first place. They were thinking of something else (or nothing at all), so their brain didn’t encode the information properly. Absentmindedness also includes forgetting to do something at a specific time.

One way people can sidestep this problem is to recognize things that can help as prompts to remind them to do something. For instance, if the doctor says to take medication at bedtime, a person might use another regular bedtime exercise as a reminder prompt. In this situation, for instance, a woman could mentally associate brushing her teeth with taking medication. Likewise, if a man wants to take vitamins at breakfast, he could make a habit of placing the bottle beside his coffee cup at the table so it provides a signal when he sits down to eat.

Blocking

This refers to the occurrence in which the answer is directly on the tip of your tongue — but you just can’t think of it. This tip-of-the-tongue encounter is perhaps the most familiar example of blocking, the momentary inability to retrieve a memory. Blocking doesn’t happen because you aren’t paying attention or because the memory has dissolved away. It is the opposite: blocking occurs when a memory is properly stored in your brain, but something is hindering you from retrieving it.

In many cases, people retrieve the faulty memory — one that is similar to the wanted one. This competing memory is so interfering that they can’t think of the memory they want to remember. A common case is a mother who calls her older son by a younger son’s name or the other way around. Scientists call blocking memories the “ugly stepsisters” because they’re overbearing, like the stepsisters in the fairytale Cinderella.

Brain-imaging studies suggest how blocking might happen. When a person is retrieving a memory, there are some areas of the brain that become more active while others concurrently become less active. When the right areas are activated, this can work in a person’s service by keeping the brain from stirring up unnecessary information. But when the person calls up an ugly stepsister memory by mistake, the brain may simultaneously defeat the regions needed to retrieve the desired memory.

Researchers do not know whether memory blocks show the overall slowing of memory retrieval that happens with age or if they transpire for some other reason. Regardless, there’s encouraging news: research shows that people are able to recover about half of blocked memories within moments.

Transience

Memory has a use-it-or-lose-it type quality. People are likely to retain memories they call to the front and use frequently. The memories that are not retrieved as often tend to fade away.

Transience is the term scientists have used to describe the ability to forget some facts or events over periods of time. Although this term might seem like a sign of memory weakness, brain scientists consider it a benefit because it clears the brain of unused memories and makes way for more useful ones.

Everyone faces transience of memory. People are most likely to forget information shortly after they learn it — especially if they don’t need to use it again.

Boost Your Memory and Cognitive Function with CogniUltra

If you struggle with any of these memory retrieval issues, CogniUltra can be a helpful solution. This all-natural supplement boosts memory recall, enhances focus, and supports brain health, providing the mental clarity needed to overcome memory challenges. Safe and effective, CogniUltra helps optimize cognitive function, making it easier to retrieve information when you need it most.

Final Thoughts on Retrieval

Knowing how memory retrieval works is an essential part of understanding psychology. There are so many reasons memory may not be retrieved, and there are also so many details that go into memory being retrieved. We hope this article helped you dive deeper into the retrieval psychology definition.

What is the cerebral cortex? The cerebral cortex is the most important part of our brain (at least in the field of psychology) because it is what makes us human. The cerebral cortex (sometimes referred to as called “gray matter”), is actually densely packed neurons.  We actually are born with more neurons in our cerebral cortex than we have now, but they are young and inexperienced. As you get older the neurons learn to work together forming what we call neural networks in the cerebral cortex. Let’s go back to when you were a kid and your parents taught you how to wipe your own butt. The first time you wiped it was awkward, you probably wiped poo poo everywhere and had to concentrate really hard.  The neurons in your cerebral cortex were firing in the pattern of butt wiping for the first time.  Every time you wiped your butt afterward, the neurons practice.  Pretty soon those bunch of neurons that fire whenever you have to wipe your butt form a butt wiping team called a neural network.  Today you probably do not even have to think when you wipe your tushy because your neural network has formed such a cohesive team- congratulations!!!

Now our cerebral cortex is pretty big and full of wrinkles– these wrinkles are call fissures.  If you took out your cerebral cortex and ironed out all of the wrinkles it would be as big as a large pizza from Pizzeria Uno (but probably would not taste as good).

Now the cerebral cortex is divided into two hemispheres– the left and right hemispheres.  For the most part the hemispheres exhibit what we call Contralateral control: which means the left hemisphere controls the right side of out body and the right hemisphere controls the left side.  In general, right handed people (those with a stronger LEFT hemisphere) seem to be better at logical and sequential tasks.  Left handed people (those with a stronger RIGHT hemisphere) are better at spatial and creative tasks.

Between the two hemispheres is a band of nerve fibers called the corpus callosum.  The job of the corpus callosum is to help the two hemispheres communicate with each other.  In some cases of people with severe epilepsy, the corpus callosum is surgically removed and the seizure activity decreases.  However, these people lose the ability of there hemispheres to communicate to each other- they are called split brain patients.  They actually have two separate brains inside their head, and one brain has no idea what the other is doing.  For example, for most people the ability to see comes from the left hemisphere (which controls the right field of vision).  So if a split brain patient sees an elephant in their left visual field they will not be able to say what they see, but they can write it with their right hand (but not left hand)- get it?  Through the process of plasticity (which you should already know) most split brain patients will compensate and find ways for the hemispheres to communicate.

Areas of the Cerebral Cortex

We are going to talk about alot of places in the cerebral cortex-but there are also even more places that we will not talk about.  Let’s call these places association areas– or areas that are involved in thought, memory, judgment humor, etc….- basically all areas not involved in sensory information or movement are association areas.

The Lobes of the Cerebral Cortex

Our cerebral cortex is divided up into four lobes (areas).  However, to be more specific, we really have eight lobes because each lobe has a right and left side- remember the cerebral cortex is contralateralized!!!

Frontal Lobes

The frontal lobes are located at the top part of our brain behind our eyes.  The frontal lobe is where most of our personality hangs out.  It is involved in the ability to control our emotions and abstract thought.  There are two specific areas in the frontal lobe that you should know for the AP Exam:

Motor Cortex Located in the back of the frontal lobe this thin strip of tissue sends signals (motor neurons) to tell our body to move.  The things we move more (fingers) have more space devoted on the motor cortex, than parts of us we do not move much (pinky toes).  The top of the motor cortex controls the bottom of our body and the bottom of the cortex controls the top of our body.  If that is too confusing, just know that every time you voluntarily move your body, you are using the motor cortex in the frontal lobe.

Broca’s AreaLocated in the left frontal lobe (at least for most people- in some left handed people, Broca’s area is on the right side), this areas controls the muscles in our mouth involved in speech.  Speaking is a complicated task and we have a whole area devoted just to talking.  If you damage Broca’s area (called Broca’s Aphasia) you will be unable to talk.

Parietal Lobes

The parietal lobes are located in back of the frontal lobes on the top of our head.  Most of the parietal lobes are made up of association areas.  There is only one structure you should know:

Sensory CortexLocated in the front of the parietal lobe (directly behind the sensory cortex in the frontal lobe), this structure is responsible for us feeling touch sensations from our body.  Every time you feel a type of touch sensations (both pleasurable and pain) the information is sent up by sensory neurons to the thalamus and sent to the sensory cortex so we can feel it.  It is set up the same way the motor cortex is (see picture to right) in that the bottom of the cortex is responsible for the top of our body and the top of the cortex responsible for the bottom of our body.

Occipital Lobes

Located in the very back of our brain, the occipital lobes are responsible for our eyesight.  They contain the primary visual cortex which helps us interpret the information sent to us by our eyes (more specifically the retinas located in the back of our eyes- but we will get into that later on).  Just to make your lives a little more confusing- do you remember that our cerebral cortex is contralateralized- well so are our eyes- kind of.  You see, the right half of each of our retinas sends info to the left side of the occipital lobe and the left side of each retina sends info to our right occipital lobe.  Follow that- yeah right!!!  I will explain it in class.

Temporal Lobes

Located just above our ears on both sides of our head, the temporal lobes control our hearing and contain the auditory cortex.  What makes the temporal lobes so unique is that are NOT lateralized.  The left temporal lobe is involved in BOTH the hearing from the right and left ear.  There is one critical structure you should know that is in the temporal lobe:

Wernicke’s AreaWernicke’s area is located in our left temporal lobe and is responsible for interpreting BOTH written and spoken speech.  You use Wernicke’s area both the read and to listen.  If you damage Wernicke’s Area (Wernicke’s Aphasia) you would be unable to understand what you are reading or hearing.

How Does Memory Work?

Memory connects to the methods that are used to receive, store, retain, and later retrieve information. There are three main processes involved in memory: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Human memory includes the ability to both process and recover information we have received or experienced. As we all know, though, this is not an impeccable process. Sometimes we forget or misremember information. Sometimes ideas are not properly encoded in memory in the first place. Memory difficulties can vary from minor annoyances like forgetting where you dropped your car keys to major diseases that affect the essence of life and the capacity to operate.

How Are Memories Formed?

In order to form new recollections, information must be changed into a suitable form, which happens through the method known as encoding. Once the information has been successfully encoded, it must be saved in memory for later usage. Much of this stored memory rests outside of our awareness most of the time, except when we actually require to use it. The retrieval process enables us to bring stored memories into mindful awareness.

How Long Do Memories Last?

Some memories are very fleeting, just seconds long, and enable us to take in sensory information regarding the world around us.

Short-term memories are a touch longer and last about 20 to 30 seconds. These memories regularly consist of the information we are currently concentrating on and thinking about.

Finally, some recollections are able to endure much longer and last days, weeks, months, or even decades. Most of these long-term memories extend outside of our direct awareness, but we can draw them into consciousness when they are wanted.

Using Memory

To use the information that has been drilled into memory, it first has to be recovered. There are many factors that can impact how memories are reclaimed such as the kind of information being used and the retrieval signals that are present.

Of course, this method is not always accurate. Have you ever felt you had the key to a question right at the tip of your tongue, but you couldn’t really remember it? This is an example of a bewildering memory retrieval difficulty known lethologica, or the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

Discover the basics of thought retrieval as well as potential problems with this process in this overview of how memories are retrieved.

Memory Model

While various different models of memory have been introduced, the stage model of memory is frequently used to explain the basic composition and function of memory. Initially recommended in 1968 by Atkinson and Shiffrin, this hypothesis outlines three separate stages of memory: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory Memory

Sensory memory is the initial platform of memory. During this stage, sensory information from the atmosphere is stored for a brief period of time, ordinarily for no longer than a half-second for visual knowledge and 3 or 4 seconds for auditory information. We visit only particular phases of this sensory memory, providing some of this information to move into the next stage of short-term memory.

Short-Term Memory

Short-term memory is additionally known as active memory, which is the information we are currently aware of or thinking about. In psychology, this memory would be attributed to the conscious mind. Paying attentiveness to sensory memories causes the information in short-term memory. Most of the data stored in active memory will be held for approximately 20 to 30 seconds. While many of our short-term memories are swiftly forgotten, tending to this information allows it to proceed to the next stage – long-term memory.

Long-Term Memory

Long-term memory refers to the ongoing storage of information. In psychology, long-term memory would be called preconscious and unconscious. This information is mostly outside of our awareness but can be called in working memory to be used as needed. Some of this information is reasonably easy to recall, while other memories are greatly more difficult to access.

Memory Organization

The ability to locate and retrieve information from long-term memory enables us to actually apply these memories to make decisions, interact with others, and solve difficulties. But just how is information arranged in memory? The specific way information is arranged in long-term memory is not well known, but researchers do know that these memories are organized in groups.

Clustering is utilized to organize related information into collections. Information that is categorized converts to easier to remember and recall info. One way of thinking about memory structure is known as the semantic network model. This model proposes that certain triggers stimulate associated memories. A memory of a particular place might stimulate memories about related things that have happened in that location. For example, thinking about a particular university building might trigger recollections of attending classes, studying, and socializing with peers.

Failing Memory

Forgetting is a surprisingly frequent event. Just consider how regularly you forget someone’s name or overlooked an important meeting. Forgetting can happen for a whole number of reasons including a failure to recover the information from long-term memory.

Research has shown that one of the significant factors that influence memory failure is time. Information is often quickly forgotten, especially if people do not actively review and rehearse it.

Forgetting

Why do we forget information we have received in the past? There are four basic answers for why forgetting occurs: retrieval failure, interference, failure to file and motivated forgetting.

Sometimes information is utterly lost from memory and in other cases, it was never deposited correctly in the first place. Sometimes memories collide with one another, making it difficult to retrieve certain information. In still other cases, people actively try to disremember things that they simply don’t want to remember.

Boosting Memory

No matter how exceptional your memory is, there are presumably a few things you can do to get it even better. Fortunately, cognitive psychologists have identified a number of techniques that can help advance memory.

Final Thoughts on Memory

Human memory is a multifaceted process that researchers are still trying to properly understand. Our memories shape us into who we are, yet the process is not flawless. While we are capable of remembering an extraordinary amount of information, we are also susceptible to misunderstandings and errors.

Correlational Research

There are many types of correlational research.  The commonality among all types of correlational research is that they explore relationships between variables.  Where descriptive research only described what was going on, correlational research talks about the link between different things.  It is important to understand that correlational research does NOT tell us that variable A caused Variable B, but rather that they are somehow related.

Correlational Study Example

For example, if I told you that there was a correlation between domestic violence (violence between a family members) and bowling you would look at me strangely.  But there is a relationship between the variables (variable 1- domestic violence, and variable 2- bowling).  As more people bowl in the US, more domestic violence occurs, which is correlational research.

Does that mean in this correlational study example that bowling causes domestic violence- like you had bad game and take it out on a loved one.  Or domestic violence causes bowling- like you fight with a sibling and feel the need to take it out on some pins.  As you have already guessed- one does not cause the other to occur, but they are related- for every time people bowl, I can predict that domestic violence will go up, and every time domestic violence goes down I should be able to find a lane at the local bowling alley.  There is a hidden variable that links both of them together.  In this case it is winter time.  In the winter more people bowl and more people stay in their homes (which increases the chances of domestic violence).

Direction of a Correlation

Before we examine the different types of correlational research methods, understand that correlations can go in two directions; positive and negative.

• Positive Correlation: when two variables go in the SAME direction.  For example, domestic violence and bowling.  When bowling goes up, so does domestic violence.  When domestic violence decreases, so does bowling.

• Negative Correlation: here the two variables go in DIFFERENT directions.  For example, consumption of garlic and dating (now I am making this one up).  The less garlic you eat, the more you date.  The more garlic you eat, the less the date.  One variable going in one direction can be used to predict the other variable going in the opposite direction.

Correlational Coefficient

Scientists measure the strength of a correlation by using a number called a correlational coefficient.  Now you do not have to know how they get the number, but you should know what it means when you see it.  The number range from -1 to +1.  If two variables (like studying and grades) have a correlation above zero (like +.76) then you have a positive correlation and the more you study, the better grades you have.  The the number is below zero (like -.42) then you have a negative correlation and when one variable goes up the other goes down (like garlic and dating).  If two variables have a correlation of zero then they have NO relationship with each other.  The closer the numbers go to either +1 or -1, the stronger the correlation.  The strength has nothing to do with whether the number is positive of negative.  A correlation of -.88 is stronger than one that is +.56.  the closer the number gets to zero (whether positive or negative), the weaker the correlation.

Types of Correlational Studies

There are many different ways to show a correlation between two variables.  Let’s discuss some of the more popular ways; the survey method and naturalistic observation.

The Survey Method

Perhaps the most common type of research around is survey research.  Every time you receive a letter in the mail asking you to take a minute and answer a few questions, or get a phone call begging for ten minutes of your time to speak about how you feel about ??????, you are experiencing the survey method of research.  All surveys have one thing in common, they ask questions.

Now there are good and bad things about surveys in research.  The good- no matter how you do it, internet, mail, phone, in person- they are fairly cheap.  You can cover large populations of people easily if you use the phone or internet.  The bad aspects of surveys is that 1. the response rate is REALLY low (for every 100 mailing you send out, you will be lucky to get one back).  Second, people can lie on the survey so you can always question the validity of your data.

Let’s break down the survey method as a tool of correlational study.  Pretend our hypothesis was the more garlic people eat, the less they date.  First, we have to come up with some survey questions (pretend they ask about the amount of garlic one has eaten in the past 6 months and how much they have dated in the past sixth months).  Hopefully, when people answer the survey, we will see that people who have stated that they have eaten a lot of garlic have also answered that they have dated less (a negative correlation).

But who are we going to give the survey to?  As with ALL types of studies (except some case studies) we must choose a sample of people to take the survey (a sample is just a group of subjects).  We have to first identify a population of people from which we are going to get the sample.  The population includes anyone who can possibly be chosen to be part of the sample.  If we are studying anorexic women and their dating habits we would choose a sample from a population of anorexic women (asking a chubby dude like me would not make sense for an anorexic study so I would NOT be a part of the population).  In the case of garlic and dating, I am going to limit my population to single men and women between the ages of 18-25 from the Westchester area (if I do not limit my population, then I would have to start contacting people from all around the world).

Now, how do I pick people to be a part of my sample.  Do I call all my single buddies in the Westchester area and give them the survey?  That would not be a very fair way of doing it.  To make the survey valid I MUST randomly select a sample from the population.  Random selection means that every person in my population has an equal chance of being selected for the survey.  If I can do this, then my sample has a greatly likelihood of actually representing the larger population I am studying.  How do I randomly sample my population- I can randomly pick names out of a phonebook (but in a way that is unfair to single people in Westchester who do not have phones)- in other words, finding a truly random sample is not easy.

Naturalistic Observation

Another correlational research method is called naturalistic observation (although you can also use it as a descriptive research tool as well).  Naturalistic observation is when a researcher attempts to observe their subjects in their natural habitats without interacting with them at all.  Pretend I had a hypothesis; marijuana increases hunger (munchies).  If I wanted to use naturalistic observation I would find a bunch of pot users and watch them.  I would follow them around to parties, watch them smoke, and then see if they eat.

I would never interact with them- but just watch.  If I see that every time a pot user smokes they eat, I could claim that smoking and eating are related, but I would NEVER know if the smoking caused the eating (it could be one of a million other things).  Once again, at most these types of studies show correlation.  The pinnacle of all science if is prove causation.

What Is Correlational Research Used For?

Although they cannot resolve causality, correlational studies are pretty useful. Some variables, such as a disability or mental illness, cannot be ethically manipulated. You can’t ethically give someone depression, for example, even if the intent is to help them get better – this is simply not unethical or moral. Other variables that cannot be manipulated are birth, sex, and age. The teen residential treatment California is a long-term mental health care for adolescents to help teens reach their full potential and live a healthy, productive life.

Correlations are also useful for making predictions. Once a psychologist recognizes that two variables, A and B, are connected to each other, he or she can make a more precise measure of one from the other. Knowing how much of a change in variable B is produced by a change in variable A allows the psychologist to predict the change in B just by knowing the value of A.

Thirdly, when ethically and morally appropriate, correlational evidence can lead to hypotheses and experiments. A psychologist may want to figure out if a third variable, C, is involved or if A causes B. The opposite could also be true: B might be causing A. had the correlational research not been done, the relationship would not have been detected. This type of research is helpful in many ways.

Final Words on Correlational Research

Just like every other research method, correlational research has its pros and cons. There is plenty of hypotheses that this type is useful for and there is a time and a place to apply it. Understanding what this type is all about can help you to understand it’s application in everyday life, as well.