Memory Research Seminar   Fall 2007


Elizabeth Johnston
Sarah Lawrence College

Go straight to the relevant class meeting date:
Sep 12 | Sep 19 | Sep26| Oct 3 |Oct 10| Oct17 | Oct 24 | Oct 31 | Nov 7 | Nov 14 | Nov 28 | Dec 5 | Dec 12 | Dec 19

1. September 12th: Opening Meeting: Putting the Questions on the Table

2. September 19th: Historical Background and Expansion of our Questions

Reading:

1. James, W. (1890). Principles of Psychology. Chapter 16: Memory. Full text in CHP
2. Bourtchouladze, R. (2002). Memories are made of this: How memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 1. (book store)
3. Schacter, D. (1996). Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind, and the Past. New York: Basic Books. Introduction and Chapters 1 and 2. (book store)
4. Neisser, U. (1978). Memory: What are the important questions? Presentation at the Everyday Memory Conference in Wales, reprinted in Memory Observed. (photocopy)

Background: (biographies, classic papers cited in the reading, etc.)

A nicely illustrated online biography of James by Frank Pajares.
Wozniak, R. some background for James' Principles

Sacks, O. The Landscape of His Dreams, New Yorker article reprinted in An Anthropologist on Mars. Exploratorium web site with many of Magnani's paintings. (Magnani is discussed in the Schacter reading.)

Additional: (for conference explorations: expansions, later papers, other related threads)

Banaji, M.R. & Crowder, R.G. (1989). The bankruptcy of everyday memory. American Psychologist, 44, 1185-1193. In PsycARTICLES

Neisser, U. (1991). A Case of Misplaced Nostalgia. American Psychologist, 46, 34-36. In PsycARTICLES (plus many other commentaries in this issue of AmPsy)

3. September 26th: Ebbinghaus's Experimental Study of Memory: Forgetting and Learning by Heart

Reading:

1. Ebbinghaus, H. (1885) Memory: A Contribution to Experimental Psychology. Full text in CHP.
Read chapters 1-3 where Ebbinghaus sets up the rationale and design of his experiments. I have prepared a reading guide for the data presentation chapters with graphic plots rather than summary tables.
2. Rubin, D. (1995). Memory in Oral Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 7: Basic Observations on Remembering. (photocopy)
3. Bartlett, F.C. (1995/1932). Remembering: A study in experimental and social psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1. (photocopy)
4. Bourtchouladze, R. (2002). Memories are made of this: How memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 2: How Many Memory Systems Are There? (book store)
5. Baddeley, A. (2000). The episodic buffer: a new component of working memory. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 4, 417-425. online 

Background:

Wozniak's Introduction to Ebbinghaus

Additional:

Beardsley, T. (1997). The Machinery of Thought. Scientific American, August. Online
Baddeley, A. (2002). Is working memory still working? European Psychologist, 7, 85-97. Available in PsycArticles (put in the whole title & be sure to toggle down the date to the last 10, rather than just the last 3 years). http://content.apa.org/journals/amp/56/11/851.html

4. October 3rd: Bartlett: The constructive act of remembering

Reading:

1. Bartlett, F.C. (1932). Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press. Chapters 5, 7. and 10 (photocopy)
2. Schacter, D. (1996). Searching for Memory. Chapters 3 & 4.
3.Rubin, D. (1995). Memory in Oral Traditions. Chapter 2. (photocopy)

Background:

My online biography of Bartlett

Sir Frederic Bartlett Internet Archive

Additional:

Saito, A. (Ed.). (2000). Bartlett, Culture and Cognition. Taylor & Francis.

Johnston, E.B. (2001). The Repeated Reproduction of Remembering. History of Psychology, 4, 341-366. In PsycARTICLES

5. October 10th: Mnemonic Expertise & Imagery

Reading:

1. Luria, A. (1968). The Mind of a Mnemonist: A Little Book About a Vast Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. All of the little book.
2. Pillemer, D. B. (1998). Momentous Events, Vivid Memories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapter 2: Memorable Moments.
3. Rubin, D.C. (1995) Memory in Oral Traditions. New York: Oxford University Press. Chapter 3: Imagery. (photocopy) optional

Additional:

Carruthers, M. (1990). The Book of Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Noice, H. & Noice, T. (2002). The Expertise of Professional Actors: a review of recent research. High Ability Studies, 13(1), 7-20. In EBSCOHost

Neisser, U. Memory Observed. Experts Section.

7. October 17th: Memory Failure: Amnesia, Confabulation & Implicit Learning

Reading:

1. Wheeler, M., Stuss, D. & Tulving, E. (1997) Toward a Theory of Episodic Memory: The Frontal Lobes and Autonoetic Consciousness. Psychological Bulletin, 121, 331-354. In PsycARTICLES
2. Schacter, D. (1996). Searching for Memory. Chapters 5 & 6.
3. Bourtchouladze, R. (2002). Memories are made of this: How memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapter 3: The Wiring of a Sea Horse: What is the Hippocampus For?. (book store)

Additional:

Tulving, E. (2000). Memory, Consciousness, and the Brain. Philadelphia, PA: Psychology Press.

McClelland, J.L., McNaughton, B.L. & O'Reilly, R.C. (1995) Why are there complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory. Psychological Review, 102, 419-457. In PsycARTICLES

6. October 24th: Retrieval, theTip-of-the-Tongue Experience, and Mnemonic Cuing

Reading:

1. Brown, A.S. (1991) A review of the tip-of-the-tongue experience. Psychological Bulletin, 109, 204-223. In PsycARTICLES
2. Schacter, D.L. (2001). The Seven Sins of Memory. New York: Houghton Mifflin. Chapter 3: The Sin of Blocking. (photocopy).

3. Maril, A, Wagner, A.D. & Schacter, D.L. (2001). On the tip of the tongue: An event-related fMRI study of semantic retrieval failure and cognitive conflict. Neuron, 31, 653-660. Available online
3. Schwartz, Bennnet (1999) Sparkling at the end of the tongue: The etiology oif tip-of-the-tongue phenomenology. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 6, 379-393. Available online

9. November 7th: Autobiographical Memory: Infantile Amnesia

Reading:

1. Pillemer, D. B. (1998). Momentous Events, Vivid Memories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapter 4: Image, Narrative and the Development of Self.
2. Nelson, K. & Fivush, R. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111(2), 486-511. In PsycARTICLES
3. Howe, M.L. & Courage, M.L. (1993). On resolving the enigma of infantile amnesia. Psychological Bulletin, 113, 305-326. In PsycARTICLES
4. Harley, K. & Reese, E. (1999) Origins of Autobiographical Memory. Developmental Psychology, 35,1338-1348. In PsycARTICLES
5. Bauer, P. (1996). What do infants recall of their lives? American Psychologist, 51(1), 29-41. In PsycARTICLES

Background:

Additional:

Pillemer, D. (2001). Momentous Events and the Life Story. Review of General Psychology, 5(2), 123-134. In PsycARTICLES

10. November 14th: Autobiographical Memory: Relating Personal and Public Memories: Flashbulbs & Cultural Differences

Reading:

1.Wang, Q. (2001). Culture Effects on Adults' Earliest Childhood Recollection and Self-Description: Implications for the Relation Between Memory and the Self. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81, 220-233. In PsycARTICLES
2. MacDonald, S., Uesiliana, K. & Hayne, H. (2000). Cross cultural and gender differences in childhood amnesia. Memory, 8, 365-376. In EBSCOHost
3. Pillemer, D. B. (1998). Momentous Events, Vivid Memories. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 5 &6.
4. Schacter, D. (1996). Searching for Memory. Chapter 7.
5. Greenberg, D.L., Rice, H.J., Cooper, J.J., Cabeza, R., Rubin, D. & LaBar, K.S. (2005). Co-activation of the amygdala, hippocampus and inferior frontal gyrus during autobiographical memory retrieval. Neuropsychologia, 43, 659-674. In ScienceDirect.

Additional:

Singer, J. A. & Bluck, S. (2001). New perspectives on autobiographical memory: The integration of narrative processing and autobiographical reasoning. Review of General Psychology. 5(2), 91-99. In PsycARTICLES

Rubin, D.C. (1986). Autobiographical Memory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Rubin, D.C. (1995). Remembering our past: Studies in autobiographical memory. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Connerton, P. (1989). How Societies Remember. New York: Cambridge University Press.

12. November 28th: Neural Systems

Reading:

1. Kandel, E. (2006). In Search of Memory. Sections 1-3, pp. 3-276.
2. Bourtchouladze, R. (2002). Memories are made of this: How memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapters 4 & 5 (book store)

8. December 5th: Neural Systems & Memorials

Reading:

1. Kandel, E. (2006). In Search of Memory. Sections 4-6, pp. 279-429.
2
. Bourtchouladze, R. (2002). Memories are made of this: How memory works in humans and animals. New York: Columbia University Press. Chapters 6 & 7. (book store)
3. Kimmelman, M. (2002). Out of Minimalism, Monuments to Memory. New York Times, January 18th, Section 2: Arts & Leisure, Page1. Text available online.

Background:

Additional:

Squire, L.R. & Kandel, E.R. (1999). Memory: From Mind to Molecules. New York: Scientific American Library.
Lacayo, R. (2004). When Memory Fails. Time, 63(3), p138. Abstract with link to full text
Herz, R.S. and Schooler, J.W. (2002) A naturalistic study of autobiographical memories evoked by olfactory and visual cues: testing the Proustian hypothesis. Am. J. Psychol., 115, 21–32. Available in JSTOR

 

13. December 12th: Student Presentations of Conference Projects    

NB: CONFERENCE PAPERS DUE

14. December 19th: Student Presentations of Conference Projects