# Presentation: 285874

## Episodic Reminding:The effectiveness of augmenting memory by using reminders of previous events 

- G. A. Radvansky
- University of Notre Dame
- David E. Copeland
- University of Southern Mississippi

## Augmented Cognition

- For an augmented cognition device, one role it could play is in reminding people of things.
- One type of reminding is of previous, similar experiences (*episodic cuing*).
- The current study attempts to identify whether this type of information is useful to people.

## Memory and Cuing

- People can sometimes forget, or at least not realize that they need information.
- Memory can be improved with some assistance. This assistance is called *cuing*.

## Cuing Helps Memory

- Semantic cuing
- “doctor” cues “nurse”
- Context cuing
- Encoding specificity
- Content cuing
- “A guitar can be used to paddle a canoe.”
- Cue: guitar

## Cuing Hurts Memory

- Part-set cuing
- People are provided with part of a list.
- People find it harder to remember any given item than if no cue had been given.

## Episodic Cuing

*Episodic cuing*
- Reminding people of specific events in the past
- Related to the current situation.
- Does episodic cuing help or hurt memory retrieval?

## Forsythe Industries

- Subjects told that they were put in charge of running a factory.
- Need to learn  a set of tasks
- Each task composed of:
- Task number
- Three components
- Client name
- Client need

## Study Screen

## Forsythe Industries

- After studying the information, people need to recall the task number, components, client name, and client need.

## Training Recall Screen

## Forsythe Industries

- Task number and components are more semantic in nature.
- They are consistent across episodes
- Client name and need are more episodic, and  are seen only once during training.

## Forsythe Industries

- After training was completed people were given a recall test.
- No Episodic Cue (Control)
- Just the task number
- Episodic Cue (Experimental)
- Task number plus client name and need.

## Testing Recall Screen

## Experiment 1

- N = 37
- This experiment assessed the influence of 3 memory phenomena on episodic cuing:
- Recency
- Frequency
- Type of Practice (massed vs. spaced)

## Experiment 1

- Recency
- Episodic cue was from either a recent event or a distance event.
- Frequency
- Episodic cue was from a task type that occurred either 2 or 8 times during training.
- Type of Practice
- Episodic cue was from a task type in which training was either massed or distributed.

## Experiment 1

- Results
- Episodic cuing aided memory:
- Cued:		.30
- Uncued:	.37
- This is a significant improvement

## Experiment 1

- Effect of Delay
- Short:	.39
- Long:	.28
- Effect of Episodic Cuing on Delay
- _	__	__	__Cued__	__	__Uncued_
- Short	.38		.39
- Long	.35		.20

## Experiment 1

- Effect of Frequency
- 2 times:	.25
- 8 times:	.42
- Effect of Episodic Cuing on Frequency
- _	__	__	__Cued__	__	__Uncued_
- 2 times	.29		.20
- 8 times	.44		.40

## Experiment 1

- Effect of Practice
- Massed:	.29
- Spaced:	.38
- Effect of Episodic Cuing on Practice
- _	__	__	__Cued__	__	__Uncued_
- Massed	.35		.23
- Spaced	.38		.37

## Summary

- Episodic cuing generally boosted performance.
- Cuing better aided retrieval of:
- Older episodes
- Massed practice episodes
- Cuing had no benefit for:
- Newer episodes
- Space practice episodes
- Cuing had no differential effect as a function of frequency.

## Experiment 2

- N = 46
- This experiment assessed the influence of 2 memory phenomena on episodic cuing
- Interference
- Frequency (again)

## Experiment 2

- Interference
- When there are an increase in the number of associations with a concept, memory performance may worsen.
- Frequency
- Episodic cue was from a task type that occurred either 2 or 6 times during training.

## Experiment 2

- Results
- Episodic cuing did not aid memory:
- Cued:		.28
- Uncued:	.29
- There is no significant difference

## Experiment 2

- Effect of Frequency
- 2 times:	.31
- 6 times:	.27
- Marginally significant difference
- Effect of Episodic Cuing on Frequency
- _	__	__	__Cued__	__	__Uncued_
- 2 times	.31		.31
- 6 times	.25		.28

## Experiment 2

- Effect of Overlap
- No overlap:	.30
- Partial 1:	.30
- Partial 2:	.30
- Complete:	.27
- Effect of Episodic Cuing on Overlap
- _	__	__	__	__Cued__	__	__Uncued_
- No Overlap	.32		.27
- Partial 1		.27		.33
- Partial 2		.28		.32
- Complete		.27		.27

## Summary

- General episodic cuing is not universally found.
- Episodic cuing of high frequency items can hurt memory retrieval.
- The status of interference on cuing is uncertain.

## Experiment 3

- N = 29
- This experiment assessed the influence of episodic cuing on memory for structure rather than content.

## Experiment 3

- Task numbers corresponded to 7 structures.
- Linear
- Circular
- Divergent
- Convergent
- Mediated
- Partially Independent
- Independent

## Experiment 3

## Experiment 3

## Experiment 3

- Results
- Episodic cuing did not aid memory:
- Cued:		.16
- Uncued:	.18
- There is no significant difference
- Similar patterns observed for the different structure types.

## Summary

- Once again, there was no clear benefit to episodic cuing.
- However, performance was very low.

## Conclusions

- Episodic cuing helped performance when information was (a) older, (b) mass practiced, and (c) relatively simple.
- Episodic cuing did not help performance when information (a) newer, (b) spaced practiced, and (c) more complex information.
- Episodic cuing may hurt performance for higher frequency information.