C5. P7 Flashcards
What is encoding failure?
An inability to retrieve information because it was either never encoded into long-term memory or was very weakly encoded in long-term memory
What is storage decay?
The loss of information in memory due to the passage of time
Who did the first studies into the rate of forgetting?
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Summarize Ebbinghaus’ study.
He taught himself a list of nonsense syllables and try to recite as many as possible. Then he would re-read it and try to recite it from memory
What is overlearning?
If we continue to rehearse information repeatedly even after we’ve initially learned it we lose less and less information
What did Ebbinghaus find that made him remember things longer?
If he spaced out his learning and review trial, he would retain more information for longer periods of time
What is retrieval failure?
The inability to access information in memory that the individual has consolidated in memory
What is the Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon?
One is explicitly aware that he or she knows a given piece of information and, at the same time, is unable to call this information into explicit awareness or use this information
What is interference theory?
The activity of content in one part of memory can interfere with the activation and recall of other information
What is proactive interference?
When one is unable to retrieve recently learned information due to past information which has been strongly consolidated
What is retroactive interference?
When recently learned information prevents the retrieval of previously learned information
What is amnesia?
A partial or complete loss of memory
What is retrograde amnesia?
The inability to recall events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia, most likely to occur when the frontal cortex or temporal lobe is damaged
What is Ribot’s law?
More recent memories occurring from the time just before retrograde amnesia begins are most likely to be lost as compared to distant memories
What is anterograde amnesia?
A complete or partial inability to form new memories
What can cause anterograde amnesia?
Excessive alcohol
When does source amnesia occur?
When an individual remembers information but can’t recall or mistakenly recalls the source from which the information was learned
What is egocentric bias
When we recall the past in a manner that enhances our present self-view or is self-serving in some manner
Describe Keuler and Safer’s study.
Keuler and Safer had a small sample of graduate students rate how anxious they were about an exam the day before the exam. A month later, they were asked to recall how anxious they were. Those who had already found out they passed the exam gave far higher ratings
What is the high school grades study?
Bahrick asked university students to remember the grades they had obtained for high school classes. People tended to recall doing slightly better than they actually did
What is repression?
A form of implicitly motivated retrieval failure in which the individual’s “unconscious” prevents awareness of anxiety-provoking content in memory (Freud)
