C7: Memory Flashcards
Amnesia
Inability to retrieve vast quantities of information from memory; result of brain injury or psychological trauma
Retrograde Amnesia
losing past memories; most common portrayal in media
Anterograde Amnesia
lose the ability to form new memories; more common
Priming
The facilitation of a response to a stimulus based on recent experience with that stimulus or related stimulus
Implicit Memory
Unconscious/automatic memory; (procedural, priming, classical conditioning, non-associative learning)
Explicit Memory
Memory that is consciously retrieved; (Episodic, Semantic)
Procedural Memory
skills and habits; resistant to decay (riding a bike)
Episodic Memory
Memory of past experiences that are identifiable by time and place (episodes)
Semantic Memory
Knowledge of concepts, categories, and facts independent of personal experience (don’t know when you learned it, Jell-O)
Brain Activation During Perception and Remembering
Activation in same regions
Encoding
the process of which the perception of a stimulus or event gets transformed into a memory
Dual-coding Hypothesis
Information that can be coded verbally and visually will be remembered more easily
Levels of Processing Model
deeply encoded items with more meaning are better remembered
Maintenance Rehearsal
simply repeating the item over and over
Elaborative Rehearsal
encodes information in more meaningful way; linking it to existing knowledge (semantic)
Schemas
Cognitive structures in semantic memory that help us link information to existing knowledge
Chunking
The process of breaking down information into meaningful units
Method of Loci
associating items with physical locations to remember them
Sensory Memory
a temporary memory system that stores sensory information, close to it’s original form
Iconic memory
ultra short term visual memory
Echoic Memory
ultra short term auditory memory
Working Memory
limited capacity cognitive system that stores and manipulates information for current use (what we are consciously focusing on) - disappears unless you actively prevent it from doing so
Memory Span
capacity of working memory - 7 items plus or minus two
increase w/ development
decreases w/ age
Long Term Memory
storage of information lasting minutes or lifetimes, capacity is limitless
Serial position Effect
The finding that the ability to recall items from a list depends on the order, easier to remember early or late in list
Primacy Effect
better memorize beginning of the list - encoded to long term memeory
Recency Effect
better memorizing the end of the list - still in working memory
Consolidation
Gradual process of memory storage in the brain
Donald Hebb - Hebbian Rule
Alterations in synaptic connection “cells that fire together wire together”
Long-term Potentiation (LTP)
strengthening of a synaptic connection, making the postsynaptic neurons more easily activated by presynaptic neurons
Doogie Mice
The finding that the NMDA receptor is involved in LTP through the modification in mice
Why is slow consolidation beneficial?
allows for important memories to persist while others forgotten
How does emotional reaction play in consolidation?
McGaugh - when events elicits autonomic arousal, the amygdala influences consolidation in the hippocampus and basal ganglia
Flashbulb Memories
Brown and Kulik - vivid memories of the circumstances in which a person first learn of a surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing event
Reconsolidation
re-storage of memory after retrieval, (functions: memory update and strenghening)
Retrieval Cue
Stimulus that promotes memory recall
Encoding Specificity Principle
Idea that any stimulus that is encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory of that experience (what you ate while on your first date)
Context-dependent memory
the recall of a situation is similar to encoding situation
State-dependent memory
when person’s internal state enhances recall and matches the encoding state
Prospective Memory
involves remembering to do something at a future time
Retrieval-induced forgetting
Impairment of the ability to recall an item in the future after retrieving a related item from long-term memory
Savings
difference between original learning and relearning
Proactive Interference
when old information inhibits the ability to remember new information
Retroactive interference
when new information inhibits the ability to remember old information
Blocking
The temporary inability to remember something, due to interference with similar memories
Absentmindedness
inattentive or shallow coding of memories due to failing to pay attention
persistence
continual reoccurment of unwanted memories
Memory Bias
the changing of memories over time so they become consistent with current beliefs, knowledge, or attitudes
Source Misattribution
people misremember the time, place, person, or circumstance involved in memory
Source Amnesia
people have a memory for an event but cannot remember where they encountered the information
Cryptomnesia
people think they have come up with a new idea, instead retrieved an older idea
Suggestibility
developing biased memories when provided with misleading information
False Memories
Confusing a mental image with a real memory
Repressed Memories
Critiques argue that they are possibly just false memories
Where is memory stored?
Cortex
Where are memories consolidated?
Hippocampus
Patient H.M
Medical Temporal Lobectomy, loss of the ability to encode new long-term memories but persevered STM
Mnemonics
learning aids or strategy to improve memory that links incoming information to familiar locations
