Ch 7 - Learning Flashcards
Decay
When memories fade away over time.
Interference
Memories get in the way of each other.
Retroactive interference
Learning something new inhibits old knowledge.
Proactive interference
Previously learned knowledge interferes with learning something new.
Short-term memory span (or Miller’s Magic Number)
7, +-2 - universal limit of short term memory
Chunking
organizing items into meaningful groups.
Rehearsal
Repeating information over and over again. This keeps the information “alive” as long as we keep repeating, but is ultimately uneffective for long term retrieval.
Maintenance rehearsal
repeating stimuli as is, without changing or applying meaning to it. Memories are lost very quickly.
Elaborative rehearsal
We elaborate on stimuli, applying meaning. This takes more mental effort and will likely stick better in our memories.
Levels of processing
The more deeply we process information, the better we remember it. Shallow connections less, deep and meaningful connections more.
Long-term memory
enduring store of information
Three memory model
Sensory memory -> Short term memory -> Long term memory
Long-term memory span
Huge. No one knows for sure.
Permastore
Information that stays even after degradation of most of the information.
Three ways short-term and long term memories differ
Spans - 7 +-2 vs huge.
Endurance - 20 seconds vs years, decades or even permanently.
Mistakes - acoustic or shallow (poodle vs noodle), vs semantic or meaning (poodle vs terrier).
Primacy effect
Tendency to remember items early in a list
Recency effect
Tendency to remember items toward the end of the list
Von Restorff Effect
Tendency to remember stiumuli that are distinctive or that stick out from other stimuli
Semantic memory
Knowledge about facts about the world.
Episodic memory
Recollection of events in our lives.
Explicit memory
The process of recalling information intentionally (semantic or episodic memory)
Implicit memory
The process of recalling information we don’t remember deliberately (procedural, priming)
Procedural memory
Memory for motor skills and habits (ride a bike, typing, or open a pop can)
Priming
Identify stimulus more easily or quickly if we’ve encountered similar before. (duck vs rabbit image)
Two types of Explicit Memory
Semantic, Episodic
Four types of Implicit Memory
Priming, Habituation, Procedural, Conditioning
Three processes of memory
encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding
Process of getting information into our memory
Next-in-line effect
So focussed on what you were going to say that you weren’t paying attention to the person in front of you and can’t remember what they said
mnemonic
learning aid that enhances recall, often a phrase that uses the same letters as something that needs to be remembered “every good boy deserves fudge - EGBDF musical notes” or Roy G Biv for the rainbow
Pegword method
Type of mnemonic that uses rhyming.
Which type of memory has been demonstrated in 32 week fetuses?
Habituation
How best to remember all the letters in CARBEDDOGCATEATPIE?
Chunking
Mnemonics will be most helpful as encoding devices if we…
…practice them on a regular basis
What kind of memory is used for trivia
Semantic
Sensory memory has a larger _____ than short term, but smaller ______
Capacity, duration
Remembering an event that never actually occured demonstrates the role of ____ in producing false memories
Plausible events
Why do people generally find multiple choice questions easier than fill in the blank?
MC provides more retrieval cues for the correct answer
Bobby remembers important events but forgets where he puts his keys is an example of the…
paradox of memory
If you close your eyes, you can still “see” the last thing you looked at. This is known as…
iconic memory
Shannon is trying to take notes in and is able to write down what the professor just said due to her…
echoic memory
System of memory that is comprised of our immediate visual and auditory experience is known as…
sensory memory
If emotional reaction to memories is inhibitied, which area of the brain was likely damaged ?
Amygdala
When someone can remember something from 20 years ago, that information is…
in permastore
Harry Bahrick found that memory declined…
rapidly for about two years, then gradually after.
Hyperthymestic syndrome
When a person can recall every detail in great detail including the dates.
An important source of false memories comes from…
source monitoring confusion
Source monitoring confusion
lack of clarity about the origin of a memory
Tip of the tongue phenomenon
knowing you know something, but can’t recall it.
Anterograde amnesia
inability to encode new explicit memories
Which drug has been used to blunt the negative emotional effects of traumatic experiences?
Propranolol
Propranolol
drug used to treat PTSD
Serial Position Curve
U-shaped learning curve that is normally ovtained while recalling a list of words due to greater accuracy of recall of words from the beginning and the end of the list than the middle of the list.
Storage
process of keeping information in memory
Schema
organized knowledge structure or mental model that we’ve stored in memory (frame of reference for interpreting new situations, ex script - restaurant ordering sequence)
Retrieval
Third process of memory, fetch it from long-term memory banks.
Retrieval cues
hints that make it easier for us to recall information
3 ways psychologists assess people’s memory
Recall, recognition, relearning
Recall
Generating previously remembered information on our own.
Recognition
selecting previously remembered information from an array of options
Relearning
how much more quickly we learn information when we study something we’ve already studied relative to when we studied it the first time.
Ebbinghaus
Created the curve of forgetting
Curve of forgetting
created by Ebbinghaus, how much faster we forget things right away, and then how the forgetting slows down.
Percent savings
What percentage of learned information is remembered for how long, and how this affects how much faster relearned information sticks.
Why is relearning a more sensitive measure of memory than recall or recognition?
Because relearning offers a basis for comparison. (How much faster was the material learned the second time?)
What is another (other than relativity) advantage of measuring memory through relearning?
Rather than just right or wrong, we can use it to measure procedures like driving a car or playing piano.
Law of distributed vs massed practice
We remember things better when spread over long intervals (distributed) rather than packing it into short intervals (massed practice)( (ebbinghaus)
Encoding specificity
more likely to remember something when the conditions at the time of encoding are present at the time of retrieval
Context-dependent learning
superior retrieval when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context.
State-dependent learning
superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding.
Mood-dependent learning
Related to state-dependent, can create a retrospective bias, remembering bad times more clearly or skewed when angry or depressed. (Can also be a result of an unfortunate upbringing creating a more angry or depressed adult)
Long-term potentiation
long lasting strengthening of the connections between two neurons after synchronous activation
LTP
Long Term Potentiation
Where does LTP (long term potentiation) occur in the brain?
Hippocampus, and amygdala and neocortex to a lesser extent. More specifically, where the sending neuron releases the neurotransmitter glutamate into the synaptic cleft.
Synaptic cleft
space between sending and receiving neurons.
Which receptors do the glutamate activate?
NMDA and AMPA
LTD
Long term depression
Long term depression
occurs when repeated low frequency patterns of activation of synaptically connected neurons, resulting in “less wiring together”
LTD vs LTP
LTD acts to balance out LTP and help synaptic connections reset, allowing for new and updated information to be encoded. Otherwise we could potentially reach a maximal point and no more learning could occur.
Important structure for the processing of emotion, especially fear
amygdala
Important structure for the formation of new memories
hippocampus
Retrograde amnesia
lost memories of the past
anterograde amnesia
lose capacity to form new memories, most common of the amnesias
Generalized amnesia
loss of all details of one’s past, very very rare
HM (3 points)
- Man who had left and right hippocampi removed at 26 to prevent violent seizures, which resulted in complete anterograde amnesia.
- He did, however, seem to retain implicit memory in some cases.
- surrounding cortex and amygdala were also damaged during surgery
