Ch. 8 Flashcards
Chunking
- refers to combining individual items into a larger unit of meaning.
- I.e. 905-430-5124
Mnemonic devices
- is any type of memory aid
- i.e hierarchies, chunking, and acronyms that combine one or more letters (usually the first letter) form each piece of information
Dual coding theory
- information is stored in long-term memory in two forms: verbal codes and non-verbal (typically visual) codes
- encoding information using both codes enhances memory
• but sometimes it is hard to use dual coding
- i.e. jealousy, knowledge
Encoding
• It refers to getting information into the system by translating it into a neural code that your brain processes.
Sensory memory
- It holds incoming sensory information just long enough for it to be recognized.
- It is composed of different subsystems, called sensory registers, which are the initial information processors.
Working memory
• Short-term memory also is referred to as it
Memory has 3 major components
- sensory registers
- working memory
- long-term memory
Serial position effect
• It is the U-shaped pattern
- primacy effect and recency effect
• It means that recall is influenced by a word’s position in a series of items.
Maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal
• Maintenance rehearsal
- Def. The simple repetition of information
- By rehearsing information, we can extend its duration in short-term memory.
- I.e. you look up a telephone number and keep saying it to yourself, while waiting to use a phone.
• Elaborative rehearsal
- def. focusing on the meaning of information or relating it to other things we already know.
– It is more effective in transferring information into long-term memory
Schemas
- Def. It is a “mental framework”– an organized pattern of thought about some aspect of the world, such as a class of people, events, situations…
- I.e.
- There is a random paragraph, you can’t memory. But after be told that is about washing clothes, you remember
- For skillful chess player, he can remember chess position better if the chess is in meaningful position, rather than random position
Associative networks
• Def. It is a massive network of associated ideas and concepts.
Priming
- It refers to the activation of one concept by another.
* I.e. “fire engine” primes the node for “red”
Neural network
- the concepts of “red”, or “fire engine” do not stored within any single neuron, they stored in a neural network
- It is each concept is represented by a particular pattern or set of nodes that becomes activated simultaneously
Hierarchy
words presented in a logically organized hierarchical structure are remembered better than the same words placed randomly in a similar-looking structure
Type of long-term memory
• Declarative
- Episodic: personal experiences, i.e. when and what .. in your birthday
- Semantic: general factual knowledge, i.e. Mt everest is the highest peak
• Procedural
- Reflected in skills and actions, i.e. typing, ride motor
- Classically conditioned response, i.e. a bird blind his eye with a tone alone…
Explicit & Implicit memory
• Explicit memory
- conscious or intentional memory retrieval
• Implicit memory
- memory influences behavior but no conscious awareness
- i.e. STO__, riding bicycle, driving…
Flashbulb memories
- vivid, clear recollections, like a snapshot in time
* often inaccurately recalled
Encoding specificity principle
- it states that memory is enhanced when conditions present during retrieval match those that were present during encoding
- i.e a woman was raped while out for a jog. She cannot remember rape. While one day jogging, she recalled the rape.
Context-dependent memory
- easier to remember sth in same environment where encoded
* i.e. upon returning to your elementary school, sights and sounds may trigger memories of teachers…
Interference theory
• Proactive interference
- past materiel interferes with recall of newer material
• Retroactive interference
– new information interferes with ability to recall older information
Why do we forget?
• Motivated forgetting
- i.e. repression, protect us by blocking the recall of anxiety-arousing memories
- hard to verify
• Amnesia
Retrograde & Anterograde & Infantile amnesia
• R
- memory loss for events before amnesia
• A
- …after..
• Infantile
- memory loss for early childhood
• Alzheimer’s Disease
- severe retrograde and anterograde amnesia
Consrctive Processes and schemas
• Memory is a constructive (or reconstructive) process
- Piece together bits of information in ways that intuitively “make sense”
- Often highly inaccurate
- Schemas can distort memories, serious personal and societal consequences
- Errors were positively biased (recall grades from high school, they usually remember B as A)
-
Boundary extension
• Remembering a scene as more expansive – as being “wider-angle” – than it really was
- E.g. The size of drawing bear shrinks
Misinformation effect and source confusion
- Def. the distortion of a memory by misleading post-event information
- Misinformation effects also occur due to source confusion, that is our tendency to recall something or recognize it as familiar, but to forget where we encounter it.
Recovered memories and accepting
• should be caution in unconditionally accepting the validity of recovered memories
-E.g. debating in whether recovered memories of child abuse are accurate and whether they are forgotten via repression or other psychological processes
3 basic approaches to find where in the brain are memories.
- Human lesion studies (that is to study memory loss due to brain damage)
- Nonhuman animal lesion studies (that is to deliberate damage to brain regions )
- Brain-image studies
Hippocampus
- Encoding station
* Convert short-term memories to long-term
Memory consolidation
• Binding process in the brain for:
- where sth happened
- what the scene or people looked like
- sounds heard
- meaning of events
Cerebral cortex
- Encoding information from sensory registers
* Store semantic information
Prefrontal cortex
- involved in functions of working memory
* deep processing increased brain activity in specific regions of left prefrontal cortex
Thalamus
- role in nuclear
* damage results in extensive anterograde and retrograde amnesia
Amygdala
• Emotional aspects of memory
Cerebellum
• Procedural memory
