Chapter 6 Flashcards
Mystic writing pad model
A model of memory based on a toy writing tablet (LeapFrog) that retains fragments of old messages even after they have been “erased”. In time, these fragments accumulate and begin to overlap, so that they become increasingly hard to read.
Reappearance hypothesis
Neisser’s term for the now rejected idea that the same memory can reappear, unchanged, again and again.
Trace theory
Memory traces were assumed to be permanent and complete copies of past events and remembering was thought to be like experiencing the past; like a video recording that can preserved indefinitely and replayed over and over.
Flashbulb memories
Vivid, detailed memories of significant events, like 9/11 or the Kennedy assassination. Studies have shown that flashbulb memories are no more accurate than ordinary memories, and are susceptible to the same common errors, although people’s confidence in these flashbulb memories are much higher.
Now Print! theory
The theory that especially significant experiences are immediately “photocopied”, preserved in long-term memory, and resistant to change.
Model of flashbulb memories
The stimulus event is first tested for suprisingness. If it’s completely ordinary, no attention will be paid to it and it will be forgotten. If it is extraordinary and surprising, then it is tested for consequentiality. If it is important enough as well to us then a flashbulb memory will be formed. Then it is rehearsed as we think about it and develop verbal accounts about the event. Finally we tell and retell the accounts to other people and that is how we form flashbulb memories.
Consolidation theory
The classic theory that memory traces of an event are not fully formed immediately after that event, but take some time to consolidate. The hippocampus plays a big role in this. Trying to learn new things right after original learning can draw on limited resources otherwise used to consolidate the original learning and the original learning suffers. This explains how we can form false memories or incorporate things we have been told into our memories even though they didn’t happen.
Retroactive interference
A decline in recall of one event as a result of a later event interfering with its consolidation in our memory.
Reconsolidation
The hypothetical process whereby a memory trace is revised and reconsolidated. When we remember a memory, the memory trace is available to be revised and then the revised trace is reconsolidated. This can be an indefinite cycle.
Method of repeated reproduction
One participant is given multiple opportunities to recall a story over time. (Bartlett)
Method of serial reproduction
One participant, A, writes down what he or she can recall of a previously read story. A’s version is given to a second participant, B, who reads it and then tries to reproduce it. B’s version in turn is given to C, and so on. (Bartlett)
Rationalization
The attempt to make memory as coherent and sensible as possible.
Schema (Bartlett)
An active mass of organized past reactions that provides a setting that guides our behaviour. Schema theories have four main processes: selection, abstraction, interpretation, and integration.
Selection
The hypothesis that we select information both as we receive it and as we recall it.
Abstraction
The hypothesis that we tend to remember only the gist, not the specifics, of what we experience.
Interpretation
The hypothesis that we interpret information by making inferences, and then remember the inferences as part of the original information.
Integration
The hypothesis that we abstract the meaning of an event and then put that meaning together with the rest of our knowledge to form a coherent, consistent whole.
Reconstruction
A fifth process in schema theories whereby the act of recall blends general knowledge and individual experiences in order to “imaginatively reconstruct” the past.
