Chapter 6 - Long-Term Memory Flashcards
Division
- distinguishing between different types of memory (ex. STM and LTM)
Interaction
- refers to the fact that different types of memory can interact and share mechanisms
Serial Position Curve
- studies the distinction between STM and LTM
- presenting a list of words to a participant and asking them to write down all the words they remember after the last one was shown, in any order
- indicates memory is better for words at the beginning and end of list and not so much for words in the middle
Serial position curve
Primacy effect
- finding that participants are more likely to remember words presented at the beginning of the word sequence
- participants had time to rehearse at the beginning
Serial position curve
Recency effect
- better memory for the stimuli presented at the end of a sequence
- those words are still in STM
Coding
- the form in which stimuli are represented
- transforming sensory input into a form that the brain can store and retrieve later
Mental approach to coding
- investigating how a stimulus or experience is represented in the mind
Visual coding
- coding in the mind in the form of a visual image
- ex. remembering faces
- how visual stimuli is processed and stored
Auditory coding
- coding in the mind in the form of a sound
- ex. listening to music in your head
- ex. repeating a phone number over and over
Semantic coding
- coding in the mind in terms of meaning
- remembering something that happened (often in LTM)
- sensory input that has a specific meaning
semantic coding in STM
Proactive interference
- the decrease in memory that occurs when previously learned information interferes with learning new information
Release from proactive interference
proactive interference: older memories interfere with the recall of new information
ex. learning a list of fruits then learning another list of fruits (the first list may interfere and make it harder to remember the second list)
release: if the second list is something significantly different from the first (ex. fruits and types of tools) then there likley won’t be an interference because you won’t get the 2 confused
Recognition memory
- identification of a stimulus that was encountered earlier
What is the predominant type of coding in STM
auditory (most useful)
What is the most likely form of coding for LTM
semantic (gives meaning and helps us remember things that happen)
What brian region helps form long-term memories
the hippocampus helps transfer memories from STM to LTM
Tulving - property of episodic memory
Mental time travel
- the experience of traveling back in time to reconnect with events that happened in the past
what is a characteristic of semantic memory?
- accessing knowledge doesn’t have to involve tying it to personal experiences
what are 2 ways that episodic and semantic memories are connected?
- knowledge (semantic) affects experience (episodic)
- autobiographical memory - memories of our lives that can include both
Autobiographical memory
- memory for specific experiences from our life, which can include both episodic and semantic components
- helps create a narrative for our life because we remember facts, emotional experiences, locations, etc.
personal semantic memory
- semantic components of autobiographical memories
- facts associated with personal experience (ex. the coffee shop is our favourite one)
remember/know procedure
remember: episodic (specific details ex. context, time, place)
know: semantic (recognizing something but not remembering the context)
semanticization of remote memories
- loss of episodic detail for memories of long-ago events
- memories often lose detailed context-specific features and become more of an abstract thought
constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
- episodic memories are extracted and recombined to construct simulations of future events
Explicit memories
- memories we are aware of
- recall that involves conscious recollections of events or facts we have learned in the past
Implicit memories
- memories we aren’t aware of
- recall that occurs when learning from an experience is not accompanied by conscious recall of it
Implicit memories
Procedural memory/skill memory
- memory for things that usually involve learned skills
- ex. grammar - may not remember learning it but you understand it
- enable us to do certain things without having to think about it
expert-induced amnesia
- the fact that well-learned procedural memories don’t require attention
- amnesia because experts at a skill can do it so automatically that they often don’t know they did it
Priming
- when the presentation of one stimulus changes the way a person responds to another stimulus
Repetition priming
- when the test stimulus is the same as or resembles the priming stimulus
- ex. reese’s billboard
what kind of memory does repetition priming use?
(implicit or explicit)
- implicit memory
- priming effect can occur without someone’s knowledge (reese’s)
Propaganda effect
- form of implicit memory (operates when people aren’t aware of it)
- happens when participants are more likely to rate statements they have read or heard before as being true, simply because they have been exposed to them before
Classical conditioning
- when a neutral stimulus is paired with a conditioned stimulus
Episodic memory
- recall for specific experiences from the past
remember/know procedure
- familiarity and recollection measurements of memory
