Chapter 6: Long-Term Memory Structure Flashcards
Long-Term Memory
“Archive” of information about past events and knowledge; stores information from a secs to years ago
Serial Position Curve
tendency for people to remember information presented at the beginning and end of a list better than information presented in the middle, creating a “U-shaped” curve when graphically plotted
Primacy effect
the first few items on a list have a recall
advantage; occurs because words at the beginning of the list are rehearsed more and transferred to LTM
Recency effect
the last few items on a list are also very
well recalled; occurs because the last few words are still maintained in STM/WM
Differences Between LTM and WM
- LTM can store information for long periods of time than WM
- LTM can store vast quantities of information than WM
- LTM encodes or represents information differently from WM
Coding
the way information is represented; e.g. ASCII or UTF computer codes of letters
Mental/informational codes
How stimulus such as ideas or experience is represented in the mind; e.g visual, auditory, semantic, etc
Physiological codes
How stimulus is represented by the firing of neurons; e.g specificity, population and sparse coding
Semantic Encoding in WM
storing information in working memory by focusing on its meaning and relating it to existing knowledge
Amnesia
different types of brain damage that can result in impaired memory performance
Anterograde amnesia
An impaired ability to remember information acquired after the onset of amnesia
Retrograde amnesia
An impaired ability to remember information acquired before the onset of amnesia
Hippocampus and Amnesia
Damage to the hippocampus and surrounding regions causes anterograde amnesia; hippocampus plays a role in forming new memories
Implicit/non-declarative
unconscious memory and Knowledge that cannot be explicitly stated; detected by changes in performance
Double Dissociation Between LTM & STM
people have different patterns of impairment in these two types of memory; LTM and STM are served by at least partially independent neural systems
Explicit/declarative
conscious memory and recollection of events experienced and facts learned can be explicitly states
Episodic Memory
Memory for personal events that allows you to access specific events located at a particular point in time; “Mental time travel” and “remembering
Semantic Memory
Memory for general knowledge and facts lacking
reference to the episodic context in which it was learned; eg. World knowledge and “I know…”
Double Dissociation Between Semantic and Episodic
patients demonstrating impaired performance on tasks requiring semantic memory (general knowledge) while retaining relatively normal episodic memory (personal experiences) and vice versa
Effect of Time in Memory
phenomenon where the strength and accuracy of a memory naturally decreases over time due to the passage of time
Remember/Know Procedure
technique used to study how people recognize information by measuring recollection and familiarity; participants indicate whether they “remember” or “know” each item
Constructive episodic simulation hypothesis
proposes that our ability to imagine future events, “simulating” them in our minds, relies on recombination of elements from our past experiences stored in episodic memory
Priming
exposure to one stimulus (the “prime”) unconsciously influences how a person responds to a subsequent related stimulus, without them being aware of the connection
Positive Priming
exposure to a stimulus (like a word or image) speeds up the processing of a related stimulus, making it easier to recognize or respond to enhancing cognitive processing
Repetition Priming
response to a stimulus is faster or more accurate when it’s previously been exposed to the same or a very similar stimulus; repeated exposure to a stimulus leads to quicker processing
Conceptual Priming
exposure to a concept or idea (the “prime”) activates related concepts in a person’s memory, making them more likely to think of or respond to those related concepts when presented with a subsequent stimulus
Fragment completion
task where participants are presented with incomplete words (with missing letters) and are asked to fill in the missing letters, effectively completing the word based on their stored memory; measures implicit memory
Propaganda effect
phenomenon where people are more likely to believe information simply because they have been exposed to it repeatedly, even if it is not necessarily true
Expert-induced amnesia
phenomenon of being unable to recall what you’ve just done after becoming an expert at something; focusing less on what you’re learning reduces how well you can recall it later
Classical Conditioning
learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus (e.g., a tone) becomes associated with a stimulus (e.g., food) that naturally produces a behaviour
