Chapter 6: Memory Flashcards
What is storage?
The maintenance of material saved in memory. (hard drive)
What is retrieval?
Ability to retrieve/recover information that you learned earlier. (software access to info)
What is memory?
The process in which we encode, store, and retrieve information.
What is encoding?
The initial recording of information. (Keyboard)
What is the three-stage model of memory?
Information initially recorded by someones sensory memory, moves to short-term memory, and finally moved to long-term memory.
What is sensory memory?
The initial, momentary storage of information that lasts only an instant,
What is short term memory?
Second step that holds information for 15-20 secs and stores it accordingly to its meaning rather than mere sensory stimulation.
What is long-term memory?
The third step where information is stored on a relatively permanent basis.
How many sensory memories are there?
5! One per sense (ie: iconic memory (visual) and echoic memory (auditory))
What is a chunk?
A meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory.
What is rehearsal?
The repetition of information that has entered short-term memory
What is elaborative rehearsal?
When information is considered organized in some fashion.
What are mnemonics?
Organizational strategies that can vastly improve our retention of information (Never, Eat, Shredded, Wheat)
What is working memory?
A short-term memory that is defined as a set of active, temporary memory stores that actively manipulate and rehearse information.
What is the central executive?
A process that is involved in reasoning and decision making which coordinates three distinct storage-and-rehersal systems: the visual store, the verbal stored and the episodic buffer.
What is the visual store?
Area in central executive that specializes in visual and spatial information
What is the verbal store?
Area in central executive that specializes in holding and manipulating material related to speech, words, and numbers.
What is the episodic buffer?
Area in the central executive that contains information that represents episodes or events.
What is declarative memory?
Memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, facts.
What is procedural memory?
Memory for skills and habits: how to ride a bike or hit a baseball.
What is the effect of sleep on memory; procedural and declarative.
Procedural: quality of stage 2 sleep.
Declarative: length of NREM-REM sleep cycle.
What is semantic memory?
A part of declarative memory: Memory for general knowledge and facts about the world/rules of logic
What is episodic memory?
A part of declarative memory: Memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context. Personal experiences.
Declarative memory is made of what?
Semantic (general memory) and episodic (personal knowledge) memory
What is tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?
How difficult it can be to retrieve information stored in long-term memory
What is a retrieval cue?
A stimulation that allows us to recall more easily information that is in long-term memory. (a word, emotion, sound)
What is recall?
When a specific piece of information must be retrieved.
What is recognition?
When people are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it previously, or are asked to identify it from a list of alternatives.
What is flashbulb memories?
Memories related to a specific, imprint, or surprising even that are so vivid they represent a virtual snapshot of the event.
What is source amnesia?
When an individual has a memory for some material but cannot recall where they encountered it before.
What is constructive processes?
Processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.
What is schemas?
Organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled.
Why do we forget?
- Not paid attention in the first place (failure to encode)
- Decay
- Interference
- Cue-dependant forgetting
What is decay?
Loss of memory through nonuse - assumes that memory traces, the physical change that takes place in the brain when new material is learned, simply fades away over time.
What is interference?
Information in memory distupts the recall of other information.
What is cue-dependent forgetting?
Forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory.
What is proactive interference?
Information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer material. Past interferes with present.
What is retroactive interference?
The difficulty in the recall of information because of later exposure to different materials. Present interferes with past.
