Chapter 6 - Memory Flashcards
What is memory?
Storehouse for everything we know, refers to anything we can remember
Name the three processes in remembering a memory
Encoding, storage, retrieval
What is the encoding process?
transforming information into a form that can be stored in memory
Must pay attention to encode
Selective attention: eliminate interference
What is the storage process?
Info maintained in memory
What is consolidation?
‘Memory is formed’. Physiological changes in our brain (hippocampus).
Can be disrupted if we lose consciousness!
What is the retrieval process?
when information stored in memory is brought to mind
What are the stages of memory?
Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
Three Memory Systems Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
Sensory memory
Short-term memory
Long-term memory
Sensory memory
Impression of stimuli stored for seconds
How long is the visual sensory memory?
A fraction of a second (shorter than auditory)
How long is the auditory sensory memory?
Auditory sensory memory lasts about 2 seconds (longer than visual)
Capacity of short-term memory?
5 to 9 bits of information for less than 30 seconds
How is short-term memory maintained?
maintained by rehearsal (working memory)
What aids short-term memory capacity?
chinking/rote learning
What happens when short term memory is at capacity?
Displacement
What is short term memory also thought as?
Working memory like an erasable mental blackboard
Length of a long term memory?
Can last a lifetime with unlimited capacity - gets here by rehearsal
How is sensory memory lost?
Decay, displacement
How is short term memory lost?
decay, displacement, interference
How can longterm memory be lost?
encoding failure, consolidation failure, interference, motivated forgetting, retrieval failure
What does the declarative (explicit) memory store?
Facts and personal experiences
Composed of semantic memory and episodic memory
Semantic memory
“What” - Stores general knowledge, or objective facts & info not directly linked to life events. 10x10=100, 1 dozen means 12, Capital of Canada is Ottawa
Episodic memory
“When” - Stores autobiographical events or a sequence of events (long
division/How hilarious your intro to psych. teacher was)
What do non-declarative (implicit) memory encompass?
“HOW” - Memories not consciously aware of: motor skills, habits, CC’d
responses
Procedural memory riding a bike, skating, eating with a fork Conditioning/Emotional
How do we measure memory?
Recall, cued recall (with retrieval cues), recognition (MC questions), the relearning method
Function hippocampus
essential for normal recognition tasks BUT when short time delays are involved, face recognition may be possible with hippocampal damage.
How do we use relearning method in measuring method?
retention is expressed as the % of time saved when material is relearned compared with the time required to learn the material originally.
What was Aristotle’s view on remembering?
the senses imprint memories in the brain like wax
What was Freud’s view on remembering?
all memories are permanently preserved…some remaining in the unconscious
What was Penfield’s view on remembering?
experiences leave a permanent imprint on the brain as though a tape recorder had been receiving it all
Why are our memories distorted?
We make information fit, reconstruct our memories, put their point of view
Schemas
Integrating knowledge and assumptions about people, objects and events. help us process large amounts of material by providing us with frameworks to incorporate new information.
Positive bias
89% of college students accurately remembered the A’s but only 29% remembered accurately the D’s
Distortion
This helps us organize our experiences into our existing systems of beliefs and expectations.
This can lead to BIG inaccuracies
(writing the word sleep)
Does hypnosis improve memory accuracy?
Hypnosis doesn’t improve the accuracy of memory, but does the confidence in the memory
What is the misinformation effect?
Leading questions can substantially change a witness’s memory of an event.
Elizabeth Loftus
Studied the misinformation effect
Unusual memory phenomena
Flashbulb memory, Eldetic imagery
Flashbulb memory
burned into our brains!
Why? Memories in emotionally charged times, paired with hormone released, & involvement of amygdala set memories
Eidetic imagery
(5% of children)
Ability to retain image of a visual stimulus for several
minutes after it is out of view
Serial Position Effect
For information learned in sequence: Recall is better for items at the beginning (primacy effect) and at the end (recency effect).
Context-dependent memory
Info easier to recall in same env’tal context as when
learned.
Odour, songs, influence recall.
Bring the witness back to the scene of the crime!
State-dependent memory
Info easier to recall in the same emotional state as when
learned (sad, happy, intoxicated, sober)
Depressed people tend to remember more negative life experiences
What is it to forget?
Inability to recall something we used to know
Ebbinghaus’s Curve of Forgetting
He demonstrated that forgetting begins very early but then tapers off.
What are causes of forgetting?
Encoding failure Decay theory Proactive Interference Retroactive Interference Consolidation failure Motivated forgetting Retrieval failure Prospective forgetting
Encoding failure
not forgetting, never learned in the first place – did not
enter LTM
Decay theory
If memories are not used, they fade away and ultimately disappear. Generally accepted for sensory and STM, but not LTM (high school year book experiment). Implies a physiological change in the neural trace
Proactive Interference
previously learned info interferes with ability to learn new info
Retroactive Interference
new information interferes with our ability
to remember older information
Consolidation failure
Disruption that prevents memory from forming
Anything that causes a person to lose consciousness: blow to the head, car accident
Amnesia
memory loss, either partial or complete, resulting from
brain trauma, or psychological trauma.
Motivated forgetting
Assault &/or disaster survivors are motivated to forget
to protect themselves from pain and/or fear
Repression
memory removed from consciousness; no longer aware event ever occurred.
Retrieval failure
We are sure we know something, but we are not
able to retrieve the information we need.
Tip-of-the tongue phenomenon
Prospective forgetting
Forgetting to remember: birthdays, appointments
Prospective memory: remembering to carry out an action in the future.
Hippocampuses role in memory
critical area of brain involved in processing long-term memory
Anterograde amnesia
damage to the hippocampus renders unable to put current (new) memories into long-term memory
Retrograde amnesia
Memory loss; inability to remember past memories
Source amnesia
Remembers information, but not the source. Forgets or misremembers,
“didn‘t you tell me that?”
How improve memory?
Organization, over learning, massed practice more effective than spaced practice, active learning
Mnemonic devices
The First-letter Technique
The Method of Loci (tells a story), Keyword Method
CISD
critical incident stress debriefing
3 hour session asking individual to go over every detail
Doesnt work
Karim Nader
blocked protein synthesis during recall
