Chapter 6 - Memory Flashcards
Why is memory far from perfect?
We cross contaminate or even rewrite our own memories
What makes eyewitness accounts not necessarily reliable?
Witness maybe suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder or have received some kind of a head injury
What’s the difference between passing out or blacking out?
Blacking out because individual not to remember critical details of events. It’s extremely rare, the brain stops writing memories and just shuts off
What field of psychology is the study of memory recognized in?
Cognitive psychology
What is the process by which information is in coded, stored, and retrieved in the future?
Memory
How can the process of memory be compared to how a computer works?
- entering information (via a keyboard) is similar to the encoding a memory
- saving enter information on the keyboard is similar to the storage of memory
- pulling up saved files would be akin to the retrieval process in memory
What are the three processes of memory?
Encoding, storage, retrieval
What is the first stage of transforming information into a form that can be stored in short term or long term memory?
Encoding
What increases the chances that we will remember something?
Careful Encoding
What needs to happen to ensure we are encoding?
We need to focus our attention so that it can be placed into memory
What is the second stage of information processing that involves the act of keeping or maintaining information in memory?
Storage
In order to store memories what is the change that takes place in the brain, involving the hippocampus?
Consolidation
What’s the act of bringing to mind material that has been stored in memory?
Retrieval
What must be done effectively in order to retrieve information?
Encoded and stored
What is focusing on one piece of information and ignoring others, allowing us to eliminate interference from the other relevant background information?
Selective attention
What three categories does the storage of information involve?
1) Maintenance rehearsal
2) elaborative rehearsal
3) metamemory
What is a mental repetition of information to store it in memory?
Maintenance rehearsal
What is the kind of coding in which new information is related to information that is already known as a way to store it in memory?
Elaborative rehearsal
What is self awareness of the ways in which memory functions, allowing the person to encode, store, and retrieve information effectively?
Meta-memory
According to the Atkinson-Shiffrin model, what are the three interactive memory systems?
1) Sensory memory
2) short term memory
3) long-term memory
What is the memory system that hold information coming through the senses for a period of time?
Sensory memory
Which sensory memory lasts the longest?
Olfactory
What involves breaking down a memory to better remember it?
Chunking
What is encoding a stimulus or group of stimuli is a distinct piece of information, grouping stimuli together?
Chunking
What is a strategy to increase the amount of information retained in short term memory?
Chunking
What is the process that keeps information in short term memory?
Rehearsal
What requires retrieving information from memory without the help of retrieval cues in memory?
Recall
What are nonsense syllables presented in tasks that measure recall?
Paired Associates
What uses currently presented information to retrieve identical information from memory?
Recognition
How do psychologists measure recognition?
Using nonsense syllables
What is the tendency to learn information faster the second time it is presented as compared to the first time you learned it, even though you may not recall it or recognize it?
Relearning
What is the difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn list to relearn the list is calculated
Method of savings
What is the difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn a list and the number of repetitions required to relearn the list?
Savings
What is the percentage of time or learning trial saved and re-learning material over the amount of time or number of learning trials taken in the original learning?
Relearning saving score
What does the relearning saving score say about our memory?
Even things we made on immediately understand, we are somehow capable of and coding, storage and retrieval when necessary
What is the stage of memory first and countered by a stimulus?
Sensory memory
What is an assumed change in the nervous system that reflects the impression made by stimulus?
Memory trace
What’s a mental representation of a visual stimulus referred to as an icon?
Iconic memory