Chapter 6: MEMORY PROCESSES Flashcards
Three [3] common operations of Memory Processes
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
How you transform a physical, sensory input into a representation that can be stored in memory.
Encoding
How you keep encoded information in memory.
Storage
How you gain access to information stored in memory.
Retrieval
Forms of Encoding
- Short-Term Storage
- Long-Term Storage
- Mnemonics
Discovered that for short-term memory, an acoustic code is more important than the visual code.
Conrad [1966]
One based on word meaning.
Semantic Code
- Semantic Code
- Argued that short term memory relies on acoustic code rather than semantic code.
Baddeley [1966]
Long-Term Storage:
- Semantic Information
- Visual Information
- Acoustic Information
Mnemonic Devices/Techniques
- Categorical clustering
- Interactive Images
- Pegword system
- Method of loci
- Acronym [first letter technique]
- Acrostic
- Keyword system
Mnemonic devices that rely on organization of information into meaningful chunks
Categorical clustering
Acronyms
Acrostics
Mnemonic devices that rely on visual images
Interactive images
Pegword system
Method of loci
Two [2] key problems to encounter in “Transfer of Information from Short-Term Memory to Long-Term Memory”
- Interference
- Decay
Competing information interferes with our storing information.
Interference
Forget facts when time passes.
Decay
Methods of transferring short-term memory to long-term memory
Consolidation
Rehearsal
Process of integrating new information into store information by making connections of new data into our existing schemas.
Consolidation
[Subsect] Two [2] kinds of Consolidation
Metamemory
Metacognition
Strategies that involve reflecting on our own memory processes to improve our memory.
Metamemory
Our ability to think about and control our own processes of thought and ways of enhancing our thinking.
Metacognition
[Subsect] Two [2] kinds of Rehearsal
Elaborative Rehearsal
Maintenance Rehearsal
It is a repeated recitation of an item.
- overt— obvious, loud
- covert— hidden, silent
Rehearsal
Elaborates on the items to be remembered.
Elaborative Rehearsal
Simply repeats the items to be remembered.
Maintenance Rehearsal
Noticed that the distribution of study sessions over time affects the consolidation of information in long-term memory.
Hermann Ebbinghaus
An effect of greater distribution of learning trials over time, the more the participants remembered over long periods.
The Spacing Effect
Various sessions are spaced over time.
Distributed practice
Sessions are crammed together in very short space of time.
Massed practice
Specific techniques to help you organize and memorize information.
Mnemonic Devices
Studied the initial recall of a series of items and recall following brief training in each of several memory strategies.
Henry Roediger
Various areas of cerebral cortex
Sensory properties such as visual, spatial, or olfactory
Hippocampus
Encoding declarative information
Amygdala
Emotional events
The recovery of information stored in memory; the fourth stage of long-term memory.
- Some memories require conscious effort for ______.
Retrieval
Refers to the simultaneous handling of multiple operations.
Parallel processing
Refers to operations being done one after another.
Serial processing
Implies that the participant always checks the test digit against all digits in the positive set, even if a match were found partway through the list.
Exhaustive serial processing
Implies that the participant would check the test digit against only those digits needed to make a response.
Self-terminating serial processing
The process of accessing and recalling information that has previously stored in long-term memory.
Retrieval from long-term memory
Long-Term Memory
Semantic Memory
Episodic Memory
Procedural Memory
Trouble retrieving information
Availability
Accessibility
Is the presence of information stored in long-term memory.
Availability
Is the degree to which we can gain access to the available information.
Accessibility
Refers to the view that forgetting occurs because recall of certain words.
Interference Theory
Occurs when newly acquired knowledge impedes the recall of older material. (New information inhibits the ability to remember old information)
Retroactive interference [retroactive inhibition]
Occurs when material that was learned in the past impedes the learning of new material. (Old information inhibits the ability to remember new information)
Proactive interference [proactive inhibition]
Are mental frameworks that represent knowledge in meaningful way.
Schemas
Refers to the tendency to recall information presented at the start of a list better than information at the middle or end.
Primary effect
Refers to superior recall of words at near the end of a list.
Recency effect
Represents the probability of recall of a given word, given its serial position (order of presentation) in a list.
Serial position curve
- the eyewitness testimony paradigm
- repressed memories
- the effect of context on memory
Memory distortion
Involving the use of various strategies (eg. each searching for cues, drawing inferences) for retrieving the original memory traces of our experiences and then rebuilding the original experiences as a basis for retrieval.
Reconstructive
Prior experience affects how we recall things and what we actually recall from memory.
Constructive
Refers the memory of an individual’s history
Autobiographical Memory
A memory of an event so flower pool that the person remembers the event as vividly as if it were indelibly preserve on film.
- surprising
- important
- emotional
Flashbulb memory
People tend to distort their memories. For example just saying something has happened to you makes you more likely to think it really happened. This is true whether the event happened or not. These distortions tend to occur in seven specific ways which Schacter (2001) refers to us the “______ ____ ___ ________”.
Seven Sins of Memory
- memory fades quickly
- the state or fact of lasting only for a short time
- general deterioration of a specific memory overtime
- This is especially true with episodic memory, because every time an episodic memory is recalled, it is re-encoded within the hippocampus, altering the memory each time you recall it.
- is caused by interference
Transcience
Seven [7] Sins of Memory
- Transcience
- Absent-Mindedness
- Blocking
- Misattribution
- Suggestibility
- Bias
- Persistence
- is where a person shows inattentive or forgetful behavior
- so lost in thoughts that one does not realize what one is doing, what is happening, etc.; we occupied to the extent of being unaware of one’s immediate surroundings.
- this form of memory breakdown involves problems at the point where attention and memory interface. common errors of this type include misplacing keys, eyeglasses, or forgetting appointments because at the time of encoding sufficient attention was not paid on what would later need to be recalled.
Absent-Mindedness
- tip of the tongue phenomenon
- people sometimes have something that they know they should remember, but they can’t.
- is when the brain tries to retrieve or encode information, but another memory interferes with it.
- is a primary cause of the tip of the tongue phenomenon (a temporary inaccessibility of stored information).
Blocking
- people often cannot remember where they heard what they heard or read what they read. Sometimes people think they saw things they did not see or heard things they did not hear.
Example: Eyewitness testimony - it entails correct recollection of information with correct recollection of the source of that information. For example, a person who witnesses a murder after watching a television program may incorrectly blame the murder on someone she saw on the television program. This error has profound consequences in legal systems because of it’s acknowledge prevalence in the confidence which is often placed in the person’s ability to know the source of information important to suspect identification.
Misattribution
- people are susceptible to suggestions, so if it is suggested to them that they saw something, they may think they remember seeing it.
Example:
- you witness an argument after school. When later asked about the huge fight that occurred, you recall the memory, but unknowingly distort it with exaggerated fabrications, because you now think of the event as a huge fight instead of a simple argument.
Suggestibility
- the scene of ______ is similar to the scene of suggestibility in that one’s currents feelings and worldview distort remembrance of past events.
- This can pertain to specific incidences and the general conception one has over a certain period in one’s life. This occurs partly because memories encoded while the person was feeling a certain level of arousal and a certain type of emotion come to mind more quickly when a person is in a similar mood.
Bias
- people sometimes remember things as consequential that in a broad context, are inconsequential.
Example: someone with many successes but one notable failure may you remember the single failure better than the many successes.
- This failure of the memory system involves the unwanted recall of information that is disturbing. The remembrance can range from a blunder on the job to a traumatic experience and the persistent recall can lead to formation of phobias, post traumatic stress disorder, and even suicide and especially disturbing and intrusive instances.
Persistence
Maybe the most common source of wrongful convictions in the United states (Modafferi et. Al.,2009)
The Eyewitness Testimony Paradigm
- children’s recollections are particularly susceptible to distortion.
- The younger the child is, the less reliable the testimony of that child can be expected to be.
- when a questioner is quercia or even just seems to want a particular answer, children can be quiet susceptible to providing the adult with what he or she wants to hear.
- children may believe that they recall observing things that others have said they observed
- The testimony of children must be interpreted with great caution.
Children as Eyewitness
Can eyewitness testimonies be improved?
- Gary Wells ( 2006) made several suggestions to improve identification accuracy in line ups:
- presenting only one suspect per lineup
- making sure that all people in the line-up are reasonably similar to each other
- Cautioning witnesses that the suspect may not be in the lineup at all
Memories that are alleged to have been pushed down into unconsciousness because of the distress they cause.
Repressed Memories
Do a repressed memories actually exists?
- Some therapists may in inadvertently plant ideas in their clients heads. In this way they may inadvertently create false memories of events that never took place.
- Showing that implanted memories are false is often extremely hard to do.
- Roediger-McDermott (1995) paradigm
15 words strongly related to the word sleep
Why are people so weak in distinguishing what they have heard from what they have not heard?
- Source monitoring
- Spreading activation
Error which occurs when a person attributes a memory derived from one source to another source
Source monitoring
Every time an item is studied, you think of the items related to that item
Spreading activation
A number of factors, such as emotions ,moods, states of consciousness schemas and other features of our internal context clearly affect memory retrieval a study of constructive memory show our cognitive context for memory clearly influence our memory processes of encoding storing and retrieving information.
- emotional intensity
- mood
- state of consciousness -environmental context cues
The Effect of Context on Memory
Refers to the fact that what is recorded depends largely on what is encoded.
Encoding specificity
