Chapter 8: Memory Flashcards
A set of processes in the brain allowing us to accsess information.
- Involves 3 basic activities:
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
Memory
1 of 3 Basic activities of memory
Getting information into memeory in the first place. How our brain organizes information to make sure we can use it when we need it again.
Encoding
Encoding of information with little concious awareness of effort.
- Time, space, or frequency
- Still have to pay attention (less apparent), no costs to task switching
Automatic Processing
Encoding of information through careful attention and concious effort. Intentional ad conscious attention. Needed for learning new information, more effective.
- Cheryll cant walk and drink water at the same time
- Cant talk on the phone while someone else is trying to have a conversation with you.
Effortful Processing
Type of Encoding
Cognitive representation of information or an event based on the meaning of the information. Linking information together based on shared meaning.
- We group things that are similar: Gestalt principles
- More connection = better ability to remember it
Semantic Codes
- Research suggests semantic codes (deeper processing) result in better memory than visual or acoustic codes.
Type of Encoding
Cognitive representations of information or an event based on the image.
Visual Codes
Type Of Encoding
Cognitive representations of information or an event based on the sounds of the words. Attaching a song or ryhtmic beat to something.
Acoustic (Phonological) Codes
Better memory for information that relates to the self. If you can relate it to your life, you are more likely to remember it.
Self-reference
1 of 3 Basic activities of memory
Retaining memories for further use.
Storage
Suggests information moves among 3 memory stores during encoding, storage, and retrieval. Is analogus to a computer. One at a time through different levels. Information must pass through 3 stages, or systems of mental functioning to be put in memory.
Stages include:
- Sensory Memory (SM)
- Short-term Memory (STM)
- Long-term Memory (LTM)
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model
Message is fleeting. Holds everything we see (iconic), hear (echoic), taste, touch, and smell for a few seconds or less. Assumed to have large capacity. If all goes well this information will move along to the next stage.
- Very large capacity, near infinite, for a little bit of time.
- If we want information to make it back to us, has to go to short-term.
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Sensory Memory
Temporary storage lasting between 15-30 sec. Finite amount of information that it can hold, has limits. If we want to keep the information, we have to go over it. Subject to interference.
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Short-term Memory
Rehersal: attending to information to move it from STM to LTM.
- Memory trace decay = 18 sec
Unlimited and forever lasting storage. Organized by concepts or semantic networks.
- Spreading Activation: Ripple effect
Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Long-term Memory
Predominant model used right now. No specific area of the brain that holds memory. Working memory: workspace, the reason you can keep something in your mind while doing something else.
Baddeley and Hitch Model
Main concept of the Baddeley and Hitch Model. Holds information for 30 seconds; capacity of 5-9 items. Has 3 subsystems.
Working Memory
Subsystems Include:
- Central Executive
- Phonological Loop and Visuospatial Sketchpad
- Episodic Buffer
Working Memory Subsystem
Supervisory role, monitors and coordinates the working memory system.
Central Executive
Working Memory Subsystem
Processes spoken and written information (“little voice”) and keeps track of images and spatiial locations (“inner eye”).
- On average
- Work on different modalities of info
Phonological Loop and Visuospatial Sketchpad
Working Memory Subsystem
Links information from the other parts of working memory and creates links to time and order and links to long-term memory.
Episodic Buffer
Suggests that information is represented in the brain as a pattern of activation across entire neural networks. New pieces of information immediately join with other (already acquired) information and grow networks of information.
- Memory should be viewed like a network
- Dominated memory research
- Activates related neurons
Parallel Distributed-Processing Theory
Memory with conscious recall.
Declarative
2 major classifications:
- Episodic memory
- Semantic memory
Explicit Memory
Classification of Explicit Memory
Events we have personally experienced. Typically reported as a narrative (hence declarative). What, when, where, types of events. You tell it like a story, it is personal to you. Also called Autobiographical Memory.
Ex: highschool graduation, birth of first child.
Episodic Memory
Classification of Explicit Memory
Knowledge of words and concepts. Typically reported as facts. Facts, general knowledge, logic.
Ex: bananas are yellow, spiders have 8 legs, there are 12 months in a year.
Semantic Memory
- Different from semantic cues
Memory without conscious recall. Cannot consciously recall; you can’t remember the moment when you learned the places of keys on a keyboard.
Implicit Memory
Memory for how we do something. Skilled action like tying your shoes or riding a bike.
Procedural Memory
Exposure to a stimulus affects later behaviour. Words, pictures, sounds. Prime the brain to recall specific things.
- Cheryll showed us the animal/faces photos
Priming
Knowledge of words and concepts. Often unknowingly linked to other stimuli such as images, sounds, or smells.
- ! represents excitment
- Good On Ya strawberries and cream lip balm
Conditioning
1 of 3 Basic activities of memory
Recapturing memories when you need them. Kind of ‘search’ process where the memory is scanned for information.
Retrieval
- Researchers are not sure how we retrieve memory
Words, sights, or other stimuli that remind us of the information we need to retrieve from our memory.
Retrieval Cues
Memory tasks in which people are asked to produce information using no or few retrival cues.
- Retrieval cues help us remember
- Different performance based tasks that can help us recall information
Recall Tasks
Memory taks in which people are asked to identify whether or not they have seen a particular item before. Information is given to you, do you recognize it?
Ex: Multiple choice, the answer is there, do you recognize it?
Recognition Tasks
Learning information that you have previously learned. Do I still know how to ride a bike? You get on and quickly…..
Relearning
- Relearn content faster than the first time you learned it
- Tons of research tells us that recognition is easier and stays in our memory longer.
The original location where you first learned a concept or idea, rich with retrieval cues that will make it more likely to recall that information later if you are in that same location or context.
- returning to an old school, or back home =. We experience a flood of memories asociated with that place.
Context Dependant Learning
Memory involving a location (physical space) for specific information or an event.
- Memory palaces inhance memory. Tie info to familiar spaces.
Spatial Learning
- Non human animals rely on spatial memory for survival.
- Food, predators, safe spaces, mating
Memory loss due to disease or trauma
Amnestic
Ongoing inability to form new memories after an amnesia-inducing event. Head injuries are a common cause, often damage to hippocampus. May be able to form new procedural memories.
Anterograde Amnesia
Inability to remember things that occured before an organic event. Episodic memories are impacted. Can’t remember anything before the accident but can remember afterward.
Retrograde Amnesia
Can’t remember something if it was never stored/was not encoded properly
Encoding Failure
Forgetting, distortion and intrusion are all…
Memory Errors
Loss of information from the long-term memory.
Forgetting
- Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve
The fading of memories over time
Transience
Suggests that memories fade over time due to neglect or failure to accsess over long periods of time. 50% loss after 20 mins and 70% loss after 24 hours. Based on the notion that memories leave a memory trace.
- Doesnt account for relearning
Decay Theory
Occurs due to breaks or lapses in attention.
- May be encoded, but not stored
Absentmindedness
When you can’t get accsess to stored information.
- So stressed it didnt get encoded, could not have rehearsed it enough, etc.
Blocking
Fail to record where the information originally came from. Know it, don’t know why or how you know it.
Misattribution
When memory is affected by information from someone else. Also, when the effects of misinformation from external sources lead to false memories.
Cousin story example
Contruction - Reconstruction
Suggestibility
After exposure to an event, additional and possibly inaccurate information can distort the memory of the orginal event. Important for eye witness testimonies.
Loftus’ Misinformation Effect Paradigm
Recall of false autobiographical memories. Entire events, not just details. Remembering things that happened to them that never happened.
- Recall Freudian notions of repression
- Hypnosis or guided imagery techniques
False Memory Syndrome
Your own feelings and views of the world can distort memories. Jamal and Howard: who is the basketball player and who is the engineer?
- Sterotype, ego centric, and hindsight
Bias
Involuntary recall unwanted or unplesant memories.
- PTSD
- Song you cant get out of your head
Persistence
Old information blocks memory of new information.
Proactive Interference
New information blocks memory of old information.
- Old information does not always interfere with new information
- learning similar sports
- bilingual people
Retroactive Intereference
Ability to remember content in the future. Planning, send that birthday card, and take my meds.
Prospective Memory
- Older people see a greater decline in prospective memory as opposed to Retrospective memory.
Ability to remember content from the past. Did I already send that card? Did I already take my meds?
- Hippocampus starts shrinking in early 20s
Retrospective Memory
Severe memory problems combined with losses in at least one other cognitive function, such as abstract thinking or language. The most common type of neurodegenerative disorder.
Dementia
- More than 70 forms of dementia have been identified
Most common form of dementia (2/3). Usually beginning with mild memory problems, lapses of attention, and problems in language, and progressing to difficulty with even simple tasks and recall of long-held memories.
- Cannot make clear diagnoses until after death.
- Problems with language is a great indicator because theres not a lot of evidence to show that language deteriorates with age.
Alzheimers Disease
Twisted protein fibres found within the cells of the hippocampus and certain other brain areas.
Neurofibrillary Tangles
Sphere-shaped deposits of a protein known as beta-amyloid that form in the spaces between cells in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and certain other brain regions, and some near blood vessels.
- Means its interrupting neural communication because its blocking,
Senile Plaques
If a part of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area will takeover.
- Neuroplasticity
Equipotentially Hypothesis
Suggests that strong emotions form strong memory and weak emotions form weak memory. Strong emotional experiences cause the release of neurotransmitters (glutamate) and stress hormones.
Arousal Theory
Detailed and near permanent memories of an emotionally significant event or of the circumtances surrounding the moment we learned about the event. 911, Covid, Princess Dianas death.
- Emotional content can be less remebered when under sedation.
Flashbulb memories
Learn through repetition. No easier way than to just know the answer. Ex: Times tables.
Rote Learning
Connecting new information to existing (stored) information and create a narrative.
- Putting content into your own words.
Elaborative Rehersal
Grouping bits of information together to enhance ability to hold that information in working memory. Allows us to encode more information and store more in working memory.
Chunking
Techniques used to enhance the meaningfullness of information as a way of making them more memorable.
Mnemonic Devices
