Chp. 7 - Memory Flashcards
What is memory?
Memory is the persistence of learning over time through the encoding storage, and retrieval of info.
Info processing model
compares human memory to a computer operation. Assumes that, to remember one must indulge in encoding, storage, and retrieval of info.
3 stages of info processing model
- Encoding: getting info into our brain’s memory system. 2. Storage: retaining encoded info over time. 3. Retrieval: getting info out of memory storage.
Forming memories - Stages: Sensory memory
Recording to be remembered info as a fleeting sensory memory: immediate and very brief recording of sensory info in the memory system.
Forming memories - Stages: Short-Term Memory
Processing info into short-term memory, where it is end=coded through rehearsal: activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the info is forgotten.
Forming memories - stages: long-term memory
Moving info into long-term memory for later retrieval: a relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system.
Working memory
Newer understanding of short-term memory. Info entered the working memory through vision and auditory rehearsal.
Encoding - 2-track memory system: Implicit memory
Retention of learned skills, or classically conditioned associations, without conscious awareness.
Encoding - 2-track memory system: Explicit memory
Retention of facts and personal events that can be consciously retrieved.
Automatic processing
Unconscious encoding of everyday info. Such as space, time, and frequency, and well-learned info such as word meanings.
Effortful processing
Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.
Sensory memory
1st stage in forming explicit memories. Recording immediate and very brief info in a fleeting manner.
Iconic & echoic memory
Iconic: Picturing-image memory of a scene.
Echoic: Sensory memory of sounds.
Short-term memory (miller’s & other researchers)
Miller’s: about 7 bits of info stored during the short-term stage. Others: about 7 digits or about 6 letters or 5 words recalled.
Working memory
Working memory capacity varies with age. Work is more efficient when individuals focus on one task at a time.
Effortful Processing Strategies: Chunking
Organizing items into familiar & manageable units. Occurs naturally.
Effortful Processing Strategies: Mnemonics
Memory aids. Techniques that often use vivid imagery and organizational devices.
Spaced Study & Self-assessment: Spacing effect
The tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.
Repeated Self-Testing: Testing effect
Testing does more than assess learning and memory, it improves them.
Explicit Memory System: The Hippocampus: Semantic memory
Explicit memory of facts and general or episodic.
Explicit Memory System: The Hippocampus: Episodic memory
Explicit memory of personally experienced events.
Explicit Memory System: The Hippocampus
The hippocampus acts as a loading dock where the brain registers and temporarily stores aspects of an event. The hippocampus is in the neural center located in the limbic system.
Frontal Lobes & Memory: Memory Consolidation
Memories migrate for storage via the memory consolidation process. Memory consolidation: Neural storage of long-term memory.
Infant Memories: Infantile amnesia
As adults, our conscious memory of our first 4 years is largely blank, an experience called infantile amnesia.
