Cognitive Psychology Flashcards
Memory
Storage of information for later access
- allows us to learn from experience
- without, wouldn’t be able to think, read, write
Encoding
First encounter information and convert it to storage
Storage
Maintenance of the encoded information for later access
Retrieval
Accessing stored information
Purpose of Memory
To pick out the most important parts of an experience
Memory storage
The capacity to maintain information over a period of time
Multistore Model of Memory
Information goes through three levels of storage
Three levels of memory storage
Momentary Sensory, Short-term, Long-term
Iconic Memory
Sensory memory from vision
Echoic memory
Sensory memory from hearing
Sensory memory
- Short lived
- High capacity
- Fragile
Short-Term Memory
- Post categorical
- Limited capacity for detail, gain meaning
- Information from all senses
- Short duration
Chunking
Grouping of stimuli into other meaningful wholes or categories
- reduces what needs to be stored
Long-Term Memory
Less vivid, remember information for a very long time
Parkinson’s Disease
Impaired short term, good long term
Alzheimer’s Disease
Impaired short and long term memory
- Maintain procedural memory
What dictates the length an experience is stored for?
The stronger neural firing patterns are
How many items can be stored in short term memory?
Current consensus is 4 items, used to be 7?
Post Categorical
Info processed so we understand what type of object we sense
Working memory
Using encoding strategies to organize information processing (bridge between short term and long term memory)
Central Executive
Cognitive operations on new info from different senses, and from long term memories
Visuo-spatial Sketchpad
Stores and processes information in visual and spatial form
Phonological loop
Processes spoken and written material
Rehearsal
Actively maintaining information in working memory
Working Memory span
How many items can be held in working memory
Serial Position curve
The resulting graph from comparing recall ability
Recency Effect
Increased recall at end of list of words, words are still in short term and working memory
Primacy Effect
Increased recall at beginning of list, from increased processing at beginning (long term memory)
Amnesia
Loss of memory due to brain damage or trauma
Anterograde amnesia
Inability to form new memories
Retrograde amnesia
Impairs access to memories prior to brain damage
Explicit Memory
Intentional and conscious remembering
Implicit memory
Occurs without intentional recollection or awareness
Procedural Memory
Learning motor skills or habitual ways of thinking
Clive Wearing
Had retrograde and anterograde amnesia, but can still play music and conduct
Priming
Previous exposure to a stimulus enhances a person’s processing and response when it is presented again (does not need hippocampus)
Affective conditioning
Response to a neutral stimulus because of previous repetition of stimulus (dog, whistle, food)
Visual priming
Decreased neural activity for repeated images
Episodic memory
Recollection of a personal experience (time, place)
- hippocampus
Semantic Memory
Knowledge about the world, concepts and facts
- Temporal lobe
Semantic dementia
Loss of memory for meaning
(impaired word comprehension, difficulty recognizing semantically related objects)
Semantic satiation
Repetition of a word makes it sound meaningless
Retrospective memory
Remembering things we have done in the past
Prospective memory
Remembering things we need to do in the future
Encoding Specifity Principle
Retrieval is best when present context recreates the context that the information was originally encoded in
(divers with word recall)
State-dependent retrieval
Increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same mental state during encoding and retrieval (drunk)
Mood-dependent retrieval
More likely to recall when in same mood as during encoding
Example of shallow encoding
Rhymes, mnemonic devices
When retrieval is successful…
There is hippocampus and prefrontal cortex activity
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Failure to retrieve despite being confident it is stored in memory
Motivated forgetting
Intentionally trying to forget information (repression)
- alters hippocampal activity
Encoding failure
When info never makes it to long term memory
Weapon focus
Central important details are encoded (like a weapon), peripheral information is not
(attentional memory deficits)
Cons of multitasking
Difficulty encoding information
