episodic memory Flashcards
capacity to mentally reconstruct personal events from the past as well as to imagine possible future scenarios =
mental time travel (chronesthesia)
what are the different types of mental time travel?
early memories, recent memories, future events, imagined events, reminiscence bump, flashbulb memories
flashbulb memories are?
emotionally shocking and significant e.g. JFK death, 9/11
superior memory for events that occurred in adolescence and early adulthood
reminiscence bump
childhood amnesia =
phase in the beginning of life where we don’t have any memories (usually before age 4/5)
why is Jill price famous?
first person to be diagnosed with a highly superior autobiographical memory
what are the 2 types of memory tests and how are they different?
direct and indirect.
direct = instructed encoding and explicit retrieval.
indirect = incidental encoding and implicit retrieval.
how are direct memory tests carried out?
ppts instructed to memorise info and during testing then asked to retrieve the info they memorised
recall memory tests =
generating information from memory
recall as many items as possible =
free recall
recall items in the order of their presentation =
serial recall
recall items with the help of a cue =
cued recall
what is the DV for recall memory tests?
proportion of directly recalled items
what are the 2 types of direct memory tests?
recall and recognition
verify whether information presented matches memory =
recognition memory test
how are recognition memory tests carried out?
ppts asked to memorise a set of words then asked if certain words were on the list (signal detection theory)
what is the DV for recognition tests?
difference between correctly verified probes (hits) and wrongly accepted probes (false alarms) - detection performance
how are indirect memory tests carried out?
ppts think about the info but not instructed to memorise it. during testing they are asked to complete an activity seemingly unrelated to memory (implicit)
what is the DV for indirect memory tests?
proportion of unintentionally but correctly retrieved items
what are the influences on encoding of information?
levels of processing, spacing effect, serial position effect
what is the influence on retrieval of information?
testing effect
explain levels of processing on recall effect
shallow or deep processing (depth) effects memory. deeper level of processing results in more info being recalled
explain structural, phonemic and category as levels of processing theory
structural > phenomic > category (increased memory retrieval)
what are the 2 spacing effects?
massed practice (single lengthy study period) and distributed -practice (multiple, short study periods)
memory is generally better after ______ practice
distributed
the longer the _____, the ______ the memory is
spacing, better
information encoded first (primacy) or last (recency) is recalled best. what effect is this?
serial position effect
describe the testing effect
ppts study a text and then either restudy or are tested on the information. recall after 5 min, 2 days or 2 weeks. testing retrieval improves memory for delays longer than a few minutes which shows regular testing improves recall.
what is the encoding specificity principle?
matching context at encoding and retrieval aids episodic memory
procedural memory that alters performance based on previous experiences =
implicit memory
remembering to perform a task at some point in the future =
prospective memory
give some features of prospective memory
intentional task, but requires that one remembers the intention to perform the task, can occur through cues in the environment, studied in real life and lab studies
what is a mechanism that can cause forgetting?
interference
interference occurs when…
other information prevents the retrieval of the target information
processing information according to its meaning to allow longer storage in memory =
elaborative encoding
encoding info according to its surface features =
shallow processing
encoding info according to its meaning =
deep processing
why is multiple studying episodes better than long intense ones?
more varied retrieval cues (environment, mood, thoughts, technique) that can be useful when info is retrieved from LTM. all of this contextual info is stored with the material you are studying so contextual cues help connect the info you are trying to remember
