Exam 2 Flashcards
Sensory Memory
-memory registers all or most
information that hits our receptors
– Collects all information from senses for a short period of time
– Holds information for initial processing
– Information decays very quickly
• About 1 second for vision
• About 4 seconds for hearing
Sensory: Iconic Memory
– Visual sensory memory – Lasts about 1 second – Can store up to 12 images – “Persistence of vision” • Seeing a sparkler’s trail of light • Not noticing TV and films are frame by frame
Sensory: Echoic Memory
-Auditory sensory memory
– Holds auditory information about 2-3 seconds
longer to enable processing
Memory
the mechanism used to create,
maintain, and retrieve information about
the past
Memory Processes
Encoding, Storage, Retrieval
Short Term Memory
• Stores small amounts of information for a
brief duration
• Can include
– information received from the sensory stores
– information recalled from long-term memory
• Controlled processes can be applied to
information in short term memory
– Manipulates information held in STM
– “Working memory”
Short Term: Chunking
– small units can combine into larger meaningful units
– A chunk is a collection of elements strongly associated with one another but weakly associated with elements in other chunks
Working Memory
– limited capacity system for temporary storage and manipulation of information for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning
– Essentially, all the info that you can actively
use
• The computer analogy would be RAM memory
Working: Phonological Loop
– Holds verbal and sound information
– That “voice” you hear when reading or repeating words in your head
Working: Visuospatial Sketchpad
– Holds visual and spatial information
– Allows you to hold a mental image of what things looked like and/or where they were
Working: Central Executive
– Guides attention (focus, switch, or divide)
– Suppresses irrelevant information
Working: Episodic Buffer
Allows information to be moved back forth
between working memory components and
long-term memory
– Episodic buffer explains how working memory
can be used much longer than short-term
memory itself would allow
• Similar to “buffering” when streaming internet videos
Primacy Effect
– Better memory for info at the beginning of list
– More rehearsal, more likely to enter LTM
Recency Effect
- Better memory for info at the end of list
– Information is still in short-term memory
Three Model Memory
Sensory, STM, LTM
Atkinson and Shcriffin
Phonological similarity effect
– Letters or words that sound similar are
confused
• Word-length effect
– Memory for lists of words is better for short words than for long words
– Takes longer to rehearse long words and to produce them during recall
Long Term Memory
• Storage stretches from a few moments ago
to as far back as one can remember
• Long-term memory is not a perfect record
– More recent memories are more detailed
– Memories may fade or change over time
– Memories may be confused with others
LTM: Explicit
declarative memory
semantic vs. episodic
LTM: Implicit
non-declarative memory
procedural memory
priming and conditioning
LTM: Semantic
General knowledge and factual info General factual knowledge – Does not require mental time travel – Like remembering… • What year was the Declaration of Independence signed?
LTM: Episodic
Personal events from one’s life – Memory for personal events in life – Involves “mental time travel” – Mentally “relive” your past experience – Like remembering… • What happened at your birthday party last year
Priming and Conditioning
Automatic associations learned through experience
Proactive Interference
When previously learned information interferes with learning new information
Retroactive Interference
When new information interferes with remember
old information
Retroactive Interference
When new information interferes with remember old information
Anterograde Amnesia
– Inability to create new memories
Retrograde Amnesia
- Inability to recall old memories
Korsakoff’s syndrome
– Result of chronic alcoholism
– Causes both anterograde and retrograde amnesia
• Unable to form new memories
• May lose many decades of of past memories
Long Term Potentiation
– Neurons “remember” which neurons activate them
– Threshold of activation lowers after repeated stimulation
• Less signal needs to be sent
– Neurons reach out to each other across the synapse
• More receptor sites to hear the incoming messages
– Neurons that communicate often, communicate easily
• It becomes easier for those neurons to hear each other
Memory Consolidation
• “New” memories stored as connections between hippocampus and cortex
– Recent memories stored as
connections between hippocampus and cortex
• Need hippocampus to retrieve recent
memories
– Over time, memory held as connections in cortex
• Memory is “uploaded” to the cortex
• No longer need hippocampus to retrieve
the memory
When are memories most fragile?
• Injury and trauma can erase memories
• Memories around time of injury will be most
impaired
– Anterograde and retrograde amnesia for period just before and after
– Memory for recent events is more fragile than for remote events
– Memories that haven’t been fully consolidated will be lost
• Drug and alcohol use may also impair
memory formation and consolidation
Autobiographical Memory
– Recollected events that belong to a person’s past – Mental time travel • Stories of the self – Both episodic and semantic • Old memories more semantic
The Reminiscence Bump
– People over the age of 50 asked to recall events from their lives… – Better memory for very recent events – Better memory for events during adolescence and early adulthood • Important “formative” years of life – Fewer memories from middle age
Flashbulb Memory
Memory for circumstances surrounding shocking, highly charged important events – Kennedy assassination – Challenger explosion – 9/11 • Flashbulb memories – Highly emotional – Vivid – Very detailed – … not always accurate
