Helping Me Remember Flashcards
Context dependent cue and example
Context-dependent cues refer to the learner’s external environment (the context) in which the memory was formed. At a later time, context cues can stimulate memories. We are likely to do use context-dependent cues in everyday life. Imagine that you can’t recall where you put your keys: you set about retracing your steps and, suddenly, you remember that you were wearing your blazer when you were at your locker. Sure enough, your keys are in your blazer pocket!
Elaborative rehearsal
Elaborative rehearsal refers to the way we encode material when we are transferring it into long-term memory. During elaborative rehearsal we actively make meaningful associations between new information to be remembered and old or familiar information that is already in the long-term memory.
Maintenance rehearsal
maintenance rehearsal is a technique that helps keep the information in our immediate awareness (short-term memory) for a longer period of time. It simply means repeating the information over and over again. As long as we are not interrupted, we can keep information in our short-term memory almost inde nitely by this method. If we repeat something often enough, however, maybe tens or hundreds of times, transfer to long-term memory can occur.
Mnemonic devices
Techniques used to aid memory by improving encoding and retrieval by linking new information to information already held in long-term memory through elaborative rehearsal such as narrative chaining, acronyms and acrostics.
Primacy effect
A phenomenon in which the likelihood of remembering items at the start of a list is higher than the likelihood of remembering items in the middle of that list. These items were heard first and have thus had the largest opportunity to be encoded into LTM.
Recency effect
A phenomenon in which the likelihood of remembering items at the end of a list is higher than the likelihood of remembering items in the middle due to this information still existing in short-term memory.
State dependent cues and example
State-dependent cues refer to the ‘internal environment’, which are factors within the person – in other words, the physiological and/or psychological state that they were in at the time of learning, such as their mood, level of anxiety, and whether they were intoxicated, medicated or sober. For example, it has been found that when we are happy we are more likely to remember happy events, but if we are sad we tend to have unhappy memories.
Serial position effect
A phenomenon in which an individual is more likely to remember items at the start or end of a list over items in the middle of that list.
Forgetting
An inability to recall previously stored information.
Delayed serial position effect
Superior recall for words for only the start of a list, due to last words not being in STM after a delay.
Why does the serial position effect occur
There is not enough time to encode all the words into long term memory.
There isn’t enough short term memory capacity to remember all the middle words.
Duration of STM is also inadequate to remember all the middle words.
Encoding specificity principle
The encoding speci city principle (Tulving & Thomson, 1973) states that the associations formed at the time of encoding new memories will be the most e ective retrieval cues.
This means that items are stored in memory according to their meaning at the time of encoding. For example, consider the following list of words: spectacles, monocle, glasses, vision, eyes, contact lenses. You are likely to associate the word glasses with eyewear.
Two main conditions that assist retrieval
State dependent cues
Context dependent cues
Von Restorff effect
To observe the serial position e ect, the words or items in the list need to have similar characteristics and signi cance for the learner. For example, they might all be three-letter words such as ‘cat’, ‘pen’ and ‘try’. On the other hand, a word such as ‘elephant’ placed in the middle of a list of three-letter words will be remembered because it stands out from the rest of the list
