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FPsych > Human Memory > Flashcards

Human Memory Flashcards

1
Q

What is Memory?

A
  • 3 Key processes in Memory

1. Encoding : Involves forming a memory code, requires attention/conscious effort

2. Storage : Involves maintaining encoded information in memory over time

3. Retrieval : Involves recovering information from memory stores

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2
Q

What is the role of Attention?

A

Attention : Focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli/events
- Selective attention is critical to everyday functioning
- Research suggests that the human brain can effectively handle only 1 attention-consuming task at a time
- Memory performance decreases when we are forced to divide our attention between memory encoding and other tasks

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3
Q

Explain the Levels-of-Processing Theory (Craik and Lockhart, 1972)

A
  • Different rates of forgetting occur because some methods of encoding create more durable memory codes than others do
  • Proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer lasting memory codes ‘

1. Structural Encoding : Shallow processing, emphasises physical structure of stimulus (capital, italics)

2. Phonemic Encoding : Involves naming/saying words, emphasises what a word sounds like

3. Semantic Encoding : Emphasises the meaning of verbal input, involves thinking about the objects/actions the words represent

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4
Q

What is Elaboration?

A
  • The linking of a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
  • Enhances semantic encoding
  • Additional connections created by elaboration help people remember information
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5
Q

What is Visual Imagery?

A
  • Ease of image formation affects memory as some words are more concrete, others more abstract

Dual-Coding Theory (Paivio’s theory, 1986) : Holds that memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes since either can lead to recall
- Imagery facilitates memory because it provides a second kind of memory code

Motivation to Remember : High MTR at the time of encoding improves recall later

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6
Q

What is Sensory Memory?

A
  • A store that preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time (fraction of a second)
  • Sensory memory allows the sensation of a visual pattern, sounds or touch to linger for a brief moment after the sensory stimulation is over
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7
Q

What is Short-Term Memory and Rehearsal?

A

Short-Term Memory (STM) : Limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to 20 seconds

Rehearsal : Process of repetitively verbalising/thinking about information

Durability of Storage :
- Without rehearsal, information in STM is lost in 10-20s
- Loss of information from STM is caused by time-related decay of memory traces/interferences from competing material

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8
Q

What is the Capacity of Storage in STM?

A
  • Research has changed the capacity from 7 +/- 2 to 4 +/- 1 (remember less)
    Chunk (Covert Rehearsal) : A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit, increases likelihood of recall

STM as ‘Working Memory’
Working Memory : A modular system for temporary storage and manipulation of information

Working Memory Capacity (WMC) : One’s ability to hold and manipulate information in conscious attention

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9
Q

Explain Baddeley’s Model of Working Memory (2001)

A

1. Phonological Loop : When you use recitation to temporarily hold onto a password/number

2. Visuospatial Sketchpad : Permits people to temporarily hold & manipulate visual images
E.G Mentally rearranging furniture

3. Central Executive System : Controls deployment of attention, switching focus of attention & dividing attention

4. Episodic Buffer : Temporary, limited capacity store that allows the various components of working memory to integrate information (combines auditory, visual-spatial and LTM into 1 recollective episode)

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10
Q

What is Long-Term Memory?

A
  • An unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time
  • Long-term memory can retain information for a lifetime
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11
Q

What are Flashbulb Memories?

A
  • Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events
  • No convincing evidence exists that proves memories are stored permanently and that forgetting is all a matter of retrieval failure
    E.G Many American adults can remember exactly where they were/what they were doing on September 11 when the 2001 terrorist attack took place in NY and Washington D.C
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12
Q

How is Knowledge Represented in Memory?

A

Clustering : Tendency to remember similar items in groups

Conceptual Hierarchy : Multilevel classification system based on common properties among items

Schema : Organised cluster of knowledge about a particular object/event abstracted from previous experience with the object/event
- People are more likely to remember things that are consistent with their schemas

Semantic Networks : Nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts
- Spreading activation within a semantic network is a process that occurs when people think about a word and their thoughts naturally go to related words

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13
Q

What is the Tip-of-the-tongue Phenomenon?

A
  • Temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that its just out of reach
  • Happens about once a week, increases with age (represents a failure in retrieval)
  • Retrieval cues are stimuli that help gain access to memories (hints, related information, partial recollections)
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14
Q

What are Context Cues?

A
  • Facilitate the retrieval of information
  • Hypnosis occasionally stimulates eyewitness recall in legal investigations (uses context cues)
    E.G Where you used to live
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15
Q

Explain Memory Reconstruction

A
  • All memories are reconstructions of the past that may be distorted and may include details that did not actually occur

Misinformation Effect : Phenomenon that occurs when participants’ recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information
- Misinformation can distort one’s knowledge of basic facts
- Retelling a story can introduce inaccuracies into memory

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16
Q

Explain Source Monitoring

A
  • Process of making inferences about the origins of memories
  • Misinformation can be caused by unreliable source monitoring
  • People decide at the time of retrieval where the memories come from

Source-Monitoring Error : An error that occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source
- Explains why people have memories of events that they never actually saw/experienced

17
Q

What is Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve?

A
  • Forgetting curve for nonsense syllables
  • Concluded that forgetting is extremely rapid immediately after the original learning and then levels off
  • Research has shown that forgetting curves for nonsense syllables are unusually steep
18
Q

Explain Retention and Retention Intervals

A

Retention : The proportion of material retained (remembered)

Retention Interval : Length of time between the presentation of materials to be remembered and the measurement of forgetting

19
Q

What are the 3 Methods to Measure Forgetting/Retention?

A

1. Recall Measure : Requires participants to reproduce information on their own without any cues

2. Recognition Measure : Requires participants to select previously learned information from an array of options

3. Relearning Measure : Requires participants to memorise information a second time to determine how much time/effort is saved by having learned it before

20
Q

Why do we forget? (Ineffective Encoding)

A

Pseudoforgetting : Phenomenon of thinking you forgot something that you never really learned
- Information was never inserted into memory
- Attributable to lack of attention

21
Q

Why do we forget? (Decay)

A

Decay Theory : The idea that forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time
- Decay affects sensory and short-term memory
- Researchers have not been able to clearly demonstrate that decay causes LTM forgetting

22
Q

Why do we forget? (Interference)

A

1. Interference Theory : The idea that people forget information because of competition from other material

2. Retroactive Interference : A source of forgetting that occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously-learned information

3. Proactive Interference : A source of forgetting that occurs when previously-learned information interferes with the retention of new information

23
Q

Why do we forget? (Retrieval Failure)

A
  • A great deal of forgetting may be due to breakdowns in the process of retrieval

Encoding Specificity Principle : The idea that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code

24
Q

Why do we forget? (Motivated Forgetting)

A
  • Motivated forgetting is the tendency to forget things that one does not want to think about

Repression : Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious

25
Q

Explain the Repressed Memories Controversy

A
  • Many psychologists and psychiatrists (clinicians involved in treating psychological disorders) accept recovered memories of abuse at face value
  • People commonly bury traumatic incidents in their unconscious
  • Some psychologists blame the misinformation effect, source-monitoring errors and other ways of ‘creating memories’
26
Q

What is Retrograde Amnesia?

A
  • Loss of memories for events that occured prior to a head injury
27
Q

What is Anterograde Amnesia?

A
  • Loss of memories for events that occur after a head injury
  • The entire hippocampal region and adjacent areas in the cortex (medial temporal lobe memory system) are critical for LTM
28
Q

What is Consolidation?

A
  • Hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of new, unstable memories into stable, durable memory codes stored in LTM
  • Much of it happens while people sleep
  • Memories are consolidated in the hippocampal region, stored in the diverse and widely distributed areas of the cortex
29
Q

Describe the Neural Circuitry of Memory

A
  • Memories may create unique, reusable pathways in the brain along which signals flow
  • Memory formation may result in alterations in synaptic transmission at specific sites

Neurogenesis : Formation of new neurones, contribute to the sculpting of neural circuits that underlie memory

30
Q

What is the Declarative Memory System?

A
  • Handles factual information
  • Contains recollections of words, definitions, names, dates, faces, concepts, ideas etc.
  • Recall for factual information generally depends on conscious, effortful processes
31
Q

What is the Nondeclarative Memory System?

A
  • Houses memory for actions, skills, conditioned responses and emotional memories
  • Contains procedural memories of how to execute such actions
  • Memories for conditioned reflexes are largely automatic
  • Memories for skills often require little effort and attention
32
Q

What is Retrospective Memory?

A
  • Involves remembering events from the past/previously-learned information
  • Does not require individuals to remember the intended action
33
Q

What is Prospective Memory?

A
  • Involves remembering to perform actions in the future
  • Crucial to daily functioning
34
Q

What is the Episodic Memory System?

A
  • Made up of chronological/temporally dated recollections of personal experiences
  • Record of things one has done, seen or heard
  • Allows one to remember the past (associated with a sense of ‘remembering’)
35
Q

What is Semantic Memory System?

A
  • Contains general knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned
  • Associated with a sense of ‘knowing’

FPsych (7 decks)

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