Learning and Memory Flashcards
Long-term memory of motor skills and procedures. “Implicit memory”. Contents are not easily verbalized; can be used without “thinking.”
Procedural memory
Stores facts and events. Contains knowledge that can be consciously discussed or declared. Contains textbook learning and knowledge as well as memories of events in one’s life. Storage of sights, smells,, etc., also in a verbal format.
Declarative memory
Type of declarative memory that is the recollections of events an individual has personally experienced. Includes features of time, emotions, and place that are not components in semantic or procedural memory.
Episodic memory
Type of declarative memory that concerns generic or categorical knowledge, such as the meaning of words. Generally, we know the meaning of items stored in this type of memory, but we retain no knowledge of when or how we gained that knowledge.
Semantic memory
The first stage in the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system. Endure for only a very brief time.
Sensory information store (SIS)
The sensory information store in the visual system. Sperling demonstrated that it allows large amounts of information to be stored for a very brief duration (half of a second). Errors in this type of memory are visual, rather than verbal, reflection the modality-specific nature of this stage of information storage
Iconic memory
The sensory information store for sounds. Provides a 3-4 second, modality-specific, sensory memory of the auditory stimulus. If attention is elsewhere when a sound occurs, the sound can still be recalled within three or four seconds.
Echoic memory
Center stage for the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. It is active memory (associated with conscious thought) that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten. Involves the intensive, serial processing of limited material that can yield permanent storage. 7+-2. Duration is indefinite with rehearsal. Information is gone in 18 seconds without rehearsal
Short-term memory (STM)
The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to help encode it for storage. Involves re-entering information into STM so the information continues to receive active processing. The more of this action, the more likely you can retain the material.
Rehearsal
Reflects the probability of recalling an item as a function of that item’s position in a list. Shows that there is a tendency to recall best the first and last items in a list
Serial position curve
The superior recall of initial items; attributed to those items receiving extra rehearsal, without competition, and thus entering LTM
Primacy effect
The superior recall pf the last items; attributed to recalling items from STM
Recency effect
When words that sound alike, they are similar in how we manipulate our vocal tracts to create the sounds (how we articulate the sounds). Errors in STM and LTM experiments often take the form of this term which indicates that material is encoded in a verbal, rather than visual, format in these memory areas.
Articulatory confusion
The organization of items into familiar, manageable units and often occurs automatically. We can more easily recall information if we can organize it into meaningful units. Aids our recall of unfamiliar material, such as the recall of words or digits, through the use of segmentation or grouping into other forms. the processing capacity of STM is not in bits of information measured in terms of numbers or letters or digits, but is a limit in chunks.
Chunking
The transfer of information from STM into LTM. Happens automatically for the contents of episodic memory, but can require considerable effort for semantic memory. Entering material into LTM is aided by rehearsal, which appears to help establish an entry into the association network in the proper format and location
Consolidation
Occurs when items are processed consecutively. Associated with STM and active analysis.
Serial processing
Occurs when many items are processed simultaneously. Associated with the processing of sensory input and entry of material into the various sensory information stores. Associated with passive analysis
Parallel processing
Relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memory in the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. Organized in an association network based on similarities of format (syntax), similarity of meaning (semantics), and hierarchy of meaning. Made up of separate sensory memories, such as images, flavors, and sounds that help recover memories.
Long-term memory (LTM)
Occurs when you cannot retrieve an item from memory that you know you know. Although you can’t get the word, you can describe certain characteristics of the word. These characteristics reveal aspects of the verbal representation or thought in LTM.
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Refers to the organization of information in LTM. Allows information to be retrieved through one thing leading to another once information is acquired. Information can be retrieved through similarity of meaning (semantics), similarity of format (syntax), and through hierarchy of meaning.
Association network
Examined by Ebbinghaus; the continued study of material even after the material is learned. Increases retention, presumably by increasing the strength of the association pathways.
Overlearning
The reduction in study needed to relearn a list; a saving of work needed as a consequence ofprior exposure
Savings
Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational strategies. Were developed by the ancient Greeks as aids to remember lengthy passages and speeches. Imagery and the method of loci are twp examples.
Mnemonics
A mnemonic technique. A way of remembering a series of things in order,
Method of loci
The process of using images to remember things
Imagery
A process for retrieving information from LTM by providing a starting point (the cue) in the association network. Better than simple recall of the same material.
Cued recall
The process for retrieving information from LTM when the item itself gives the path to target. Includes memory of images as well as words. Better than either recall or cued recall, presumably because the target is provided.
Recognition
A way of describing how confident a person is in their judgement of whether a word is the word they seek. Hypothesized as the basis for making a recognition judgement;
Recognition strength
A process for creating a probable memory based on information from LTM. Involves retrieving associated items from the memory pathway and fabricating a memory consistent with those retrieved. The fabricated item is treated as ‘remembered.’ This creation of a ‘reasonable guess’ based upon ‘hints’ retrieved from memory is the same as our normal perceptual process of making a ‘reasonable guess’ about the world based on the hints provided by our sensory systems.
Reconstruction
A state or condition that is assumed to be true in a sentence may be taken as a true state when a person considers that sentence.
Presupposition
Occurs when we attribute a memory to the wrong source, which lead to false memories being created and stored.
Source amnesia
This process determines what material enters conscious thought and thereby what material is able to be retained in LTM. Studies of this term concern the factors that influence how the vast array of sensory stimulation and information in LTM that potentially could enter conscious thought are filtered to yield the small amount of material we can have in awareness at any one moment.
Attention
The unconscious activation of association pathways in memory that influence how one remembers (reconstructive recall) or perceives (interpretive perception).
Priming
The disruptive effect of learning on the recall of old information. Occurs when newly learned material makes it harder to recall something learned earlier, presumably because the previously established association pathways have been disrupted and now lead to the new material.
Retroactive interference
The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information. Occurs when something learned earlier disrupts recall of some more recently learned material, presumably because one gets ‘stuck’ on the association pathway to the old material instead of following a new path.
Proactive interference
The inability to remember, often caused by a traumatic event
Amnesia
The inability to recall memories prior to the trauma. This demonstrates the distinction between episodic and semantic memories.
Retrograde amnesia
The inability to form memories of events since the trauma. Although there is no acquisition of declarative memory, there is an ability to acquire procedural memory, indication that these have different physiological bases. One can form implicit memories, not explicit memories.
Anterograde amnesia
Seen as an increase in a synapse’s ability to stimulate another cell that occurs after brief, rapid stimulation May be a neural basis for learning and memory. The formation of a pathway of cells through this term at each cell in the chain provides a basis for the association of learning (forming the chain) and remembering (the tendency for the entire chain to become active be stimulating the first cell). Part of this term is that the neuron’s firing is prolonged and the release of neurotransmitters is increased and made more efficient.
Long-term potentiation
A collection of cells in which long-term potentiation and pre- and post-synaptic responses are synchronized. The firing of one neuron results in the firing of others in the assembly. the efficiency of one neuron firing another is increased. Can be spatially diffused and allows an ‘engram’ to be a pattern of activity, rather than a particular structure.
Hebbian assembly
The inferior half of the temporal lobe and the regions of the brain that it encloses (particularly the hippocampus and the amygdala). The cortical portion of this structure contains cells that respond to complex visual object features, such as geometric contours and faces. This region is indicated in declarative memory.
Inferotemporal area (IT)
