Learning + Memory Flashcards
what are the three main memory processes?
- encoding: processes used to store information in memory
- storage: processes used to maintain information in memory
- rehearsal and elaboration - retrieval: processes used to get information back out of the memory
define
iconic memory
information from our senses
define
short-term/working memory
what is currently in mind/what are we doing with that information
define
long-term memory
‘stored’ information
what is chunking?
breaking things into smaller amounts of information via grouping
what is rehearsal?
allows us to keep information in short-term memory longer
what are the two main serial position effects?
- primacy
- recency
define
primacy effect
remembering the first few words
-sent to LTM
define
recency effect
remembering the last few words
-still in STM
what are the two types of interference?
- proactive
- retroactive
define
proactive interference
when stored knowledge (LTM) interferes with the ability to learn new information
define
retroactive interference
new learning interferes with old learning
what is the capacity and duration of long-term memory?
unlimited (as far as we know)
what are the two types of long term memory?
- declarative
- non-declarative
contrast
declarative memory and non-declarative memory
declarative: explicit, you can express it verbally and are consciously aware of it
- facts usually
non-declarative: implicit memory, expressed behaviorally
- skills, learned responses
what are the two types of declarative memory?
- episodic: discrete events, context information
- semantic: facts and general knowledge
- no context really, (you dont remember where or when you learned the information)
name three types of non-declarative memory
- procedural: motor skill learning (riding a bike), automatic cognitive skills (reading)
- priming: perceptual or conceptual
- conditioning
who is Patient H.M. and what is his story?
Henry Molaison (1926):
- suffered severe seisures
- had to remove the medial temporal lobe at 27, where the seizures were localized
- he had severe memory impairments
Could NOT remember:
- people he had met before
- conversations he had before
- some information before surgery
- names of people he met after surgery
Could:
- remember most information from before surgery
- perform short-term memory tasks
- improve motor learning tasks (procedural memory)
- experience priming and conditioning
what are the two main types of amnesia?
- retrograde: can’t remember things in the past
- anterograde: new information cannot be learned
what did patient HM and other amnesic patients teach us about how memory works?
- STM and LTM are different systems that rely on different braina reas
- explicit LTM is reliant on different brain areas than implicit
- the hippocampus/medial temporal lobe strucutes are vitially important for consolidation
what is memory consolidation?
moving info from STM to LTM
- hippocampus holds info for a while and ‘teaches’ it to the rest of the cortex
what is hebb’s rule?
neurons that fire together, wire together
where are memories ‘stored’ in the brain?
over time, memories may be transferred away from the hippocampus and into a pattern of activation in the cortex
what is the atkinson & shiffrin modal model?
environmental input -> sensory memory (->attention->) short term (->consolidation->) long-term memory
what are some problems with the modal model?
- there is evidence for multiple STM systems
- auditory info interferes less with visual performance than visual info
- vice versa
- example: music interferes less with driving than texting/reading off your phone - when we hold info in mind, we often want to actually do something with that info
what is the baddelley & hitch working memory mode?
central executive -> (visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological loop) -> (visual knowledge, episodic long-term, language)
what is the central executive?
baddeley and hitch working memory model
directs and controls WM functions
- CEO of attention
- directs, divides, and switches attention
what is the phonological loop?
auditory working memory system
what is the visuospatial sketchpad?
visual and spatial working memory system
what is the episodic buffer?
working memory system that binds pieces of information together into a single event
