lesson 7 memory Flashcards
Memory
the ability to store and retrieve information over time
encoding
the process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory
storage
the process of maintaining information in memory over time;
retrieval
the process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored
how do we make memories
combining information we already have in our brains with new information that comes in through
our senses. In this way, memory is like cooking; starting from a recipe but improvising along the way, we add old information to new information, mix, shake, and bake, and out pops a memory. Memories are constructed, not recorded, and encoding is the process by which we transform what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring
memory
Semantic encoding
is the process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory
how the lobes work with memory
visual imagery encoding
the process of storing new information by converting
it into mental pictures
- For example, a visual image of a parked car might help you create a link to your memory of
your first kiss
organizational encoding
the process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series
of items
*For example, suppose you had to memorize the words peach, cow, chair, apple, table, cherry, lion, couch, horse, desk. The task seems difficult, but if you organize the items into three categories—fruit (peach, apple, cherry),
animals (cow, lion, horse), and furniture (chair, table, couch, desk)—the task becomes much easier
which kind of encoding tends to lead to faster and better recall
survival encoding- One advantage of encoding survival-related information is that it draws on elements of semantic, visual imagery, and organizational encoding, which together produce high levels of subsequent
memory. Also, survival encoding encourages participants to think in detail about the goals they want to achieve and thus engage in extensive planning, which in turn benefits memory and may account for much of the benefit
of survival encoding
Sensory memory
is a type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less
Iconic memory
fast-decaying store of visual information
Echoic memory
fast-decaying store of auditory information
short-term memory
holds nonsensory information for more than a
few seconds but less than a minute
Rehearsal
the process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it
serial position effect
refers to the observation that the first few and last
few items in a series are more likely to be recalled than the items in the middle
Enhanced recall of the first few
items in, say, a list of words is called the
primacy effect. It occurs because these items receive more rehearsals
than subsequent items in the middle of the list and thus are more likely to be encoded into long-term storage
Enhanced recall of the last few items is called the
recency effect and can result from rehearsing items that are still
in short-term storage
combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily held in short term memory
Chunking
working memory
refers to active maintenance of information in short-term
storage
long-term memory
a type of storage that holds information for
hours, days, weeks, or years
In 1953, a 27-year-old man, known then by the initials HM,
suffered from intractable epilepsy
what happened?
HM’s doctors removed parts of his temporal lobes, including the hippocampus and some surrounding regions. After the operation, HM could converse easily, use and understand language, and perform well
on intelligence tests, but he could not remember anything that happened to him after the operation
*The fact that HM had much worse anterograde than retrograde amnesia suggests that the hippocampal region is not the site of long term memory
anterograde amnesia
the inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into the long-term store
retrograde amnesia
the inability to retrieve
information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of an injury or surgery
consolidation
the process by which memories become stable in the brain
*For example, when someone experiences a head injury in a car crash and later cannot recall what happened during the few seconds or minutes before the crash—but can recall other events normally—the head injury probably prevented consolidation of short-term memory into long-term memory. Another type of consolidation occurs over much longer periods of time—days, weeks, months, and years—and likely involves transfer of
information from the hippocampus to more permanent storage sites in the cortex
how do memories become encoded as long term
sleep
seemingly consolidated memories
can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, thus requiring them to be consolidated again. This
process is called
reconsolidation
long-term potentiation (more commonly known as LTP)
a process whereby communication
across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier
a retrieval cue
external information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind
*These results suggest that information is sometimes available in memory even
when it is momentarily inaccessible and that retrieval cues help us bring
inaccessible information to mind.
context dependence
a retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded
*For example, in one study divers learned some words on land and some other words underwater; they recalled the words best when they were tested in the same dry or wet environment in which they had initially learned them, because the environment itself was a retrieval cue
State-dependent retrieval
process whereby information tends to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval (drunk vs sober)
transfer-appropriate processing
the idea that memory is
likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match
Retrieval-induced forgetting
a process by
which retrieving an item from long-term memory impairs subsequent recall of related items
Explicit memory
when people consciously or intentionally
retrieve past experiences. Recalling last summer’s vacation, incidents from a novel you just read, or facts you studied for a test all involve explicit memory. Indeed, anytime you start a sentence with “I remember …,” you are
talking about an explicit memory
Implicit memory
occurs when past experiences influence later behavior and
performance, even without an effort to remember them or an awareness of the recollection
procedural memory
the gradual acquisition of skills
as a result of practice, or “knowing how” to do things
priming
an enhanced ability to think of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus during an earlier study task
Semantic memory
is a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world
Episodic memory
is the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place
a lapse in attention that results in memory failure
absentmindedness
transience
forgetting what occurs with the passage of time (not really paying attention so hippocampus never really logged it)
*different from forgetting where the memory was actually encoded- once there and is now gone
a failure to retrieve information that is available in
memory even though you are trying to produce it
blocking
memory misattribution
assigning a recollection or an idea
to the wrong source
source memory
recall of when, where, and how information was acquired
false recognition
a feeling of familiarity about something that hasn’t been encountered before
Suggestibility
is the tendency to incorporate misleading information
from external sources into personal recollections.
bias
the distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings
on recollection of previous experiences
types of bias
Whereas consistency bias exaggerates the similarity between past and present, change bias is the tendency to exaggerate differences between what we feel or
believe now and what we felt or believed in the past
*A special case of change bias is egocentric bias, the tendency to exaggerate the change between present and past in order to make ourselves look good in
retrospect
persistence:
the intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget. Melinda’s experience is far from unique; some events are so emotionally charged— such as the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center —that we form unusually detailed memories of when and where we heard about them. These flashbulb memories generally persist much longer than memories for more ordinary events. frequently occurs after disturbing or traumatic incidents, such as the fire that destroyed her home. Although being able to recall memories quickly is usually considered a good thing, in the case of persistence, that ability mutates into an unwelcome burden
loftus
Misinformation has the potential for invading our memories when we talk to other people, when we are suggestively interrogated or when we read or view media coverage about some event that we may have experienced ourselves. After more than two decades of exploring the power of misinformation, researchers have learned a great deal about the conditions that make people susceptible to memory modification. Memories are more easily modified, for instance, when the passage of time allows the original memory to fade
*how susceptible memory is to getting distorted and false memories form (Corroboration of an event by another person can be a powerful technique for instilling a false memory. In fact, merely claiming to have seen a person do something can lead that person to make a false confession of wrongdoing.
*can even plant a memory and make someone say they remember it happening… False memories are constructed by combining actual memories with the content of suggestions received from others. During the process, individuals may forget the source of the information. This is a classic example of source confusion, in which the content and the
source become dissociated
dunlonsky
how to study:
1. SELF-TESTING Quizzing Yourself Gets High Marks
- DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE
For Best Results, Spread Your Study over Time - ELABORATIVE INTERROGATION Channel Your Inner Four-Year-Old
- SELF-EXPLANATION
How Do I Know? - INTERLEAVED PRACTICE
Mixing Apples and Oranges
dont work: highlighting, rereading
misinformation effect
These studies show that
when people who witness an event are later exposed to new and misleading information about it, their recollections
often become distorted
why are skinner and watson wrong
there’s learning that’s involved with more than just radical behaviorism (reward) like exploring a maze and learning where to turn or memory
Such as how we’re primed for language and it just depends on which language we’re exposed to
memory
system able to encode information around us even if we dont know it’s important
procedural memory
signing name, typing, riding a bike- things we’ve learned that a muscle memory (doesnt need hippocampus)
semantic memory
random facts/trivia that make up our general knowledge- states, multiplication, color of the sky
event
a specific occurrence in time which includes sensory environment as well as internal thoughts and feelings
convergence zone where disparate information is bound together
hippocampus in temporal lobe
reinstantiate
a set amount of neurons and a certain amount of them in hippocampus light up for a certain memory (like the fans holding up cards to make a word)
*so to retrieve a memory, hippocampus needs to go back to the state it was in when memory was created (reinstantiate)
levels of processing
case
rhyme
sentence
lower or uppercase (bad memory)
does it rhyme (meh memory)
was it in a sentence with meaning (good memory)
deep encoding
leads to a higher distributed representation (fatter representation with more neurons, can have more retrieval cues)
how was hm able to remember past without hippocampus reinstantiating
hippocampus backs up to other parts of the brain through sleep, so he was able to remember things it had time to back up
memory errors
1) transience
2) forgetting/absentmindedness
3) bias
4) misattribution
bias
brain filling in information that wasnt really there due to expectations
memory distortion due to source attribution
hippocampus cant always tell where memory is from (source) so not sure if memory is real or not
donald thompson
memory researcher accused of rape- didnt do it, was on live tv talking about memory distortion. she misattributed the identity of her attacker with another piece of information in her memory (tv)
*hippocampus can be tricked when it doesn’t know where the memory came from
can we multi task
not really memory but modularity
*each module has a severe bottleneck and can only do one thing at a time (so very difficult to do multiple things at once well)
