Memory Flashcards
Define encoding
Getting information into your brain
Define:
A) Semantic encoding
B) Visual encoding
C) Acoustic encoding
A) Most successful, relating info to knowledge that is already in memory.
Looks at meaning of stimuli (e.g. letters in order of word), as info is easier to remember when it’s meaningful
B) Encoding info as images.
Relates to visual incorporated with word, high imagery words encoded semantically and visually
C) Encoding sounds the words make.
Define:
A) Automatic processing
B) Effortful processing
A) Happens subconsciously (time, place, semantics)
B) Conscious efforts to process (studying for an exam)
What is sensory memory?
The senses (sights, sounds, tastes, textures). Holds memory for 0.5-sec. Moves to semantic encoding if important
What is short-term memory?
Temporary storage. Takes info from sensory and connects to long term. Holds memory for up to 20 seconds. Will remain in short term as long as its rehearsed (20 second resets).
Can hold 5-9 pieces of information.
What is long-term memory?
Infinite, continuous storage
What is consolidation?
When a memory moves from short term to long term
Define:
A) Explicit (declarative) memories
B) Implicit (non-declarative, automatic) memories
A) Actively recall these memories, episodic (event) and semantic (info) memories
B) More automatic, procedural (brushing teeth) and emotional conditioning (emotional reactions)
Define:
A) Retrieval
B) Recall
C) Recognition
D) Relearning
A) Bringing information from long-term memory to short-term
B) Retrieving info without retrieval cues
C) Identify info you have previously learned (environment, inner states: would recall better if in same state during encoding)
Retrieval cue: external info associated with stored info
D) Relearning info previously learned
A) What was Karl Lashley’s experiment?
B) What was the Equipotentiality Hypothesis?
A) Put rats into a maze until they learnt it then damage lesions in rat’s brains. After brain damage, rats still remembered how to go through maze.
B) If the part of the brain involved with memory is damaged, another part will take over the memory function.
A) What is the amygdala in charge of?
B) What does the lateral amygdala do?
A) Emotional regulation; pairing emotion with memory; classical conditioning; involved in consolidation for emotionally arousing events
B) Especially important in emotion regulation, and pairing emotion with memory
What does the hippocampus do?
Responsible for episodic memories; recognition; consolidation; declarative/episodic memories
What does the cerebellum do?
Non-declarative; procedural memories; motor learning; classical conditioning
What 3 parts of the prefrontal cortex contribute to memory and how?
1) Left hemisphere: semantic memory
2) Right hemisphere: retrieving information
3) Inferior frontal gyrus: semantic learning
A) What is arousal theory?
B) Three facts
A) Strong emotions create strong memories
B) Times of stress evoke glutamate neurotransmitter
Highly visceral stimuli cause more glutamate to be released
Flashbulb memory: very clear recollection of an important event
A) What is amnesia?
b) How can it be caused?
A) Loss of long-term memory, affects declarative memory (episodic and semantic)
B) physical or psychological trauma or disease
What is Anterograde Amnesia?
Inability to make new memories. Still have old memories, problem with consolidation.
What is Retrograde Amnesia?
Lost memories of the past, but can make new memories. Loss of memories prior to trauma, partial/full loss of memories. Can make new memories.
Define:
A) Construction
B) Reconstruction
A) Making new memory
B) Bringing up old memories
What are the 7 sins of memory?
Transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence
What are the 3 classes of the 7 sins of memory and which sins do they include?
1) Forgetting: transience, absentmindedness, blocking
2) Distortion: misattribution, suggestibility, bias
3) Intrusion: persistence
A) What is transience?
B) 4 facts about transience?
A) Forgetting that occurs within the passage of time
B) Rapid forgetting happens in the sensory and short-term memory stage.
Transience also happens for long-term memory
Learned material that is not attended to over time is subject to transience
When cramming for a test, most information is quickly forgotten
In reference to transience, what are the two type of ways other memories can interfere with new memories? And examples?
1) Retroactive Interference: new information inhibits our ability to remember old information (e.g. hearing song lyrics one way then finding out what they actually are and hearing them that way)
2) Proactive Interference: old information inhibits the ability to remember new information (e.g. trying to remember password, but you can only remember old passwords)
A) What is absentmindedness?
B) What are 3 facts about it?
A) Split attention: a lapse in attention that results in a memory failure (e.g. leaving purse in taxi)
B) Incorporates encoding failures (e.g. studying and you are listening to your friend’s speak but you are not absorbing information)
Semantic tasks show lower activity in the LEFT lower frontal lobe
Episodic memories show lower activity in the hippocampus
A) What is blocking?
B) 4 facts about blocking?
A) Failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it
B) “Tip-of-tongue” phenomenon
The information has been encoded and stored- failure of retrieval
Can be frustrating
Blocking most often occurs for names, or information that is not strongly association with related concepts
A) What is misattribution?
B) 1 facts about misattribution?
A) Assigning a recollection or idea to the wrong source
B) Most common mistake in eyewitness identifications for crimes
A) What is suggestibility?
B) 2 facts?
A) The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections
B) Suggestibility can often affect misattribution
In 1992, a cargo plane crashed into a building, and ten months later there was a survey asking people if they saw the video footage. 55% said yes but there was no footage of the accident.
What is bias?
The distorting influence of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences
What are the three types of bias?
1) Stereotype bias: racial and gender biases that affect recall in stereotype-consistent ways
2) Egocentric bias: recalling information that makes yourself look better
3) Hindsight bias: thinking that an outcome was inevitable after the outcome occurred
What is persistence?
Intrusive recollection of events you want to forget. Common in PTSD, Amygdala plays a role
