Memory Flashcards
What is confabulation?
The invention of plausible and detailed false memories in response about personal life and public events to fill in memory gaps.
What is memory?
The process by which we take something we have observed (encountered) and convert it into a form we can store, retrieve and use.
What are the processes of memory?
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
What are representational modes?
They are like languages that permit conversation with the mind.
What is a mental representation?
A mental model of a stimulus or category of stimuli,
- Sensory representations
- Verbal representations
- Motoric representations
What is a sensory register?
Hold information about a perceived stimulus for a fraction of a second after the stimulus disappears.
What are two types of sensory register?
- Iconic storage
2. Echoic storage
What is Iconic storage?
Momentary storage of visual information
What is Echoic storage?
Momentary storage of auditory information.
What is Short-term memory?
Holds a small amount of information (limited capacity of approximately 7 items) for a short period of time (limited duration of approximately 20-30 seconds).
How can you keep information in STM longer?
Rehearsal / Elaborative rehearsal (Thinking about the information whilst rehearsing.
What is Long-term memory?
The representations of facts, images, actions and skills that may persist over a lifetime (potentially limitless duration).
What is the process of extracting information from the LTM?
Retrieval.
What is the best way to keep information in the LTM?
Keep it in the STM for as long as possible.
What is the Serial Position Effect?
The tendency to remember information at the beginning and end of a list rather than in the middle.
What are ways in which thinking about memory has no evolved?
- No longer a serial processing model.
- Memory is now thought of to be a number of modules which are discreet but interdependent.
- Remembering is not always conscious and retroactive.
- Not thought of as a computer.
- LTM must engage before STM.
What is working memory?
The temporary storage and processing of information.
What is working memory used to do?
- Solve problems
- Respond to environmental demands
- Achieve goals.
Working memory is comprised of what three memory systems?
- Central executive (flow and processing of information)
- Visual memory store (visual sketchpad)
- Verbal memory store (phonological loop).
What are two separate aspects of working memory?
- Storage capacity
2. Processing capacity.
What neural region is thought to control working memory?
The prefrontal cortex
What is a LTM deficit?
Person shows normal working memory though cannot transfer information to LTM
What is working memory deficit?.
Person has a memory span of 2 digits though normal LTM.
How should working memory be viewed?
As a conscious workspace for accomplishing goals rather than a way station or gateway to LTM.
How are LTM and Working memory related?
Working memory activates knowledge from the LTM.
What is chunking?
The use of knowledge from LTM to increase the capacity of working memory - The grouping of information into larger units rather than single units or digits.
What is declarative memory?
Memory for facts and events, much of which can be tested or declared. Two components
- Semantic of generic
- Episodic
What is semantic memory?
Generic memory for general world knowledge
What is episodic memory?
Consists of memories of particular events rather than general knowledge. Often autobiographical.
What is procedural memory?
The ‘how to’ knowledge of procedures or skills. Often occurs without conscious effort.
What are the two ways people express knowledge?
- Explicit memory.
2. Implicit memory.
What is explicit memory?
Memory that is expressed through conscious recollection. The conscious retrieval of information.
What are the two components to explicit memory?
- Recall - spontaneous recollection of information from the LTM.
- Recognition - The identification of something previously seen or heard.
What is implicit memory?
Memory that is expressed in behavior but does not require conscious recollection.
What neural regions are involved in the consolidation of explicit memories?
The hippocampus and adjacent regions of the cortex.
What are the two components of everyday memory?
- Retrospective memory
2. Prospective memory
What is retrospective memory?
memory of things from the past.
What is prospective memory?
Memory for things that need to be done in the future.
Remembering to remember
Remembering what to remember.
What is encoding?
The storage of information in LTM requires that it be cast into a representational form. The type and level of encoding influences the accessibility of information.
What are the two levels of LTM processing?
- Shallow processing
2. Deep processing
What is shallow processing?
Focus on the physical characteristics of the stimulus.
What is deep processing?
Focus on the meaning of the stimulus.
What is context dependent memory?
Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same context.
What is Mood (state) congruent memory?
Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same emotional state.
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Ease of retrieval depends on the match between the way information is encoded and later retrieved.
What is the spacing effect?
Superiority of memory for information rehearsed over .longer intervals.
What is the best way to encode and retrieve information?
To store memory in multiple representational modes such as words, images and sounds.
Explain how pieces of information stored in memory for networks of association.
LTM is organized in clusters of information that are related in meaning.
- The network is comprised of interconnected nodes.
- A node may contain thoughts, images, smells, emotions or any other information.
What is spreading activation theory?
Activating one node in a network triggers activation in closely related nodes.
How are both encoding and retrieval of information affected by schemas?
When confronted with a novel event people match it against schemas stored in memory.
What is a schema?
Patterns of thought, or organized knowledge structures that render the environment relatively predictable.
How do schemas affect the way people remember.
- By influencing the way information is encoded.
2. By shaping the way information is reconstructed.
What are the seven sins of memory described by Daniel Schacter?
- Transience: memories fade with time
- Absent-mindedness
- Misattribution: source amnesia
- Suggestibility: thinking we remember
- Bias: distortions in recall
- Persistence: recurring memories
- Forgetting: inability to remember.
How is memory subject to errors and bias’?
Memory can be primed
Memory is altered by emotional factors.
What is Flashbulb memory?
Vivid memories of exciting or highly consequential events.
Why are Flashbulb memories unreliable?
They often provide a snapshot or clarity that can be inaccurate or even entirely wrong.
What are three theory’s of forgetting?
- Decay theory
- Interference theory - conflict between new and old.
- Motivated forgetting.
Why is it difficult to address the issue of false memories of childhood trauma?
It is almost impossible to distinguish between false and recovered memories.
What is anterograde amnesia? And what causes it?
Involves the inability to retain new memories, usually caused by damage to the temporal lobe particularly the hippocampus and subcortical region.
What is retrograde amnesia? And what causes it?
Involves loosing memories from before the time that the persons brain was damaged.
Tumors, strokes, ECT.
