Memory Flashcards
What are the stages of memory?
-Sensation
-Perception (encoding into working memory)
-Working memory/Short-Term memory (desk)
-Long-Term memory (filing cabinet)
Two subtypes of long-term memory and define
-Procedural memory: how to do things. Can further be divided into skills and classical conditioning
-Declarative memories: includes semantic memory (facts) and episodic memory (things that happen in our lives, personal to us)
Encoding and what affects encoding
The process by which our perceptions of the stimuli from the environment are moved into our memory system so that we can process and store it further
-Nature of the encoding process determines what we can remember. Memory is influenced by quantity and quality
-Attention impacts the ability we encode information. More attention we pay, more deeply we process the information.
Craig and Tulving
3 conditions
1. words are capitalized (does not require attention)
2. word rhymes with a focal word (a little deeper processing
3. whether or not word could fit in a sentence given (semantic coding; deep processing)
Found people remembered things better in third condition opposed to second condition.
-Reflects the way that our processing strategy influences our memory
Valentine and Bruce
asked participants to respond whether or not recognized faces as familiar or unfamiliar.
-unfamiliar: did not really matter if faces were typical or distinctive
-familiar: people are much faster at recognizing distinctive than a typical face
may be because we spend more time paying attention to what distinctive faces are.
Distinctiveness can influence attention
Processing Strategies
-Associations
-Organization
-Rehearsal
Associations
Allows more pathways for retrieval
-Elaboration: thinking more deeply; self-referencing, visual imagery
-Organization: chunking, mnemonics (linking to well-known route).
-Rehearsal: repeating info, massed and distributed learning, testing
-massed/distributed learning: study over time
-Testing: example questions
What affects encoding (summed)
-Availability of the information
-Quality or quantity
-Attention
-Method of processing
Retrieval
Processes involved in accessing our memory
-memory is a reconstruction, it always changes every time a memory is retrieved depending on mood and our environment
In relation to forensics, why is the pattern of activation important?
Witnesses are often asked to recount what happened to them at a variety of different points in time. Every time they try to remember, what they say is often slightly different.
Levelling
We do not have cognitive capacity to take large amounts of information in at one time, story is made shorter
Sharpening
Certain details were retained very sharply
Shifting
Certain details are aligned and shifted to align with existing schemas
Schemas
Mental frameworks for the nature of events and situations we use to help us function successfully in a variety of situations.
-script.
-Can help us to remember incorrect information
Familiarity
Poor quality has little impact on recognition if there is already familiarity with someone, but if not, less likely to recognize them
Vicky, Bruce et al
CCTV footage of people in the psychology building. Showed footage to senior undergrad students (around profs a lot but not all other students). Showed videos and police lineup
-contained target present
-contained target absent: bad judgement when unfamiliar (60%).
If familiar, really good under poor viewing conditions.
Context
anything and everything present at time you encoded event or person. includes mood, physical state, patterns around you.
Godden and Badley
Tested on wordlists sitting on land or under water.
-Dry/Dry
-Dry/Wet
-Wet/Wet
-Wet/Dry
Retrieval Methods
a. Free recall: more accurate, more information
b. cued recall: May generate more information
c. recognition: leads to most information
Ebbinghaus Forgetting curve
Savings: how much information got correct/remembered
most of forgetting information happens very quickly typically within 24 hours, and almost no accurate recollection after a month.
When information is more emotionally charged or personally relevant, curve is less steep.
Types of forgetting
Interference: competition of other information from other sources. two types, retroactive: new information impairs retention of previously learnt information and proactive: previously learnt information impairs retention of new information
Decay: not everything is useful to retain, a dedicated biological forgetting mechanism that occurs as we sleep
Motivated forgetting: Unconscious but purposeful suppressions of memories (avoid thinking of information)
Retrieval failure: inability to retrieve information that is encoded. Blocking(cues elicit something related that blocks proper retrieval)
Encoding specificity
Retrieval cues are consistent with and distinctive to original encoding circumstance to facilitate accurate remembering
-match between cue and desired memory
-cue is distinctive
Retrieval induced inhibition
Remembering one thing that causes you to forget about another
Study - Exemplar Pairs
-Study-related pairs: flower and tulip. Practice retrieving pairs but only half of the pairs that they study.
A cued recall of half of the critical items after a break.
-Given free recall of flowers. may come up with practice exemplars (RP+) or unpracticed exemplars from the category they practiced (RP-) or unpracticed exemplars from the unpracticed category (NRP) to see how many words can generate.
studying something improves memory and reduces unstudied
Crime Study
-Participants study a video and fill in blank about half of the events in the video, intervening task followed by free recall 24 hours later.
1. Actions: RP+ 77%, NRP 86%, RP- 54%
2.Characteristics: RP+ 86%, NRP: 36%, RP-: 22%
