Memory Flashcards
What is memory?
The ability to store and retrieve information over time
What are the 3 key functions of memory?
- encoding
- storage
- retrieval
What is the encoding function of memory?
process of transforming what we perceive think, or feel into an enduring memory
What is the storage function of memory?
process of maintaining the information in memory over time
What is the retrieval function of memory?
process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored
What is semantic encoding?
process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory
What are the 3 types of judgement Craik & Tulving (1975) studied in their seminal experiment?
- semantic judgement- requires one to think about the meaning of the words
- rhyme judgements: require one to think about the sound of the words
- case judgement: require participants to think about appearance of words
What were Craik & Tulving’s findings?
- participants who made semantic judgements had much better memory for the words than did participants who thought about how the words looked or sounded
- long-term retention is greatly enhanced by semantic encoding
Which brain areas are activated during semantic encoding?
- during semantic encoding the lower left frontal lobe is active
- during visual imagery encoding, occipital lobe is active
- during organizational encoding, upper left front lobe is active
What is visual imagery encoding?
process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures
Why is visual encoding so effective?
- when you create visual imagery, you relate incoming info to knowledge already in memory
- when you use visual imagery you end up with 2 different mental placeholders for items > a visual one and a verbal one
What is a limitation of visual imagery?
requires a lot of cognitive effort to use successfully, which can limit its use for real world activities like studying for exams
What is organizational encoding?
process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items
What are mnemonics?
encoding strategies that improve subsequent retrieval
What is the advantage of survival encoding tasks?
- draws on elements of semantic, visual imagery and org encoding, which together produce high levels of subsequent memory
What is sensory memory?
type of storage that holds sensory info for a few seconds or less
Why do we have more than one kind of sensory memory?
Because we have more than one sense
What are the 2 types of sensory memory?
- iconic memory: fast decaying store of visual information (>1sec)
- echoic memory; fast decaying store of auditory information (<5sec)
What is short term memory?
type of storage that holds non-sensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute
what is rehearsal?
process of keeping info in short term memory by mentally repeating it
What does rehearsal play a role in?
Serial position effect: observation that the first few and last few items in a series are more likely to be recalled than the ones in the middle
What is the enhanced recall of the first few items in a list?
Primacy effect: occurs because these items get more rehearsal
What is the recency effect?
- enhanced recall of the last few items
- results from rehearsing items that are still in short-term storage
What are the limitations of short term memory?
- how long it can hold info and how much info
- can hold only seven meaningful items at once
What is chunking?
- combining small pieces of information into large clusters that are more easily held in short-term memory
What is working memory?
active maintenance of information in short term storage
What are the 2 subsets of the working memory?
- visuo-spatial sketchpad
- phonological loop
- also involves an episodic buffer: integrates visual and verbal info from subsystems into multidimensional code
- involves central executive that coordinates the subsystems and episodic buffer
What is long term storage?
type of storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks or years
- no known capacity limits
Where is long term memory located in the brain?
Hippocampus
What is anterograde amnesia?
inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into long-term store
What is retrograde amnesia?
inability to retrieve info that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of an injury or surgery
What is the concept of consolidation?
- process whereby memories become stable in the brain
- closely related to the idea that the hippocampus becomes less important over time for maintaining memories
- once consolidation has occurred memories are less vulnerable to disruption
How are memories consolidated?
- recalling a memory
- thinking about it
- talking about it
- sleep
What is reconsolidation?
memories can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, thus requiring them to be consolidated again
What is long term potential (Bliss & Lomo)?
a process whereby repeated communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier
What are some characteristics of long term potentiation?
- occurs in several pathways within the hippocampus
- can be induced rapidly
- can last for a long time
What are retrieval clues?
external information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind
encoding specificity principle
- retrieval clue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded
- external context often make for powerful retrieval cues
What is state dependent retrieval?
process whereby information tends to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval
Why does state dependent retrieval work?
because a persons psychological state at the time of encoding is associated with the information that is encoded
What is transfer appropriate processing?
idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match
What is cognitive Interview?
- developed to enhance the memory of eyewitnesses for everyday experiences
- context reinstatement: people encouraged to try to reconstruct the physical setting of an event and their psychological state during event
What do Cognitive Interviews do?
increases the number of accurate details people remember about an event including stressful real-world events
What is retrieval induced forgetting ?
- process whereby retrieving an item from long term memory impairs subsequent recall of related items
How can retrieval induced forgetting affect memory in everyday life?
- conversation: When a speaker selectively talks about some aspects of memories shared with a listener and doesn’t mention related information, the listener later has a harder time remembering the omitted events, as does the speaker
- eyewitness memory: When witnesses to a crime are questioned about some details of the scene, their ability to later recall related details that they were not asked about is impaired, compared with that of witnesses who initially were not questioned at all
What regions of the brain are involved in trying to recall and successfully recalling something?
- trying: left frontal lobe
- successful: hippocampus
What are the 2 types of long-term memories?
- explicit memory
- implicit memory
What is explicit memory?
when people consciously/intentionally retrieve past experiences
What is implicit memory?
past experiences influence later behaviour and performance, even without an effort to remember them/awareness of the recollection
What is procedural memory?
- type of implicit memory
- gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice/knowing how to do things
What is priming?
an enhanced ability to think of a stimulus such as word/object as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus during an earlier study task
Which regions of the brain are active during Primed and Unprimed stimuli?
- frontal and occipital/temporal lobe active during Unprimed
- reduced activity in those regions during Primed
What are the 2 different types of priming?
- perceptual: reflects implicit memory for sensory features of an item
- conceptual: reflects implicit memory for meaning of a word/how you’d use an object
What brain regions are active during perceptual and conceptual priming?
- Perceptual: towards back of the brain, right hemisphere
- Conceptual: towards front of the brain, left hemisphere
What are semantic memories?
network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world
What is episodic memory?
- collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place
- only form of memory that allows us to project ourselves in future/past
What is imagining the future by recombining elements of past experiences?
divergent creative thinking
What are the 7 memory sins?
- Transience
- Absentmindedness
- Blocking
- Memory Misattribution
- Suggestibility
- Bias
- Persistence
What is transience?
- forgetting what occurs with the passage of time
- occurs during storage phase of memory after encoding before retrieval
Who came up with the Curve of Forgetting?
Hermann Ebbinghaus
- more time since we learned, the slower the rate of forgetting
- Speed of relearning is one measure of memory retention
What is retroactive interference?
situations in which later learning impairs memory for information acquired earlier
What is proactive interference?
situations in which earlier learning impairs memory for information acquired later
What is one of the most common types of forgetting over tme?
childhood amnesia/infantile amnesia
What is absentmindedness?
a lapse in attention that results in memory failure
What is the cause of absentmindedness?
- lack of attention: attention plays key role in encoding information into long-term memory
- Failures of prospective memory
What are the consequences of divided attention?
- less activity in lower left frontal lobe
- less hippocampal involvement in encoding
What is prospective memory?
remembering to do things in the future
What is intention offloading?
increasing reliance on external devices to remind us to carry out future tasks
What is Blocking?
-
failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it
eg. tip of the tongue feeling - info has been encoded and stored and a cue is available that would ordinarily trigger recall of it
- info has not faded from memory
What does Blocking occur most with?
Names of people and places
–> links to concepts and knowledge are weaker than for common names
What is memory misattribution?
assigning a recollection/idea to the wrong source
What do memory misattributions often cause?
eyewitness misidentifications
What is a source memory?
recall of when where and how information was acquired
Who is especially prone to memory misattribution errors?
People with damage to frontal lobes
What is false recognition?
feeling of familiarity about something that hasn’t been encountered before
What is suggestibility?
the tendency to incorporate misleading info from external sources into personal recollections
What is Bias?
distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs and feelings on recollection of previous experiences
What is consistency bias?
the bias to reconstruct the past to fit the present
What is egocentric bias?
tendency to exaggerate the change between present and past in order to make ourselves look good in retrospect
What is persistence?
intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget
- emotional experiences are easier to remember
What are flashbulb memories?
- detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events
- studies show they are not always entirely accurate
- generally better remembered than mundane news events
What is a key player in the brain’s response to emotional events?
- the amygdala
-influences hormonal systems that activate when we experience an arousing event - hormones mobilize body and enhance memory for experience
- damage to amygdala doesn’t cause general memory deficit > but struggle to remember emotional events better than mundane ones
What is group suggestibility?
- mandela effect: Misleading memories consistent across large groups‘Cultural suggestibility’
