Memory Flashcards
What are the three stages of memory?
1) Encoding: Learning new info
2) Storage: Retaining a memory
3) Retrieval: Activating a memory
(Also memory consolidation)
What is the multi-store model: Memory as a system?
Sensory inpout -> Sensory memory -> STM -> LTM
What are the three parts of Sensory memory?
- Ionic
- Echoic
- Haptic
What are the parts of Short term memory?
Attentional control (not important)
Working memory (important)
What are the parts of long term memory
- Implicit
-Procedural
-Priming - Explicit
-Episodic
-Semantic
What is Sensory memory?
Automatic reflections of a sense:
Gustatory memory
Olfactory memory
Echoic memory
* Sound-byte held for ~ 3 seconds
Haptic memory
* Very brief memory of a touch
Iconic memory
* Millisecond visual memory
* A ‘persistence of vision’
What is a Positive afterimage?
- A visual memory that represents the perceived image in the same colors
- Helpful for seeing things smoothly
- E.g., see 75 frames/second, movies are 24 frames/second, but view movies
as a smooth event due to afterimage filling in holes
What is a Negative afterimage?
- A visual memory is the (color) inverse of the perceived image
- Slightly longer than positive afterimage (few seconds)
How long does [sensory] memory last?
Lasts longer with grouped together letters shown and not all letters.
What is Short term memory?
- Attended information moves from sensory to short term memory
- The prefrontal cortex
- Limited time capacity: ~ 20 to 30 seconds
- Limited capacity: “magical number seven plus or minus two”
Explain the two Serial position effects:
Primacy and recency effect
Primacy: First things in a list
recency effect: Last things in a list
What is the Working memory?
Retention and manipulation of information not in our environment in conscious
awareness
* Guides behaviour
* Essential for many cognitive
functions
What is the The phonological loop?
Phonological store: Passive store for verbal information
* “The inner ear”
What is the Articulatory control loop?
Active rehearsal of verbal information
* “The inner voice”
* Used to convert written material into sounds (reading)
* A specialized role in language
Explain the two parts of the The visuospatial sketchpad:
The visual cache
The inner Scribe
The visual cache
* Information about visual
features
The inner scribe
* Information about spatial
location, movement and
sequences
The two forms of evidence for different brain regions doing the visual cache and the inner scribe:
Neuroimaging evidence
Double dissociation
Neuroimaging evidence:
Diff parts of the brain are active
Double dissociation:
Ppl with lesions in one of the areas can still do the other
What is the The episodic buffer?
Integrates information from short- and long-term memory
What did the Ebbinghaus guy do? (weird)
Learned nonsense syllables, tested memory at various intervals, and examined what was retained (forgotten)
in order to eliminate the effects of prior familiarity.
What is the forgetting curve?
Memory loss is largest early on and slows down
What is the The spacing effect?
Repeated information is more valuable
What is the The testing effect?
The testing effect (also known as retrieval practice, active recall, practice testing, or test-enhanced learning) suggests long-term memory is increased when part of the learning period is devoted to retrieving information from memory.
What are the two levels of processing theory?
- Shallow: Focus on sensory information
- Deep: integrate higher-level knowledge (things we know) with learned information)
What is the Decay Theory (What causes forgetting)?
Memories are lost over time due to disuse
* Like a muscle you don’t use, a memory gets weaker
What is the Interference theory? (What causes forgetting)?
Interference is responsible for much of
forgetting
* Encoded memories are labile and need to be consolidated into
stable long-term memories
* During pre-consolidation period, memories are susceptible to
disruption and effects of interfering information
What is Proactive interference?
Prior information interferes with encoding a new memory
* E.g., Trouble learning a new phone number because your old number keeps popping up in your memory
What is Retroactive interference?
Newly learned information overwrites or interferes with a prior
encoded memory
* E.g., Trouble remembering an older password after you formed a
new password
What are Similarity effects?
The more alike something is to what is already learned, the more it will mingle and
interfere with memory
What is the Self-reference effect (link to identity)?
- Do these adjectives describe you? Happy, Talkative
- Are these common words? Happy, Talkative
* The first condition led to better memory (Leshikar et al., 2015)
What is the Generation effect (active rehearsal)?
- Read these pairs: king – crown; horse - saddle
- Generate the word: K___g – crown; H___e-saddle
* The second led to better memory (Norman et al., 1978)
What is the The encoding specificity hypothesis?
- Memory retrieval is better when there is overlap with encoding context
- Context can act as a retrieval cue
- Context can be:
- Internal state (e.g., mood)
- External environment (e.g., room)
What is State-dependent learning?
State-dependent memory or state- dependent learning is the phenomenon where people remember more information if their physical or mental state is the same at time of encoding and time of recall.
What is Episodic memory?
specific events and episodes
* Retrieve encoding context (what, where and when)
* “Dancing at my high school prom”
What is Semantic memory?
facts and general information
* No retrieval of context of learning
* “Proms occur at the end of high school”
Does Episodic memory depend on the
hippocampus?
Yes
What is Semantic dementia?
a progressive cognitive and language deficit, primarily involving comprehension of words and related semantic processing.
Relatively spared at episodic memory
tasks
* Impaired at word naming and picture
matching tasks
What is Anoetic Consciousness?
Implicit Memory
No awareness or personal
engagement
What is Noetic Consciousness?
Semantic Memory
Awareness but no personal
engagement
What is Autonoetic Consciousness?
Episodic Memory
Awareness AND personal
engagement
Mental time travel
The reappearance hypothesis
An episodic memory trace is recalled the same way at each retrieval
- It is reproduced, not reconstructed
- Based on clinical observations that recurrent memories are unchanged from the original event in cases like PTSD
- Does this happen for highly emotional memories?
What is a Flashbulb memories?
a vivid memory about an emotionally significant event, usually a historic or other notable event
Not immune to forgetting
What is Memory consolidation?
Experiences are encoded and then consolidated into a long-term
memory trace
- The formation of stable cortical representations of memories
What is Memory re-consolidation?
When a trace becomes activated, it becomes de-stable
* Cortical connections can be strengthened and modified during this time,
which alters how the memory trace is reconsolidated
* Retrieval changes a memory trace
Does Semantic memory affect episodic memory?
Yes!
Semantic knowledge affects retrieving detailed memories
Explain how Schemas distort memories? (War of Ghosts)
Participants remembered a simplified version of the story and it became more conventional with repeated retrievals
- Omissions and alterations to match Western schema
Can Schemas can lead to false memories?
Yes
What is False memories?
- A familiar feeling can lead to incorrect associations
- Details can be added to memories during retrieval
What is the misattribution effect?
- Retrieving familiar information from the wrong source (place)
- A failure in source monitoring (not remembering the where or
when accurately)
What is the misinformation effect?
Participants viewed a simulated car crash and after, asked:
* “how fast were the cars going when they
CONTACTED each other?”
* “how fast were the cars going when they
SMASHED into each other?”
Implanting memories experiment?
Participants recalled childhood experiences recounted by their parents over three experimental sessions
* A false memory was added to the list of experiences by the
experimenter An overnight stay in a hospital
* 20% of people had a false memory of this event by the end of
the third session
