Memory Flashcards
Sensory memory- ionic
Visual
Sensory memory- echoic
Auditory
Digit span
Capacity of short term memory (7 +/- 2 items)
Short term memory
- Limited capacity (digit span)
- Takes in from sensory and long-term memories
- Persists as long as it is rehearsed (rehearsal determines what stays
Chunking
- Breaking down long strings of information into smaller, more manageable chunks
- Increases effective capacity of short term memory
Long term memory
- Fed by short term memory
- Virtually unlimited in capacity and duration
- Getting into LTM takes effort
Encoding, storage, and retrieval
- All part of memory process
Encoding: process used to store information in memory
Storage: process used to maintain information in memory
Retrieval: process used to get information back out of memory
Recall vs. recognition tasks
Recall: you have to generate an answer
Recognition: you don’t need to generate an answer
Free recall
“Recall all the words you can from the list you just saw”
Serial recall
“Recall the names of all previous presidents in the order they were elected” (need to recall order as well as items)
Cued recall
Give participants some clue to trigger recall
Implicit vs. explicit memory tasks
Explicit: involves conscious recollection (participant knows they are trying to retrieve information from their memory)
Implicit
Bahrick’s rules of very long term memory (permastore)
- High school yearbooks contained all names and photos of students was used to assess memory
- ~400 ex-high school students took four memory tests (free name recall, photo and name recognition, and name and photo matching)
- most accurate in face and name recognition after 34 years and up to 48 years
Levels of processing theory (deep vs. shallow processing)
Deep: encoding information based on meaning or associations with other knowledge
Shallow: encoding based on sensory characteristics (appearance or sound)
Morris study
Two processing tasks: semantic vs. rhyme
Semantic: “the (train/apple) had a silver engine”- standard recognition test
Rhyming: “(eagle/chair) rhymes with legal”- rhyme recognition test
*Memory performance also depends on the match between encoding processes and type of test
Serial position effect
Tendency to remember the first and last names in a series better than those in the middle
Primary vs. recency effects
Primary: we tend to remember the first items in a series better
Recency effect: we tend to remember the last names in a series better
Working memory
The system(s) involved in the TEMPORARY storage of information for cognitive skills (reading, comprehension, learning)
- central executive: focuses attention on relevant items, plans sequence of tasks, supervises attention, plans/coordinates, monitors mental activity
- phonological loop: maintains auditory and verbal information for short time (language or music info)
- visuospatial sketchpad: dual-task paradigm, temporarily stores info on how things look and allows us to manipulate images in our mind
Brooks interference study
One group saw block diagram of letter, memorized it, asked to mentally travel letter and indicate if the corner was on the extreme top or bottom
Second group saw a sentence, memorized it, and were asked to classify each word as a noun verbally
- Participants were much better at the task when they could verbally indicate the type of corner than when they had to point
Mnemonist
Using patterns, ideas, or associations to assist in remembering something (All Cows Eat Grass)
Sensory synthesia
People have unusual, and usually involuntary associations between different sensory experiences
Different types of synesthesia depending on the combination of senses/representation
Days, numbers, and months of the year evoke different personalities
Letters or numbers are perceived as inherently colored
Penny example: failures of memory
We cannot remember what we fail to encode
- Use pennies all the time but have never encoded the exact format of one
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
more recent you learn something, the more retention/recall ability; less recent, less retention/recall ability
Savings Method (Relearning)
Way of measuring retention by measuring how much faster one relearns material that has been previously relearned and forgotten
Spacing Effect
Ebbinghaus
Studying the same material 1 hour each time for three evenings (distributed) is best
Organization
Organizing learning makes it easier to remember
Context and state dependent memory
Context: external, environmental factors (better recall when learning and testing contexts are the same)
State: internal, physiological factors, mood (recall is improved if internal physiological or emotional state is the same during testing and initial encoding)
Mood congruent memory
- Kind of state dependent memory
- The phenomenon where our memories are influenced by our current emotional state
Baddeley scuba diving memory study
- Importance of setting for retrieval
- Baddeley asked 18 deep-sea divers to memorize a list of 36 unrelated words of two or three syllables.
- One group did this on the beach and the other group underwater.
- Lists learned underwater were best recalled underwater, and v.v.
Encoding specificity
Our ability to remember a stimulus depends on the similarity between the way a stimulus is tested at encoding and the way it is processed when tested
Nelson study of “lost” memories
Study showed that when you forget something, it isn’t gone forever.
Proactive vs. retroactive interference
Proactive (old affects new): old memories interfere with the recall of new information (new bank account and want to use PIN but accidentally enter old one)
Retroactive (new affects old): new memories interfere with the recall of older information (learn new card game, mix up rules to old card game)
Explicit vs. implicit memory
Explicit: conscious recollection (declarative knowledge)
Implicit: unconscious recollection, includes procedural knowledge
Procedural vs. declarative memory
Procedural: knowing how to do something (ride a bike, ski)
Declarative: memory for facts or events
Anterograde vs. retrograde amnesia
Anterograde: inability to learn new explicit information after trauma (Ex: Memento)
Retrograde: inability to retrieve explicit information learned prior to trauma
Patient HM and Clive Wearing
- Patient HM had surgery to stop his seizures
- Surgery worked but he was left with permanent amnesia
- Could remember things from his childhood and before the surgery, but unable to form new memories
- Pointed to a structure that was necessary for normal memory: hippocampus
Mirror image reading study
Mirroring behavior is a subconscious way our brains establish rapport and build connections with others
Hippocampus and memory consolidation
- Part of the Limbic System
- Memories not stored permanently here
- Critical for initial encoding
- Once memories are consolidated, they are stored in cortex
- Meant for retrieval of recent memories
Amygdala
- Part of the Limbic System
- Processing emotions, particularly fear, anger, and aggression
- Adjacent to the hippocampus
Flashbulb memories
Exceptionally clear memories of emotionally significant events
Priming
Exposure to one stimulus influences how a person responds to a subsequent, related stimulus.
Ex: exposing someone to the word “yellow” will evoke a faster response to the word “banana” than unrelated words like “TV”
Memory construction
- Explicitly or implicitly, process of forming new memories. As we retrieve our memories, we tend to alter/modify them
- Bringing up old memories is called reconstruction
Misinformation effect (Loftus)
- Tendency for the information you learned after an event to interfere with your original memory of what happened
Implanting false memories
- Implanting plausible but false memories are more likely to be believed
- Repetition of the false information make it more believable
- Some individuals appear to be more susceptible
Childhood (infantile) amnesia
Inability of adults to recall events and experiences before the age of 3-4 years
