Memory Flashcards
“One’s natural retentiveness is unchangeable”- William James
Memory- The Basic Processes
Memory is defined as a process by which people encode, store and retrieve information.
1. encode: process by which information is initially recorded in a form usable to memory
2. storage: maintenance of material saved in the memory system.
3. retrieval: material in storage is located, brought into awareness and criticized.
If any process fails, then there is hinderance of memory.
Sleeping VS Waking Experiment
- by Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924)
- investigated the role of sleep in memory consolidation
- Better Recall After Sleep: Participants who slept after learning showed significantly better recall of the nonsense syllables than those who remained awake.
- Memory Consolidation: The study suggested that sleep helps consolidate memories, protecting them from interference and decay
Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve
- Nonsense syllables
- 50% information lost within an hour and about 70% lost within 24 hours
- After the initial rapid decline, the rate of forgetting slows, but memory continues to fade over time unless reinforced.
Multi-memory Model
-by Atkinson and Shiffrin
- includes three storage spaces for memory
- environment input is interpreted by our senses and is stored in our sensory memory (short term retention of sensory information immediately after input.
- If attention is not paid during this process then the sensory memory is forgotten
- If attention is paid then memory gets stored in STM storage
- through rehearsal, the memory is maintained in the STM
- if rehearsal not done then memory forgotten
- if rehearsal involves strong understanding and association, it moves into the LTM
- memories stored in LTM can be recalled, if recall failed it is due to some sort of an interference
Sensory Memory
- george sperling (conducted an experiment to test this)
- short term retention of sensory information
- sensory registers: iconic (visual), echoic (audio), haptic (tactile), olfactory (smell), gustatory (taste)
- Sensory memory is a brief precursor to short-term memory that allows you to process and recall the sensations you take in
Some Terms:
Eidetic Memory
Iconic Memory
Echoic Memory
Eidetic Memory: photographic memory that 5% children have and fades over time. Eidetic memory lasts only for a few minutes and is used to recall images accurately after a short period of exposure.
Iconic Memory: persistence of a visual impression that makes it briefly available to us for further processing even after stimulus is removed.
Echoic Memory: the process that stores information coming from the ears. auditory impressions that persist or continue even after the stimulus has disappeared.
Chunking
- Chunking refers to the process of taking individual pieces of information and grouping them into larger units.
- By grouping each data point into a larger whole, you can improve the amount of information you can remember.
- Probably the most common example of chunking occurs in phone numbers
Primacy, Recency and the Serial Positioning Curve
- (add person)
- items near the beginning or end of a list are remembered more accurately than the items in the middle
- items early in the list are remembered as they are moved to the LTM storage while those at the end of a list are still in the WM.
- primacy: memory of words at the beginning of a list stored in LTM
- recency: memory of words at the end of a list stored in the WM
Working Memory
- Alan Baddeley 1992
- Memory storage through three systems: Phonological Loop, Episodic Buffer and Visuospatial Sketchpad
- central executive: determines information
- phonological loop: temporary storage system for auditory information. phonological store: the ear, articulatory process: inner voice
- visuo-spatial sketchpad: temporary storage system for visual and spatial information. visual cache: data such as shape and color, inner scribe: records arrangement of objects
- episodic buffer: The episodic buffer acts as a “backup” store which communicates with both long-term memory and the components of working memory.
Long Term Memory
explicit: the conscious, intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences, and concept
episodic: memories of specific events
semantic: involving the recollection of ideas, concepts, and facts commonly regarded as general knowledge.
retrospective: the memory of people, words, and events encountered or experienced in the past
prospective: remembering to perform an action in the future
implicit: unable to trace back to an event, unconscious thoughts
CC, Priming and Procedural memory come under implicit
procedural: involved in the performance of different actions and skills. ex: ride a bike
Levels of Processing
- graik and lockhart (1972)
- structural (shallow): stays for limited time, relating to physical properties
- phonological (intermediate): relating to hearing or sound
- semantic (deep): encode meaning to words
Accuracy of Memory Retrieval Affected By
- Flashbulb Memories
- Personal Trauma
- Eye Witness Testimony
- Repressed Emotions
recall vs recognise
recognise-
1. stimulus interaction (familiar)
2. cue memory
ex: match the following
recall:
1. search through memory
2. retrieval of potential information
3. decision whether information is accurate or not
(if incorrect, restart steps)
ex: fill in the blanks
/// recall has more steps hence is more difficult
Encoding Specificity Principle
recall is better if the retrieval context is like the encoding context.
