Memory Flashcards
We remember things if…
-focused attention on info
-emotional info
-interest in info
-connect to prev experience
-rehearsed info
Ex) phone #s, studying
Sensory memory
- info from senses
- only held for brief period
- happens automatically
- iconic and echoic
Iconic
Visual
Going up stairs you look straight ahead
Echoic
Auditory
Hold first part of sentence until the end in order to understand
Sperling’s research
Iconic memory
If each row of numbers was associated with a tone people could remember it
Working memory
Info taken from long term memory
Holds info for short period of time but we are able to use this info in order to solve problems
Conscious of information
Millers magic 7- chunking to remember sequence of numbers
Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating info over and over
Helps retain info for longer time period … Repeating over in head
Ex) trying to remember phone #
Long Term Memory (LTM)
Hold info for hours to years
-hours bc after you take test you forget info
Not aware of info in LTM
Stores info about facts, events, learned info
LTM: elaborative rehearsal
Connects new info with previous experience/mem
Encodes info for LTM
Trigger 1 memory -> may trigger another memory
Types of LTM
Procedural memory: "mental directions" Ex) driving, making toast Declarative memory: facts and events -semantic -episodic
Semantic memory
Meaning of words and facts about the world
Don’t remember when, where, how they learned this info
Left frontal lobe
*dont always know event surrounding info
Ex) you know what a boat is but you don’t remember when you learned that
Episodic memory
Memories of events associated with time, place, circumstance
Some info entered into both episodic and semantic at the same time
-episodic is lost later
Right frontal lobe
Autobiographical memory: memories about your life
*can picture event
Flashbulb memory
Emotionally charged memories
Tend to be stored better than neutral info
Can be positive or negative event
Vivid and accurate memory of a dramatic event
Specific info can be accurate but not always
Implicit memory
Unaware of memories, but they predispose us to behave in a certain manner
Can’t be recalled
Patient H.M.
Types of Implicit
- classical conditioning responses
- habits
- priming: don’t remember completing activity the first time but the next time you do better
Explicit memory
Voluntarily recalled/retrieve info
Episodic and semantic
Stored after cognitive learning
Recall
Essay test
Read question, search memory, pull out of memory, write it down
Recognition
Multiple choice test
Read question, read answers, search memory to see if you recognize for confirmation
Not going as in-depth into memory, just skimming surface
More error (false memory)
Cues
Reminders
Search terms
Ex) sticky notes
Ex) states: 50 states song, viewing map of country
Memory
Encoding- organize and transform info to be stored
Storage- retain info
Retrieval- retrieve info
Amnesia
Loss of memory over a time span
Results from brain damage
Usually effects episodic
Retrograde vs. Anterograde
Retrograde
More likely to lose episodic, losing BIG chunk of our past, unable to create new information, Alzheimer’s, infantile amnesia: no memories before 2nd and 3rd bday because we didn’t use language
Anterograde
Unable to create new memories
“50 first dates”
Patient H.M.
Suffered from epileptic seizures
Had parts of both temporal lobes removed, along with the hippocampi
Some spatial (automatic actions) and implicit memory
Anterograde
He couldn’t retrieve memories
Forgetting
Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting curve (learn most in am then forget it all)
Encoding failure- code isn’t specific enough or accurate
Interference
-retroactive: new disrupts retrieval of old info
-proactive: old disrupts retrieval of new info
-retrieval cues to similar
-TOT (tip of tonque)
Misattribution and Suggestibility
*Reasons we create false memories
Mis: attributed to wrong source
Sug: suggestions influence memory
False: Misattribution & suggestibility can lead to the creation of false memories
False Memories
- Memories of events that never actually occurred
- Loftus: Got people to create these events even tho it never happened, hugging bugs bunny at disney world
- Schater: “sweet experiment” similar to our bread experiment
- Imagining vs. actual event
Imagining vs. Actual
- People w/ vivid mental images have more trouble distinguishing actual events they experienced vs. things they have read
- Fewer false memories from visual compared to auditory
- Paying attention to details, may help to distinguish false from actual memories Ex) dreams
Difficulty with False Memories
Crimes: convince someone a crime was committed against them
-sexual abuse allegations
-satanic rituals
Eyewitnesses
-inaccurate reports
*Keep questioning children so they eventually change their answer until they get praised
Repressed Memories
Repress->Trigger->Recovered Memory -Real memories pushed from consciousness b/c they are emotionally threatening (person can't deal with memory) -Sexual abuse victims -Fewer retrieval cues less likely memory will be recovered
Improving Memory
Mnemonic Devices -method of loci: picture item in specific location -Linking items: connect objects within location -Acronyms -Rhyming words -Hierarchal organizational Improving retrieval -same environment -focus on task -external cues
