Memory Flashcards
What is memory
Any change in behaviour resulting from experience
What are the 3 basic memory processes
Encoding - info coded into memory
Storage - retain info over time
Retrieval - get info back
How many bits of info can we remember in STM
7 plus or minus 2 bits
What is short term memory
Memory for information currently “in mind”
Working memory
What is long term memory
Stored info that need not be presently accessed or even consciously accessible
Unlimited capacity
What’s explicit memory
Episodic, semantic
What’s implicit memory
Procedural, habit
What’s the serial position effect
Tendency to retrieve info from beginning and end
What’s the spacing effect
Long term retention is enhanced when study sessions are spaced rather than crammed
What’s retroactive interference
New memories interfere with older memories
What’s proactive interference
Older memories interfere with new memories
What’s the primacy effect
Recall the beginning of a list
What’s the recency effect
Recall the end of a list
How is LTM held in the brain
Info held in the hippocampus for weeks or months
Then transferred to area of cerebral cortex
What’s the multiple trace model
That memories are simultaneously encoded in the hippocampus as well as other areas of the brain
Via optogenics and engram cells in mice
What are the 3 parts to retrieval
Recall
Cued recall
Recognition
What’s the encoding specificity principle
The extent to which encoding / retrieval overlap
Why do you forget
Flashbulb memories
Incomplete coding
LTM retrieval problems - interference from other memories
What is episodic memory
Events you have experienced
What is semantic memory
General knowledge
Facts
What is retrograde
Memory loss for past info
Temporally graded
What is anterograde
Inability to store new information
What are the memory systems like in amnesia
STM- spared
Implicit memory- spared
Episodic memory- impaired
Semantic- typically impaired
