memory Flashcards
encoding
the process of information entering your memory
sensory memory (1st stage)
High capacity
Rapidly fades
working memory (2nd stage)
Limited capacity (~7 items, AKA 7 +/-2)
Chunking (e.g., RLJS, PASG, TIXV, PEYA)
Rehearsal (e.g., phonological loop)
how is the working memory stage like a mental workspace?
Mental arithmetic
Mental time travel → thinking about the future or past
General conversation
Mental rotation
active memory (rehearsal loop) –> within working memory
Maintenance rehearsal
Keeping the information in mind, or within its capacity via repetition until no longer needed
^ or until you get distracted
Elaborative rehearsal
Creating deeper associations, or more chunks, based on what’s in mind
Adding information in association with the current information
self-reference effect
thinking about how that word/information relates to yourself
- helps to develop a stronger level of processing
difference between STM state and LTM state
STM: active
LTM: passive storage
consolidation
aka encoding
Information entering LTM
physical + chemical process
Can enhance it by thinking about them deeper
LTM characteristics
Potentially infinite capacity
Durable, yet pliable and fallible
Can change existing memories because memory is a constructive process
procedural memory (type of LTM)
“Muscle memory”
Remembering how to perform physical actions
How to ride a bike
How to read + write
Semantic memory (type of LTM)
Information without context (just raw facts, you know the sky is blue, but you don’t remember learning it)
Semantic web, interconnected information
Episodic memory (type of LTM)
Information with context
Memories for events
Can be “replayed” (remember what you had for breakfast + what you did)
Can be manipulated (if manipulated too much, they can become false memories)
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
failure in retrieval
Serial Position Effect
- beginning info is stored in LTM
- middle info may not make it (still too busy storing beginning info in LTM)
- end info stored in STM
Primacy effect
Bump in memory for the first info (earliest)
Recency effect
Bump in memory for the most recent info (the latest)
Explicit Memory (declarative memory)
Consciously accessible, can be communicated via language
Semantic & episodic
Retrieval can break down (e.g., tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon)
Implicit Memory
Not consciously accessible
Habits
Skills
remain intact
memory cues
Stimuli that help you remember sensory stimuli (visual, auditory, etc) can be internal (remind yourself)
a good cue is…
semantically related to target
State-dependant retrieval
The more similar the context of retrieval is to the context of encoding the easier retrieval will be
The more similar your environment is to the environment you’ve learned it in, the easier it will be to remember
where can memory instructions occur in the memory stage
between the storing and retrieval stage
Elizabeth Loftus
created the experiment where she manipulated language/questions to distort memory
illustrates that language can be used to prime concepts related to events
Schema:
A web of related memory information
ex: nurses are related to the word hospital, not tree
what happens when an experience doesn’t fit a schema?
if it’s not YOUR experience, it probably won’t be encoded in LTM
Mnemonics
Devices for improving memory
External mnemonics
ex: something you’ve written down (like a grocery list)
Internal mnemonics
Systems of learning beyond just route rehearsals
Method of Loci (mnemonics imagery)
Mind Palace
uses visualizations with the use of spatial memory, familiar information about one’s environment, to quickly and efficiently recall information.
Pegword system
system of rhyming to help remember
Keyword system
Substitute word for a similar sounding word
create mental image for sub word
why doe imagery help memory?
Chunking a visual scene
Rich, distinctive memory trace
Acrostics (verbal mnemonic)
Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge
EDGF for music notes
verbal mnemonics
Initialism
acrostics
use of verse
acronyms
Savant syndrome
Extraordinary memory capacity with deficiencies in other cognitive faculties (reduced social or general intelligence)
Kim Peek
has Savant syndrome
Verbatim recall for a page of information glanced at for 8-10 seconds
but almost no social intelligence
Amnesia
loss of episodic memory
- Retention of working memory
- Retention of implicit memory
Can perform actions or behaviour, and be primed or cued, but might not know why or be able to explain
Anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memories
“Trapped” in stream of consciousness
Severe trauma to temporal lobes, into hippocampus
ex: Clive Wearing
Retrograde amnesia
Profound loss of memories prior to brain trauma
Can form new memories, but you may not know who you are
Case Study: Linda
Confabulation
Creates fictitious narratives to fill gaps in memory
ex: Clive Wearing
flashbulb memories
“Now print” mechanism
Memories are so powerful, that they bypass the usual mechanisms of encoding
Goes right into LTM
not semantic, very episodic
not more accurate than normal memories though
why is forgetting important?
you need to forget some things to learn the right things
repression
Using executive control (e.g., working memory) to remove unwanted information from awareness when it should arise
more as an active, ongoing process
still difficult to verify
hippocampus
responsible for memory (past + future)
The hippocampus is the hub of this circuit, putting together information from other parts of the brain to reconstruct past memories
patient HM
Hippocampus removed at age 27 for intractable epilepsy
Nearly complete loss of episodic memory
Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF)
Val-met = may have superior memory
Korsakoff Syndrome
Neurological disorder caused by thiamine deficiency and exacerbated by excessive and prolonged alcohol consumption
