Memory: Encoding and Storage

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

the retention of information or experiences over time; Remembering something, even if not in view; Something that can last a lifetime (like a childhood story); Something that you do not realize is even there until something related to it was seen or heard

Question 2

Three Key Memory Processes

Answer 2

Encoding, Storage and Retrieval

Question 3

Encoding

Answer 3

“writing it down”; the process of taking information in through your senses and translating it into a form that your brain can “write down” and store for later use; 1st step in memory; (also in learning and plasticity); Sometimes it happens automatically, while sometimes it takes effort

Question 4

Encoding processes

Answer 4

Selective Attention, Levels of Processing, Elaboration, and mental imagery

Question 5

Selective Attention

Answer 5

focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others; constantly working; stimuli compete for our attention

Trying to choose what to focus on in that moment; “paying attention” since brain focused on that stimuli

Question 6

Characteristics of Selective Attention

Answer 6

We can only FULLY attend to ONE THING AT A TIME; Only little/little habitual things can be multitasked

Items compete for our attention(cocktail party effect); Only most vivid, loud, high intensity, highly meaningful will win; surprising things over dull/mundane things

Inattention leads to encoding failure; Memory more like photographs that are not great at all

Question 7

Levels of Processing

Answer 7

a continuum of memory processing ranging from shallow processing to deep processing; deep processing leads to better memory

Question 8

Shallow processing

Answer 8

“physical features are analyzed”

Example: remembering its in your notes, but cannot recall for test

Question 9

Intermediate Processing

Answer 9

“recognition and labeling”

Question 10

Deep Processing

Answer 10

“meaningful characteristics”

Question 11

Elaboration

Answer 11

the “web” of connections, associations and relevant meanings given to a stimulus

Example: word connections like “maison” in French (mason relation to house in English language)

Question 12

Mental Imagery

Answer 12

creating a mental “story” or scene around stimuli that we would like to remember

Example: List of words made into a fun story to remember them(Rabbit, sky, nut mother, bed, bake, fresh, miracle, dance)

Question 13

Dual-code Hypothesis

Answer 13

Memory stored in two ways: verbal code and picture code; Mental images are remembered better because it contains both picture and verbal codes; Helps with classes like chemistry and physics

Question 14

Storage

Answer 14

“filing it away”; how is information retained over time and represented in memory; How can we store it to use again? Many theories; 2nd step in memory

Question 15

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model of Memory(BOX MODEL)

Answer 15

proposes there are three stages memory has to go through to become long term memory; sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Question 16

sensory memory

Answer 16

first step of memory storage process that last not even a full second; holds information in your mind for a very brief period of time

Example: brain looking over chart of letters and numbers very brief and trying to recall them after taken away(less than a second)

Question 17

Iconic sensory memory

Answer 17

visual memory that lasts about a quarter of a second

Question 18

Echoic sensory memory

Answer 18

auditory memory that lasts up to several seconds

Example: question asked while watching tv when asked what they want for dinner; once attention was pulled away could review question and answer without them asking again

Question 19

Short-term memory

Answer 19

limited capacity memory system which stores information for approximately 30 seconds without effort, also called working memory

Saying something over and over again to remember in short term memory, Like phone number or grocery list; We retain 7 +/- 2 items of information

Memory from the last 30 seconds-2 minutes; VERY BRIEF; only held there if continuously keep thinking about it; Old stuff constantly be replaced by new stuff

Question 20

Short-term memory effects on items in short term memory

Answer 20

Chunking, Rehearsal and distractors

Question 21

Effects of Chunking

Answer 21

way to group items together to hold more numbers/letters in short term memory longer

Question 22

Effects of Rehearsal

Answer 22

repetitive thinking/thought to hold in memory

Question 23

Effects of Distractors

Answer 23

Interference/distraction shifts attention away to lose items in short term memory

Question 24

Long-term memory

Answer 24

last step in the memory storage process, in which we can store unlimited amounts of information for a long time; IMPORTANT; Believed to be permanent unless of a disease/development issue; Like filing cabinets; Sometimes things get lost, in long term memory but retrieval from long-term memory fails

Question 25

Two Types of Long-Term memory

Answer 25

Declarative/explicit memory and nondeclarative/implicit memory

Question 26

Declarative/explicit memory

Answer 26

conscious memories for people, places, events, facts, dates, feelings, and explanations; memory of who, what, where, when, and why; Aware that we have these certain memories, conscious memories; episodic and sematic memory

Question 27

Episodic

Answer 27

memory for events in your life; autobiographical memory

Question 28

Sematic

Answer 28

memory about the world; general common knowledge

Question 29

Do Sematic and Episodic memory affect the same thing or different things?

Answer 29

Different things

Question 30

Non-declarative/implicit memory

Answer 30

non-concious memories for skills, procedures, subliminal information, and classically conditioned responses; memory for the “how””; For memories we don’t necessarily know why they are there, but for how we do things

Examples: riding a bike, swimming

Question 31

How do we know there are two types of Long-term memory?

Answer 31

Case Studies of Henry M and Clive Wearing

Had part of brain dealing with memory- the hippocampus- damaged; Conversation with them would be forgotten after leaving them for a brief period of time; Has non-declarative memories that work(muscle memories) but not declarative long term memories(Clive had encephalitis, that affected brain; No longer forms memories for future, cannot remember the past; Has momentous sensations about feeling conscious that repeats for his life)

Henry had severe epilepsy; 1950s; Hippocampus removed to stop the severe seizures; Had long term memories still, but could not create more after the surgery

Question 32

Alternative way of explaining short term memory by Alan Baddeley

Answer 32

Three parts of working memory:

central executive(attention planning and organizing), phonological loop(sounds and speech patterns), and visuospatial working memory(mental images and spatial locations)