Memory pt.2 Flashcards
What is deep processing?
when connections are built between prior knowledge (info that is already stored) and newly learned info
-produces retrieval cues and paths
What are retrieval cues?
info that helps us locate a stored memory
- cues that are present during encoding serve as the best cues for retrieval
What is context vs state-dependent memory?
- context-dependent: recall of specific information is better when the context at encoding and retrieval are the same
- Memories are better recalled based on the emotional state we were in when the memory was formed
What is mood congruent memory?
tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current mood
- part of state-dependent memory
What are the different ways to test memory?
- direct tests
- recall = report what you remember
- recognition = identify an item as “new” or “old”/ by indicating several options they remember - indirect tests
- relearning = measuring how long it takes to relearn a skill
- priming = activation (unconscious) of particular associations in memory
- associations unconsciously activate related associations
What is the serial position effect?
tendency to recall the last and first items in a list
- last = recency effect
- first = primacy effect
What are the two main reasons that result in forgetting and memory errors?
- failure to retrieve = info can;t be retrieved from long term memory
- paralleled to retrograde amnesia - failure to encode = info was never stored in LTM
- paralleled to anterograde amnesia
What is retrograde vs anterograde amnesia?
- retrograde = inability to recall old memories that were formed before damage to the brain
- anterograde amnesia = inability to make new memories after damage to the hippocampus/ other areas
Why is memory a reconstructive process?
only remember the gist of what we experienced rather than the specific details
- gist reactivates nodes and connections from the original memory albeit the reconstruction are not guaranteed to be accurate
How do our memories become distorted?
- flashbulb memories = a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
- expectations = our beliefs about what typically happens to shape our memory of what actually does happen
- leading questions = gives rise to misinformation -> memory corrupted by misleading info
- repression = psychoanalytic theory states the basic defense mechanism banished from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
How can false memories be created?
- imagination effect = repeatedly imagining fake actions and events
- social demands to remember
- encouragement to construct memories when they have difficulty remembering
- encouragement to not think about whether the memories are true/false - implanting false childhood memories
- participants are told about true and false events
- repeatedly told the false memories = think it is true
How does false memories affect other aspects/ fields?
- therapy = repressed/recovered memories
- law = eyewitness testimony, false confessions
- education = falsely recalling wrong facts can stick
- autobiography = personal identity
What is the Reconstructive Nature of remembering?
remember events that never happened
- episodic memory is imperfect
- semantic memory fills in the blanks
