Memory Reliability Flashcards
What are context dependent cues?
The learner’s external environment when the memory was formed.
(e.g.: sounds, smells, temperature, sights and other external stimuli)
What are state dependent cues?
The learner’s internal environment (physiological and psychological state) when the memory was formed.
. (e.g.: mood, level of anxiety, if intoxicated/medicated/sober etc.)
What is rehearsal?
A technique used to help us encode material in our brains.
What is the serial position effect?
It’s where immediate free recall of items at the beginning or the end are easier to remember than items in the middle.
What is the primacy effect?
Superior recall for items at the start of a list
What is the recency effect?
Superior recall for items at the end of a list (only where there is immediate recall, leaving a gap between recall removes the recency effect)
What is the asymptote in the serial position effect?
Inferior recall for items in the middle of a list
How does reconstruction of memories influence a person’s memory of the event?
It can be influenced by new information, positioning them in the situation of recalling their latest construction of it rather than the original event.
What is maintenance rehearsal?
The process of helping keep information in our short term memory for longer or our immediate awareness.
This can be done by repeating the information over and over again.
What is elaborative rehearsal?
The process of making meaningful associations between new and old information in encoding material and transferring it into long term memory
This can be done by thinking of examples while learning or mentally involving ourselves in the material through personal relevance.
What is anterograde amnesia?
The inability to encode and store new memories
How does damage to the hippocampus affect memory?
Affects formation and transferal of semantic and episodic memories, but has no effect on procedural memories or STM
How does damage to the amygdala affect memory?
Affects formation of emotional memories, ability to acquire conditioned fear responses and recognise emotions in others.
How does damage to the cerebellum affect memory?
Classically conditioned motor responses involving simple reflexes are lost when damaged.
Why are eye witness testimonies unreliable?
The reconstruction of memories are not reliable.
When an individual is asked to recall a memory, they are only able to remember the abstract details and fill sin the blank with their own expectations from external/internal factors like similar experiences, fictional stories, films and their own feelings at the time.
