Memory Test Flashcards
Information-Processing Model
Like a computer, focuses on how information is handled throughout encoding, storage, and retrieval
Levels-of-Processing Model
Assumes that the length of time for which a memory is remembered relies on the depth to which that information was processed
Parallel Distributing Processing Model
Memory is a simultaneous process designed like a sort of web stretched across the brain, with related memories stored near each other
Sensory Memory
First stage of memory, includes iconic (sensory) memory and echoic (auditory) memory
Iconic memory
Includes everything that can be seen at one time but only lasts a fraction of a second before it’s replaced with new iconic memories
Eidetic memory
When people can access iconic memories for a much longer period of time (aka photographic memory)
Echoic memory
Brief memory of something a person has heard, lasts several seconds
Short Term Memory
Held for around 30 seconds, primarily encoded in an auditory form (aka working memory)
Three Parts to Working memory
Central executive manages everything, phonological rehearsal loop is the internal monologue, and the visuospatial sketchpad is the ability to function in the world around you
George Miller
Did experiments to discover that the short term memory could hold about seven items at a time
Maintenance rehearsal
Repeating something over and over so that you hold onto the memory longer (aka rote learning)
Serial positioning
Remembering the first and last items in a sequence more than the middle ones
Primacy effect
Easily remembering the first item in a sequence
Recency effect
Easily remembering the last item in a sequence
Chunking
Grouping items in a sequence into smaller “chunks” so that you remember them better (like a phone number!)
Long Term Memory
System in which information is permanently kept (but not always accessible)
Elaborative rehearsal
Transferring memories from short term to long term by making it personally meaningful
Nondeclaritive (implicit) LTM
Memories for skills you can physically do (but can’t directly voice)
Procedural memories
Implicit memories that include skills and habits
Priming memories
Implicit memories that set you up to encode information a particular way (like becoming more jumpy after watching a horror movie)
Declaritive (explicit) LTM
Memories for facts that are known and can be stated
Semantic memories
Explicit memories that are widely known facts (like names and dates)
Episodic memories
Explicit memories that are autobiographical (typical memories)
Prospective memory
Remembering things you have to do in the future
Retrospective memory
Remembering things you have done in the past
Retrieval cue
A stimulus to help access a memory
Encoding specificity
The connection between surroundings and remembered information
Automatic encoding
A memory is moved to long term with almost no effort
Effortful encoding
A memory is moved to long term only after effort and practice
Flashbulb memories
The mind takes a snapshot of a specific exciting/emotional event
Hyperthymesia
Remembering everything (and not being able to forget anything)
Mnemonist
Someone with exceptional memory ability
Curve of forgetting
Created by Ebbinghaus, suggests that forgetting happens quickly within the first hour of learning, but information that is remembered after that will be remembered for a long time
Distributed practice
Spacing out study sessions in order to better retrieve the memorized information
Massed practiced
Trying to memorize a ton of information at once
Encoding failure
When a memory isn’t even encoded past sensory memory
Memory trace
The physical change in the brain that takes place when a memory is formed
Decay theory
Memories that aren’t used fade over time
Proactive interference
Old information interferes with new
Retroactive interference
New information interferes with old
Long Term Potentiation
Creating stronger neural pathways through either growing more dendrites on neurons or increasing/decreasing excitatory/inhibitory neurotransmitters
Consolidation
“Hardening” a memory
Retrograde amnesia
Not being able to remember anything before or leading up to an injury or accident (less common, less permanent)
Anterograde amnesia
Not being able to form new memories after an injury or accident (more common, more permanent)
Infantile amnesia
Not being able to remember our childhood because most childhood memories are implicit
Motivated forgetting
A memory is so terrible its forgotten, either through suppression or repression
Repression
Unconscious forgetting because something is traumatizing (Freudian)
Suppression
Conscious forgetting because you don’t like it when a memory is retrieved (still under your control)
Elizabeth Loftus
Big contributor to science of forgetting
Constructive processing
The theory that memories are rebuilt each time they are retrieved from the information stored during encoding
Hindsight bias
Believing you had a feeling about an event before it happened due to your brain ignoring contradictory info
Misinformation effect
Creating false memories because of exposure to new information following an event (primary reason why eyewitness testimony is shit)
False-memory syndrome
Creating false memories due to suggestion under hypnosis
Sharpening
Emphasizing pieces of information from a story that your brain remembers and making them into the core part of that story
Assimilation
Removing discrepant information in a story to conform to what you already know
Leveling
Stories get shorter the more they are repeated due to the removal of unimportant information.
