Memory Week 11 Flashcards
episodic memory
The ability to learn and retrieve new information or episodes in one’s life.
semantic memory
The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have.
autobiographical memory
Memory for the events of one’s life.
three necessary stages in the learning and memory process
encoding, storage, and retrieval
encoding
The pact of putting information into memory.
storage
The stage in the learning/memory process that bridges encoding and retrieval; the persistence of memory over time.
retrieval
The process of accessing stored information.
distinctiveness
The principle that unusual events (in a context of similar events) will be recalled and recognized better than uniform (nondistinctive) events.
flashbulb memory
A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event.
recoding
The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form, usually one more easily remembered.
memory traces
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event.
engrams
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event; also, memory trace.
consolidation
The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces.
retroactive interference
The phenomenon whereby events that occur after some particular event of interest will usually cause forgetting of the original event.
misinformation effect
When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.
encoding specificity principle
The hypothesis that a retrieval cue will be effective to the extent that information encoded from the cue overlaps or matches information in the engram or memory trace.
cue overload principle
The principle stating that the more memories that are associated to a particular retrieval cue, the less effective the cue will be in prompting retrieval of any one memory.
mneumatic devices
A strategy for remembering large amounts of information, usually involving imaging events occurring on a journey or with some other set of memorized cues.
When Tyler was a child, he got separated from his mother in a department store, but she found him after 2 minutes and all was well. Now, as an adult, he mis-remembers the event as having been a ten-minute separation, during which time store security intervened. This may be an example of the __________.
misinformation effect
Define and note differences between the following forms of memory: working memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, collective memory.
Describe the three stages in the process of learning and remembering.
Describe strategies that can be used to enhance the original learning or encoding of information.
Describe strategies that can improve the process of retrieval.
Describe why the classic mnemonic device, the method of loci, works so well.
encoding
The pact of putting information into memory.
decay
The fading of memories with the passage of time.
consolidated
Process by which a memory trace is stabilized and transformed into a more durable form.
retrieval
The process of accessing stored information.
interference
Other memories get in the way of retrieving a desired memory
Five impediments to remembering
- encoding failures
- decay
- inadequate retrieval cues
- interference
- trying not to remember
medial temporal lobes
Inner region of the temporal lobes that includes the hippocampus.
Patients with damage to the temporal lobes may experience _____
anterograde amnesia.
anterograde amnesia
Inability to form new memories for facts and events after the onset of amnesia.
declarative memory
Conscious memories for facts and events.
temporally graded retrograde amnesia
Inability to retrieve memories from just prior to the onset of amnesia with intact memory for more remote events.
retrograde amnesia
Inability to retrieve memories for facts and events acquired before the onset of amnesia.
dissassociative amnesia
Loss of autobiographical memories from a period in the past in the absence of brain injury or disease.
Identify five reasons we forget and give examples of each.
Describe how forgetting can be viewed as an adaptive process.
Explain the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
misinformation effect
When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.
photo spreads
A selection of normally small photographs of faces given to a witness for the purpose of identifying a perpetrator.
foils
Any member of a lineup (whether live or photograph) other than the suspect.
mock witnesses
A research subject who plays the part of a witness in a study.
schemata
A memory template, created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events.
false memories
Memory for an event that never actually occurred, implanted by experimental manipulation or other means.
Describe the kinds of mistakes that eyewitnesses commonly make and some of the ways that this can impede justice.
Explain some of the errors that are common in human memory.
Describe some of the important research that has demonstrated human memory errors and their consequences.
