PSYC Final Flashcards
Basic Processes of Memory
- Attention: focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events affecting memory & performance
Inattention Blindness: failure to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight- Change Blindness: change in visual stimulated introduced but not observed
- Next In Line Effect: too busy preparing what you are going to say you don’t remember what the person in front said
- Encoding: forming a memory code, formatting & putting info into memory banks
- Encoding Specificity/Context-Dependent Learning: more likely to remember something when the conditions present at the time we encoded it are also present at retrieval
- State-Dependent Learning: superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding
- Storage: maintaining the information in memory over time
- Schema: organized knowledge structure or mental model used as reference for interpreting or simplifying new situations, enhance memory in some cases but lead to memory errors in others → memory illusions, biases, overgeneralizations
- Retrieval: recovering/reconstructing information from memory stores
Draw + Explain Info Processing Model
- Sensory Memory: preserves info in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second to allow us to see the world as an unbroken stream of events
-Iconic Memory 1s (visual): Sperling’s participants were
able to take in all of the information but retained it in
memory only long enough to read off a few letters
-Echoic Memory 5-10s (auditory)
-Haptic Memory (touch) - Short Term Memory: limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed info for up to 20s
-Rehearsal: process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking (maintenance) or making personal/meaningful connections (elaborative) about info
-Levels of Processing (unfalsifiable): shallow-
physical structural, intermediate-sound
phonemic, Deep-meaning semantic
-Visual Imagery: creation of visual images to aid
in memory formation
-Self-Referent Encoding: deciding how or
whether info is personally relevant promoting
additionally elaboration & organization of info
-Capacity: number of stimuli that one can remember, more or less 2 from 7 for numbers from digit span test (random sets of numbers, increasing in amount each span)
-Chunking: a group of familiar stimuli stored as a
single unit which draws long term memory (ex.
Chess masters chunking realistic positions) - Central Executive: coordinates (control, focus, divides attention) the actions of other modules
Draw + Explain Working Memory
Working Memory: a limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and stores info by providing an interface between perception, memory & action
-Evaluating Working Memory & Storage - N-Back
Task: presented a sequence of stimuli one-by-one &
for each stimulus, they need to decide if the current
stimulus is the same as the one presented N trials
ago
-Phonological Loop: allows for recitation of info (ex.
Phone #, calculating sums)
-Visual-Spatial Sketchpad: temporarily hold &
manipulate visual images (ex. Faces, maps)
-Episodic Buffer: temporary & limited capacity
storage system/interface between working, with all
its modules, & long term memory for integration of
info
-Addresses binding problem - how the brain
connects different perceptions to one concept
(ex. Apple’s taste, color, smell, texture)
Long Term Memory + Explicit vs Implicit
Long Term Memory: Larger, longer retention (min-lifetime) store of info prone to semantic errors
-Explicit (Declarative) Memory - requires conscious
effort & awareness: conscious/intentional
recollection of factual info or previous experiences
assessed directly by recall/recognition, affected by
age, drugs, amnesia, retention interval
-Semantic/Encyclopedia Memory - Left Frontal
Cortex: general knowledge about the world
unrelated to the time when the info was learned
(ex. Facts, concepts)
-Episodic/Autobiographical Memory - Right
Frontal Cortex: chronological recollections of
personal experiences on a timeline which can
become semantic (ex. Time, place, emotional
context)
-Implicit Memory: memories that aren’t
consciously or deliberately remembered,
assessed indirectly by relearning measures
unaffected by age, drugs, amnesia or retention
interval
-Procedural: memories of how to execute
specific actions, skills or operations (ex. Muscle
memory, drawing, dancing, sport)
-Priming: ability to identify a stimulus more
easily or quickly when we’ve previously
encountered similar stimuli, when memory
impacts subsequent thoughts & actions
-Conditioning: association, Habituation: learning
to ignore stimuli or become less sensitive when
deemed safe by repetition
Serial Position Curve
Serial Position Curve: depicting primacy & recency effect
-Primacy Effect: tendency to remember stimuli early
in a list
-Recency Effect: tendency to remember stimuli later
in a list
-Tendency to remember stimuli that are distinctive in
some way
Lessons from H.M.
- Retrograde Amnesia: inability to retrieve memories for some specific period of time prior to that time which brain damage occurs
Anterograde Amnesia: inability to form memories of events occurring after the time which the brain damage occurred
-Myths on Amnesia: gradual recovery not abrupt, very rare for all details of memory to be wiped out - Clear Difference b/w STM & LTM
STM - Digit Span Test - Diff #s each time incr. # in set: normal score of 6
LTM - Digit Span Test - Same #s each time add new #: no LTM, only 8 compared to normal 20 - Clear Differences b/w Implicit & Explicit memory
Mirror Drawing Test: no new explicit memory, implicit procedural memory still available, drawing improves each day but doesn’t remember doing it - Differing types of memory encoding & storing in different areas of brain
Locating Memories: still remembers childhood house 5, 13, 16 years after having operation & moving houses, memory is stored in different parts of the brain as HM can still make spatial memories, no episodic ones
Post-Mortem Found Brain Damage: Circuits connecting part of limbic system are critical to memory too → amygdala for emotional component of memories, hippocampus for factual component of memories, reducing amygdala’s activity after traumatic events can reduce the emotional effects of the memory
Lashley Study + Findings
Lashley Study: rats speed to run the maze is evaluated, lesions to different parts of brain are administered and then made to run the maze again measuring once again, results show
- Less brain tissue means poorer performance
- No matter where tissue was removed some memory of maze persisted, times still improved
Where is Memory Stored?
- Long Term Potentiation: gradual strengthening of connections among neurons from repetitive stimulation
- Consolidation: hypothetical process occurring in hippocampus in which info is gradually converted into memory codes to be stored in LTM. Amygdala responsible for emotion (fear) related memories
-Does not address Binding Problem: where+how brain
links all stored info
2 Units & 3 Methods of Measuring Memory
- Retention: the proportion of material retained (remembered)
- Retention Interval: amount of time between presentation of materials and the memory measure
- Recall: a measure of memory that requires subjects to reproduce info on their own without any retrieval cues & determining if it seems correct
Ex. Short answer question - Recognition: a measure of retention that requires subjects to select previously learned info from an array of options, only requires one step of recall; determining correctness
Ex. Multiple choice question - Relearning: a measure of retention that requires a subject to “memorize” info a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned it before
-Often a test of implicit memory, unconsciously
remembering, ex. Relearning piano
-More sensitive & quantifiable, not just correct or
incorrect
Why We Forget?
- Pseudoforgetting: can’t recall information because it was never encoded (well)
-Lack of attention, ex. Watching Tiktok while writing
notes - Decay Theory: forgetting occurs because memory fades with the passage of time
-STM yes, LTM no - Interference Theory: people forget because of competition from other material
-Retroactive Interference: when new info impairs the
retention of previously learned info. Ex. Psychology
back to Economics
-Proactive Interference: when previously learned
info interferes with retention of new info. Ex.
Learning Bike then Bike backwards - Interference Type: Learn list of adjectives → learn 2nd list of Group 1-Synonyms, 2-Antonyms, 3-Unrelated adjectives, 4-nonsense words, 5-numbers, 6-No 2nd List → recall original list
Results: decreasing interference=increasing words remembered from Group 1-6 - Aging, strokes, dementia, Alzheimer’s (senile plaques, neurofibrillary tangles→loss of synapses + death of cells in hippocampus & cerebral cortex), deterioration of frontal & temporal lobes
Interference vs Decay Study
Probe Digit Experiment: probe digit signaled by a tone after a set of numbers have been said, then participants must identify the digit in the sequence that comes after the probe digit (ex. 623428234235 8)
-Varies amount of interference between probe
digits → as interfering items increase, % correct
decreases
-Varies time between numbers → %correct stay
same
Results: interference plays a larger role than decay in forgetting
7 Sins of Memory
Sins of Commission: memory added
Sins of Omission: memory left out
- Suggestibility: tendency to incorporate misleading info from external sources into personal recollections (false memories)
-Misinformation Effect: creating fictitious memories
by providing misleading info about an event after it
takes place (changing an existing memory)
ex.Smash/Hit, Leading/Non-Leading questions,
eye-witness testimony, repressed memories,
psychotherapy
-Implanted Memories: people recall a memory that
didn’t happen that impacts future behavior, which
can be caused by dream interpretation, imagination,
hypnosis, exposure to false info, easier if it fits in an
existing schema or distant past, youth easily gullible
Loftus Study: paired 3 childhood stories that
happened with one that is false and
participants believed that all 4 were true
although one was false (Lost in the malls,
drowned at the beach, etc.) - Misattribution: attributing an event to something with which it really has no connection or association
Source Monitoring Confusion: lack of clarity about the origin of a memory (when, where & how information was acquired), harder for older people
Ex. Donald Thompson, falsely accused, victim was
watching him on TV when she we struck
unconscious by attacker - (Retrospective) Bias: distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs & feelings on the recollections of previous experiences
Ex. Angry at boyfriend → all past memories become
negative - Persistence: intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget but cannot
Ex. Embarrassing moments, PTSD - Transience: forgetting that occurs with the passage of time - Decay STM, Interference LTM
- Blocking (Tip of the Tongue): failure to retrieve info that is available in memory, even though you are trying to produce it
- Absentmindedness: a lapse in attention that results in memory failure
-Pseudoforgetting
-Prospective Memory: remembering to remember
something in the future, such as an action or event
3 Factors of Development of Memory
- Memory spans increase with age: physical/biological maturation, better use of strategies
- Conceptual understanding increases with age: increase knowledge of world for more elaborate connections
3, Enhanced meta-memory with age: knowledge about their memory abilities & limitations, how to efficiently use them often thinking less of themselves
9 Mnemonics
Learning aid, strategy or device that enhances recall
Rhymes: repetition of vowels & consonants to aid recall of info
Pegword Method: associate a visual word with the wanted word through rhyme
Acrostics: phrases or poems in which first letter of each word functions as a cue to aid recall of info
Acronym: a word formed out of the first letter of a series of words
Link Method: forming a mental image of the items to be remembered in a way that links them together
Method of Loci/Mind Palace: taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations
Narrative Methods: creating a story that includes words in their proper order
Keyword Method: associating a concrete word with an abstract word or name and generate an image to represent the concrete word
Music: info in melody improves long-term retention
Languages + 4 Principles
Symbols/symbolic that convey meaning/semantic & have rules/structured for combining that generate infinite/generative variety of images
