PSYCH FINAL Flashcards
What is memory?
ability to store and retrieve information over time
What is encoding?
process of transforming what we perceive and think into memory
What is storage in terms of memory?
Process of maintaining information in memory over time
Why is memory a construction?
Memories are made by combining already known information with new information from the senses
What is retrieval in memory
process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored
What are the three types of encoding called?
Semantic encoding, Visual imagery encoding, organizational encoding
Describe semantic encoding
Relates new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in the brain
What regions of the brain does semantic encoding take place
Lower left frontal lobe and inner left frontal lobe
What is visual encoding and what part of the brain does it activate
Storing new information by converting it into mental pictures. (Trying to remember picture of dog and creating an image of a dog in your mind). Activates your occipital lobe.
What is organizational encoding
Categorizing information according to the relationship among a series of items. (Server groups orders into hot drinks, cold drinks etc.
What is sensory memory
Storage that holds information for a few seconds or less
What are the two types of sensory memory
Echoing memory and iconic memory
What is echoic memory and what is iconic memory
Fast decaying store of auditory information (echoic) Fast decaying store of visual information (Iconic)
What is short term memory
Holds information for more than a few seconds and less than a minute.
What is rehearsal in memory
Keeping information in short term memory by mentally repeating it.
What is the serial position effect
Firs few and last few items are more likely to be recalled than items in the middle
What is the primacy effect
More opportunity for rehearsal of first items— more likely encoded into long term memory
What is the regency effect
Rehearsal of last times still in short term storage
How many meaningful items can short term memory store at once
Can hold about 7 meaningful items at once
What is chunking
Combining small pieces of information into larger chunks, more easily held in short term memory
What is working memory
Active maintenance of information in short term storage
What is visuospatial sketchpad used for
Used for visual images
What is phonological loop used for
used for verbal information
What is episodic buffer
integrates visual and verbal information from subsystems into a combined code
What is central executive
coordinates subsystems and episodic buffers
What is anterograde amnesia
inability to transfer new information from short term store into long term store
What is retrograde amnesia
inability to retriev information aquired before a certain date (surgery)
What part of the brain is critical for memory formation
hippocampus
What is consolidation
process by which memories become stable in the brain
What is long term potential
communication across synapses between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier
what is encoding specicifity principle
when a retrieval cue helps recreate the specific way info was initially coded (putting yourself in same environment u originally learned)
What is state dependant retrieval
info tends to be better recalled when person is in same state during encoding and retrieval
What is transfer appropriate message
memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when contexts of encoding and retreival situations match
What is retreival induced forgetting
retrieving an item from long term memory impaired subsequent recall of related events
Whats explicit memory
when people conciously or intentionally retrive past expreiences
What is implicit memory
when past experiences influence later behaviour and performance even without an effort to remember them
What are the two types of long term memory called?
Explicit memory and implicit memory
What are the 7 memory “sins”
Transience
Absentmindedness
Blocking
Memory misattribution
suggestibility
Bias
Persistance
What is transience
the forgetting that occurs with the passage of time
What is absentmindedness
lapse in attention that results in memory failure
What is blocking
failure to retrieve information available in memory despite trying to produce it
What is memory misattribution
assigning a recollection of an idea to the wrong source
What is suggestibility
tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollations
What is bias
distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experience.
What is persistance
intrusive recollection of events we wish we could forget
