Psychology and Sociology: Memory Flashcards
Encoding
Refers to the process of putting new information into memory
Automatic processing
information gained without any effort
Controlled (effortful) processing
active memorization
Visual encoding
visualizing information
Acoustic encoding
storing the way something sounds
Elaborative encoding
link information to knowledge that is already in memory
Semantic encoding
put new information into meaningful context
Self-reference effect
our tendency to recall information best when we can put it into the context of our own lives
Maintenance rehearsal
the repetition of a piece of information to either keep it within working memory or to store it in short-term and eventually long-term memory
Mnemonics
acronyms or rhyming phrases that provide a vivid organization of the information we are trying to remember
Method of loci
associating each item in a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized
Peg-word
associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers
Chunking
taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning
Sensory memory
-preserves information in its original sensory form with high accuracy and lasts very short time (less than a second)
-Iconic memory: fast decaying memory of visual stimuli
-Echoic memory: fast decaying memory of auditory stimuli
-memories maintained by the major projection areas of each sensory system
Short-term memory
-fades quickly (30 s) without rehearsal
-memory capacity: the number of items we can hold in our short-term memory at any given time
-housed primarily in hippocampus
Working memory
-closely related to short-term memory and also housed in hippocampus
-allows us to keep a few pieces of information in our consciousness simultaneously and to manipulate that information
Long-term memory
-An essentially limitless warehouse for knowledge that we are then able to recall on demand, sometimes for the rest of our lives
-Elaborative rehearsal: the association of the information to knowledge already stored in long-term memory
-Primarily controlled by the hippocampus, but memories are moved over time back to the cerebral cortex
-Implicit memory: consists of our skills, habits, and conditioned responses, none of which need to be consciously recalled
Procedural memory (long-term)
relates to our unconscious memory of the skills required to complete procedural tasks
Priming (long-term)
involves the presentation of one stimulus affecting perception of the second
Positive priming
occurs when exposure to the first stimulus improves processing of the second stimulus
Negative priming
the first stimulus interferes with the processing of the second stimulus, resulting in slower response times and more errors
Explicit memory
consists of those memories that require conscious recall
Episodic memory (explicit)
refers to our recollection of life experiences
Semantic memory (explicit)
refers to ideas, concepts, or facts that we know, but are not tied to specific life experiences
Autobiographical memory (explicit)
the name given to our explicit memories about our lives and ourselves, and include all of our episodic memories of our own life experiences, but also include semantic memories that relate to our personal traits and characteristics
Retrieval
The name given to the process of demonstrating that something that has been learned has been retained
Recall
the retrieval and statement of previously learned information
Recognition
the process of merely identifying a piece of information that was previously learned; easier than recall
Spacing effect (relearning)
the longer the amount of time between sessions of relearning, the greater the retention of information later on
Spreading activation
when one node of our semantic network is activated, the other linked concepts around it are also unconsciously activated
Context effect
memory is aided by being in the physical location where encoding took place
Source monitoring
retrieval process that involves determining the origin of memories, and whether they are factual or fictional
State-dependent theory
a retrieval cue based on performing better when in the same mental state as when the information was learned
Primacy effect
tendency to recall the first few items on a list
Recency effect
tendency to recall the last few items on a list
Serial-position effect
tendency to remember the first few things and last few things on a list
Interference
A retrieval error caused by the existence of other, usually similar, information
Proactive interference
old information is interfering with new learning
Retroactive interference
new information cases forgetting of old information
Aging
-Prospective memory: remembering to perform a task at some point in the future
-event based remains strong with age
-time based gets worse with age
Reproductive memory
accurate recall of past events
Reconstructive memory
a theory of memory recall in which cognitive processes such as imagination, semantic memory, and perception affect the act of remembering
False memory
a memory that incorrectly recalls actual events or recalls events that never occurred
Recovered memories
repressed memories that are brought back into our conscious mind either spontaneously or through psychotherapy
Misinformation effect
a person’s recall of an event becomes less accurate due to the injection of outside information into the memory
Intrusion errors
-refers to false memories that have included a false detail into a particular memory
-The intruding memory is injected into original memory due to both memories being related or sharing a theme, not an outside source like the misinformation effect
Source-monitoring error
involves confusion between semantic and episodic memory; a person remembers the details of an event, but confuses the context under which those details were gained
Neuroplasticity
phenomenon in which neural connections are rapidly formed in response to stimuli as our brains develop
Synaptic pruning
weak neural connections are broken while strong ones are bolstered, increasing the efficiency of our brains’ ability to process information
Long-term potentiation
the strengthening of neural connections through repeated use
