Set 7: Memory Flashcards
Memory
any indication that learning has persisted over time. It is our ability to store and retrieve information
Infantile Amnesia
the phenomenon that most of us don’t have any memories of our first four years of life.
Flashbulb Memory
A unique and highly emotional moment may give rise to a clear, strong, and persistent memory called flashbulb memory. However, this memory is not free from errors.
Stages of Memory
Encoding–>Storage–>Retrieval
Multi-Store Model
Sensory Memory –> Short-Term Memory —> Long-Term Memory
SM (Pay attention) ST (Rehearse, repetition, also called Memory Consolidation) LT
Problems with Multi-Store Model
- Some information skips the first two stages and enters long-term memory automatically.
- The nature of short-term memory is more complex.
Working Memory
Sensory Memory–>Working Memory–>Long-Term Memory
Alan Baddeley (2002) proposed that short-term memory was more important than that. He came up with a new model and changed the term short-term to working memory.
Central Executive
One component of the working model is the Central Executive, which is basically YOU choosing what to focus on.
Phonological Loop
When you want to remember you use the Phonological Loop, which means repeating things over and over that you’ve heard to try to remember them.
Visuospatial sketchpad
You also use your visuospatial sketchpad which is knowing where objects are in space.
Automatic Processing
We process an enormous amount of information effortless such as the following:
1. Space: While reading a textbook, you automatically encode the place of a picture on a page.
2. Time: We unintentionally note the events that take place in a day.
3. Frequency: You effortlessly keep track of things that happen to you.
Semantic Memory
A memory based on a definition.
Ex: Knowing what a chair is.
Procedural Memory
A memory based on the order that it takes to complete a task
Ex: Tying Shoes
Episodic Memory
Remembering an exact event (like an episode of a TV show).
Ex: Remembering your 5th grade birthday party
Autobiographical Memory
Any memory that you have that is of a life event of yours is called an Autobiographical Memory.
Spacing Effect
The Spacing Effect is the fact that we remember more when we study in small bursts rather than all at once.
Massed Practice.
When you try to cram study for something all at once we call that Massed Practice.
Distributed Practice
When you try to study a little bit at a time it’s called Distributed Practice.
Serial Position Effect.
We tend to remember information at the beginning of the list and at the end of a list.
Primacy Effect
When we remember the first few items we call that the Primacy Effect.
Recency Effect
When we remember the last few items we call that the Recency Effect.
Testing Effect.
If you quiz yourself on the content as you are reviewing (flashcards/quizlet/practice tests) that will help you remember it better than just re-reading it.
Levels of Processing Model
The Levels of Processing Model of memory says that there are three levels that you can memorize something on. The higher the level, the more likely you will keep the memory.
Levels of Processing Model:
Level 1: Structural Processing
How a word is spelled or looks
Levels of Processing Model:
Level 2: Phonemic Processing
By the way a word sounds
Levels of Processing Model:
Level 3: Semantic Processing
Remembering a word by definition
Mnemonics
Mnemonics are tricks you can use to help your memory.
Method of Loci
Visualize each item in a different room in your house.
Chunking
Putting items into meaningful unit
Hierarchy
Making different levels and sublevels of categories (flow chart)
Metacognition
Thinking about your own thinking
Interleaving
Connecting the thing you are studying with other topics you already know
Sensory Memory
Capacity:
Unlimited
Duration:
Depends on sense, but in essence, a split second
Notes:
Iconic Memory: Sensory Memory for sight
Echoic Memory: Sensory Memory for sound.
Haptic Memory: Sensory Memory for touch.
Short Term/Working Memory
Capacity:
5-9
Duration:
20 seconds
Long Term Memory
Capacity:
Unlimited
Duration:
Could be forever
Notes:
Ebbinghaus Curve - You forget most of what you learn, but what sticks stays for A LONG time.
Long-Term Potentiation
Current research into memories links them with the strengthening of synapses between neurons, and particularly to the release of the neurotransmitter serotonin.
Stress Hormones & Memory
A little stress is good for storing memories, but too much stress is not.
Anterograde Amnesia
When you remember everything before a certain event, but cannot form new memories after. (Guy in Car accident video)
Explicit Memory (Declarative Memory):
Memories that you can state and prove you know. (ex: who is the first president?)
Implicit Memory (Non-Declarative Memory):
Memories that you must do an action to prove. (ex: snowboarding).
Hippocampus and Frontal Lobe
neural centers that processes explicit memories.
Cerebellum and Basal Ganglia
neural centers that processes implicit memories.
What memories can people with Anterograde Amnesia form?
People with anterograde Amnesia CANNOT form new explicit memories.
People with anterograde Amnesia CAN form new implicit memories.
Retrieval
refers to getting information out of the memory store
Recognition
In recognition, the person must identify an item amongst other choices. (A multiple choice test requires recognition.)
Recall
In recall, the person must directly retrieve information. (A fill-in-the blank test requires recall.)
Relearning
In relearning, the individual learns something faster the second time they learn it.
Retrieval Cues
Memories are held in storage by a web of associations. These associations are like anchors that help retrieve memory.
Ex. When you think of ‘Firetruck’, you also think of sirens, water, fire, firefighters, hoses, smell, smoke, truck, red.
Priming
To retrieve a specific memory from the web of associations, you must first activate one of the strands that leads to it. This process is called priming.
Ex. Faces call out
State Dependent Memory
The state you are in when you learn something (intoxicated, tired, hypnotized) is the best state to retrieve it in.
Context dependent Memory
You recall things best where you learned them in the first place.
Also known as Encoding Specificity Principle
Deja Vu
Deja Vu is the feeling of: “I’ve experienced this before.” Most psychologists believe this is just your brain tricking you and recalling a similar experience that you have had in the past.
Mood Congruent Memory
We usually recall experiences that are consistent with our current mood. Emotions, or moods, serve as retrieval cues.
Forgetting
An inability to retrieve information due to poor encoding, storage, or retrieval.
Encoding Failure
The memory doesn’t even get into your brain.
Storage Decay
The memory is put into the brain, but it is lost over time. Ebbinghaus showed this with his forgetting curve.
Retrieval Failure
The memory is in your brain, but you don’t know how to get to it. Also known as Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon.
Proactive Interference
Something old makes you forget something new.
Retroactive Interference
Something new makes you forget something old.
Motivated Forgetting
People try to block out unwanted memories
Repression
Freud’s defense mechanism that unconsciously blocked out unwanted memories. (A type of motivated forgetting.)
Retrograde Amnesia
Inability to remember information from your past.
Reconsolidation
happens when a stored memory, when retrieved, gets altered before you store it again. It can lead to all kinds of memory issues that we are about to talk about.
Memory Construction:
While searching our memories, we filter or fill in missing pieces of information to make our recall more coherent.
Misinformation Effect
Incorporating misleading information into one’ memory of an event.
Misinformation and Imagination Effects
Subjects watched a video of a car crash
Group A: How fast were the cars going when they hit each other?
Group B: How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?
A week later they were asked: “Was there any broken glass?” Group B (smashed into) reported more broken glass than Group A (hit).
Source Amnesia
Attributing an event to the wrong source that we experienced, heard, read, or imagined (misattribution).
Imagination Inflation Effect
The Imagination Inflation Effect is our tendency to think something has happened to you when it’s only been imagined.
Constructive Memory
We often add our own beliefs and attitudes to fill in gaps in our memory. This is called Constructive Memory.
Eyewitness Recall
We know that some memories are forgotten, but we also know that humans can “create” memories in their mind that never existed. Therefore, eyewitness testimony should be treated with some skepticism.
