Study Guide 11 - Memory Flashcards
Flashbulb Memory
- a vivid and lasting image that is associated with an emotional event
- ex) what were you doing on 9/11
Eidetic Memory
-photographic memory
Acoustic vs. Semantic Encoding
- Acoustic: encoding of sound
- Semantic: encoding of meaning (BEST WAY TO REMEMBER)
Sensory Memory
-immediate, initial recording of sensory info in the memory system
Short Term Memory
-Memory that holds about 5-9 items for about 30 seconds while they are being processed for storage in long term memory
Iconic Memory
- momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
- picture image Memory that lasts for a very short amount of time
Chunking
-technique of organizing material into familiar, meaningful units
Long Term Memory
- relatively permanent and unlimited capacity storehouse
- explicit and implicit
Working Memory
- temporary storage of information that is being actively processed (Rehearsal)
- without rehearsal short term memories are difficult to remember
Millers Magic 7
-about 7 unrelated items can be stored in short term memory
Visual Sketchpad and Phonological Loop
-working memory has three interacting parts
VS: holds visual and spatial info
-PL: holds verbal info
Deep VS. Shallow Processing
- deep = forming associations and attaching meaning
- shallow = encoding surface level info such as structure
Selective attention
-focusing on 1 specific thing
Automatic vs. effortful processing
- automatic = encoding without effort
- effortful = requires attention and effort
Elaborative Rehearsal
-connecting new information to something you already know
Maintenance Rehearsal
-extending retention of information in short term memory by repetition
Spacing Effect
- distributing Rehearsal leads to better memory
- distributed practice = spaced out Learning periods
- massed practice = cramming
Mnemonics
- use vivid imagery in aiding memory
- more likely to remember words with vivid images
- peg word: rhyming
- method of loci: remembering something with something else you know well
Implicit Memory
-Memory of skills that can be retrieved without conscious awareness
Procedural Memory
- Memory of highly practiced skills
- muscle memory: making a motor task a memory through repetition so that it can be performed without conscious effort
Explicit Memory
-Memory of facts and events that can be consciously retrieved
Semantic vs. Episodic Memory
- semantic: general knowledge about the world
- episodic: knowledge about specific things in ones own life
Encoding, storage, retrieval
- encoding: getting info into our brains
- storage: retaining info
- retrieval: accessing the info later
Echoic Memory
- sensory Memory
- a brief auditory Memory
Retrieval Cues
-associations are like anchors that help to retrieve memories
Encoding Specificity
- need a stimulus to help trigger a memory
- ex) going to a room and forgetting what you meant to get
State Dependent Memory
-we recall info better when we are in the same state of mind as when we encoded it
Mood Congruent Memory
-recall experiences that are consistent with our current memory
Recall vs. recognition
- recall: remembering info you learned earlier
- recognition: identifying something u learned earlier
Serial Position Effect
- primacy: tendency to remember things heard 1st
- recency: tendency to remember things heard last
TOT
-partial recall
Priming
-to retrieve a Memory from a web of associations first you have to activate one of the strands leading to it
Déjà Vu
-Cues from current situation may trigger retrieval of an earlier, similar experience
Infantile Amnesia
-no conscious memory of our early childhood
Hippocampus
- Learning and forming new memories
- processes and stores (for a little bit) EXPLICIT MEMORIES
Cerebellum
-classical conditioning and IMPLICIT MEMORIES
Amygdala
-helps form emotional memories such as flashbulb memories
Long Term Potentiation
- neural connections are strengthened
- increased sensitivity for neurotransmitters
- neural basis for learning and remembering
Change Blindness
- a type of inattentional blindness
- when you focus on 1 thing so you miss another stimulus change
- ex) asking for directions video
Top down vs. Bottom up processing
- seeing the big picture first
- seeing the parts and then the big picture
Prospective Memory
-the ability to remember to do something in the future
Memory Construction and Reconstruction
- our memory is not precise, we recreate them
- info. acquired after an event alters memory of event
Misinformation Effect
-unconsciously incorporating misleading info into our memory of an event
Source Amnesia
- at the heart of many false memories
- attributing something to the wrong source
- ex) dream about an event and later be unsure if it actually happened
Repression
- pushing down a difficult memory
- Freud
- debated but the most common response to a traumatic event is vivid, haunting memories rather than repression
Proactive vs. Retroactive Interference
- proactive: prior learning disrupts recall of new info
- retroactive: new learning disrupts recall of old info
Anterograde vs. Retrograde Amnesia
- anterograde: can recall past but could not form new memories
- retrograde: cannot recall past info/memories
Encoding Failure
- we cannot remember what we don’t encode/notice
- without effort many potential memories never form
- ex) pennies
Alzheimer’s Disease
- a type of dementia
- progressive disease that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior
Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting
-initially we forget things quickly and then it levels out
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
- mental illness
- typically result of alcoholism
- characterized by disorientation and a tendency to invent explanations to cover a loss of memory
Elizabeth Loftus
- studies show that eyewitnesses reconstruct their memories after an event
- experiment with film of a traffic accident and different verbs to describe accident
Eric Kandel and the Aplysia Studies
- used sea slugs to determine the biochemical basis of learning and memory
- determined many of the chemical pathways that mediate memory formation
- memory storage relies on modifications in the synaptic connections between neurons
Memory Trace
- a presumed encoding in brain tissue that provides a physical basis for memory
- a hypothetical structural alteration in brain cells
Von Restorff Novelty Effect
-if something stands out on a list it is more likely to be remembered
