Unit 3 AOS 2 SAC 2 - Memory Flashcards
Memory
Memory is an active information processing system that encodes, stores and recovers information when required.
- Memory is a collection of complex interconnected systems that are not an exact replica of the world at the time they are recovered for use.
3 stages of ESR
Encoding (or registration): the process of receiving, processing, and combining information. Encoding allows information from the outside world to reach our senses in the forms of chemical and physical stimuli. In this first stage, we must change the information so that we may put the memory into the encoding process.
Storage: the creation of a permanent record of the encoded information. Storage is the second memory stage or process in which we maintain information over periods of time.
Retrieval (or recall, or recognition): the calling back of stored information in response to some cue for use in a process or activity. The third process is the retrieval of information that we have stored. We must locate it and return it to our consciousness. Some retrieval attempts may be effortless due to the type of information.
3 memory stores and how it moves between them
Diagram in book
Sensory Memory
Function:»_space; the entry point for new information
» information is in its original sensory form (not encoded)
» it stores all sensory experiences for a brief time
Capacity: unlimited
Duration: 2-4 seconds
> > each sensory impression slightly overlaps the next so we see the world as continuous
w are not consciously aware of most information in sensory memory. However, when we direct our attention to this information it can be transferred into STM where we become consciously aware of it
2 registers of sensory memory: iconic and echoic memory.
Iconic memory
Visual sensory memory e.g. colour, shape, size etc
Duration: 1/3 to 1/2 of a second
Capacity: unlimited
> > Long enough for the identification of the stimulus to begin, it explains after images
e.g. if you look at a flower and then close your eyes, an icon of the flower will persist in your consciousness.
Echoic memory
Auditory sensory memory. Echoic sounds like an echo.
Duration: 3-4 seconds: start + end of sentence
Capacity: unlimited
e.g. when you say “what?” but then answer the question before it is repeated. You have retrieved this information from echoic memory.
> > Important role in language comprehension enables storage of all sounds that make a word so the word can be processed as a whole like com… puter, com…unism, com…pete
Short Term memory
Stores a limited amount of information for a brief period, unless it is rehearsed.
Receives information from sensory and long term memory. Also referred to as ‘working memory’.
Duration: 12-30 seconds
Capacity: 5-9 pieces of information
> > Information is lost through decay (fading) or displacement (being pushed out by new).
Improving STM capacity: Chunking
The grouping or packing of bits of information into larger bits or units that can be remembered as single units
> > Chunking expands short term memory. Chunks can be numbers, images, words, abbreviations etc.
e.g. Chunking telephone numbers
> > capacity of STM is still 5-9, but not its 5-9 bits of chunks of information.
Maintenance Rehearsal: STM
Involves simple, rote repetition of information being remembered so it can be retained. Going over and over it.
» Needs to be attended to consciously - not just meaningless repetition and does not guarantee storage in LTM.
Long Term Memory
Information in the LTM is encoded by its meaning, semantically and stored in semantic networks.
Duration: Relatively permanent
Capacity: Unlimited
Rehearsal
The process of doing something so that information can be retained in memory and then retrieved.
Elaborative rehearsal
Attaching meaning to what is to be remembered.
LTM: Procedural
The memory of how to do something, actions and skills. Can be physical or intellectual (knowing how) learned by condition and practice. Implicit memory.
e.g. how to ride a bike.
LTM: Declarative
E + S
The memory of specific facts or events (knowing that).
Episodic: Memory of life events, autobiographical (episode)
Semantic: Information we have about the world. Areas of expertise, academic knowledge, the importance of places, the meaning of words, famous people of events etc. Facts that do not rely on a specific time or place. Explicit memory - actively remember it.
Free Recall
Involved in a task in which the participants are required to retrieve as much information as they can in any order
e.g. a list of items to purchase from the supermarket
Serial Recall
Involves recalling information in the order in which it was presented
e.g. the names of cities visited on an overseas journey
Cued Recall
Uses various prompts (cues) to assist the retrieval process
e.g. ‘the surname is short and begins with a d’
Recall
Requires the person to retrieve stored information using a minimal amount of cues.
Recognition
Refers to identifying the correct information among a list of incorrect pieces
e.g. being able to pick the correct answer to a multiple-choice question from a list of 4 alternatives
It is generally more accurate than recall because it provides more cues to assist retrieval.
e.g. if you were asked to simply recall the names of the 7 dwarves, you are unlikely to remember the names of them unless there was a list of names and being asked to identify them.
Relearning
Refers to learning again something that has previously been committed to memory, is easier than learning something for the first time.
This is the case with all aspects of memory but is especially true of procedural memory.
e.g. times tables
It’s the most sensitive measure of retrieval. That means if a very small amount of the memory remains, relearning will identify that it is there, even if recognition and recall cannot.
Savings Score: time for original learning x time for learning / time for original learning
Reconstruction
Refers to the way we change a memory based on how we recall it.
If a memory is not recalled often, we may add details when we finally do recall it. Memories can be distorted in our minds based on the way we reconstruct them.
e.g. If you were asked to recall your last birthday party, certain features and fragments may come back to you, such as where it was held, who was there, what you were wearing etc.
Most to least sensitive measure
Relearning Recognition Cued Recall Free Recall Serial Recall
Difference between context and state dependent cues
Difference between context and state dependent cues is that context dependent cues are from external stimuli and state dependent cues relate to internal state. Example: A happy mood makes you think of the time you and your friends went to a concert.
Context dependent cues
These are external physical surrounding that are present when we learn something and form a new memory
» These may aid retrieval at a later time
» If you recall information in the same environment in which it was learnt, the physical environment can act as a retrieval cue.
State dependent cues
The physical and psychological state that exists during learning and in the time the memory was formed.
e.g. if you learn information when you are happy, sad, intoxicated, sober, calm or aroused, that information is more likely to be retrieved when you are in the same ‘state’.
Serial position effect
Is a finding that free recall is better for items at the end and beginning of the list than for items in the middle of the list.
WHY?
» The Primacy Effect is the superior recall of items at the beginning of the list. This is due to the fact that the words at the beginning of the list are rehearsed which increases their chance of being moved to LTM.
» The Renency Effect is the superior recall of items at the end of the list. This is due to the fact that the last few words are still in STM and so available for recall.
» Items around the middle of the list are presented too late to be adequately rehearsed and transferred into LTM and too early to be held in STM without rehearsal, so they are more likely to be forgotten (unless they’re distinctive in some way).
Implicit vs Explicit memory
Information that you have to consciously work to remember is known as explicit memory, while information that you remember unconsciously and effortlessly is known as implicit memory.
Explicit: recalling your phone number, identifying who the current president is, writing a research paper, and remembering what time you’re meeting a friend to go to a movie.
Implicit: singing a familiar song, typing on your computer keyboard, brushing your teeth and riding a bike
Amygdala
- Is essential for the formation of implicit memories, including those formed during classical conditioning and emotional memory
- Processing and regulating emotional reactions, particularly emotions such as fear and anger
- Implicit
- When damage occurs: cannot learn to fear things that signal danger
Hippocampus
- Consolidating/encoding declarative memories before transferring them for more permanent storage in relevant parts of the cerebral cortex.
- Explicit
- Damage: inability to encode new memories from STM to LTM
Cerebral Cortex
- Long-term declarative memories are stored in the different cortical areas generally according to where the type of information was processed (semantic/episodic)
- Explicit
Cerebellum
- Procedural memories are processed, encoded and stored by the cerebellum
- Implicit
- “How to”
- Skills/Behaviours
- CC reflex response
- Damage: procedural memory affected, balance and coordination impacted
Brain surgery
- Risk of memory function being impaired
- Usually temporary short term memory loss
- Most people recover from this, occasionally memory impairment can be long lasting
Anterograde Amnesia
- Events that occur after the injury – hippocampus damage common, often as a result of brain injury
- Cannot transfer information from STM to LTM
- STM still works
- Can retrieve memories from long term
- Can learn new skills (procedural memory)
Alzheimer’s
- The most common form of dementia
- Occurs mostly in old age and is gradual severe memory
loss, confusion, impaired attention, disordered thinking and depression - Involves both retrograde and anterograde amnesia
- Hippocampus and prefrontal cortex damage
Cognitive symptoms:
Inability to communicate, weight loss, seizures, skin infections, difficulty swallowing, groaning, moaning, or grunting, increased sleeping, loss of bowel and bladder control.
At first, Alzheimer’s disease typically destroys neurons and their connections in parts of the brain involved in memory, including the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus. It later affects areas in the cerebral cortex responsible for language, reasoning, and social behaviour
Causes:
- Amyloid plaques: Proteins that form clumps of insoluble plaques in and around the neuron inhibiting communication between neurons
- Neurofibrillary tangles: These tangles look like twisted fibres and inhibit the transport of essential substances throughout the neuron. This failure of the transport system is believed to eventually kill the neurons
Loftus research
Her experiments reveal how memories can be changed by things that we are told. Facts, ideas, suggestions and other post-event information can modify our memories. The legal field, so reliant on memories, has been a significant application of the memory research.
Leading questions
- A question posed to a witness that is
phrased in such a way to prompt/suggest a desired
response - Leading questions are a way of adding information after
the event - Can influence the immediate answer but also a question
that is asked at a later date - Loftus suggests that during retrieval and reconstruction
of memory of an event, there is an opportunity for
manipulation because new information can be
introduced at this stage
Fallibility
- Inaccurate, false, mistaken
- Due to the reconstructive nature of memory
- Influenced by poor viewing, brief exposure, stress, expectations, stereotypes, bias
Reconstructive nature of memory
- Remembering past events and features of these events and putting them together
- Impacted by poor viewing, brief exposure, stress, expectations, stereotypes, bias
