Unit 8: Memory And Cognition Flashcards
Cognitive Approach focuses on mental processes
How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
Cognitive approach focuses on the belief that behavior is
Partially governed by the ways we interpret the events in the world
Memory
Persistence of learning over time, via the storage and retrieval of information
Memory gives us our sense of
Self and connects us to past experiences
Flashbulb memories
Clears memory of an emotionally significant event or moment
Emotion of the flashbulb memories are through the
Amygdala
Does the flashbulb memory help or hurt Freud?
Hurts because Freud believes in the unconscious
What are usually personally meaningful or historically significant?
Flashbulb memories
Episodic memory
Your specific memory of events that occur in your life
Flashbulb memory is a type of
Episodic memory
What is involved in the formation of episodic memories?
Hippocampus
How is memory similar to a computer?
Write to file, save to disk, read from disk
3 basic steps in memory
Encoding
Storage
Retrieval
Encoding
Getting information into the memory system
Storage
The retention of the encoded information over time
Retrieval
Process of getting information out of the memory system
Stage one of processing model of memory
The initial recording of sensory information in the memory system is referred to as sensory memory
The initial recording of sensory information in the memory system is referred to as
Sensory memory
Stage 2 of processing model of memory
Sensory memories are processed into SHORT TERM MEMORY your activated memory which can only hold a minimal amount of information
You have to pay attention to move to
Short term memory
Stage 3 of processing model of memory
Short term memories are encoded into LONG TERM MEMORY, the relativity PERMANENT and LIMITLESS storehouse from which we retrieve.
Working memory
Similar to short term memory but foucuses on MANIPULATION of information
Working memory and short term memory are quite limited in
Capacity and duration
You can hold so much memory in your ______ ______ at one given time
Working memory
Magic number of working memory
7 +/- 2
2 types of process of encoding
Effortful and automatic
Automatic encoding: unconscious encoding of incidental information such as
Space, time, frequency
Automatic encoding: well-learned information such as
Word meanings
Automatic encoding: we can learn automatic processing that is
Reading backwards
Reading backwards requires effort at first but after practice
It becomes automatic
Automatic processing allows us to
Do multiple things at once and re-illustrates the concept of parallel processing
Effortful Processing
Type of encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
Effortful processing example
Learning new vocabulary terms, memorizing historical events/chronology, etc
Encoding can be aided by
Maintenance rehearsal or even more effectively by elaborate rehearsal
Maintenance rehearsal
Simple rote repetition of information in consciousness
Level of effectiveness for maintenance rehearsal
Less affective
Level of effectiveness for elaborate rehearsal
More effective
Elaborate rehearsal
Processing of information for meaning which can more easily help produce long term memories
Examples for Elaborate rehearsal
Coming up with an example for a term
Definition in our own words
Kind of memory experiments
Herman Ebbinghaus
Herman Ebbinghaus wanted to research capacity of what memory?
Verbal memory
Herman Ebbinghaus looked to study strings of
Non-sense syllables such as JIH, FUB, YOX, LEQ, VUM, etc
Practice makes perfect!
The more rehearsal he did on day 1, the less rehearsal it took to learn the syllables again on day 2
Over learning causes
Retention
The spacing effect
Tendency for studying over a long period of time produces better long term retention than is achieved through massive study/practice.
In what effect does it show that spaced studying beats cramming?
The spacing effect
Serial position effect
Our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list
Serial position effect example
Naming the presidents
Ebbinghaus’s 3 findings
Practice makes perfect
The spacing effect
Serial position effect
Serial position effect: Primacy Effect
Explains how we remember concepts at the beginning of a list since these are often the terms we have SEEN THE MOST when reviewing
Recency effect
Explains how we remember concepts at the end of the list since these are the terms we have seen the most RECENTLY
What position of the list is forgotten the most often?
Middle
Semantic encoding
Encoding of meaning, including the meaning of words
Best memory
Mental picture is in what type of encoding?
Semantic encoding
Acoustic encoding
The encoding of sounds, especially the sound of words
Acoustic encoding example
Pronouncing
Visual encoding
The encoding of visual elements of stimuli
Creating mental pictures
Imagery
Imagery helps
Recall of events that’s often colored by the highest joys and lowest lows of events… usually remember events differently than you evaluated them at that time
Encoding imagery: mnemonics
Memory aid, often use vivid imagery and organizational devices
Chunking AKA
Grouping
Chunking
Organizing items into familiar, manageable units
Chunking examples
Horizontal organization- 1329458
Use of acronyms: HOMES- Hello, Oats, Meet, Egg, Shine
Method of Loci
Memory device used by linking items in a list with PHYSICAL LOCATIONS in a place you’re familiar with
Method of Loci example
Link parts of brain with places in your house; hypothalamus and refrigerator
Peg word system
Works by prememorizing a list of words with numbers and associated new list with the scheme
Peg word system example
1 is a gun, 2 is a zoo, 3 is a tree, 4 is a door, 5 is a hive
Process of chunking
Organized information is more easily remembered
