W7 - Memory Flashcards
Autobiographical memory
Memory for the events of one’s life.
Consolidation
The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces.
Cue overload principle
The principle stating that the more memories that are associated to a particular retrieval cue, the less effective the cue will be in prompting retrieval of any one memory.
Distinctiveness
The principle that unusual events (in a context of similar events) will be recalled and recognized better than uniform (nondistinctive) events.
Encoding
The initial experience of perceiving and learning events.
Encoding specificity principle
The hypothesis that a retrieval cue will be effective to the extent that information encoded from the cue overlaps or matches information in the engram or memory trace.
Engrams
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event; also, memory trace.
Episodic memory
Memory for events in a particular time and place.
Flashbulb memory
Vivid personal memories of receiving the news of some momentous (and usually emotional) event.
Memory traces
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event.
Misinformation effect
When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.
Mnemonic devices
A strategy for remembering large amounts of information, usually involving imaging events occurring on a journey or with some other set of memorized cues.
Recoding
The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form, usually one more easily remembered.
Retrieval
The process of accessing stored information.
Retroactive interference
Recent memories interfere with the retrieval of old memories
Semantic memory
The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have.
A stage in learning: Storage
The stage in the learning/memory process that bridges encoding and retrieval; the persistence of memory over time.
Availability
item is in memory
Accessibility
item can be retrieved from memory
What causes forgetting
failure of availibility
retrieval failure
failure of accessibility
Cue Dependency Principle
The strength of a memory depends on the number and informativeness
of its cues.
Encoding Specificity Principle
Cues are most effective if they are encoded along with the to-be-
remembered information
How long do we keep memories?
- Forgetting happens all the time, usually for poorly encoded information.
- Memories are strengthened every time we retrieve them.
- If you learn information well, how long can you keep it?
What is the duration of sensory memory and short term memory? How do we know (i.e., can you describe an experiment that tells us the answer)?
Sensory Memory: Lasts approximately 1/4 to 1/2 second for visual information and 2 to 4 seconds for auditory information. This was demonstrated by Sperling’s partial-report experiment.
Short-Term Memory: Lasts about 15 to 30 seconds without rehearsal, as shown by Peterson and Peterson’s experiments involving trigrams and backward counting.
What is the capacity of sensory memory and short term memory? How do we know?
sensory: 5-10 items
short term memory: 7+/- 2 verablly and 4+/-1 visually
What do memory studies of expert chess players tell us about short-term/working memory?
in a Game - experts recalled correctly a significantly higher number of peices than novies
Random - the number of peices correctly recalled does not differ between the two
What are the different types of long-term memory?
Explicit (declarative) memory
Implicit (nondeclarative) memory
Early models of short-term memory just treated it like a single “box” where we stored things temporarily. How is Baddeley’s working memory model different?
with Baddeley’s model short-term memory is slip into three boxs that all feed in and out of the central excutive(sesory memory) and the long-term memory, these boxes are:
- photological loop
- episodic buffer
- visual-spatial sketchpad
What are four strategies than improve encoding into long-term memory? Can you describe an experiment that demonstrates each?
Experiment: Craik & Tulving (1975)
Method: Participants processed words by appearance, rhyme, or meaning, then took a yes/no recognition test.
Results: Words processed for meaning were remembered better than those processed by appearance or rhyme, showing deeper processing improves long-term memory encoding.
Levels of processing theory distinguishes between maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal. What is the difference? Why do you think elaborative rehearsal is better?
maintenance rehearsal - is just rehersing the same thing again.
elaborative rehearsal - adds or makes the information more elaborte each time you rehers it.
- it is better because it goves more meaning by linking pre-existing knowledge to better incode the new info
An effective study strategy is mind-mapping. Given what you know about memory encoding and retrieval, why is mind-mapping effective?
- linking ideas together - Chunking
- drawing - Visual Encoding
- writing out the info how you interprit it
- Elaborative Rehearsal
What are two important lessons we learn from Ebbinghaus’s memory studies?
- overlearnign leads to stable remembering
- savaings: the reduction in time reqired to learn a second time
Anterograde amnesia
Inability to form new memories for facts and events after the onset of amnesia.
Consolidation
Process by which a memory trace is stabilized and transformed into a more durable form.
Decay
The fading of memories with the passage of time.
Decay
The fading of memories with the passage of time.
Declarative memory
Conscious memories for facts and events.
Declarative memory
Conscious memories for facts and events.
Dissociative amnesia
Loss of autobiographical memories from a period in the past with brain injury or disease. often linked to PTSD
Encoding
Process by which information gets into memory.
Interference
Other memories get in the way of retrieving a desired memory
Medial temporal lobes
Inner region of the temporal lobes that includes the hippocampus.
Retrieval
Process by which information is accessed from memory and utilized.
Retrograde amnesia
Inability to retrieve memories for facts and events acquired before the onset of amnesia.
Temporally graded retrograde amnesia
Inability to retrieve memories from just prior to the onset of amnesia with intact memory for more remote events.
