Week 11 Flashcards
Short term/working memory
The ability to try and hold information in our minds for a brief time and work with it
Episodic memory
The ability to remember the episodes of our lives
Semantic memory
Our storehouse of more-or-less permanent knowledge and the huge collection of facts about the world
Collective memory
Refers to the kind of memory that people in a group share
Three stages of memory and learning
Encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding
The initial learning of information. Refers to the initial experience of perceiving and learning information.
We are always encoding the events of our lives
Storage
Maintaining information over time. We encode each of our experiences within the structure of the nervous system, making new impressions involves changes in the brain. Memories have to be stored somewhere in the brain, so in order to do so, the brain biochemically alters itself and its neural tissue
Retrieval
The ability to access information when you need it. We access only a tiny portion of what we’ve taken in. Most of our memories will never be used-in the sense of being brought back to mind, consciously
Two types of errors in retrieval
Forgetting, misremembering
One reason for inaccuracy
The three stages are not as discrete as our description implies. All three stages depend on one another. How we encode information determines how it will be stored.
Flashbulb memory
How some memories seem to be captured in the mind like a flash photograph; because of the distinctiveness and emotionality of the news, they seem to become permanently etched in the mind withe exceptional clarity. A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event
Process of encoding
Always involves recoding, that is, taking the information from the form it is delivered to us and then converting it in a way that we can make sense of it
Basic concept of good encoding strategies
To form distinctive memories, and to form links or associations among memories to help later retrieval
Recoding
The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form, usually one more easily remembered
distinctiveness
The principle that unusual events will be recalled and recognized better than uniform events
One reason people can sometimes remember events that did not actually happen
Recoding can add information that was not even seen or heard during the initial encoding phase. Several of the recoding processes, like forming associations between memories, can happen without our awareness
Memory trace
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event
Engrams
A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event, memory trace
Consolidation
The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces
Memory
A construction of what you actually recall and what you believe happened. Remembering is reconstructive no reproductive
Retroactive interference
Refers to new activities during the retention interval that interfere with retrieving that specific, older memory
Misinformation effect
When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event
Proactive interference
When past memories interfere with the encoding of new ones
Available information
The information that is stored in memory-but precisely how much and what types are stored cannot be known.
Accessible information
The information we retrieve
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
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.
Requirements for a cue to be effective
A match must exist between the cue and the desired target memory; to produce the best retrieval, the cue-target relationship should be distinctive
Recognition failure of recallable words
Highlights the point that a cue will be most effective depending on how the information has been encoded
Retrieving memories
Every time we retrieve a memory, it is altered. Retrieving some information can actually cause us to forget other information related to it- a phenomenon called retrieval-induced forgetting. Retrieval practise enhances accurate memories, so it will strengthen errors or false memories. Sometimes memories can be manufactured just from hearing a vivid story
Testing effect or the retrieval practise effect
The act of retrieval itself makes the retrieved memory much more likely to be retrieved again
To improve memory
We need to encode information in conjunction with excellent cues that will bring back the remembered events when we need them. Construct meaningful cues that remind us of the original experience, and those cues should be distinctive and not associated with other memories
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
Peg word technique
Forms a vivid image of what you want to remember and imagine interacting with peg words
autobiographical memory
Memory for the event’s of one’s life
Five reasons we forget
Encoding failures, Decay, Inadequate retriveal cues, interference, trying not to remember
Encoding failures
If you fail to encode information into memory, you are not going to remember it later on. Encoding failures occur because we are distracted or are not paying attention to specific details
Decay
As time passes, memories get harder to recall. If we do not rehearse a memory and the neural representation of that memory is not reactivated over a long period of time, the memory representation may disappear entirely or fade to the point where it can no longer be accessed.
Inadequate retrieval cues
This type of forgetting may occur when we lack the appropriate retrieval cues for brining the memory to mind
Interference
Other memories get in the way of retrieving a desired memory
Trying not to remember
Over time, by not actively trying not to remember an event, we can sometimes successfully keep the undesirable memory from being retrieved either by inhibiting the undesirable memory or generating diversionary thoughts
Forgetting
Is adaptive, allowing us to be efficient and hold onto the most relevant memories
Anterograde amnesia
Refers to a person with amnesia who is unable to learn new information, a memory impairment. Inability to form new memories for facts and events after the onset of amnesia. Keep information in short-term, or working memory, but when attention is turned to something else, that information was lost for good
Retrograde amnesia
Refers to an inability to retrieve old memories that occurred before the onset of amnesia. Co-occurs with anterograde amnesia and shows a temporal gradient, in which memories closest in time to the onset of amnesia are lost, but more remote memories are retained
Problem with Eyewitness testimony
There is a wealth of evidence that eyewitness testimony is probably the most persuasive form of evidence presented in court, but in many cases, its accuracy is dubious.
Evidence that mistaken eyewitnesses evidence can lead to wrongful conviction-sending people to prison for years or decades, even death row for crimes they did not commit
Faulty eyewitness testimony
has been implicated in at least 75% of DNA exoneration cases-more than any other cause
Problem with witnesses talking to each other
Because different eyewitnesses are different people with different perspectives, they are likely to see or notice different things, and thus remember different things, even when they witness the same event
Reinforce common memories for the event but also contaminate each other’s memories for the event
How can eyewitness memory be corrupted
By leading questions, misinterpretations of events, conversations with co-witnesses, and their own expectations for what should have happened
How can memory in the legal system be fixed
Aim at specific legal procedures, including when and how witnesses should be interviewed, and how lineups should be constructed and conducted
Appropriate education to be provided to jury members and others tasked with assessing eyewitness memory
Eyewitness identification error
Substantial amount of research demonstrating that eyewitnesses can make serious but often understandable and even predictable errors
Some factors have been shown to make eyewitness identification errors particularly likely, such as poor vision or viewing conditions during the crime, particularly stressful witnessing experiences, too little time to view the perpetrator or perpetrators, too much delay between witnessing and identifying, and being asked to identify a perpetrator from being a race other than one’s own
Misinformation effect
When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event
Misinformation in eyewitness testimony
Misinformation that subjects were exposed to after the even apparently contaminates subjects’ memories of what they witnessed. Memory can be contaminated by erroneous information that people are exposed to after they witness an event. Can corrupt memory even more easily when it is encountered in social situations
How is memory susceptible to a wide variety of other biases and errors
People can forget events that happened to them and people they once know, they can mix up details across time and place, they can even remember whole complex events that never happened at all
These errors, once made, can be very hard to unmake.
foils
Any member of a lineup other than the suspect
Schemata
A memory template, created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events
False memories
Memory for an event that never actually occurred, implanted by experimental manipulation or other means
How do our expectations and beliefs about how the world works have huge influences on our memories
Many aspects of our everyday lives are full of redundancies, our memory systems take advantage of the reoccurring patterns by forming and using schemata, or memory templates
False memory studies
Have used a variety of different manipulations to produce false memories in substantial minorities and even occasional majorities of manipulated subjects
False feedback manipulation
Allows researchers to persuade subjects to falsely remember having a variety of childhood experiences
