week 11 - memory Flashcards
autobiographical memory
Autobiographical memory - Memory for the events of one’s life.
consolidation
Consolidation - The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces.
cue overload principle
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
Distinctiveness - The principle that unusual events (in a context of similar events) will be recalled and recognized better than uniform (non distinctive) events.
encoding
Encoding - The initial experience of perceiving and learning events.
encoding specificity principle
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
Engrams - A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event; also, memory trace.
episodic memory
Episodic memory - Memory for events in a particular time and place.
flashbulb memory
Flashbulb memory - Vivid personal memories of receiving the news of some momentous (and usually emotional) event.
memory traces
Memory traces - A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event.
misinformation effect
Misinformation effect - When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.
mnemonic devices
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
Recoding - The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form, usually one more easily remembered.
retreival
Retrieval - The process of accessing stored information.
retroactive interference
Retroactive interference - The phenomenon whereby events that occur after some particular event of interest will usually cause forgetting of the original event.
semantic memory
Semantic memory - The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have.
storage
Storage - The stage in the learning/memory process that bridges encoding and retrieval; the persistence of memory over time.
5 reasons we forget (e, d, ins, inter, intent)
Identify five reasons we forget and give examples of each.
Encoding failures
People have a lot of trouble recognizing an actual penny out of a set of drawings of very similar pennies, or lures, even though most of us have had a lifetime of experience handling pennies. However, few of us have studied the features of a penny in great detail, and since we have not attended to those details, we fail to recognize them later.
Decay - memories fade overtime
The trace decay theory of forgetting states that all memories fade automatically as a function of time. This process begins almost immediately if the information is not used: for example, sometimes we forget a person’s name even though we have just met them.
Insufficient retrieval cues
Without the retrieval cue (the picture) you were unable to recall the name of the singer, although you knew who she was. Once you saw the picture, you were able to recall the singer’s name.
Interference
After changing your mobile phone number, you have a difficult time remembering the new number, so you keep accidentally giving people your old number. The memory of your old number interferes with your ability to recall your new number.
Intentional attempts to forget
Intentionally trying to forget you falling on your face in front of your crush to save yourself the embarrassment
how can forgetting be viewed as an adaptive process?
You may occasionally have trouble remembering where you parked your car, but imagine if every time you had to find your car, every single former parking space came to mind. The task would become impossibly difficult to sort through all of those irrelevant memories. Thus, forgetting is adaptive in that it makes us more efficient. The price of that efficiency is those moments when our memories seem to fail us
anterograde vs retrograde amnesia
Anterograde - inability to form new memories for facts and events acquired after the onset of amnesia.
Retrograde - Inability to retrieve memories for facts and events acquired before the onset of amnesia.
consolidation
Consolidation - Process by which a memory trace is stabilized and transformed into a more durable form.
temporally graded retrograde amnesia
Temporally graded retrograde amnesia - Inability to retrieve memories from just prior to the onset of amnesia with intact memory for more remote events.
decay
Decay - The fading of memories with the passage of time.
declarative memory
Declarative memory - Conscious memories for facts and events.
dissociative amnesia
Dissociative amnesia - Loss of autobiographical memories from a period in the past in the absence of brain injury or disease.
encoding
Encoding - Process by which information gets into memory.
interference
Interference - Other memories get in the way of retrieving a desired memory
medial temporal lobes
Medial temporal lobes - Inner region of the temporal lobes that includes the hippocampus.
retreival
Retrieval - Process by which information is accessed from memory and utilized.
Describe the kinds of mistakes that eyewitnesses commonly make and some of the ways that this can impede justice.
Describe the kinds of mistakes that eyewitnesses commonly make and some of the ways that this can impede justice.
Identification errors occur, and these errors can lead to people being falsely accused and even convicted.
Likewise, eyewitness memory can be corrupted by leading questions, misinterpretations of events, conversations with co-witnesses, and their own expectations for what should have happened.
People can even come to remember whole events that never occurred.
false memories
False memories - Memory for an event that never actually occurred, implanted by experimental manipulation or other means.
foils
Foils - Any member of a lineup (whether live or photograph) other than the suspect.
misinformation effect
Misinformation effect - A memory error caused by exposure to incorrect information between the original event (e.g., a crime) and later memory test (e.g., an interview, lineup, or day in court).
mock witnesses
Mock witnesses - A research subject who plays the part of a witness in a study.
photo spreads
Photo spreads - A selection of normally small photographs of faces given to a witness for the purpose of identifying a perpetrator.
schema
Schema (plural: schemata) - A memory template, created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events.
