Week 9: Memory Flashcards
Attention
Refers to how we select which information to focus our finite cognitive resources towards processing and potentially forming a memory of.
Selective Attention
Allows us to attend to only one source of information, while ignoring other sources of information.
Dichotic listening tasks
In these tasks, participants are to wear a set of headphones and the researchers will play one message through one side of the headphones and a different message through the other side of the headphones. Participants are asked to listen to only one of the messages (this is called the ‘attended channel’) and to ignore the message coming through the other side of headphones (this is called the ‘unattended channel’).
Visual Search Tasks
Measures how the number of features you are searching for search tasks that one factor determines how long it takes you to find things in a complex visual scene.
Parallel Processing
Allows us to process several stimuli at the same time to find which target is different from the others.
Serial processing
A more time-consuming process that is used in finding a target defined by two or more features.
Executive Control
A mechanism by which we set goals and priorities, chooses strategies, and direct the use of many other cognitive processes.
Inattentional Blindness
Refers to when we can’t seem to see something because we’re not paying attention to it.
Change Blindness
Refers to where you can fail to notice a dramatic change in the characteristics of something due to not paying enough attention.
Short Term
Short term memory refers to information that we retain temporarily for about 30 seconds or less.
Short term memory has a limited capacity, specifically being able to store 7 +/- 2 ‘items’ of information.
Short Term Memory Processes
When we pay attention to information from the environment, it will be encoded and enter our short-term memory stores and remain there for about 30 seconds before being forgotten.
If we rehearse this information it is possible to retain information within our short-term memory for more than 30 seconds.
The process of transferring information held temporarily in short-term memory to a more stable memory held in long-term memory is called ‘consolidation’.
Working Memory vs Short Term Memory
Just like short-term memory, working memory has a capacity of 7 +/- 2 items of information, and will hold information up to 30 seconds if the information is not rehearsed. However, working memory describes a limited capacity memory system that temporarily stores and processes information which we have recently encoded.
Components of working memory
First, is a ‘phonological loop’ which briefly stores auditory or sound information.
The second component of our working memory is called the ‘visuospatial sketchpad’ which briefly stores visual and spatial information.
The third component is called the ‘episodic buffer’, which is a temporary storage space where information from the two subsystems as well as our long-term memory can be integrated and manipulated.
The final component of our working memory is the ‘central executive’. The central executive controls the sequence of actions that need to be performed in the other subsystems.
Long-term memory
Long-term memory is thought to be unlimited in capacity and able to memories which can last a lifetime.
Information which is held in long-term memory can later be accessed and recalled to memory through a process of memory ‘retrieval’.
Once we have finished using this information in our working memory, we can then return the information back to our long-term memory through a process called ‘re-consolidation’.
The Serial Position Effect
Refers to people remembering the words from both the beginning and the end of the list, but not remembering many words from the middle of the list.
The serial position effect is due to two different phenomena the ‘primacy effect’ and the ‘recency effect’.
Primacy effect
Provides evidence of long-term memory through rehearsal of the information that helps us to transfer the information from our working memory to our long-term memory.
Recency effect
Provides evidence of the working memory system where you recall information which you’ve heard more recently.
Implicit and explicit memory
‘Implicit memory’ occurs when memory influences our behaviour, but without our conscious awareness and involves a type of skill-based memory system referred to as ‘procedural memory’.
‘Explicit memory’, involves conscious or intentional memory retrieval, which can also be referred to as ‘declarative memories’.
Explicit memory tests
- Recall Test
- Cued Recall Test
- Recognition Test
Implicit memory tests
- Implicit procedural memory tasks
- Word stems
The neurobiology of Working Memory
- When using the visuospatial sketchpad to form a mental image activates some of the same areas of the visual cortex
- Frontal Lobes, in particular, the prefrontal cortex also plays a key role in working memory.
- The executive functions are controlled by the frontal lobes.
The neurobiology of Long-term memory
- Hippocampus is involved in the encoding of long-term memories
- Amygdala is important in the formation and retrieval of memories high in emotion and arousal
- Thalamus is involved in the encoding process of new memories
Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia
Anterograde amnesia: A type of amnesia which prevents us creating new explicit memories.
Retrograde amnesia: A type of amnesia that involves the forgetting of memories from our past and can result in someone having no memory from their past.
Four theories of forgetting
- The first reason is that the information may not have been stored in our memory in the first place.
- The second main cause of forgetting is retrieval failure.
- The third main cause of forgetting is memory decay.
- The fourth main cause of us forgetting is interference.
Techniques utilised to strengthen Memory
- Deep encoding: think about the meaning of the information
- Maintenance Rehearsal: involves simple repetition
- Elaborative rehearsal: focuses on the meaning of the information and trying to elaborate on it in some way.
(evidence supports elaborative rehearsal being far superior for creating stable, long-term memories compared to maintenance rehearsal.) - Mnemonics: are patterns of ideas and associations that help us to remember
- Context reinstatement: where the retrieval context is made as similar as possible to the encoding context.
- Retrieval practice: practicing retrieving information
- The method of loci: a visuospatial mnemonic strategy using familiar spaces to remember information
- Sleep
