Intro to Psych Ch 6 - Memory

the serial position effect curve

looks like this due to maintenance rehearsal, visual imagery

(words at begging have lots of time for repetition and words at the end are fresh on the mind)

recency effect

good recall for items at the end of the list - easy to manipulate

primary effect

good recall for the words at the beginning of the list

Short Term Memory [STM]

synonymous with conscious awareness & anything that is in conscious awareness

allows you to process what is in your mind without stimulation

holds only a few items - without rehearsal, material fades in 30 sec

Long Term Memory [LTM]

storage for anything we’ve retained that we’re not currently thinking of even if it was 60 seconds ago (we’re not aware of what’s in LTM)

“remembering” transfers material back to STM

processing info helps transfer it to LTM

ex: primary effect

Model of Memory

Clive Wearing

damage to hippocampus —> can’t recall anything past 2 seconds

no transfer of material from STM to LTM but can draw info from previously stored LTM

explicit memory

conscious, intentional recollection of an event or of an item of information

recall

the ability to retrieve and reproduce from memory previously encountered material

recognition

the ability to identify previously encountered material

implicit memory

unconscious retention in memory as evidence by the effect of a previous experience or previously encountered information on current thoughts or actions

can emerge through classical conditioning

priming

A form of indirect evidence that a memory or connection has been formed

a method for measuring implicit memory in which a person reads or listens in info and is later tested to see whether it affects performance on another type of taste

parallel distributed processing model (PDP) or connectionist model

a model of memory in which knowledge is represented as connections among thousands of interacting processing units, distributed in a vast network and all operating at the same time

sensory register

a memory system that momentarily preserves sensory info

cue-dependent forgetting

inability to recall info due to insuffient cues

working memory

form of STM that actively retains information for brief periods and keeps it available for current use

chunks

a meaningful unit of information; it may be composed of smaller units; can be visual

semantic memories

memories of general knowledge, including facts, rules, concepts, and propositions

episodic memories

memories of personally experienced events and the contexts in which they occurred

serial-position effect

the tendency for people to recall the 1st and last items on a list better than the items in the middle of the list

long term potentiation

a long lasting increase in he strength of synaptic responsiveness, thought to be a biological mechanism of long term memory

mnemonic

strategies and tricks for improving memory such as the use of a verse or an easy to remember sentence

leading questions

introducing misinformation or emphasizing certain points after the fac in order to influence memory

flashbulb memory

vivid, emotional-laden memories

retrieval practice

repeated retrieval of info from memory

maintenance rehearsal

rote repetition of material in order to maintain its availability in memory

elaborative rehearsal

association of new information with already stored knowledge and deeper analysis to make it memorable

deep processing

in the encoding of information the processing of meaning rather than simply the physical or sensory features of a stimulus

decay theory

the idea that information in memory eventually disappears if its not accessed

retroactive interference

forgetting that occurs when recently learned material interferes with the ability to remember similar material stored perviously

source misattribution

the inability to distinguish an actual memory of an event from information you learn about the event elsewhere

*misremembering where you learn something

confabulation

confusion of an event that happened to someone else with one that happened to you or a belief that you remember something that never happened

proactive interference

information you already know negatively impacts the recall of new info that you’re learning

3 proposed explanations for infantile amnesia

1.) Brain development - prefrontal cortex and other parts not fully developed until few years after birth

2.) Cognitive development - the emergence of a self-concept doesn’t take place until 2 yrs old

3.) Social development - not learned social conventions; focused on routine aspects of an experience rather than distinctive ones that could later provide retrieval clues

certain circumstances confabulations are especially likely

1.) you have thoughts, heard, or told others about the imagined event many times - “imagined inflation”

2.) the image of the events contains lots of details that make it feel real

3.) the event is easy to imagine

Sensory memory

*Information is constantly bombarding our nervous system yet most of it doesn’t enter our consciousness

preliminary storage area - incredibly brief but accurate representation (30 secs)

larger in capacity than working memory

contents are quickly “forgotten” due to decay and interference

you can NOT keep info active in sensory memory via conscious effort

Iconic memory

part of sensory memory

visual storage (30 secs)

echoic memory

part of sensory memory

an auditory storage; residual impression, lasts few seconds

working memory

is associated with the hippocampus such that individuals with damage to the hippocampus can’t move info from STM to LTM (Clive)

is a variation of STM and is made of the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the phonological loop, and the central executive

lasts for 30 secs without rehearsal

can be thought of as the info that we are currently consciously aware of with the contents “forgotten” mostly through replacement ad retroactive interference

capacity changes with age; children and old people have smaller capacity then teens and adults

levels of processing

Craik and Tulving (1975) - proposed four encoding conditions:

structural (shallowest), phonological, categorical, semantic (deepest) - all tested with recognition test

encoding specificity

state dependent learning (Godden and Baddeley 1975)

Learn on land vs in water and recall on land vs in water —> conclusions: recall is better when the recall environment matches the encoding environment

LTM Model

Explicit Memory

conscious, intentional recollection of an event or item; “remembering or knowing that
2 types: episodic memory and semantic memory

Episodic memory

type of explicit memory

personally experienced memories, memory for presented information

semantic memory

general knowledge (vocabulary, math formulas etc)

Implicit Memory

non-conscious, unintentional recollection of an event or item demonstrated in an indirect way

3 types:

Classical conditioning - demonstrating learning of CS-CR pairings

Procedural Memory - skill memory

Priming - activation of related items in memory without awareness

how is memory organized

knowledge is represented as connections much like neurons in the brain

key support from priming

reaction time is faster as tested on a computer when your asked if canary is a word if preceded by bird rather than horse

*semantic organization of LTM is related to culture and education

Memory is reconstructed

Bartletts 1932 study on culture and story recall —> “gist” is better remembered over detail

cultural schemes (knowledge structures) influence what is recalled

conclusion: LTM is NOT like a photograph, instead, memory is both constructive and reconstructive