Chapter 7 Memory

Putting coded information into memory (transfer from working to LTM)

Encoding

Maintaining coded information in memory.

Storage

Recovering information from memory stores.

Retrieval

Involves remembering to perform actions in the future.

Prospective Memory

Memory which involves the intentional recollection of previous experiences

explicit memory/declarative memory

Assumes that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly connected computational networks that resemble neural networks

PDP Model (Connectionist model)

A theory that proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer lasting memories

Levels of Processing Theory

Involves linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding

Elaborative Reherseal

A theory that memory is enhanced by forming both semantic and visual codes

Dual-coding Theory (Pavio)

Preserves information in the original sensory form for a very brief time

Sensory memory

A limited capacity memory store that can maintain unrehearsed information

Working Memory

The process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about new information

Maintenance rehearsal

A group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit.

Chunking

Unusually vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events. Not a separate memory system.

Flashbulb memories

Occurs when subjects show better recall of items at the beginning and end of a list

Serial Postion Effect

Better memory for items at the beginning of a list

Primacy effect

Better memory for items at the end of a list

Recency effect

Memory for factual information.

Semantic

Memory for actions, skills, and operations.

Procedural

Memory made up of chronological, or temporally dated, recollections of personal events

Episodic

The tendency to remember similar or related items in a group.

Clustering

These consist of concepts joined together by links that show how the concepts are related

Semantic Network

A long lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific pathway.

LTP - Long Term Potentiation

An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or sequence of events.

Schema

A temporary inability to remember something you know accompanied by the feeling that you know it.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

The ability to remember information without any cues

Recall

Requires the selection of previously learned information from an array of choices.

Recognition

Attributes forgetting to the impermanence of memory storage. (Time passage.)

Decay Theory/Law of Disuse

Attributes forgetting to competition from other material

Interference Theory

Occurs when new information impairs the retention of previously learned

Retroactive interference

Occurs when previously learned information impairs the retention of new

Proactive interference

The attempt to mold our interpretation of the past to fit how it actually turned out.

Hindsight Bias

Involves purposeful suppression of memories (motivated forgetting).

Repression

The loss of memory for events that occurred prior to a brain injury.

Retrograde amnesia

The loss of memory for events that occur after a brain injury.

Anterograde amnesia

A multi-level classification system based on common properties among items

conceptual hierarchy

The process of deciding how or whether information is personally relevant

Self-Referent encoding

The process of making attributions about the origins of memories.

Source monitoring

The process of deciding whether memories are based on external or internal sources

Reality monitoring

An error that occurs when a memory derived from one source is attributed to another

Source monitoring error/missatribution

Another term for the procedural memory system which houses memory for actions, skills, and operations.

Non-declarative memory

severe memory loss associated with the malnutrition that often accompanies alcoholism

Korsakoff's Syndrome

near-photographic memory for visual information found in 5-8% of preadolescents

Eidetic Memory

Neurotransmitter that is affected by Alzheimer's (lack of it from death of neurons)

acetylcholine

Is apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering

implicit memory

A mnemonic device that involves taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path

method of loci

States that the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code

encoding specificity principle

Involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information

retrospective memory

Involves linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding

elaborative encoding

claims that one's physical state can serve as a retrieval cue

state-dependent learning

four components of Baddeley's model of working memory

episodic buffer, phonological rehearsal loop, executive command, visuospatial sketchpad

overconfidence effect

phenomenon where people are more confident in the accuracy of their memory, but it is not strongly correlated to actual accuracy

context dependent memory

The theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place.

early selection model

Filters information/message before incoming information is analyzed for meaning

late selection model

Selection of stimuli for final processing does not occur until after information has been analyzed for meaning