Chapter 7 - Long Term Memory Processes: Memory Encoding

encoding

the mental process by which experiences become memories

what improves memory encoding?

mid 1960s - researchers thought that the key factor for encoding was how long an experience stayed in working memory

laboratory: if they asked subjects to mindlessly repeat something, it wasn’t encoded into long-term memory, even if it remained in working memory for a while

levels of processing framework

a framework for understanding memory that proposes that the most important factor determining whether something will be remembered is the depth of processing

depth of processing

a description of how one thinks about material at encoding; depth refers to the degree of semantic involvement (ie. the word’s meaning)

deep processing

refers to greater degrees of semantic involvement; thinking about meaning of stimulus materials at encoding/what a word means and how it relates to other words

shallow processing

thinking about surface characteristics of the stimulus, such as color, size, pitch, or loudness

emotion and memory

in addition to how deeply you process something at encoding, emotional events are more likely to be encoded into long term memory

—> positive correlation between how vivid a memory is and how emotional it is

Larry Cahill and Jim McGaugh

all participants saw slide show of boy visiting his father at work in a hospital; in the middle participants saw graphic surgery slides; some participants heard graphic surgery slides were real (emotional condition) / some heard boy visited his father as they were practicing emergency procedures (nonemotional condition)

—> emotional condition had better recall

consolidation

the biological processes that create the memory continue after our conscious minds have moved on to something else

flashbulb memories

a very rich, very detailed memory that is encoded when something that is emotionally intense happens

3 special characteristics of flashbulb memories

1. they are very complete

2. they are accurate

3. they are immune to forgetting

   **only in times of great emotional duress a “NOW PRINT” process can take a memorial “snapshot” of whatever is happening in the moment

adaptive processing

evolution has selected memory processes that enhance the likelihood of survival

survival processing

memory processes that relate to life and death are different than other memory processes that result in higher memory performance

—> better recall when participants rated words for survival than either the moving or pleasantness rating conditions

intention to learn

levels of processing framework proposes that intention to learn has no impact on memory

incidental memory tests

a memory test in which the participants are not expressly told that their memory will be tested later; just told to do something with words (answer a question about them) —> surprise memory test

intentional memory test

a memory test in which the participants are told that their memory will be tested later

sheer repetition

more likely that at least one of the repetitions will be processed deeply encode the music and hum along (ad jingle)

—> repeating effecting strategies helps

what helps encoding?

• depth of processing

• emotion

• elaborating on an experience as you are having it

• thinking about its relevance to your survival

• intention might help if it prompts you to think about the material in one of these ways.

• repetition helps if it’s repetition of one of the effective types of processing

• repetition of an ineffective processing strategy does little or nothing

3 ways prior knowledge affects encoding

1. reduces what you have to remember

2. guides your interpretation of ambiguous details

3. makes unusual things stand out

prior knowledge on remembering

allows you to fit more into working memory, since demands on working memory are reduced by knowing what letters stand for (ABC, PBS)

prior knowledge guides the interpretation of details

• guides which details you will deem worthy of attention

• guides which details of an event you attend to and think about and therefore which details end up in secondary memory

schema

a memory representation containing general information about an object or an event

—> it contains information representative of a type of event rather than of a single event

default value

a characteristic that is a part of a schema that is assumed to be true in the absence of other information

—> help us make inferences AND interpret ambiguous details by providing us with context for the situation

prior knowledge makes unusual things stand out

leads you to expect that what usually occurs in a given situation will reoccur

—> if something unexpected happens, you notice it, and process it more deeply

script

a type of schema that describes a series of events (ex: visiting a doctor)

Gordon Bower

tested hypothesis that events in a store that are inconsistent with a script and relevant to the goals would be well remembered, but information not in the script is irrelevant