Psych Midterm 1 Lectures 7 & 8 - Memory + Quality Control

experimental design WITHIN subjects

- tracing treatments in same population over time
- more statistically powerful than a experimental design between subjects given the same sample size

semantic memory

facts, ideas, concepts
- frontal and temporal lobe

short-term memory

- remember information for a brief period of time
- decays without rehearsal (if you don't rehearse the information, you'll slowly forget the information)
- position matters --> primacy and recency effect (people remember the first and last chunks of information)

long-term memory

information stored in your memory for a long period of time
- no exact or limited capacity

amnesia

inability to remember

Patient HM (Henry Molaison)

- had hippocampus on both sides removed
- lost the ability to form NEW memories
- could still reason, use language, motor skills, and visual recognition
- can form new procedural memories but not semantic ones

encoding

the processing of information into the memory system
Ex. type something into computer

consolidation

the process by which memories become stable and long term in the brain

storage

retaining encoded information over time
Ex. storing that something into the computer

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage
Ex. revisiting the stored info from the computer whenever I need

episodic memory

experiences, events, first person knowledge
- "episode in my life"
- hippocampus related

procedural memory

skills, tasks, habits
- hippocampus related

sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
- split second
- high capacity but decays quickly

statistical significance (p-values)

the probability of getting a result at least as extreme as this

anterograde amnesia

inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

inability to retrieve old memories

capacity

the maximum amount that something can contain
- different systems in mind have different capacities
Ex. it's much harder to remember a list of 16 words than the names of 4 celebrities

iconic memory (type of sensory memory)

remembering visual stimuli for a few seconds

echoic memory (type of sensory memory)

when you are able to hear stimuli and remember it for a few seconds

What is chunking?

combining small pieces of information into large, meaningful clusters
- helps with memory (when you know how to chunk you can remember more)

7±2 chunks

the range one can remember
- famous number in psych field

method of loci (memory palace)

use of familiar locations as cues to recall items that have been associated with them
- space helps you remember

What is long term potentiation?

increase in synaptic plasticity through repeated firing

What is reconsolidation?

a process in which previously stored memories, when retrieved, are potentially altered before being stored again

retrieval cues

external stimuli that help people recall memories
- info is available in the mind but momentarily inaccessible

What are the types of retrieval cues?

1. external context (sight, sound, smell, environment)
2. inner state (thoughts, emotions, etc.)

What is priming?

enhanced ability to think of a stimulus (word / object) as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus

depth of processing

the idea that information that is thought about at a deeper level is better remembered
- meaningful and thorough encoding of information

context (state dependent retreival)

information is better recalled when the learning context = recalling context

What is implicit memory?

not brought to mind consciously, but expressed in behavior

What is explicit memory?

Conscious memory of facts and experiences

What is organizational encoding?

The process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items