psychology test 2 unit 2

Cumulative cultural evolution

Cultures evolve by continuously building on the accumulated skills and

knowledge of prior generations

Memory

The capacity to store and receive information in order to facilitate learning

Encoding

The process of taking information from the world, including our internal thoughts

and feelings, and converting it to memories.

Storage

The maintenance of information in the brain for later access

Retrieval

The process of bringing to mind previously encoded and stored information.

Storage

the capacity to maintain information over a certain period of time

Memory storage differs according to _______ and ________

duration (how long it is stored) and capacity (how much is stored)

Multistore model of memory

model proposing that information flows from our senses through three storage levels in memory: sensory, short-term, and long-term

Sensory memory

A storage level of memory that holds sensory information on the order of milliseconds to seconds

Short-term memory

A storage level of memory where information can be held briefly, from seconds to less than a minute

Long-term memory

A storage level of memory where information can be held for hours to many years and potentially a lifetime

People with amnesia have ________

largely intact short-term memory.

People with Parkinson’s disease have _____________________

impaired short-term memory but intact long-term memory.

People diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease have ___________________________

impaired short-term memory and long-term memory

Iconic memory

A rapidly decaying store of visual sensory information.

Echoic memory

A rapidly decaying store of auditory sensory information.

Chunking

The process of grouping stimuli together in chunks in working memory to increase the

amount of information stored in short-term memory

Working memory

manipulation of information

Working memory span

How many items can be juggled and manipulated in the mind.

Rehearsal

The holding of information in the brain through mental repetition

Phonological loop

Repeating information to keep it in short-term memory.

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Storing and processing information in a visual and spatial form

Herman Ebbinghaus

Recall varies as a function of position

within a study list.

• Serial position curve

• Recency effect: The words toward the

end of the list are still active in short-

term and working memory and can be

recalled easily.

• Primacy effect: Increased recall for

the items at the beginning of the list

may be due to increased processing,

such as extra rehearsal and

elaboration and ability for these

fleeting events to make it into our

long-term memory

Amnesia

The loss of memory due to brain damage or trauma.

Henry Molaison

Hippocampus was removed

bilaterally due to severe epileptic

seizures

o H.M. retained his intelligence,

ability to speak and understand

language, personality, and even

short-term memory.

o Could not store new memories in

long-term storage

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory,

preventing new long-term memories from forming

Retrograde amnesia

A form of amnesia in which access to memories prior to brain damage is impaired, but the individual can store new experiences in long-term memory.

Levels of processing

The multiple levels at which encoding can occur, ranging from shallow to deep

Shallow encoding

Encoding based on sensory characteristics, such as how something looks or sounds

Deep encoding

Encoding based on an event’s meaning as well as connections between the new event and past experience

Elaboration

A memory process that requires associations between new information and old information

Semantic encoding

operates on the meaning of events

Self-referential encoding

Encoding based on an event’s relation to our self-concept, which leads to enhanced

memory for the event.

Explicit memory

A form of memory that involves intentional and conscious remembering.

example of explicit memory

remembering your first bicycle ride including recollecting the time and place you learned to ride

The hippocampus specializes in the formation of ______ memories

explicit

Implicit memory:

A form of memory that occurs without intentional recollection or awareness and can

be measured indirectly through the influence of prior learning on behavior.

example of implicit memory

remembering how to ride a bicycle

Procedural memory

A type of implicit memory related to the acquisition of skills

Priming

The increased ability to process a stimulus because of previous exposure

Visual priming is supported by _________ for previously seen images in

visual cortical regions

decreased neural activity

Affective conditioning

A form of conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires positive or negative value

______ are supported by two separate systems in the brain.

Knowing and remembering

Episodic memory

The explicit recollection of personal experience that requires piecing together the elements of that time and place.

Semantic memory

Explicit memory supporting knowledge about the world, including concepts and facts

Retrospective memory

Memory for things we have done in the past

Prospective memory

Memory for things we need to do in the future

________ does not require conscious effort.

Consolidation

Sleep leads to stronger ________

memory consolidation

are made at the cellular level

Long-term and consolidated

Memory traces:

Neurons contain remnants of past communications.

Brain activity is enhanced for emotional events in the

amygdala and hippocampus

Flashbulb memory

A vivid memory for an emotionally significant event, thought to be permanent and detailed, as if frozen in time like a photograph

Free recall

Accessing information from memory without any cues to aid your retrieval

Retrieval cues

Information related to stored memories that helps bring the memories back to mind

Cued recall

A form of retrieval that is facilitated by providing information related to the stored memory

Recognition

A form of retrieval that relies on identifying previously seen or experienced information.

Encoding specificity principle

The idea that retrieval is best when the present context recreates the context in which information was initially encoded.

Doorway effect:

Walking through doorways influences memory retrieval

Mood-dependent retrieval

The increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same mood during both encoding and retrieval.

Moses illusion

demonstrates how information can be available but not accessible. For information to be useful, we should practice information well enough so that we can access it freely when we need it.

Forgetting curve:

The retention of information over various delay times. Forgetting is initially rapid and then levels off.

Retroactive interference

The disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Proactive interference

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Positive transfer

Old information can also facilitate the learning of new information.

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

A failure to retrieve information despite confidence that it is stored in memory.

Motivated forgetting:

Willful forgetting of information so that it is less likely to be retrieved later.

Encoding failure

Information never makes it into long-term memory

Weapon focus

Central important details, such as a gun, are encoded and remembered but surrounding peripheral information, such as the color of a man’s shirt, are not.

elderly have bad memory

Rather than having memory impairments, the elderly may have memory for different things than young adults do because of changes in their ability to attend and to ignore

Misinformation effect:

The decreased accuracy of episodic memories because of information provided after the event.

Imagination inflation

A boost in confidence associated with imagining the misleading information.

Gist memory

The general global aspects of the supposed event

Verbatim memory

The specific details of an event

Infantile amnesia

The inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories from the first few years of life.

Reminiscence bump

A time of prominent memory making between adolescence and early adulthood

Concept mapping

Constructing a diagram in which boxes represent concepts and arrows connecting the boxes represent relations among the concepts.

Spacing effect

The enhanced ability to remember information when encoding is distributed over time