AP Psychology Unit 2.1: Memory

Metacognition

Being aware of your own thoughts and controlling them

• Thinking about your own thinking

• Ex: Knowing how you got to a topic

Levels of processing model

Theory that we remembering things we spend more cognitive time and energy processing

• Examines how deeply the memory was processed or thought about

  • Deeply / elaborately processed

  • Shallowly / maintenance processed

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through storage and retrievel of information

Process of memory

• Encoding = getting info into memory

• Storage = organize info into long term memory

• Retrieval = access memory from long term memory when necessay

Multi-store Memory model

Framework used by cognitive psychologists to explain and describe mental processes

• Breaks down into sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory

Encoding

Getting info to your memory system

• Parallel processing = allows us to make multiple memories at once

• Two types of encoding

  • Automatic

  • Effortful

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of secondary information

• Time, space, frequency, and well-learned info

• Sequence of your day

• Registering what the words mean without trying

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

• Rehearal = constant repetition

• Can be kept in consciousness (Remembering phone #)

• Can be encoded in storage (Studying for test)

Shallow encoding

Structure of the word

• Ex: Structural process = the shape of the word, letters

• Phonetic processing = what it sounds like or rhymes with

Semantic encoding

Adding meaning to word

• Produces the best, long-lasting memory results

• Requires elaborate rehearsal

• Why you write examples in vocab

Spacing effect

The more quickly you encode, more quickly you forget

Massed practice

Cramming, learning something new in one sitting

• Less effective

Distributed practice

Spacing the study of material to be remembered by including breaks between study period, also multiple practice sessions

Testing effect

Easier to remember info from long term memory when asked to recall it (aka test on it)

Interleaving

A retrievel practice strategy that involves mixing the study of different topics

• Ex: Studying psych, then history, then back to psych

• Forces your brain to make connections

Serial positioning

Our tendency to recall the last and first items in a list

Primacy effect

Tendency to remember the first item at the beginning of a list

Recency effect

Tendency to remember the last item at the end of a list

Mnemonics

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organization devices

• Ex: ROYGBIV

Method of loci

Imagining a physical location, then place objects in that mental space which correspond to things that must be remembered

Chunking

Group familiar, manageable units

Hierarchies

Broad categories divided into narrower concepts

• Ex: Remembering the lymbic system and cerebral cortex

Working memory

Active processing of both incoming sensory info and retrieved info from long term memory

Multi-store model

1. Sensory memory = immediate, brief recording of sensory info

2. Short-term memory = active memory that holds a few (5-9) items briefly

• Quickly forgotten

• Working memory

3. Long term = relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memory

• Includes knowledge, skills, and experience

Iconic memory

Part of sensory memory, momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli

• 1/10th of a second

• Appearance and location in space

• Ex: When your briefly see an image on the objects in a room in your mind after turning off a light switch

Echoic memory

Part of sensory memory, momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

• Words can be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

• Ex: Saying “huh?” but then register what they are saying

Short term memory

Briefly activated memory of a few items that must be stored or they are forgotten

• Ex: A phone number, directions

Difference between short term memory and working memory

Short term is storage and working is active use of memory

Visuospatial sketchpad

Brief hold of info about an objects appearance and location in space

• Your “minds eye” capable of picturing things mentally

• Ex: Remembering where you parked

Phonological loop

Brief hold of auditory information

• Your inner voice

• Ex: Having a song stuck in your head

Episodic buffer

Integrates info from multiple sources into a unified memory

• Limited in capacity

• Ex: Picturing your house when buying furniture

Central executive

Coordinator for the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer

Magic number 7 (plus or minus 2)

We only remember/use about 7 items of memory at a time

• Can use chunking to remember more

Rehearsal

Mental repetition of info to learn and remember it

Maintenance rehearsal

Saying information aloud or in your head until it becomes part of your working memory

• Tends to be shallow processing

Elaborative rehearsal

Connecting new info to existing long-term memories

• Longer lasting memory

Explicit memory / declarative memory

Facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

• Have to think about it before recalling

• Stored in hippocampus

• Had to at some point effortfully encode

Episodic memory

Explicit, things that have happened to you in your life

• Type of autobiographical memory

Autobiographical memory

Explicit, your personal life, basically accounts for your whole life

Semantic memory

Explicit, general and everyday knowledge

Procedural memory

Explicit and implicit, skills

• Learning how to ride a bike

Prospective memory

Explicit and implicit, memory for future events

• Remembering you need to do something in the future

Flashbulb memory

Explicit, type of episodic memory, vivid memory of the circumstances surrounding a significant event

• Ex: Remembering exactly where you were when you heard about 9/11

Long term potentiation

An increase in a synapse’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

• Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

• When neurons continue to fire at the same time, the dendrites of each neuron grow, increasing the efficiency of the neuron

• Each time a memory is activated, the path is followed, making it stronger

Long term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

Memory consolidation

The neural storage of a long-term memory

• Anything we recall is coming from long term memory

Implicit memory

Retention of well learned skills or classically conditoned associations

• Independent of conscious recollection

  • Processed unconscious/automatically

• Processed by cerebellum and basal ganglia

• Learned Skills

  • Ex: Riding a bike

• Conditioning

  • Ex: Knee jerk reactions

Memory retention

Ability to store and recall info or experiences over time

Retrieval

Ability to bring info from long term memory into consciousness

Recall

Total retrieval

• Ex: fill in the blank

Recognition

Identificaiton

• Ex: multiple choice

Retrieval cues

Clues that are associated with the info you’re looking for

• Like googling in your brain → need the right words

Context dependent

Being in the same environmental space that you encoded the info in makes it easier to recall

• Ex: Retracing your steps, taking a test in the same spot

State dependent

Being in the same mental state you encoded info makes it easier to recall

• Ex: Somone under the influence of alcohol

Mood congruent

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with your current good/bad mood

• Ex: Mad at someone and then you remember all the other times they made you mad

Inadequate retrievel / Retrieval failure

Retrieval cue is not strong enough to retrieve or trigger, the memory from long term memory

• Ex: Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Proactive

Old info interferes with new

• Ex: Keep going to your old locker

Retroactive

New info interferes with old

• Ex: Struggle to remember your old phone number

Encoding failure

Info doesn’t make it from working / short term memory into long term memory

• Ex: Don’t rehearse flashcars enough

• Ex: Not enough sleep

Storage decay

Gradual disappearance of a memory because the memory has not been thought about or retried from long term memory back into short term memory

• Ex: Fading childhood memories, forgetting names

Ebbinghause

Forgetting plateaus over time

• The most you will ever forget is shortly after you learn

Freud

Some memories will be forgotten on purpose, to protect ourselves, therapy can bring it out

Repression

Unconscious repressing of memories

Suppression

Conscious, effortful, suppression of memories, putting up a front

Amnesia

Loss of memory

Retrograde amnesia

Trouble accessing memories BEFORE the onset of amnesia

Anterograde amnesia

Trouble making new memories AFTER the onset of amnesia

Infantile amnesia

Inability to remember things before the age of 3

Source amnesia

Inability to recall where, when, or how you learned knowledddge that has been aquired and retained

Dementia

Umbrella term for memory loss

Alzheimer’s disease

An irreversible brain disorder characterized by the deterioration of memory

• Acetylcholine deteriorates

Misinformation effects

When a memory has been corrupted by misleading information

Constructive memory

The “updating” of memories due to new info, beliefs, experiences, or suggestions

• Our brain doesn’t fully recall an entire memory

• Has to construct info to fill in the blanks

• Ex: “Remembering” that you held a certain belief

Imagination inflation

A memory distortion that occurs when someone becomes more confident that an event happened after imagining it

• Ex: Mandela effect

• Ex: Shown a picture of your family in a hot air balloon, more likely to believe it happened

Deja vu

The feeling that one has lived thorugh the present situation before

• Feeling of familiarity combined with source amnesia

Highly Superior Autobiological Memory (HSAM)

A rare memory condition that allows people to recall details of their lives with exceptional accuracy and vividness

• Tends to be very focused on calender dates

• Remembering the entire 3D experience

• Not just a visual stimulus

Autobiographical memory

Episodes recollected from an individuals life, combination of episodic and semantic memory

Sensory memory

Immediate, brief recording of sensory information