Farmer Chapter 5

Long-Term Memory

Working memory

• brief, immediate memory for material currently processing

  • Fragile and limited

Long-term memory

high-capacity storage system that contains memories for experiences and information you have accumulated through your lifetime.

Episodic memory

focuses on memories for events that happened personally.

Semantic memory

organized knowledge about the world, including your knowledge about words and other factual info.

Procedural Memory

knowledge about how to do something

Encoding

process information and represent in memory

Retrieval

locate information in storage and access that information.

Levels-of-processing approach

argues that deep, meaningful processing of info leads to more accurate recall than shallow, sensory kinds of processing

Distinctiveness

stimulus is different from other memory traces.

Elaboration

rich processing in terms of meaning and interconnected concepts.

Self-Reference Effect

you will remember more information if you try to relate that info to yourself

meta-analysis

statistical method for synthesizing numerous studies on a single topic

Encoding-Specificity Principle

recall is better if the context during retrieval is similar to the context during encoding.

Recall task

1. participants must reproduce the items they learned

   1. Real-life describe a situation of RECALL; LONG DELAY;

   2. encoding specificity is STRONG for real-life, lond-delay situations

Recognition task

2. participants must judge whether they saw a particular item at an earlier time

   1. Laboratory settings use this; short delay;

   2. Encoding specificity WEAK

Explicit Memory task

researcher asks you to remember some information; you realize that your memory is being tested, and the test requires intentionally retrieving information that you previously learned

Implicit Memory Task

assesses your memory indirectly; you see material; you are asked to do cognitive task that is not directly asking to either recall or recognize

repetition priming task

Another measure to measure implicit memory where recent exposure to a word increases the likelihood that you’ll think of this word when you are presented with a cue that could evoke many words

Dissociation

occurs when a variable has large effects on Test A, but little on Test B

Autobiographical Memory

memory for events and issues related to yourself

ecological validity

conditions where research is conducted are similar to natural setting.

Schema

consists of general knowledge or expectation, which is distilled from your past experiences with someone or something.

Consistency bias

we exaggerate the consistency between our past feelings and beliefs and our current viewpoint.

Suggests that we tell our life stories so that they are consistent with our current schemas about ourselves.

Source monitoring

the process of trying to identify the origin of a particular memory

Reality Monitoring

you try to identify whether an event really occurred, or whether you actually imagined this event.

Flashbulb memories

Memory for the circumstances in which you first learned about a very surprising and emotionally arousing event.

Eyewitness testimony

• require people to remember specific details about people and events.

  • more likely to make mistakes.

Post-event misinformation effect

people first view an event and are then given misleading information about it then they mistakenly recall the misleading info rather than what they actually saw.

retroactive interference

people have trouble recalling old material because some recently learned new material keeps interfering with old memories.

Constructivist approach

we construct knowledge by integrating new information with what we know, our understanding of an event or a topic is then made coherent.

Factors Affecting the Accuracy of Eyewitness Testimony

1. Eyewitness make more errors when in a stressful circumstance

2. Eyewitness make errors when there is a long delay

3. Eyewitness make more errors if the misinformation is plausible.

4. Eyewitnesses make more errors if there is social pressure

5. They make more errors if someone has provided positive feedback.

Emotion

reaction to a specific stimulus

Mood

more general, long-lasting experience

Pollyanna Principle

states that pleasant items are usually processed more efficiently and more accurately than less-pleasant items.

Recovered-memory perspective

memories can be forgotten for many years and then recovered during adolescence or adulthood

False-Memory perspective

most of recovered memoires are actually incorrect memories. Constructed stories about events that never occurred.

betrayal trauma

describe how a child may respond adaptively when a trusted parent betrays him or her by sexual abuse.

Positivity Effect

people tend to rate unpleasant events more positively with the passage of time