Unit 7A - Memory

Mood-Congruent Memory

Mood-Congruent Memory

- the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood

Proactive Interference

- the forward-acting disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Retroactive Interference

- the backward-acting disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

State-Dependent Memory

- The theory/phenomena that information learned in a particular state of mind (e.g., depressed, happy, somber) is more easily recalled when in that same state of mind.

Association Network

- a chain of associations between related concepts
- when a representation predicts the activation of a concept that will also activate related concepts

Recall

- a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier
- as on a fill-in-the-blank test

Recognition

- a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned
- as on a multiple-choice test

Relearning

- a memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

Encoding

- the processing of information into the memory system
- transforming/translating incoming information into a usable form
- for example, by extracting meaning

Working Memory

- a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information
- and of information retrieved from long-term memory

Explicit Memory

- memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"
- memories that you consciously attempt to recall
- also known as declarative memory

Implicit Memory

- retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection
- information that you don't consciously attempt to remember
- also known as non-declarative memory

Herman Ebbinghaus

- 1850-1909
- after learning lists of nonsense syllables, he studied how much he retained up to 30 days later
- he found that memory for novel information fades quickly, then levels out: ?'s forgetting curve

Hippocampus

- neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage

Semantic Memory

- a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world
- one of 2 types of declarative memory

Episodic Memory

- category of long-term memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations and experiences
- explicit memory of personally experienced events
- one of 2 types of declarative memory

Flashbulb Memory

- the memory of emotionally significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events
- a clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event

Serial Position Effect

- our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primacy effect) in a list

Anterograde Amnesia

- an inability to form new memories

Retrograde Amnesia

- an inability to retrieve information from one's past

Repression

- in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Elizabeth Loftus

- 1945-present
- Field: memory
- Contributions: expert in eyewitness testimony (false memories or misinformation effect)
-Studies: Reconstruction of Auto. Destruction, Jane Doe Case (repressed memories of Nicole Taus' sex abuse)

Source Amnesia

- faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined

Storage

- holding information in memory for later use

Retrieval

- the process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored
- taking information out of storage to use

Memory

- an active system that receives input from various senses
- stores, organizes, alters, and recovers information

Bottom-up Processing

- analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information
- all sensory information but smell goes to the thalamus

Schema

- a concept or framework that organizes and interprets information

Sensory Memory

- the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system
- a type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less
- ex: how something a certain place smelled or how a certain food tasted

Iconic Memory

- a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli
- a photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second
- ex: camera flash
- ex scenario: a photo loads on a man's computer, and he accidentally clicks the X at the top corner, getting rid of the picture from his screen. He is left with the _____ memory of the photo that he looked at for just a moment

Echoic Memory

- a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli
- if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
- ex: In a conversation that you aren't fully focused in, you may not fully hear what the other person said. When asking them to repeat themselves, you may realize you now remember what they said thanks to your ______ memory

Short-Term Memory

- activated memory that holds a few items briefly
- can hold onto input for 5-7 seconds for ~7 items at a time
- in order to encode, info must be rehearsed
- such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Selective Attention

- the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus
- concentration on one sensation among many while not completely blocking out others
- also known as the cocktail party effect

Long-Term Memory

-the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system
- includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

Maintenance Rehearsal

- silently repeating or mentally reviewing information to hold it in short term memory

Elaborative Rehearsal

- memory technique that involves thinking about the meaning of the term to be remembered
- a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Effortful Processing

- encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Automatic Processing

- unconscious encoding and recall of incidental information
- ex: space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

Chunking

- organizing items into familiar, manageable units
- often occurs automatically

Mneumonic

-memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Peg-word System

- a mnemonic in which the items in a list to be remembered are associated with the sequential items in a memorized jingle and then the list is retrieved by going through the jingle and retrieving the associated items
- associating a word to a number and being forced to create a jingle/story

Hierarchies

- broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower concepts and facts

Context-Dependent Memory

-improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same
- the theory that information learned in a particular situation or place is better remembered when in that same situation or place

Misinformation Effect

- incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Reconsolidation

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

Consolidation

- hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory