Chapter 5 - Long-term memory

Working memory

brief, immediate memory for material we are currently processing

less than a minute

How long can working memory retain information before it disappearing

long-term memory

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

few minutes to many decades

How long can long-term memory retain information

Convenience

why did psychologists subdivide long-term memory into more specific categories

episodic, semantic, procedural

Three subtypes of long-term memory

episodic memory

focuses on your memories for events that happened to you personally; allows you to travel backward in subjective time to reminisce about earlier episodes in your life

semantic memory

describes your organized knowledge about the world, including knowledge about words and other factual information

procedural memory

knowledge on how to do something.

motor-based information

procedural memory is usually conceptualized in terms of sequences of?

encoding

process information and represent it in your memory

retrieval

refers to the processes that allow you to locate information that is stored in long-term memory

inadequate retrieval strategies

many memory errors can be traced to?

Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart

wrote an extremely influential article about how we encode information

levels-of-processing approach or depth-of-processing approach

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

more accurate when you use a deep level of processing

what does the levels-of-processing approach predict

Distinctiveness

means that a stimulus is different from other memory traces

Elaboration

requires rich processing in terms of meaning and interconnected concepts

self-reference effect

tendency to better remember information relevant to ourselves; you will remember more information if you try to relate information to yourself

meta-analysis

statistical method for synthesizing numerous studies on a single topic.

encoding-specificity principle

states that recall is better if the context during retrieval is similar to the context during encoding

explicit memory task

A memory task in which participants are instructed to remember some information. Later, a recall or recognition test requires them to intentionally retrieve that previously learned information.

implicit memory task

you see the material (usually a series of words or pictures); later, during the test phase, you are instructed to complete a cognitive task that does not directly ask you for either recall or recognition

repetition priming task

recent exposure to a word increases the likelihood that you'll think of this particular word when you are subsequently presented with a cue that could evoke many different words

dissociation

occurs when a variable has large effects on Test A , but little to no effects on Test B

anxiety disorders

includes psychological problems such as GAD, PTSD and social phobia

semantic encoding; implicit memory test

explicit memory test:___________ ; ___________: semantic and perceptual encoding

generalized anxiety disorder

a person experiences at least 6 months of intense, long-lasting anxiety and worry

posttraumatic stress disorder

a person keeps re-experiencing an extremely traumatic event

social phobia

a person becomes extremely anxious in social situations

amnesia

severe deficits in their episodic memory

brain damage

most common source of amnesia

trauma to the head, stroke, neurological disease

causes of brain damage

retrograde and anterograde amnesia

two forms of amnesia

retrograde amnesia

form of amnesia that is a loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage

anterograde amnesia

form of amnesia that is a loss of memory for events that occurred after brain damage

autobiographical memory

memories for past experiences and information related to oneself; memory for events and issues related to yourself

events that occurred during the years just before the damage

retrograde amnesia severely affects what events?

fact-based knowledge ; long-term memory

retrograde amnesia could also affect _____-______ ________ stored in ________-_______ _______

ecological validity

the conditions in which the research is conducted are similar to the natural setting where the results will be applied

schema

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

consistency bias

tend to exaggerate the consistency between our past feelings and beliefs and our current viewpoint

source monitoring

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

reality monitoring

trying to identify whether an event really occurred or was imagined

flashbulb memory

refers to your memory for the circumstances in which you first learned about a very surprising and emotionally arousing event

eyewitness testimony

requires people to remember specific details about people and events

post-event misinformation effect

In eyewitness testimony, when people first view an event and then are given misleading information about the event. Later on, they mistakenly recall the misleading information, rather than the event they actually saw.

proactive interference

when people have trouble recalling new material because previously learned old material keeps interfering with new memories

retroactive inference

The process by which new memories prevent the retrieval of older memories.

constructivist approach to memory

emphasizes that we construct knowledge by integrating new information with what we know

as a result, our understanding of an event or a topic is coherent, and it makes sense

expertise

demonstrate impressive memory abilities,as well as consistently exceptional performance on representative tasks in a particular area

own-ethnicity bias

generally more accurate in identifying members of your own ethnic group than members of another ethnic group

emotion

a reaction to a specific stimulus

mood

refers to a 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

some individuals who experienced sexual abuse during childhood managed to forget that memory for many years

false-memory perspective

proposes that most of these recovered memories are actually incorrect memories; in other words, they are constructed stories about events that never occurred

betrayal trauma

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

positivity effect

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

Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

neuroimaging technique that provides precise information about how activated different brain regions are during cognitive processing in some domain

hippocampus

structure underneath the cortex that is important in many learning and memory tasks

recognition task

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

recall task

participants must reproduce the items they learned earlier