PSY200 Exam 2

Memory

Processes involved in retaining retrieving and using information about events

Sensory Memory

Initial stage that holds all incoming info for seconds of a time

Information decays very quickly

Short term memory

Holds 5-7 items for 15-20 seconds

Long term memory

Can hold a large amount of info for years or even decades

Conclusions of the Sperling experiment

Delayed partial report, subjects recalled fewer and fewer letters as the delay got longer

How can short term memory be expanded

Chunking

What is chunking

A memory strategy that involves grouping individual pieces of info into chunks to easier understand and remember (phone number)

What is interference

When information is lost from STM because there is other information competing with it

Proactive interference

When old information interferes when learning new information 

Retroactive interference

When new learning interferes with old information

Conclusions of Wicken’s Experiment

Showed release of proactive interference

Release of proactive interference 

There was improvement of recall performance when the type of information being learned changed

Why is the single store STM wrong

there is no interference between simultaneous verbal and spatial STM loads

Dual Store theory

Separate brain systems are responsible for memory of the recent past and more distant past (STM and LTM)

Free recall task findings

Produces the serial position curve: shows how people tend to remember things from the beginning and end of a list

Primacy effect

Better recall for words at the beginning of a list because there is more time to rehearse and it goes to LTM

Recency effect

Better recall for words at the end of a list because they are still present in STM

Episodic memory

Memory for personal events and experiences, associated with mental time travel

Semantic memory

General world knowledge and facts, not associated with mental time travel

Implicit memory

A long term memory that is not conscious and unconsciously influences behavior

Procedural memory

Memory for actions or skills, allowing you to perform procedures without being consciously aware

Repetition priming

When the presentation of 1 stimuli affects the performance on stimulus when its presented

Ex.) completing the word m-m—y is influenced if you were repeatedly exposed to the word memory

Classical conditioning

When an individual learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a biological behavior, resulting in a conditioned response

Autobiographical memory 

Recollected events that belong to a person’s past, made up of episodic and semantic memory

Reminiscence bump

adults older than 40 have better memory for events that occurred during adolescence and early adulthood

Self Image Hypothesis

Memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self image or life identity

Cognitive Hypothesis

Memory is better for periods of rapid change followed by a period of stability

Cultural life script hypothesis

Events that are part of a person’s shared cultural life script are more easily recalled

Flashbulb memory

memories from highly emotional events, likely to remember the circumstances of the event, and have more confidence

How do flashbulb memories differ than normal memories

Flashbulb memories are remembered more vividly with greater confidence but not as accurate

Power of suggestion

Finding new, often uncorrect information presented after an event can be incorporated into an eyewitnesses’s memory and distort the original recollection 

maintenance rehearsal 

repetition of a stimulus but is not effective 

elaborative encoding

Uses meanings and connections to help transfer information to LTM

Consolidation

transforms new memories from fragile state to more permanent

misinformation effect

misleading infor presented after a person witnesses an event can change how they describe it

concept

Mental representation for a type of thing

Ex.) your answer to “what is a ___”