Cognition AP Psych (copy)

Memory

Memory

Your capacity to register, store, and recover information over time, or more simply, the persistence of learning over time

Cognition

All the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, and remembering information

Information processing model

• Compares our mind to a computer

• encode, store, retrieve

Encoding

The process of putting information into the memory system

Storage

The retention of encoding information over time

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage

Donald broadbent

Modeled human memory and thought processes using a flowchart that showed competing information filtered out early, as it is perceived by the senses and analyzed in the stages of memory

Selective or focused attention

Trying to attend to one task over another requires...

Divided attention

We have difficulty attending to two different tasks

The cocktail party effect

Very little about the unattended message was processed, unless the participant's name was said

Levels of processing model

How long and how well we remember information depends on how deeply you process the information when it is encoding

Shallow processing

We use structural encoding of superficial sensory information that emphasizes the physical characteristics, such as lines and curves, of the stimulus as it first comes

Semantic encoding

Is associated with deep processing, and emphasizes the meaning of verbal input

Deep processing

When we attach meaning to information and create associations between the new memory and existing memories (elaborarion)

Self-referent encoding

• One of the best ways to facilitate later recall is to relate the new information to ourselves, making it personally meaningful

Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage model of memory

Describes three different memory systems characterized by time frames: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Sensory memory

Memory system that holds external events from the senses for up to a few seconds

Iconic memory

Completely represents a visual stimulus and lasts for less than a second, just long enough to ensure that we don't see gaps between frames in a motion picture

Echoic memory

Lasts for about 4 seconds, just long enough for us to hear a flow of information

Selective attention

Focusing of awareness on a specific stimulus in sensory memory

• determines which very small fraction of information perceived in sensory memory is encoded into short-term memory

Automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of information about space, time, and frequency that occurs without interfering with our thinking about other things

Parallel processing

A natural mode of information processing that involves several information streams simultaneously

Effortful processing

Encoding that requires our focused attention and conscious effort

Short-term memory (STM)

• can hold limited amount of information for about 30 seconds unless it is processed further

Rehearsal

Consciously repeating information

Overlearning

Additional rehearsing of information

Chunking

Grouping information into meaningful units

working memory model

an active three-part memory system that temporarily holds information and consists of a phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and the central executive

• created by Baddeley

imagery

mental pictures

phonological loop

briefly stores information about language sounds with an acoustic code from sensory memory and rehearsal function that lets us repeat words in the loop

visuospatial working memory

briefly stores visual and spatial information from sensory memory, including imagery

central executive

actively integrates information from the phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and long-term memory as we associate old and new information, solve problems, and perform other cognitive tasks

working memory

actively processes visual and auditory information, and focuses our attention

• accounts for out ability to carry on a conversation, while exercising at the same time

long-term memory

the relatively permanent and practically unlimited capacity memory system into which information from short-term memory may pass

• it is subdivided into explicit and implicit memory

explicit memory (declarative memory)

our LTM of facts and experiences we consciously know an can verbalize

• further divided into semantic and episodic memory

semantic memory

memory of facts and general knowledge

episodic memory

memory of personally experienced events

implicit memory (non-declarative memory)

our LTM for skills and procedures to do things affected by previous experience without that experience being consciously recalled

• further divided into procedural memory

procedural memory

tasks that we perform automatically without thinking, such as tying out shoelaces or swimming

hierarchies

systems in which concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes

concepts

mental representations of related things

• may represent physical objects, events, organisms, attributes, or even abstractions

prototypes

the most typical examples of the concept

semantic networks

more irregular and distorted systems than strict hierarchies, with multiple links from one concept to others

mental map

a visual image of a picture

schemas

preexisting mental frameworks that start as basic operations and then het more and more complex as we gain additional information

• these frameworks enable us to organize and interpret new information, and can be easily expanded

script

a schema for an event

connectionism theory

states that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons, many of which work together to process a single memory

artificial intelligence (AI)

a field of study in which computer programs are designed to simulate human cognitive abilities such as reasoning, learning, and understanding language

neural network or parallel processing model

emphasizes the simultaneous processing of information, which occurs automatically and without our awareness

long-term potentiation (LTP)

strengthening of neural connections at the synapses

flashbulb memory

a vivid memory of an emotionally arousing event

• associated with an increase of adrenal hormones triggering release of energy for neural processes and activation of the amygdala and hippocampus involved in emotional memories

thalamus

its role in memory seems to involve the encoding of sensory memory into short-term memory

hippocampus

involved in explicit long-term memory

anterograde amnesia

the inability to put new information into explicit memory; no new semantic memories are formed

retrograde amnesia

involves memory loss for a segment of the past

cerebellum

involved in implicit memory of skills, and studies

retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

recognition

identification of learned items when they are presented

recall

retrieval of previously learned information

reconstruction

retrieval of memories that can be distorted by adding, dropping, or changing details to fit a schema

Hermann Ebbinghaus

• he experimentally investigated the properties of human memory using lists of meaningless syllables

• he drew a learning curve and a forgetting curve

savings method

the amount of repetitions required to relearn the list compared to the amount of repetitions it took to learn the list originally

• used by Ebbinghaus

overlearning

continuing to practice after memorizing information makes it more resistant to forgetting

serial position effect

better recall for information that comes at the beginning and at the end of a list of words

primacy effect

better recall of the first items of a list

• results from rehearsal

recency effect

better recall of the last items of a list

• cause they are still in working memory

retrieval cues

reminders associated with information we are trying to get out of memory

• aid us in remembering

priming

activating specific associations in memory either consciously or unconsciously

distributed practice

spreading out the memorization of information or the learning of skills over several sessions

massed practice

cramming the memorization of information of the learning of skills into one session

mnemonic devices

memory tricks

method of loci

uses association of words on a list with visualization of places on a familiar path

peg word mnemonic

requires us to first memorize a scheme, such as "One is a bun, two is a shoe," and so on, then mentally picture using the chicken in the bun, the corn in the shoe, etc.

context-dependent memory

physical setting in which a person learns information is encoded along with the information and becomes part of the memory trace

• when our recall is better when we do it in the same physical settings in which we encoded it

mood congruence

we recall experiences better that are consistent with out mood at retrieval

state-dependent

things we learn in one internal state are more easily recalled when in the same state again

encoding failure

results from stimuli to which we were exposed never entering LTM because we did not pay attention to them

relearning

a measure of retention of memory that assesses the time saved compared to learning the first time when learning information again

decayed

if relearning takes as much time as initial learning, our memory of the information has...

tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

sometimes we know that we know something but can't pull it out of memory

interference

learning some items may prevent retrieving others, especially when the items are similar

proactive interference

when something we learned earlier disrupts recall of something we experience later

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

repression

unconscious forgetting

• occurs as a defense mechanism to protect our self-concepts and minimize anxiety

confabulation

filling in gaps in memory by combining and substituting memories from events other than the one we are trying to remember

misinformation effect

when we incorporate misleading information into our memory of an event

misattribution error (source amnesia)

when we confuse the source of information

language

a flexible system of spoken, written, or signed symbols that enables us to communicate our thoughts and feelings

phonemes

the basic sound units

morphemes

the smallest meaningful units of speech

grammar

a system of rules that determines how sounds and words can be combined and used to communicate meaning

syntax

the set of rules that regulate the order in which words can be combined into grammatically sensible sentences in a language

semantics

the set of rules that enables us to derive meaning from morphemes, words, and sentences

4 months

when does babbling happen?

1 year

when does holophrase happen?

2 years

when does telegraphic speech happen?

3 years

year when baby follows rules of grammar but with generalization

babbling

the production of phonemes, not limited to the phonemes to which the baby is exposed

10 months

when does babbling become specific to sounds heard?

holophrase

one word speech