PSYCH 200 final

Atkinson and shiffrin model of memory storage

Sensory memory

Holds information long enough to be processed for basic physical characteristics

Large capacity

Very brief retention of images

• .3 sec for visual

• 2 sec for auditory

Short term memory

also called working memory

Stores sounds images and words

stores for about 20-30 seconds then is either commited to longterm memory or is lost

On avg people can hold 7±2 items in their working memory

Free recall

Subjects are free to recall a list of items in any order

Serial recall

Subjects are to recall the list of items in their original order of presentation

Free vs serial recall

In serial recall, subjects have good memory for beginning of list, performance is poorer toward end of the list

In free recall, subjects have good memory for both the beginning and the end of the list

Serial position effect

People have a good memory for items at the beginning of a list (reflects long term memory)

People also have a good memory for items at the end of a list (reflects working memory)

Long term memory

Unlimited capacity store that an hold information over lengthy periods of time

Retrieval failure viewpoint

Assumes that information is never lost from LTM, if you cannot remember something, that thing is lost in memory, not lost from it

Failing to find something does not mean that the thing has vanished

Decay viewpoint

Assumes that information in LTM may decay and hence is lost from it over time

Recall vs recognition test

Recall: Requires participants to reproduce information on their own without any cues

Recognition: Requires participants to select previously learned information from an array of options

Effective encoding

Chunking

Elaboration

Levels of processing

Depth of processing theory

proposes that deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes

Assumption is that levels of processing increase from physical structure to phonemic structure to semantic structure

Chunking

Arranging information into meaningful chunks

Good memory involves organization

Memory consolidation

Neural process by which encoded information is stored in memory

Process in which synaptic connection is strengthened

War of ghosts experiment

People tend to shorten the story, terminology became more modern

Specific terminology was replaced by more general expression

Proper names disappeared and direct speech was dropped

Readers were better at remembering what they added themselves to the story

Hypermnesia

Readers can produce verbatim recall what they added to the story

Re consolidation

Testing does more than assessing the outcomes of learning

Testing improves learning

Self testing produces the best learning outcomes

Semantic memory

Object knowledge learned over many interactionsE

Episodic memory

Memory for specific events that you have experienced

Semantic network

Schemas

Organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event

People are more likely to remember things that are consistent with their schemas than things that are not

Retrograde amnesia

Poor memory for events that occurred before brain injury

Anterograde amnesia

Poor memory for events occurring after brain injury

Patient K.C.

• Suffered severe frontal lobe damage in a motorcycle accident.

• Complete loss of episodic memory:

  • Profound anterograde amnesia (cannot form new episodic memories after the injury).

  • Profound retrograde amnesia (cannot recall past episodic memories before the injury).

• Intact semantic memory:

  • Retains factual knowledge (e.g., knows what a funeral is and that it’s sad).

  • Cannot recall personal events (e.g., his brother’s death) but can infer emotions based on semantic knowledge.

• Demonstrates the dissociation between episodic and semantic memory in the brain

Patient HM

• Cause of surgery: Severe epilepsy → bilateral removal of hippocampus + parts of temporal lobes.

• Memory impairments:

  • Severe anterograde amnesia: Could not form new explicit long-term memories (e.g., couldn’t remember meeting researchers).

  • Intact retrograde memory: Could recall childhood events, facts (e.g., baseball rules), and pre-surgery memories.

  • Working memory intact: Could hold conversations but forgot them within minutes (e.g., repeated topics unknowingly).

• Other preserved abilities:

  • Normal IQ, language comprehension, and vocabulary.

  • Could learn implicit/procedural memories (e.g., mirror-tracing task).

• Key findings:

  • Hippocampus is critical for encoding new explicit memories but not for storing old ones or implicit memory.

  • His case showed the dissociation between short-term (working) and long-term memory.

  • Famous quote: “Every day is alone in itself.”

Perceptual priming

exposure to a stimulus will facilitate a future