Chapter 7, memory

According to the levels-of-processing theory proposed by Craik and Lockhart, which type of encoding typically results in the best long-term retention of verbal information?

Students who study for an exam in the same quiet classroom where they eventually take the test often perform better than if they studied in a noisy dorm room. This phenomenon best illustrates:

Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve

A psychological model demonstrating the exponential decay of newly acquired information over time when no conscious effort is made to review it. Retention drops most sharply immediately after learning (often within the first 24 to 48 hours) and eventually plateaus, illustrating the crucial role of spaced repetition and active retrieval practice in consolidating long-term memories.

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to transfer new short-term experiences into long-term memory due to brain injury.

Retrograde Amnesia

Type of memory loss that makes it impossible to retrieve or access memories that were formed before the onset of a brain injury, disease, or psychological trauma.

Misinformation effect

Misleading post-event information can become incorporated into an individual’s reconstructured memory of an event.

Encoding

process by which information gets into memory storage.

Divided attention: focused on 2 things. Sustained attention: attention is to a selected stimulus.

Storage

How information is retained over time and represented in memory.

Shallow processing

Physical/perceptual traits

Intermediate Processing

categorized/labeled

Deep processing

Focused on a symbolic meaning

Chunking

organizing information into meaningful groups.

Semantic memory

general knowledge of facts

Procedural memory

Remembering motor skills ex. playing piano

Implicit memory

memory that does not require conscious thoughts

Explicit memory

memory that requires conscious thoughts.

Encoding specfifity

memory recall is better when the cues available at encoding are present at retrieval. ex: smell of turkey remind you of thanksgiving

Encoding failure

not paying close attention to something therefore we never fully encoded the info.

Retrieval failure

memory is encoded and stored in long-term memory however we can’t remember/use it.

Interference theory

retrieval failure occurs because interference can disrupt memory call

Proactive interference

previously learned info interferes with the ability to learn and recall new info. example calling new gf your old gf name.

Retroactive interference

new learning interferences with remembering old info. example: remembering new address but not old.