Intro to Psych- Memory

Memory

the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information

* sensory, short-term, and long-term

encoding

* forming a memory code
* examples: elaboration, visual imagery, memory maps

retrieval

Recovering memory from memory stores

Storage

Maintaing encoded information over time

* information processing theory
* incoming info passing through 2 temporary areas of storage(sensory & short term), is then transferred to long-term storage
* sensory → short term → long term(working)

Sensory memory

* allows sensation to linger for a brief moment after stimulus is presented
* less than a second
* ex: after image → staring at a dot on the image for 30 secs and looking at the wall and seeing that exact image on the wall
* experiment w/trigrams

Short term/Working memory

* has a limited capacity
* on avergae up to 7-9 items
* limited duration(20 secs)

Long-term memory

Unlimited capacity over long periods of time

Flashbulb memory

Vivid & detailed recollections of momentous events in our life

Declarative memory

* Factual information handled by the hippocampus & areas of the cortex
* little conscious awareness
* performance does not decrease if you think too much

Episodic memory

* personal facts and experiences
* may be unique to individuals
* ex: autobiography, where you parked your car, what you had for dinner last night

Semantic memory

* general, factual knowledge
* ex: knowing the state capitals, encyclopedia

Procedural memory

* nondeclarative
* actions and skills(muscle memory)
* ex: riding a bike
* little conscious awareness
* performance decreases if you think too much
* doesn’t decline much
* cerebellum and amygdala

Maintenance rehearsal

* the process of repeatedly verbalizing or thinking about a piece of information.

Chunking

* combining separate items in order to remember them
* ex: experiment w/ remembering a random sequence of numbers and letters

Misinformation Effect

* information given to the eyewitness after the event occurs
* ex: Loftus and Palmer Study(1974)
* procedure: subjects were shown a video of a traffic accident involving a stop sign and were asked a series of questions about it
* half the subjects were asked misleading questions about a yield sign

Mnemonic device

* memory techniques that systematically change difficult to remember material into more easily remembered material

Retrograde Amnesia

unable to recall info after trauma(brain damage) occuring

Aneterograde Amnesia

* unable to make new memories due to brain(hippocampus) damage
* the “condition” Leonard in Memento had

Primacy/Recency(serial position)

better recall of info from beginning and end of list

Hippocampus

* Helps humans process and retrieve two types of memory, declarative and spatial
* in the temporal lobe
* important for memory formation but not for memory maintenance of retrieval

Consolidation

* information that is stored in various parts of the brain and is then put together to recall an event or memory
* when you study the same material regularlu over a long period of time, the pathways involved in remembering that info becomes stronger

cerebral cortex

* the outermost layer of the brain
* are stored at various sites in this area for a long-term basis

Amygdala

* emotional center
* provokes emotion

Cerebellum

* this area of the brain is responsible for non declaritive/procedural memory
* controls balance, coordination, movement, and motor skills and is important for processing some types of memory

State-dependent learning

recall info better when physical or mental health is the same at the time of encoding

Decay theory

Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve

* forget more and more as the days pass
* why cramming is not an effective studying techinque

Cross-racial identification

* when the witness and the defendant being identified are of different racial backgrounds
* the victim will most likely say that the criminal is someone of a different race
* humans are better at remembering faces from their own racial group

Pseudoforgetting

not encoded

Tip of the tongue

* difficulty with retreival but it is stored
* usually happens during a big test

Repression

* motivated forgetting

Source Monitoring

What is the origin of memory?

* the process of determining the origins of one's memories, knowledge, or beliefs,

Elizabeth Loftus

* psychologist studying memory
* responsible for creating the misinformation effect
* reconstruction of memories

Case of HM

* case study of anterograde amnesia
* twenty-seven year old Henry M came to the hospital for brain surgery for his epilepsy.
* because the doctors removed large parts of his temperal lobe, he was unable to create any new personal memories
* the most studied individual in the history of brain research

The Briggs Case

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* involved in a rape case
* case ended in a mistrial, only to be opened again
* second jury: Briggs was found guilty
* police were looking for a black man targeting white and asian professional women, happened to look like Tyrone Briggs
* an example of cross-racial identification
* also an example of polluted memories(interference), and the problem with eye witness testimony

Stephen Ceci

* an american psychologist
* implanted memories in children(1994)
* 96 children, ages 3-6
* each child was read a list of events, one false about getting hand caught inside mouse trap
* some events that were told were false
* they were told to “think really hard” which set them up for a correct answer
* 91% correctly identified real events
* 34% remembered the false events
* age was a factor

proactive interference

new info(learned) blocks out old info

retractive interference

old info blocks out new info(learned)