Long-Term Memory

declarative/explicit memory

consciously aware of and can talk about it, semantic and episodic

semantic memory

facts and concepts

episodic memory

unique personal experiences

non-declarative/implicit memory

unconscious and can’t talk about it until something reminds you of it, skills, procedures, habits, conditioned responses

procedural memory

motor skills/muscle memory

repetition priming

when a stimulus is presented a second time and processing is more efficient than the first time

long-term memory tests

recall, recognition, fragment completion, reaction time tasks

recall tasks

people are asked to recall information with little or no retrieval cues

recognition tasks

people are asked to identify if they’ve seen an item before

fragment completion

words have letters deleted in them and people have to say what word it is

reaction time tasks

assessing speed of information processing

LTM encoding is enhanced by

elaboration/attention to meaning, organization, mental images, spaced repetition, self referencing

retrieval from LTM is facilitated by

encoding specificity

encoding specificity

memory is improved if information that is related when making the memory is there when needing to retrieve it

elaborative rehearsal improves encoding and storage in episodic memory by

building more efficient retrieval cues

organization improves encoding and storage in episodic memory by

grouping small pieces of information into larger ones to make encoding and storage more efficient, facilitating connections between information

evidence for the impact of encoding specificity on retrieval success

diving, alcohol, and mood studies

mnemonics

gives meaning/structure to remember things (PEMDAS)

why are mnemonics effective

more organization increases recall, you’re relating it to something

Ebbinghaus relearning task

learning a list, and then learning it again later until mastered

relearning task results

recalled information decreases over time and becomes forgotten (forgetting curve)

savings score in relearning task

reduction in number of trials or the time needed to relearn the list compared to the beginning

when does the most forgetting occur

early after the original learning and then decreases more over time

what did Ebbinghaus learn about repetition/over learning

the more something is repeated, the longer it is remembered and over learning has a stronger record in memory

metamemory

knowledge about your own memory system and its functioning

maintenance rehearsal

low-level repetitive information recycling (saying something over and over)

elaborative rehearsal

complex and uses meaning of information to store/remember it (mnemonics)

shallow vs deep processing effects

shallow processing is not remembered later and doesn’t go to LTM, deep processing is remembered later and goes to LTM

organization effect

structuring information in the same way it’s stored in memory

encoding specificity from the textbook

information encoded in memory isn’t isolated or individual, it’s encoded as a richer memory representation that includes context from when it was being encoded

retrieval cue

a helpful prompt/reminder of the information that can help you recall it

mood congruent learning

if you feel the same emotion as when you were learning something, it helps you recall it better

state-dependent learning

people are more likely to remember things if they are in the same physiological state as when they learned it (drunk, wet/dry)

importance of overlap

increase in overlap of learning and recalling information increases retrieval cues and performance