Memory Exam

Information processing model

Memories created through encoding, storage, and retrieval; Works like a computer!

Encoding

Getting sensory info into brain

Storage

Retaining info over time

Retrieval

Getting info back out

Automatic processing

Unconcious processing of incidental info (yours is great!)

Effortful processing

Committing new or unusal info to memory with attention and effort (like you are now!

Explicit memory

Facts and ecperiences that you actively try to remember

Implicit memory

Unintentional memories

Episodic memory

Memories for specifc events

Semantic memory

Object knowledge learned over many interactions

Structural encoding

Shallowest level of processing

Phonetic encoding

Intermediate level of processing

Deepest level of memory

Deepest level of processing

Multi-store model

Sensory memory —> short-term memory —> long term memory

Working memory

What you are currently thinking about

Central executive

The “manager”; Focuses attention and inhibits distractoins and coordinates the VS and LM at the same time

Phonological loop

Deals with verbal and auditory info

Visuospatial sketchpad

How you picture things; deals w/ visual and spacial info

Prospective memory

“Remembering to remember”

Mnemonic devices

Devices used to memorize something

Method of Loci

Associated information of vivid mental pictures of locations

Chunking

Grouping items into meaningful units

Spacing effect

We encode and retain info better when we rehearse it over time (distributed pracitce)

Serial position effect

The position of something in a list effects how well you remember

Primacy effect

Recall is best for first intems on list

Recency effect

Recall best for last items on list

Sensory Memory

Holding tank for info from all senses

Working memory

Temporary information storage space that can MANIPULATE info (like a bath problem

Short term memory

Temporary information storage space that just holds the info

Long-term memory

Permanant storage w/ unlimited capacity

Maintenance rehearsal

Rehearsing in ways that proolong memory storage

Elaborative rehearsal

Rehearsin in ways that promote meaning

Autobiographical memory

Ability to remember past events in one’s life

Retrograde amnesia

Inability to recall events, information, or ecperiences that happened before a specific injury/illness

Anterograde amnesia

Neurological condition that makes it difficult or impossible to form new memories

Alzheimer’s disease

Brain disorder that leads to the progressive deterioration of the brain

Infantile amnesia

Inability to recall events from early childhood

Retrieval cues

Stimuli that trigger the recall of stored information from long-term memory

Context-dependent memory

Easier to retrieve when learning and retreival occur in same context

Mood-congruent memory

Easier to retrieve when learning and retreival occur when experiencing the same emotions

Retrieval practice

Learning strategy where you actively pull information out of your memory (like self-testing or using flashcards) instead of passively reviewing it

Testing effect

Actively retrieving information (like through a practice test) strengthens long-term memory more effectively than just re-reading or restudying the material for the same amount of time

Metacognition

Thinking about your thinking

Recall vs recognition

Being able to retrieve information from your ltm vs it appearing familiar

Forgetting curve (Ebbinghaus)

The rapid initial drop in memory retention after learning

Encoding failure

Can’t remember what we don’t encode into LTM (like little details on every day objects)

Proactive interference

Prior information disrupting the recall of new information

Retroactice interference

New information disrupting the recall of old information

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Inability to access information from long-term memory; Retreival failure

Repression

Denfense mechanism that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories of trauma

Source amnesia

Inability to recall the source of our memory