psych cognitive module - day 2

Explicit memory

Memory that you are using effort to go and find and are specifically are searching for

What part of the brain does explicit memory use

The hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex

Implicit memory

Memory that is making itself known and you are not searching for it

Where does implicit memory happen

The cerebellum and the basal ganglia

Context dependent retrieval

It is going to be easier to retrieve memory when the context at retrieval matches the context at encoding (can be talking about external context like environment or internal context like your emotional state)

Associative network

Chains of information that are stored in memory so if you activate one of those chains it makes the connecting chains easier to activate

Schemas

A collection of information about an object, event, or experience (fill in the gap in your memory with a cluster of information)

Recall

Someone being asked to recall their memory with limited to no cues (essay exam)

Recognition

You are given cues and codes or potentially the item you are asked to encode (multiple choice exam)

What is true about recognition memory

Tends to be very quick

Relearning

How long it takes you to relearn something you’ve already learned with the idea that if you relearn something shortly you have a lot of the initial memory

Amnesia

Some sort of issue with your memory

Retrograde amnesia

Where you have an inability to retrieve memories prior to the amnesia causing event

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to create new memories

Hippocampus

Crucial for recording new memory

What is true about anterograde amnesia

You short term memory can still be intact but it is the consolidation to long term memory that we see trouble

Serial positioning effect

Depending on where an item is in a list you are more or less likely to remember it

Primary effect

Remember items at the beginning of a list more

Reason for primary effect

We are devoting more time and resources to encode the initial items

Recency effect

Remember items at the end of a list more

Reason for recency effect

The items are still in our short term memory

What happens to the recency effect if a delay if present

It will no longer be relevant

Inattentional blindness

If you’re not paying attention to a piece of information you are not encoding that information and wont be able to retrieve it

Jennifer Thompson and Ronald Cotton

Jennifer was assaulted one night and said that she studies her attackers face and later she was given two different line ups and recognized the wrong man and he was eventually proven to be innocent through dna testing

Own race bias

People of different races have difficulty discriminating between members of another race (we have more practice encoding information based on our own race)

Source monitoring

Correctly remembering when we are exposed to or hear a piece of information

Cryptoamnesia

Where you have an idea and have forgotten the source so you think you came up with the idea

Processing error

We aren’t necessarily working under our best cognitive ability so we are not accurately processing the stimuli we are experiencing so that leads to failure when we are recalling

Tip of the tongue

You know the information is somewhere in your brain but you can’t come up with it

What can be beneficial about forgetting

It helps us forget outdated information and bad experience

What is the result of the inability to forget

People have worse cognitive processing and difficulty thinking more abstractly

Ineffective encoding

If the first step of memory fails then the retrieval step is going to fail

Decay/transience

When you move further from the encoding process the memory is going to become weaker

Absentmindedness

Where your mind is not focused on the task at hand of encoding so you never get to the stage of retrieval

Blocking

Failure to retrieve information that is available in your memory

Misattribution

An issue with source memory - where we think that one source gave us information when really it was another source

Proactive interference

Old information interferes with new information

Retroactive interference

Where new information if interfering with your ability to remember new information

Suggestibility

Someone is creating new memory within you (can be purposeful where someone is trying to change your memory or can be accidental)

Bias

We remember information that agrees with us and we have the tendency to not remember information that disagrees with us

Persistence

When we are consistently remembering a piece of information meaning that we are consistently going through reconsolidation so we can end up creating memory that is inaccurate

Synaptic pruning

As we learn something more efficiently we eliminate the number of synapses that were necessary for that process

Associative learning

We learn by associating 2 or more items

Classical conditioning

A reflexive action is being associated with a stimuli leading to a learned response

Neutral stimuli

A stimulus that doesn’t initially elicit a response

Unconditioned stimuli

The stimulus that naturally and reflexively causes a response

Conditioned stimulus

The stimulus that was learned to respond to

Unconditioned response

The natural reflexive response that the unconditioned stimulus elicits

Conditioned response

The response that the conditioners stimulus elicits

Acquisition

The process by which an organism learned a new behavior or response

Extinction

A conditioned stimulus that is no longer getting a response

Spontaneous recovery

Where the organism starts responding to the conditioned stimulus again

Generalization

Where an organism responds to a new neutral stimulus as if it is a conditioned stimulus

Stimulus discrimination

Where an organism is presented with a new neutral stimulus and responds to it as if its a new stimulus