psych

Memory

Persistence of learning over time via the storage and retrieval of information

What are the three steps for Memory?

Encoding, Storage, and Retrieval

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system

Storage

the retention of encoded information over time

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory

Sensory Memory

the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system (senses)

Working memory

focuses more on the processing of briefly stored information

Short-Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly

Long-Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

Automatic Processing

unconscious encoding of incidental information

Effortful Processing

requires attention and conscious effort

Rehearsal

Conscious repetition of information (to maintain it in consciousness to encode for storage.)

Herman Ebbinghaus

Used nonsense syllables to test memory (helped us studying the encoding process) (Made the "forgetting curve".)

Spacing Effect

distributed practice yields better long term retention than massed practice.

Serial Position Effect

tendency to recall best the first and/or last items in a list.

Semantic Encoding

encoding of meaning (ex. meaning of words)

Acoustic Encoding

encoding of sound (ex. sound of words)

Visual Encoding

encoding of picture images

Imagery

mental pictures

Mnemonics

memory aids

Chunking

organizing times into familiar, manageable units (ex. horizontal organization and Acronyms)

Hierarchies

complex information broken down into broad concepts and further subdivided into categories and subcategories

Iconic Memory

a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli (used for retaining information)

Echoic Memory

momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli (retaining information)

Storage in Short-Term Memory

limited in duration and capacity. (Magical Number: 7 +/- 2)

Long-term potentiation

increase in synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

Engram

theorized physical or chemical memory trace in the brain

Karl Lashley

psychologist who studied rat brains and memory

Explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare (declarative memory)

hippocampus

neural center in limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage

Implicit memory

retention independent of conscious recollection (unintentional) (also called procedural memory)

Recall

measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier (ex. fill-in-the blank test)

Recognition

measure of memory in which the person has only to identify items previously learned (ex. multiple-choice test)

Relearning

memory measure that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material a second time

Priming

activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

Deja Vu (French; wee wee bon door. John es C qua)

already seen. Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier similar experience.

Flashbulb Memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Mood-congruent Memory

tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current mood

State-dependent memory

what is learned in one state (While one is high, drunk, or depressed) can more easily be remembered when in the same state

Forgetting

information never enters the long-term memroy

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

over 30 days, initially very rapid (first 3 days), then levels off with time

Proactive Interference

disruptive effect of prior learning on recall of new information

Retroactive interference

disruptive effect of new learning on recall of old information

Retrograde amnesia

loss of information that was learned before the onset of amnesia

Anterograde amnesia

inability to learn new information after the onset of amnesia

Motivated Forgetting

people unknowingly revise memories

Repression

defense mechanisms that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories

Transience

losing access to information across time because of forgetting, interference or retrieval failure

Absent-mindedness

failure to remember information and activities because of lack of attention during encoding

Blocking

temporary retrieval failure (tip of the tongue state)

Misattribution

remembering a fact correctly but attributing it to incorrect source

Suggestibility

incorporating information provided by others into your own recollections

Bias

distorting recollections to reflect particular knowledge, beliefs and feelings

Persistence

inability to forget traumatic memories

Misinformation Effect

Incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

Source Amnesia

attributing to the wrong source an event that we experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (misattribution)

False Memory Syndrome

condition in which a person's identity and relationships center around a false but strongly believed memory of traumatic experience

Thinking

mental activity that is involved in understanding manipulating and communications about information

Problem Solving

requires paying attention to relevant information (not getting side-tracked by irrelevant information) - attending to key information

Concept

a mental category used to class together objects, relations, events, abstractions, or qualities where they have common properties

Prototype

a concept that serves as a good example of a certain category

Exemplar

a specific example (a collie is a dog)

Positive instance

a specific example of what a concept is (a collie)

Negative instance

a specific example of what a concept is not (a cat)

algorithm

a specific procedure for solving a type of problem that works every time if used correctly

Heuristic

a "rule of thumb" approach to solving problems that works most of the time

Means-end analysis

specific type of heuristic where we try to solve a problem by evaluating the difference between the goal and our current situation and then lessening the difference between the two

Representativeness heuristic

where people make snap judgment about samples according to the populations they appear to represent (stereotypes)

Availability heuristic

our estimates of frequency of events is based on the easy availability of examples

Analogies

a partial similarity among things that are different in other ways

Analogy heuristic

refer to an earlier problem and apply that solution to a new problem (try what worked before)

Expertise

practice and familiarity with the type of problem reduced solution time

Mental set

solving a problem with an approach that was successful with a similar problem

Insight

a seemingly sudden perception of relationships in a new perceptual field, when actually it is the result of mental trial and error

Cognitive maps

mental representations or pictures of elements in a learning situation that allows for problem solving

Latent learning

learning which lies dormant until called upon (we may have made a cognitive map but don't know it until we need to use it to solve a problem

Incubation

putting a problem "on the back burner" and later the solution appears

Functional Fixedness

the tendency to view an object in terms of its name or use (a brush is for brushing hair, not for being a back scratcher or an orchestra baton)

Overconfidence

overestimating the accuracy of one's beliefs and judgments

creativity

the ability to generate novel (new) solutions to problems (see old things in new ways)

Convergent thinking

narrowing down to single best solution

Divergent thinking

generate multiple solutions to problems

Deductive reasoning

a form of reasoning about arguments in which occlusions are drawn from premises; to go from the general down to the particular

Inductive reasoning

a form of reasoning in which we reason form individual cases and particular facts to a larger, general conclusion (to go form particular to general)

Framing Effect

the influence of wording, or phrasing, or the context in which you present information

Belief bias

the tendency for one's preexisting beliefs to distort logical reasoning

Belief perseverance

clinging to one's initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited

Language

the communication of information by means of symbols arranged according to rules of grammar

Semanticity

the "meaning" of sounds or signs that includes actions, objects, relational concepts and abstract ideas

Infinite creativity

the capacity to combine words into original sentences that are produced by the individual, and not just imitated.

displacement

the ability to communicate information about events or objects form another time or place, not just the here and now or what's right in front of you.

Phoneme

a basic sound (there are 40 of these in the English language)

Morpheme

the smallest unit of meaning

Grammar

a system of rules in a language that enables us to communicate with and understand others

Syntax

the word order of language; based on that language's rules of grammar.

Semantics

the meaning of words

Surface structure (of language)

the superficial, obvious, literal construction of a sentence

Deep structure

the deeps, or underlying meaning of the sentence. (The surface can be essentially identical, but the deep structure can be completely different)

Babbling Stage

(beginning at 3 to 4 months) the stage of speech development in which the infant spontaneously utter various sounds at first unrelated to the household language

One-word stage

from about age 1 to 2; the stage in speech development during which a child speaks mostly in single words