Psychology Unit 6

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Encoding, storage, and retrieval

What are the 3 steps of memory?

Encoding

the processing of information into the memory system; get information into our brains

Storage

the process of retaining encoded information over time

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

parallel processing

the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions.

Your brain’s neural connections charge, forming and strengthening pathways that allow you to interact with and learn from your constantly changing environment. m

What happens to the neurons in the brain every time you learn something new?

Sensory, short-term, and long-term memory

What are the steps of forming memories?

Sensory memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Short-term memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, before the information can be stored or forgotten

Long-term memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system; includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

Working memory (short-term memory)

a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of information retrieving from long-term memory

Explicit memory (declarative information)

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and declare

effortful processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

Implicit memory (nondeclarative memory)

retention independent of conscious recollection

Automatic processing

unconscious coding of identical information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings

iconic memory

a momentary sensory memory of a visual stimuli, a photograph or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second

Iconic memory example

Sperling’s experiment

Sperling’s experiment

flashed an image with letters for a very short period of time. People remembered roughly half. He then used tones as signals. They got them all right.

Echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is. elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds

Echoic Memory example

you stop paying attention to the teacher and she asks “what did i just say?” you can recover the last few words from your minds echo chamber

around 7 information bits (give or take 2)

How many things can short-term memory hold?

Chinking

arranging items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

Mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Hierarchies

chunks in hierarchies composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrow concepts and facts

spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term retention that is achieved through massed study or practice

Testing Effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading, information (retrieval practice effects or test-enhanced learning)

Shallow processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words

Shallow processing example

remembering how to spell a word by using its appearance and/or structure

Deep Processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the word; tends to yield the best results

Deep processing example

organizing notes and/or common themes

It is essentially unlimited. Memories are not stored in the brain like books in a library, in a single spot. Many parts of the brain interact as we form and retrieve memories.

What is the capacity for long-term memories?

hippocampus

What part of the brain lays down new explicit memories (names or events)?

The hippocampus processes memories for later retrieval. Suspect that the brain is replaying the days experiences as it transfers them to the cortex for long-term storage.

What happens to memories while you are sleeping?

implicit memories through classical conditioning

What kind of memories does the cerebellum form?

receives input from the cortex but does NOT return the favor of sending information back to the cortex for conscious awareness of procedural learning

What kinds of memories does the basal ganglia form?

Flashbulb memories

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

amygdala

What part of the brain is involved in emotional memories, like flashbulb memories?

Long-term potentiation (LPT)

an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

Recall, recognition and relearning

What are the 3 measure of retention?

recall

a measure of learning in which the person must retrieve info learned earlier, an in a fill-in-the-blank test

Recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, an in a multiple choice test

relearning

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

tests of recognition and of time spent relearning demonstrate that we remember more than we can recall

What is the point to remember about Ebbinghaus’ learning experiments?

* a sense (touch, taste, smell, hearing, sight)
* a key word or phrase

retrieval cues examples

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

State-development memory

what we learn in one state may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state

mood congruent

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood

Serial position effect

our tendency to recall bet the last (a recency effect) and first items (a primary effect) in a list

Proactive interference

the disrupted act of prior learning on recall of new information

Proactive interference example

your well-known facebook password may interfere with your retrieval of your newly learned copy machine code

Retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information

Retroactive interference example

if someone says new lyrics in the tune of an old song, you may have trouble remembering the original words

Repression

in psychology theory, the basic defence mechanism that vanishes from conscious anxiety - arousing thoughts feelings and memories

recollection

we often construct our memories as we encode them, and every time we “replay” a memory, we replace the original with a slightly modified version

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event

Source amnesia

attributing to the wrong source to an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined (source misattribution) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of may false memories

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve new information from one’s past

Age. The brain area put into acting when young adults encode new information are less responsive in older adults

What are the possible reasons that we could forget something because of an encoding failure?

forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off with time

What does Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve prove about how much time it take to forget something?

* rehearse repeatedly
* make the material meaningful
* activate retrieval areas
* use mnemonic devices
* minimize interference
* sleep more
* test your knowledge

What are the suggestions to help improve your memory while studying?

cognition

all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating

Concepts

a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people

Prototype

a mental image or best example of a category; provides a quick and easy problems fors sorting things into categories

Creativity

the baility to produce novel and valuable ideas

Conversion thinking

narrow the available problem solutions to determine the single best solution

Divergent thinking

expands the number of possible problem solutions (creative thinking that diverges in different directions)

* expertise
* imaginative thinking skills
* A venturesome personality
* intrinsic motivation
* a creative environment

What are the 5 components of creativity?

expertise

a well-developed base of knowledge - furnishes the ideas, images and phrases we use as mental building blocks

imaginative thinking

provide the ability to see things in novel ways, to recognize patterns, and to make connections

a venturesome personality

seeks new experiences, tolerates ambiguity and risk, and preserves in overcoming obstacles

Intrinsic motivation

being driven more by interest, satisfaction and challenge than by external pressures

a creative environment

sparks support and refines creative ideas

algorithms

a methodical, logical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

heuristics

a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments, and solve problems efficiently; speedier but makes more errors than algorithms

insight

a sudden realization of a problems solution

Confirmation Bias

a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and ignore or distort contradicting evidence

mental set

a tendency to approach a problem in one specific way, often a way that has been successful in the past

intuition

an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit conscious reasoning

representative heuristics

judging the likelihood of thing in terms of how well they seem to represent, match, particular prototypes; may lead us to ignore other relevant information

Availability heuristics

estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory; in instances come readily to mind (vividness) we presume such events are common

overconfidence

the tendency to be more confident than correct

provides people with adaptive value

How is overconfidence related to happiness?

belief perseverance

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

Framing

the way an issue is posed; how an issue is formed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

language

our spoken, written, or signed words and the way we combine them to communicate meaning

phonemes

the smallest distinctive sound unit

morphemes

the smallest unit that carries meaning; may be a word or part of a word

grammar

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

Receptive language

babies ability to understand what is said to and about them

around 4-7 months

How old are babies when they start to gain receptive language?

productive language

babies ability to produce words; matures after receptive language

one-word stage

the stage is speech development, from about 1 - 2, during which a child speaks mostly in single words

two-word stage

beginning at age 2, the stage is speech development during which a child speaks mostly two-word statements

telegraphic speech

early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram - “go car” - using mostly nouns and verbs

aphasia

impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either in Broca’s (speaking) area or Wernicke’s area (understanding)

Broca’s Area

controls language expression - an area of the frontal lobe, usually in the left hemisphere, that directs the muscles movements involved on speech

Wernicke’s area

controls language reception - a brain area involved in language comprehension and expression; usually in the left temporal lobe

linguistic determination

Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think