2.3-2.7 Memory AP Psychology

encoding

acquiring new information

storage

retaining the information

retrieval

getting the information back out

explicit memories

facts and experiences that we knowingly declare and recognize; things that can be described and easily explained to others

episodic

remembering “episodes of your life” - first kiss, graduation, etc

semantic

remembering acquired knowledge through the knowledge of language (words, sentences, etc.) - state capitals, multiplication facts, etc.

implicit memories

unconscious or automatic memory; more challenging to describe or explain to others.

procedural

memory of how to do things without really thinking about it - riding a bike, tying your shoe, knowing how to get home from school, etc.

prospective memories

memory of intentions; remembering “to do” things. (Remembering you have a party to go to next weekend, knowing that a holiday is coming up, knowing that you have a test next week, etc.)

long term potentiation

an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation; thought to be the neural basis of learning and memory.

automatic processing

without any conscious awareness

effortful processing

active processing that requires sustained effort

structural

surface level; focuses on what words, faces, etc look like

phonemic

adds sound/words with no meaning

semantic

establishes meaning through effortful memory and rehearsal

mnemonic devices

aid in encoding info into working and long-term memory.

method of loci

memory palaces

chunking

improves process of encoding by grouping things into meaningful chunks or structures. (categories & hierarchies)

spacing effect

the “timeframe” for encoding can affect how well it is consolidated into memory. massed & distributed

serial position effect

the order of information can affect what is encoded and more likely to be remembered.

primacy

beginning of list

recency

end of list

maintenance rehearsal

over time

elaborative rehearsal

promoting meaning

autobiographical memory

Combination of episodic and semantic (explicit) memories explaining why memories with meaningful connections are more memorable

amnesia

memory loss, usually temporary.

retrograde

can remember new info, but cannot remember info form before incident

anterograde

can’t remember new info, but can remember info from before incident

alzheimer’s disease

brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills

infantile amnesia

as adults, memory of our first three years is blank; as children, can’t remember as much as we get older

recall

remembering without cues; retrieved from an earlier time; fill-in-the-blank

recognition

relies on retrieval cues; identifying previously learned; multiple choice

context dependent memory

same environmental space as encoding

mood-congruent memory

same mood as encoding

state dependent memory

same physical state as encoding

testing effect

practice tests throughout learning/studying

metacognition

awareness of one’s thought processes and how you learn, how you remember things, etc.

hermann ebbinghaus

experiments on memory led to development of the Forgetting Curve that shows exponential loss of info shortly after learning it.

interference

clutter

proactive (forward-acting) interference

prior learning disrupts recall of new learning.

retroactive (backward-acting) interference

new learning disrupts recall of old learning

repression (freud)

to defend the ego from distress

source amnesia

(can’t remember where a memory came from - think about songwriter lawsuits)

imagination inflation

(false memory; the finding that imagining an event which never happened can increase confidence that it actually occurred)