AP Psych Unit 2 (2.4 & 2.5): Encoding and Storing Memories

Working Memory Model

Examines how our primary memory system - working memory - engages in a dynamic interaction with several components.

Working Memory

A type of short-term memory that stores information temporarily during the completion of cognitive tasks, such as comprehension, problem solving, reasoning, and learning.

Components of the Working Memory Model: Central Executive

Controls information flow and directs attention.

Components of the Working Memory Model: Phonological Loop

Briefly stores and rehearses verbal content (speech, sounds, and words).

Components of the Working Memory Model: Visuospatial Sketchpad

Holds and manipulates visual and spatial awareness like a mental canvas.

Encoding

Involves processes and strategies to get information into memory, how information is encoded can determine how effectively information is stored and retrieved.

Mnemonics

Processes/strategies that aid in encoding information into working and long-term memory.

Method of Loci

Memorization technique where one pictures objects or items on a list in a familiar physical space (such as their home) to recall them easier.

Chunking

Process of taking individual pieces of information (chunks) and grouping them into larger units, categories, or hierarchies to improve the amount of information you can remember.

Spacing Effects

Demonstrates that learning is more effective when repeated in spaced repetitions (distributed practice rather than mass practice).

Serial Position Effect

Predicts that information presented at the beginning of a list or the end of a list (recency effect) will be more memorable than information presented in the middle of a list.

Primacy Effect

Refers to better recall of the first items on a list.

Recency Effect

Refers to better recall of the last items.

Maintenance Rehearsal

Repeating information in order to memorize it can increase length of time information can be stored.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Rehearsing information over time in ways that promote meaning , helps with memory retention.

Autobiographical Memory

Episodic memories connected to our own lives or selves are more memorable than memories of other people or facts.

Amnesia

The full or partial loss of memory, can be due to injury, trauma, or certain drugs.

Retrograde Amnesia

The inability to remember things that happened before an amnesia-causing event.

Anterograde Amnesia

The inability to create new memories after an amnesia-inducing event.

Case Study of H.M.

After surgery on the hippocampus, his intelligence and perception was fine, but memory was distorted.

Alzheimer’s Disease

A brain disorder that slowly destroys the memory storage capacity and thinking skills of an individual and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks too.

Infantile Amnesia

People are unable to remember episodic experiences that occurred during the first few years of life (generally 0-3 years) and tend to have sparse recollection of episodic experiences that occurred before age 10.