AP Psych EXAMP PREP Unit 4!

Memory

Process by which we recollect prior experiences, information, skills learned in past

Autobiographical (Explicit) memories

Can be episodic or semantic

Episodic memories

Episodes from the past, often emotionally charged are called flashbulb and are extremely vivid

Semantic memories

Made up of general knowledge, things you know like the Louisiana purchase and what thermo is

Procedural/implicit memories

Implied that you have skills memorized because you did it yourself, things that are muscle memory and often hard to forget

Prospective memories

A type of memory related to future actions, actions we plan to do in the future

Method of loci

Processes that aid in encoding info, uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments such as a house

Maintainable rehearsal

Repeating information over and over again to keep you from forgetting it (saves into short term memory)

Elaborative rehearsal

Making information meaningful by relating it to info you know well (long term memory)

Context dependent retrieval

The ability to recall memories based on the place you were when you encoded them

State dependent memories

Memories that are best retrieved when you are in the same state in which you encoded them

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Happens when information is not fully encoded or there is retrieval failure

The testing effect

Online quizzes, active recall

Metacognition

Thinking about thinking, self reflection, critical thinking, goal setting, interofeption

Sensory memory

All environmental input, if you pay no attention to it it is immediately forgotton

Short term memory

You enter this stage of the multi store memory model if you merely pay attention to environmental input, maintained through maintenance rehearsal

Long term memory

Develops when maintenance rehearsal turns into elaborative rehearsal and information is properly encoded, organized into schemas

Schema

A form of grouping that we use within our long term memory, works as a big graphic organizer

Long term potentiation

When we repeatedly use the sma e neural pathways we strengthen them and the action potential is able to travel quicker because it knows exactly where to go

Serial position effect

List specific, occurs when we are only able to remember the first and last information we learned due to the primacy effect

Primacy effect

We only remember what we first learned because we’ve had time to thoroughly remember it and we also remember the most recent stuff we learned because it is fresh in our memories

Proactive interference

Occurs when old information gets in the way of new information

Retroactive interference

Occurs when new information gets in the way of old information

Levels of processing surface to deepest

Structural, phonemic, semantic

Dual task technique

If you have to listen to two things at once you retain neither however if you receive one then the other you retain both

Central executive

Works like the thalamus, tells everything where to like like a relay station, coordinates the operation of slave systems

Phonological loop

Deals with auditory information

Phonological store

Holds words we hear from others

Articulately store

Our own words we say

Visuospatial sketchpad

Our “inner eye”, the image we create within our minds, for me like a big whiteboard of information, virtual environment for physical stimulus

Episodic buffer

A temporary store that integrates information and maintains a sense of time, the graphic organizer ORGANIZER

Accommodation

When an existing schema is replaced, separate dog from cat instead of just animal

Assimilation

Adding information to a new schema, instead of having bubbles, we have blue and pink bubbles

Misinformation effect

Tendency for info you learned AFTER an event to alter your preexisting perception of the event, illustrates how easily memory can be interfered

Source amnesia

I know the info but not the source, malfunction in the explicit memory

Imagination inflation

Happens when a persons confidence that an event has occurred increases after they imagine it occurring, yes mr officer I did commit that crime I don’t remember committing

Theory of reconstructive memory

Recognize, recall, relearn

Recognition

Multiple choice, you RECOGNIZE the info on the test and get the question right

Recall

You are asked to fill in a blank so you must recognize the information and recall what you can using your active recall and semantic learning

Relearning

When we forget something, it is easier to relearn than it was to learn it originally

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

The slope downward that demonstrates the time vs retention scale from hours to days

Infantile

Forgetting early events in one’s life

Anterograde amnesia

Inability to form new memories, ma aunt has a terrible memory NOW

Retrograde amnesia

Forgetting old memories, no mo retro:(

prototype

Mental image or best example of a category aka a car

Algorithm

Methodical, long and slow procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem

Heuristic

A short cut, ex representativeness heuristic which we use to speed run a process using what we think something represents, also stereotyping :p

Gamblers fallacy

If I keep spending money maybe I’ll win, jk you won’t you’re up just stuck in this cycle of false hope, belief that if an event has occurred less frequently, it is more likely to happen again in the future

Confirmation bias

Tendency to seek out information that confirms your preexisting beliefs

Sunken cost fallacy

When you make a decision and it begins to fail you just commit to failure rather than attempting to regain success

Functional fixedness

Type of fixation that occurs when you are unable to use an object for any other use than when it was intended for aka hammer

Representativeness heuristic

Stereotyping or judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well they fit particular stereotypes

Availability heuristic

Why we think shark attacks happen so often

Framing

You can say the same thing both positive and negative ways and people flock towards the positive version even though negative is the exact same

Belief bias

Tendency for preexisting beliefs to distort logical thinking

Belief perseverance

Clinging to own initial conception even though damping evidence exists