PSY200 - Test 3

Memory

The active mental system for receiving, encoding, storing, organizing, altering & retrieving info

Three stages of memory

Sensory, short term, long term

Sensory memory - how long can the memory last and how much info can it hold

Lasts <2 seconds; has to due with certain scenario

Short term memory - how long can the memory last and how much info can it hold

12-30 seconds; while there is variation, the magic # is 7 bits

Long term memory - how long can the memory last and how much info can it hold

Maybe permanent; “effectively unlimited”

• If there is a

Selective attention

Sensory to short term; no choice and it an experience

Meaningful (repetition)

Short to long term; your brain choosing to keep this memory

Rehearsal

Keeping a short term memory alive (beyond the normal 30 secs. limit) by silently repeating the info

Recoding

Reorganizing/modifying the info to make it easier to store

Redintegration

When a memory or event reminds you of a memory, which reminds you of a memory, etc.

• ex.) smelling a turkey makes you think of Thanksgiving

Three types of long term memory

Procedural, semantic, episodic

Procedural

Physical skills and abilities

Semantic

Data and info

Episodic

Personal experiences and events (rarely altered)

Three ways to measure memory

Recall, recognition, relearning

Recall

Reproduce the data from scratch

Recognition

Know it when you see it e.g. multiple choice

• downside - can give us a lot of false positives

Relearning

If you know it but forgot it, you can learn it again faster

Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting

Shows that forgetting begins immediately after learning steps. Forgetting is very rapid at first, then levels off after a few days

Encoding failure

When you forget info because you never knew it in the first place. The data was never successfully encoded as a memory; very common form of forgetting

Disuse (decay) memory

Occurs when a memory is not access very often. The longer you go without referring to a memory, the more likely that memory is to not be there when you do need it

Cue-dependent recall

Sometimes the memory is there, but you can’t access it without the correct cue or hint

State-dependent recall

Your internal and external circumstances have a profound effect on memory. Your learning state needs to be as similar as possible to your recall state

Interference

Other things you know can have a positive/negative effect on your abilities to learn or recall new things

Eidetic memory

Refers to the rare ability to perfectly, or nearly perfect, recall info after only one exposure; inaccurately called “photographic memory”

Cognition

Mentally processing or representing info, such as images, concepts, words, rules or symbols

• any kind of thinking = cognition

Basic units of cognition

Images, concepts, language

Images

Holding a “mental presentation” of something in your head e.g. pic of frog; words to fav song

Stored image

A memory, something you have had prior experience with

Created images

Imagination. Something you have to create, imagine, “think up;” almost always have stored elements

Kinesthetic images

Remembering or imagining a physical movement or activity

Synesthesia

When sensory input erases sensory boundaries

• seeing bright lights, temporal lobe makes you hear ringing; seeing noise, hearing colors, etc.

Concept formation

Allow you to manipulate the definition rather than the actual object or event; a category of info

Three types of concepts

Conjunctive, relational, disjunctive

Conjunctive

"and concepts;" if it has this, this, this, it is that

Relational

"related to…" e.g. "it's cold…" relative term of we weren’t expecting/wanting it to be cold

Disjunctive

"either/or concepts"

Denotation

Refers to the actual definition of the word; always agree on this

Connotation

Refers to the personal, emotional meaning; can get confusing

Intelligence

The overall ability to think rationally, act purposefully, and adapt to one’s surroundings

Aptitude

Capacity for learning specific skills

Reliability

The test gives the same or similar score each time it's administered; has to do with consistency, not sufficiency

Validity

The test actually measures what it claims to measure

IQ Score

Mental age/Chronological age x 100

Men IQ Scores

Score higher on quantitative reasoning (math; ability to hold #s in your head) and visual-spatial awareness (manipulating visual info)

Women IQ Scores

Score higher on knowledge such as vocabulary and memory

Distribution of IQ Scores

• Extremely low: below 70; 2.2%

• Borderline: 70-80; 6.7%

• Low average: 80-90; 16.1%

• Average - 90-110

• High average: 110-120; 16.1%

• Superior: 120-130; 6.7%

• Very superior: above 130; 2.2%

Lewis Terman’s findings about giftedness

1) they are NOT socially peculiar

2) they are NOT physically inferior

3) they do NOT lose their giftedness with age

4) giftedness does NOT predict success in any meaningful way

5) genius is NOT next to madness

Four levels of Mental Retardation

• Mildly retarded: 55-70

• Moderately retarded: 40-55

• Severely retarded: 20-40

• Profoundly retarded: below 20

Motivation

Internal processes that initiate, direct, and sustain activities

Motivational Sequence

Outdated concept, left over from the days that we thought motivation was biological in nature, innate, and purposeful

Incentive Value

motivated behavior in the absence of a physical need ex. not hungry but wanting a snicker after seeing a snicker commercial

• as of today, need → drive → response → goal

Biological/primary motive

Innate and necessary for survival e.g. food, water, oxygen, pain avoidance, sex, homeostasis, elimination of body waste

Stimulus motive

Innate but not necessary for survival e.g. the needs for excitement, curiosity, info-seeking, & boredom avoidance

Learned motive

Not innate, and are not necessary for survival e.g. money

• have no evolutionary or biological survival value

Homeostatic

A biological motive, in particular, tend to seek out a narrow range of function i.e., not too hot/cold, not too full/hungry, neither hyper- or hypo- ventilated; seeking a "steady state"