unit 2: encoding, storing, and retrieving memories and forgetting/memory challanges

What is the levels of processing memory model?

Memory retention depends on how deeply the or shallowly the information is processed during encoding

• Level 1: Shallow

  • structural retention: remember syllables etc.

• Level 2: medium

  • Phenomics: by sound etc.

• Level 3: deep

  • semantic: meaning of words

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

how we visualize concepts in our brain

What is the phonological loop?

repeating words in your head to remember them

What is the central executive?

manages attention and coordinates the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop.

Keeps you focuses and limits distraction

located in the prefrontal cortex

What is encoding?

Getting information into the brain

What is storage?

retaining information over time

in the sensory, short-term, and long-term memory

What is retrieval?

getting information back out of memory

What is the tip of the tongue phenomenon?

inability to retrieve a complete word from memory

→ retrieval failure

What is recall?

retrieving information through effort alone (no cues)

What is recognition?

retrieving information by identifying it amongst other choices

→ relies on retrieval clues

What is semantic memory?

declarative

facts and experiences that one actively tries to remember, that one can consciously know and declare

What are semantic memories/knowledge?

general knowledge of the world, meanings of words/pictures, and stored facts

What is episodic memory?

memory of explicit events stored in sequence

What is implicit memory

procedural

unintentional memory, results in unintentional recall

What is procedural memory?

memory of skills /how to do something/muscle memory, sequential but hard to describe

What is prospective memory?

remembering to do a task in the future

What is long term potentiation?

repeated use of specific neural pathways strengthens synaptic connections and those pathways, making it easier to recall information

→ analogous to working out to build and keep muscle

What is memory?

the ability to encode, store, and retrieve information

→ an indication of learning over time

What was the George Sterling Memory Experiment?

The smaller the time a stimulus is exposed to a person, a lesser amount of the stimuli will be encoded by the brain

The longer the delay between encoding the stimulus and being asked to recall the stimulus, the greater the memory loss

What is sensory memory?

a holding tank for information from all senses but only for a couple seconds

you may or may not have conscious awareness of all stimuli

What is iconic memory?

visual memory, lasts for a split second (0.5s) and is a perfect photograph of a scene

What is echoic memory?

type of sensory memory that briefly stores auditory information, essentially allowing you to "hear" a sound for a short period after it has stopped, like an echo, enabling the brain to process and understand spoken words or sounds even after they've been heard

What is selective attention?

determines which sensory stimuli get retained

→ brain cant focus on all stimuli, information that is important and catches our attention is actively processed into our working memory

What is Chunking?

a way to increase the capacity of the working memory by grouping items (like letters) into meaningful groups

What are acronyms?

another way of chunking information in order to remember it

What are mnemonic devices?

a memory device, and is any learning technique that aids information memorization

What are Hierarchies and memory maps?

other ways of organizing information to increase the capacity of the working memory

What is rehearsal?

practicing recalling information, transferring it from short term memory to long term memory, increasing the capacity of the working memory

What is the memory of loci method?

a way of enhancing encoding into working and long term memory

imagining yourself walking around a location and assigning different areas items you want to remember, and then visualizing going back and getting it

What is the spacing effect?

we learn and encode things better when we rehearse it over time

What is the serial positioning effect?

recall is greatest for the first and last things we encounter, very poor for the in between

What is Long term memory?

permanent memory, lasts days, weeks, months, or even years

→ thought to have unlimited capacity

What are flashbulb memories?

clear memory of emotionally arousing and significant event (in the form of a vivid image) '

→ modifies the multi-storage model and an example of the amygdala’s role in memory

What is an eidetic memory?

picture-perfect memory, can remember everything exactly

→ according to science doesn’t exist

What is an autobiographical memory?

both episodic and semantic memory the ability to remember past events of your life

What is Anterograde amnesia?

inability to remember future events from after the injury

→ hard to form new memories due to injury to the hippocampus

what is retrograde amnesia?

inability to remember events from before the injury

What is effortful processing?

committing new or unusual information into your brain requires attention and effort, leads to durable and accessible memories

→ a form of explicit memory

What is autonomic processing?

unconscious encoding of accidental information results in implicit memories

• space: aware of where things are

• Time: aware of when things happened

• Frequency: aware of how often they happened

what is infantile amnesia?

the inability to recall events from early childhood

→ universal

→ speculated to be due to your brain not being fully formed

What is a storage failure?

inability to recall information that was encoded

What is the forgetting curve?

much of what we learn is forgotten

→ memory for novel information fades quickly

What is the relearning effect?

it takes less time to relearn information than if you are learning it for the first time

What is an encoding failure?

we cannot remember information we did not encode

→ Ex: details of commonplace items

→ can be rectified through selective attention and effortful rehearsal

What is a retrieval failure?

when information is retained in memory but cannot be accessed (ex: the tip of the tongue phenomenon)

When is retrieval most successful?

• when recalled in the same environment as it was encoded in

• when recalled in the same state (sober/intoxicated) as it was encoded in

• when recalled in the same mood as it was encoded in

  • mood effects memory: happy mood = retrieval of happy memories, likewise for sad or other bad emotions

What are (re)constructed memories?

remembering events that didn’t occur, often due to the brain trying to fill in the gaps

→ not the same as lying because the person isn’t consciously doing it

→ could be due to the misinformation effect

What is prior interference?

prior learning disrupts recall of new information

what is retroactive interference?

new information disrupts recall of old information

How can we prevent interferences?

sleep, helps with memory consolidation

What is repression?

according to the psychodynamic perspective of psychology, people use repression as a coping mechanism to banish anxiety inducing thoughts feelings and memories

→ many psychologists don’t believe it exists, point toward PTSD

What is the misinformation effect?

when our memory of past events is altered after exposure to misinformation

What is source amnesia?

inability to recall the source of our memory

→ inability to recall where when or how one learned knowledge that has been acquired and retained

What is the testing effect?

retrieval is one of the best strategies to encode information into long term memory

what is metacognition?

thinking about thinking

→ helpful because if you know how your brain thinks then you can expedite cognition