memory

What are the three main types of memory?

1. Episodic memory - personal events/experiences, 2. Semantic memory - facts and general knowledge, 3. Procedural memory - complicated skills and actions.

What is episodic memory?

Memory of personal events or experiences in your life (e.g., first day of school, last year's holiday).

What is semantic memory?

Memory for facts and general knowledge (e.g., knowing the capital of England is London).

What is procedural memory?

Memory for complicated skills stored using motor code rather than verbal code (e.g., riding a bike, swimming, tying shoelaces).

What are the three forms of encoding?

1. Acoustic encoding (sound), 2. Visual encoding (picture), 3. Semantic encoding (meaning).

What is acoustic encoding?

Processing information in memory as sound (e.g., repeating a phone number to remember it).

What is visual encoding?

Processing information as pictures in the mind (e.g., picturing your garden when thinking about its size).

What is semantic encoding?

Processing information through its meaning and understanding (e.g., understanding relationships and connections between concepts).

What are the three types of memory retrieval?

1. Recall, 2. Recognition, 3. Re-learning.

What is recall?

Searching memory to remember information without cues (e.g., answering 'What is the capital of Thailand?').

What is recognition?

Identifying items you've been previously exposed to when presented with them again.

What is re-learning?

Learning something again that was previously learned but forgotten - usually faster than initial learning.

What are the three components of Atkinson & Shiffrin's Multi-Store Memory Model?

1. Sensory Memory Store, 2. Short-term Memory Store, 3. Long-term Memory Store.

What are the key features of the sensory memory store?

- Large capacity, - Duration of milliseconds, - Encoding occurs as information is received, - Not under cognitive control.

What are the key features of short-term memory store?

- Duration up to 18 seconds, - Capacity of 7 +/- 2 items, - Mainly acoustic encoding, - Information lost through decay or displacement if not rehearsed.

What are the key features of long-term memory store?

- Unlimited capacity, - Potentially lifetime duration, - Mainly semantic encoding, - Information transferred through elaborate/maintenance rehearsal.

What is the primacy effect?

Items at the beginning of a list are better remembered because they have more rehearsal time and transfer to long-term memory.

What is the recency effect?

Items at the end of a list are better remembered because they are still in short-term memory.

What were the key findings of Murdock's Serial Position study (1962)?

- Words at beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of lists were best recalled, - Middle items were least remembered, - Supported existence of separate short-term and long-term memory stores.

What is Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory?

Memory is not simply recorded but reconstructed based on individual's hopes, fears, emotions, and previous experiences.

What is effort after meaning?

The process of trying to make sense of unfamiliar information by relating it to things we already know and understand.

What are the two types of interference?

1. Proactive interference - old memories interfere with new learning, 2. Retroactive interference - new memories interfere with recall of old memories.

How does context affect memory?

- Environmental context is encoded along with memories, - Returning to original context can help trigger associated memories, - Includes sights, sounds, smells, and textures from original encoding.