AP Psych - Chapter 7: Cognition (copy)

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Encoding

* forming a memory code
* Need to pay attention + actually get it into your memory 
* Levels of Processing


1. Structural
2. Phonemic
3. Semantic (deepest level + best)

Storage

* maintaining encoded information over time
* Information Processing Theory
* Sensory → Short Term → Long Term

Retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage

Structural encoding

emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus

* Ex: if words are flashed → focus on things as how the words are printed or length

Semantic encoding

emphasizes the meaning of verbal input; it involves thinking about the objects and actions the words represent

Information-processing model

Proposes that information passes through 3 stages before it is stored

Levels of processing theory

deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes

Sensory memory

The immediate, very brief (fraction of a second) recording of sensory information in the memory system

Iconic memory

Sensory memory of visual stimuli

Echoic memory

A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli

Short-term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly (20 s), before information is stored or forgotten

Chunking

Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

* Ex: list of numbers → divide numbers into years

Phonemic coding

* emphasizes what a word sounds like
* involves naming or saying (perhaps silently) the words

Mnemonic devices

* strategies for enhancing memory
* Memory aids; especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Long-term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences

Episodic memory

Memories of specific events, stores in a sequential series of events (personal facts and experiences)

Semantic memory

General knowledge of the world, stored as facts, meanings, or categories (not sequentially)

Explicit memory

Conscious memories of facts or events

* Ex: remembering vocabulary for a psych quiz

Implicit memory

Unintentional memories that we might not even know we have

Recall measures of retention

* requires participants to reproduce information on their own without any cues
* If you were to take a recall test on a list of twenty-five words you had memorized, you would simply be told to write down on a blank sheet of paper as many of the words as you could remember
* Fill-in the blank

Serial position effect

* Our tendency to recall the first (primacy) and last (recency) items in a list best

TIp-of-the-tongue phenomenon

forgotten information feels like it’s just out of reach

Semantic network theory

Theory that states that our brain forms new memories by connecting their meaning and context with meaning already in memories

State-dependent memory

What we learn in one mental state, we may remember better in that same state

Constructed memory

Can report false details of a real event or might even be a recollection of an event that never occurred

Retroactive interference

When new learning gets in the way of old information

Proactive interference

When old learning gets in the way of new information

Anterograde amnesia

The inability to form new memories

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to retrieve information from one's past

Overlearning

studying material beyond a pre-determined level of mastery

Elizabeth Loftus

* well known for her research on human memory + false memories
* Misinformation effect

Misinformation effect

memories are altered when misleading questions or statements are presented during the day → The way people/police ask questions will change the quality of recall

Baddeley’s model of working memory

* consists of four components
* Phonological loop
* Visuospatial Sketchpad
* Central Executive
* Episodic Buffer
* accounts for evidence that short-term memory handles a greater variety of functions and depends on more complicated processes

Phonological loop

* represented all of short-term memory in earlier models
* Ex: when you use recitation to temporarily hold onto a phone number
* help us learn language and expand our vocabular
* serves to temporarily hold verbal information

Visuospatial Sketchpad

* permits people to temporarily hold and manipulate visual images
* At work when you try to mentally rearrange the furniture in your bedroom

Central Executive

* controls the deployment of attention
* switching the focus of attention and dividing attention, as needed.

Episodic Buffer

* a temporary, limited capacity store
* integrating info from several sources to create a unified memory
* serves as an interface b/w working memory and long-term memory.

imagery

* the creation of visual images to represent the words to be remembered
* used to enrich encoding
* concrete v. abstract words

Pseudoforgetting

* info is not encoded
* Ex: penny experiment
* usually attributable to lack of attention.

Interference theory

* people forget information because of competition from other material
* environment interferes w/ brain trying to store + rmr memory

Maintenance Rehearsal

straight repeating of information to memorize it

repression

* motivated forgetting
* defense mechanism
* psychoanalytic/Freudian
* conscious can’t handle certain memories and push it down to the subconscious

Encoding Specificity Principle

* match encoding contexts of info at recall assists with retrieval
* Ex: going back to scene of the crime to trigger memories better

Declarative Memory

* handles factual information
* contains recollections of words, definitions, names, dates, faces, events, concepts, and ideas
* handled by hippocampus & areas of the cortex
* type of explicit memory

Non-declarative memory

* actions and skills (muscle memory)
* Memories of skills and how to perform them
* Little conscious awareness
* Ex: riding a bike
* Performance decreases if you think too much
* Doesn’t decline much
* Cerebellum and amygdala

Source Monitoring

the process of making inferences about the origins of memories

Source Monitoring error

when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source

* Ex: you might attribute something that your roommate said to your psychology professor

Forgetting Curve

Ebbinghaus plotted how quickly we forget

Hindsight Bias

e tendency to mold one’s interpretation of the past to fit how events actually turned out

Reality Monitoring

psychological processes by which people discriminate real from imagined events

Destination Memory

the process of remembering to whom one has told information

Prospective Memory

* remembering to perform actions in the future
* Ex: walk the dog

Method of Loci

* Mnemonic device
* taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations

Endel Tulving

subdivided declarative memory into semantic and episodic memory

Hermann Ebbinghaus

* published a series of insightful memory studies
* studied himself
* forgetting curve

Elaboration

linking of a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding

Dual-coding theory

memory is enhanced by forming both semantic and visual codes since either can lead to recall

decay theory

forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time

Schema

organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event

* Ex: diff places think of something diff when they think of high school

Flashbulb Memories

vivid & detailed recollections of momentous events in our life

* Ex: rmr exactly the day when 9/11

recognition measure of retention

requires participants to select previously learned information from an array of options → have options + answers in front of them

* Ex: multiple choice

Retention

proportion of material retained (remembered)

consolidation

a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of new, unstable memories into stable, durable memory codes stored in long-term memory

* Memories first consolidates in hippicampal region then stored + distributed to areas of cortex

Memory Trace

a __hypothetical__ permanent change in the nervous system brought about by __memorizing__ something

Self-referent encoding

deciding if info is personally relevant → better chance of encoding

Conceptual hierarchy

a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items

Transfer-appropriate processing

* type of state-dependent memory
* memory performance is better when the cognitive processes engaged during retrieval match the cognitive processes that were engaged when the material was encoded

Long term potentiation

synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation

* Ex: if a mouse is placed in a pool of murky water, it will swim about until it finds a hidden platform to climb out on. With repetition, the mouse soon learns to locate the platform more quickly

Retrospective memory

remembering events from the past or previously learned information

Link method

forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together