Memory: Ability to remember things we have experienced, imagined, or learned.

Memory is often seen as Information Processing Model (IPM)

There are three stage model: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Sensory memory: record info as fleeting.

Short-term memory: where we encode memory thru rehearsal.

Long-term memory: moves here for later retrieval.

Recall: retrieving info not currently in conscious awareness.

Recognition: identifying items previously learned.

Relearning: learning something more quickly when learning it for a 2nd time.

Working memory: Alan Baddeley, newer understanding of ST memory that focuses on conscious, active processing and info retrieval from LT memory.

Focused Attention: also called selective attention. Keeping awareness on a narrow band on info.

Divided Attention: split focus losing info from both producers.

Retrospective memory: things from the past.

Prospective memory: things in the future.

The memory process

• encoding: The process of into the memory system.

• storage: the retention of encoded material over time.

• retrieval: the process of getting the info out of memory storage.

Encode

Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units.

Mnemonic devices: memory aids, the peg-word and loci method.

Rehearsal: repetition

Explicit memories: memory of facts and experience. Can consciously know and declare. frontal lobe and hippocampus involved.

Implicit memory: retention of learned skills. Cerebellum involved.

Primacy effect: 1st things on a list.

Recency effect: last things on a list.

Von Restorff effect: something unique in the middle of a list causes a spike in memory.

Types of encoding

Levels of processing

Storage is like a network.

Long-term Potentiation: strengthening of neural pathways. Neural basis for learning and memory.

Short term memory hold about 7(+ or - 2) items for about 20 seconds. Info unrehearsed will decay in about 12 seconds.

Long-term memory: unlimited storehouse of info. can last days, months or years.

Flashbulb Memory: clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

Retrieval cues: things that help us remember.

Priming: the activation of associations in our memory. Repetition(recently seen), semantic(closely associated).

Context dependent memory: can prime memory retrieval.

Encoding specificity principle: the idea that cues and context specific to a particular memory will be most effective in helping us recall it.

State dependent memory: what we learn in one state (i.e. drunk or sober) may be more easily recalled when we are again in that state.

Mood- congruent memory: tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one’s current good or bad mood.

Serial position effect: our tendency to recall the last and 1st items in a list.

Frontal lobe and Hippocampus: storing explicit memories.

Damage hippocampus: disrupt memory.

Cerebellum: implicit memory

Amnesia

Encoding failure: not getting info from STM or LTM.

Retrieval Failure: The memory was encoded and stored but sometimes you just can’t access the memory.( like when something is on the tip of your tongue.

Interference Theory

• Retroactive: new info blocks out old info.

• Proactive: Old info blocks out new info.

Repression: a defense mechanism where we forget things we don’t want to remember.

Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading info into one’s memory of an event.

Source amnesia (misattribution): the inability to remember when, where or how previously learned info has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge. This is often called at the heart of “false memories.”

Deja vu: eerie sense that “I’ve experience this before.”

Strategies to improve memory: rehearse repeatedly, make the material meaningful, activate retrieval cues, use mnemonic devices, minimize interference, sleep more and test your knowledge.

Language: can be spoken, written or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate meaning.

Phonemes: smallest distinctive sound.

Morphemes: the smallest unit of meaningful sound.

Grammar: a system of structural rules that govern the composition of sentences, phrases, and words in a language.

Semantics: the set of rules by which we derive meaning in language.

Syntax: the rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences.

Language acquisition

Social learning theory: B.F Skinner, if they are reinforced they’ll keep saying the word, where if they are punished they’ll stop saying the word.

Nativist theory: Noam Chomsky; we learn language too quickly for it to be “learned through reinforcement and punishment. There must be an inborn “universal language acquisition device.”

Linguistic determinism Hypothesis: Whorf; the idea that language determines the way we think. This theory was discredited.

Kohler’s Chimpanzees: exhibited that chimps can problem solve.

Intelligence: The ability to learn from experience, solve problems, and use knowledge to adapt to new situations.

Spearman’s General intelligence factor: general intelligence, factor that underlines specific mental abilities. Factor analysis, statistical procedure that identifies clusters of related items on a test.

Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence: disagreed with Spearman’s idea. 8 intelligence.

Robert Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory: most commonly accepted theory today. There are three types analytical, creative and practical.

Analytical: academic problem solving.

Creative: generating novel ideas.

Practical: required for everyday tasks where multiple solutions exist.

Emotional Intelligence (EG): ability to perceive, express, understand and regulate emotions. Self awareness, social awareness, self management and social skills.

Early test: Alfred Binet and Therodore Simon; mental age, chronological age most typically corresponds to performance.

I.Q( intelligence Quotient): Lewis Terman, IQ test- compares mental age with chronological age. William Stern derived the famous formula for I.Q.

I.Q: mental age/chronological age x 100. Works better for children.

Wechsler Intelligence Tests: separate scores of separate skills. Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS). 11 sub-tests.

Standardization: fielded questions. periodically updated to reflect current groups. creates a normal bell curve.

Reliability: consistent results over time.

Validity: measure what its supposed to measure. A measure of the extent to which a test actually assesses what it claims.

Aptitude: measure ability or potential.

Achievement: tests that measures what you’ve learned.

Intellectual disability: a condition of limited mental ability (70 IQ + below). Can be caused by physical defects.

Genetic influence: intelligence is 50% inherited.

Stereotype threat: tendency to perform worse when conscious of being in a group stereotyped as performing poorly.

Cognition: another term for thinking, knowing, and remembering.

Concepts: a mental grouping of similar objects, events, ideas, or people. Similar to Piaget’s idea of schema.

Prototype: a mental image or best example of a category.

Problem solving: trial and error, algorithms, heuristics.

Algorithms: a methodical, logistical rule or procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem. Usually by using a formula.

Heuristics: availability; judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that initially come to mind.

Representativeness heuristic: judging a situation based on examples of similar situations that initially come to mind.

Confirmation bias: tendency to search for info that supports our preconceptions and ignore contradictory info.

Mental set: tendency to approach problem in a way that has worked for us before.

Insight/ intuition: a sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem. No real strategy involved.

Fixation: the inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective.

Belief Perseverance: clinging to your initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited.

Belief bias: when an individual uses their beliefs INSTEAD of following given directions and using logic to answer a question.

Framing: the way a problem is presented can drastically affect the way we view it.

Creativity: ability to produce new and value ideas.

Convergent thinking: narrowing solutions to determine single best one.

Divergent thinking: expanding the number of solutions.