Untitled Flashcards Set

Memory: an active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage. 

Three processes of memory:

1. Encoding: process of raw data into something meaningful that can be stored in the cortex

2. Storage: holding onto information for some period of time 

3. Retrieval: getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used

Three Models of Memory:

1. Information Processing Model: model of memory put forth by Atkinson and Shrffrin that assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages. 

Sensory Memory:

• First stage of memory

• Information through our senses

Iconic Memory (visual):

• Sensory register holding visual stimuli (icons)

Echoic Memory (auditory):

• Sensory register holding sound (echoes)

• Also called acoustic memory

• Lasts longer than iconic memory

• What? Phenomenon 

Short-term Memory: second stage of memory in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used (held up to 30 seconds)

Selective attention: ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input.

Cocktail-Party Effect: ability of people to focus on a single talker or conversation in a noisy environment. 

Long-Term Memory: the system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently. 

2. Parallel-Distributed Processing (PDP) Model: a model of memory in which memory processes are proposed to take place at the same time over a large network of neural connections 

• Not in steps

3. Levels of processing model: a model of memory that assumes information that is more deeply processed, or processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time. 

• Ex. BALL- is it capitalized?

• Ex. Use the word ball in a sentence.

Memory Capacity

• Psychologist george miller discovered that our short-term memory will hold 7 items plus or minus 2

  • 5-9 items

Short term memory

• Chunking: when we try to keep something in our short-term memory by rehearsing it, it is usually better to organize the information into manageable units, or chunks, that are easy to remember  

• Short-term memory lasts about 12-30 seconds without rehearsal

• Maintenance rehearsal: practice of saying information to be remembered over and over in ones head in order to maintain it in short-term memory

Working memory

• An active system that processes the information in short-term memory 

• Working memory= system for processing STM

• Central exec.= interprets and coordinates 

• “Sketchpad”= visual

• “Recorder”= auditory

Long term memory

• The system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently 

• Unlimited capacity

• Information becomes stored in LTM by rehearsal

  • Several ways- smells, sounds, sights, meanings

Strategies for improving the storage of memories

• The best way to store information in LTM is through elaborate rehearsal

  • Method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way

Types of long-term information 

• Long term memory 

  • Declarative memory- explicit memory

    • Episodic memory- events experienced by a person

    • Semantic memory- facts, general knowledge

  • Nondeclaritive memory- motor skills, habits, classically conditioned reflexes

Retrieval and retrieval failure 

 Retrieval cue- a stimulus for remembering

• The more cues stored with a piece of information, the easier the retrieval of that information will be 

Encoding specificity- the tendency for the memory of information to be improved if related information, such as surroundings or physiological state, available when the memory is first formed is available when the memory is being retrieved

State-dependent learning- memories formed during a particular physiological state or psychological state will be easier to remember while in a similar state 

• Ex. chew gum or drink coffee while studying- do it again while taking test

Context-dependent learning: refers ti the physical surroundings a person is in when they are learning specific information

• Ex. take a test in the same desk in the same classroom

Improving memory retrieval 

• Mnemonics: strategies and memory “tricks” to help us remember information more effectively 

  • Acronyms: easy-to-remember words that abbreviate a longer tern NASA, FBI, PAC, IMC

  • Words, phrases, sentences used to remember something: pemdas, sohcahtoa, roygbiv, homes

  • Linking: involves making  list to remember items that are linked together; also called “story method”

  • Rhythmic devices: organize information in a rhyming or rhythmic song or pattern ABCs

Recall and Recognition

• Recall: type of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be “pulled” from memory with very few external cues 

  • Ex. essay questions, short-answer, fill in the blank

• Recognition: the ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact

  • Ex. matching, multiple choice, true/false type questions 

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

• Type of retrieval assosciated with a person’s feeling that he or she knows something but cannot quite pull it out of memory 

Serial position effect

• Information at the beginning of a list will be recalled at a higher rate tham information in the middle of the list (primary effect), because the beginning information at the end of a list is also retrieved at a higher rate (recency effect) because the end of the list is still in STM, with no information coming after it to interfere with retrieval 

Elizabeth Loftus and eyewitnesses 

• Memory expert Dr. Elizabeth Loftus conclude that what people see and hear about an event after the fact can easily affect the accuracy of their memories of that event

Constructive processing of memories

• constructive processing: the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information

  • Ex. the more time that passes, the more inaccuricues creep in

• Hindsight bias: tendency to falsely believe, through revision of older memories to include newer information, that ones could have correctly predicted the outcome of an event 

Memory Retrieval problems 

• Miniformation effect: the tendency of misleading information presented after an event to alter the memories of the event itself

  • Ex. the bunny effect

Explain why we forget and how we can improve memory retrieval 

• Hermann ebbinghaus 

  • One of the first researchers to study forgetting 

  • Created lists of nonsense syllables to test his subjects

• Curve of forgetting: a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually 

Interference and other factors that influence how memories are retrieved 

• Three theories

• 1. Encoding failure: failure to process info into memory

  • Ex. memory test at the beginning of the chapter, stop sign 

• 2. Memory trace decay theory 

  • Memory trace: a physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed 

  • Decay: loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used

    • Dont use it, lose it

• 3. Interference theory 

  • Proactive interference: memory problem that occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the learning or retrieval of newer information 

    • Ex. learn french, try to learn spanish, french gets in the way

  • Retroactive interference: memory retrieval problems that occur when newer information prevents 

Memory disorders 

• Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma backward/ loss of memory from the past

• Anterograde amnesia: loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma forward, the inability to form new long-term memories 

• Infantile amnesia: inability to recall episodic memories before ages 2-3