Memory Notes (Invite to Psych)

Cognition is the process of  “knowing” that occurs through perception and memory. The three parts of cognition are input, central processing, and output.

Input: our brain gathers information from the outside world through our senses. Ex: sight, smell, etc.

Central Processing: Our brain sorts and stores information. There are three parts to this.

Output: The ideas and actions that are spurred by our thoughts

Encoding: The act of getting information into our brains.

Visual Encoding: pictures

Acoustic Encoding: sound

Semantic Encoding: meaning

Selective Attention - the ability to pick and choose among various sensory inputs. We pay attention to our needs, strange things and those that interest us. 

Sensory - holds information for less than a second or only the amount of time it takes to be recognized by the brain

Iconic Memory - ability to very briefly recall an image shown quickly (Ex: sparkler light trails) brief picture/icon

Echoic Memory - ability to very briefly recall a sound heard very recently (Ex: “what did I just say”) brief sound

Short term memory - also known as working memory, you can remember it for 20 seconds unless rehearsed

There are two types of long term memory: semantic and episodic

Semantic memory - Long Term Memory for facts and knowledge

Episodic memory - LTM for events and experiences

Recognition - a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned (Ex: multiple choice quiz)

Recall - a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier. The active reconstruction of information

Serial Position Effect - people are most likely to remember the first or final items from a list and forget the middle

Flashbulb and eidetic memories are forms of photographic memory

A flashbulb memory is a big event that we think that we remember but you only remember the gist of it.

Confabulation, or false memories, might occur during retrieval