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Chapter 7 - Memory
Memory - The nervous system’s ability to obtain and retain information and skills for later retrieval.
The Memory Process
Encoding - Processing info so it can be stored in your brain
You take in info from experience
You hold the info in storage for a certain amount of time
You get the info from retrieval Storage
Storage - Lets you maintain the info in your brain, it can last a second or a fraction of your life
Retrieval - Process of getting the info later
Selective attention - The ability to direct mental resources to relevant information in order to process that information further, while also ignoring irrelevant information
The 3 types of Memory Stores
Sensory Storage - Let perceptions appear to be unified wholes
Encoding - Experienced as visual, auditory, taste, smell, touch
Duration - Up to a second
Capacity - Vast because of the huge amount of sensory input
Short Term Storage - Maintains information for immediate use
Encoding - Mostly auditory, also visual/semantic
Duration - About 20 sec, it can go on forever w/ working memory manipulating items
Capacity - About 7 items (+/- 2), using working memory helps capacity
Long Term Storage- stores information for access and use at a later time
Encoding - Primarily semantic, but also visual and auditory. Dual coding provides the richest encoding
Duration - Unlimited
Capacity - Unlimited
Working Memory - An active processing system that allows manipulation of different types of information to keep it available for current use
The term working memory is often used interchangeably with short-term memory, although technically working memory refers more to the whole theoretical framework of structures and processes used for the temporary storage and manipulation of information. Short-term memory is just one component of the process.
Storage Techniques
Chunking - using working memory to organize information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember
Maintenance Rehearsal - using working memory processes to repeat information based on how it sounds (auditory information); provides only shallow encoding of information and less successful long-term storage.
Elaborative Rehearsal - using working memory processes to think about how new information relates to yourself or your prior knowledge (semantic information); provides deeper encoding of information for more successful long-term storage
The Primary and Recency Effect - The primary effect refers to having better memory of what comes in the beginning of a list. The recency effect refers to having a good memory of what comes at the end of a list.
Schemas - ways of structuring memories in long term storage that can help you perceive, basically a pattern of thought or behavior that organizes categories of behaviors and the relationships between them.
Information in long-term memory is most likely stored in network-type structures called schemas. Schemas are an efficient way to organize interrelated concepts in a meaningful way. When we learn or experience something new and connect it with previously stored information, the process is known as assimilation.
The types of Amnesia -
Retrograde Amnesia - people lose their memories from before the accident
Anterograde Amnesia - people can’t form memories from after the accident
Different Kinds of Memory -
Explicit memory - a memory that we can intentionally retrieve and describe
Episodic memory - personal experiences and includes info about time and place
Semantic memory - our knowledge of facts independent from where we learned them. For example, when you learn a new word and you remember the word but you don’t remember where you learned it from
Implicit memory - unconscious memories that can’t be described. For example, when you are constantly exposed to a brand, and then you go to a store and you specifically want that brand of a product, even if you aren’t thinking about the brand or you can’t recall the specifics about the product
Consolidation - a process where immediate memories become lasting memories when new neural connections are created and prior neural connections get stronger
Reconsolidation - the idea that memories can change each time they are retrieved. Each memory is of the previous retrieval, not the original experience because new information becomes paired with the retrieved memory to create a new, reconsolidated memory.
Memory reconsolidation is the process of previously consolidated memories being recalled and actively consolidated.
The difference is that consolidation is the original storage of memory. By contrast, reconsolidation is the subsequent storage after the retrieval, which involves changes to the original memory to include new information.
When memories are called upon they are called retrieval cues. There are two main different types of retrieval cues.
Context-dependent memory - context of an event includes details such as the physical location, background music, etc is encoded along with the memory
State-dependent memory - internal states are the same during both encoding and retrieval cue that enhances access to a memory.
The 5 different ways that we forget -
Forgetting - inability to access a memory from long-term memory storage
Retroactive Interference - access to older memories is impaired by newer memories
Proactive Interference - access to newer memories is impaired by older memories
Blocking - temporarily forgetting
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon - frustration caused when trying to recall specific words
Absent Mindedness - inattentive or shallow encoding of events
Persistence - the continual recurrence of unwanted memories from long-term storage
The 5 ways memory can be distorted:
Memory bias - changing memories over time so that they are consistent with your current beliefs or attitudes
Misattribution - misremember the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory
Suggestibility - the way something is referred to influences memories
Flashbulb memories - surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing events that are remembered vividly
False memories - an apparent recollection of an event that never actually occurred.