Memory
Encoding: getting information into brain
Storage: retaining the information
Retrieval: getting information out
Types of long term memory
Effortful Processing Strategies
Rehearsal: repetition
Chunking: grouping
Mnemonics: acronyms, songs, imagery, rhymes, etc.
Hierarchies
Deep processing: affects encoding and long term memory (Levels of Processing Theory by Craik and Tulving)
Shallow processing: structure or appearance, just repetition
Deep processing: acoustic (sound) → imagery, semantic (meaning) from worst to best method; making personally meaningful connections
Distributed practice: space out learning so more information will be retained (Spacing Effect)
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: retention of information rapidly declined
Types of memory retrieval
Recall: retrieving information with effort
Recognition: identifying answer among choices
Relearning: learning 2nd time is quicker than 1st time
Effects on memory retrieval
Priming: unconscious associations that help retrieve memories
Context dependent memory: easier to retrieve information if it is in the same place as where it was learned
Ex) deja vu
Stage-congruent memory: states of consciousness (sleepy/under influence of drugs) → information if recalled better if person is in the same state as when it is was learned
Mood congruent memory: recall memories consistent with current mood
Serial position effect: tendency to recall first and last items from a list (middle items tend to be forgotten)
Primacy Effect: items recalled later → tend to remember first items best
Recency Effect: items recalled immediately → tend to remember last items best
Spacing effect: distributed practice is better than cramming
Forgetting
Failure to encode: sensory memory, short term/working memory
Failure to retrieve: long term memory
Decay: physical phenomenon when you don’t use memory for a long time
Interference:
Proactive interference (1st interferes with 2nd)
Retroactive interference (2nd interferes with 1st)
Freud: motivated forgetting
Ex) Repression of memories
False memories/constructed memories: memory of event that did not happen/incorrect details
Elizabeth Loftus: cars hit vs. smashed study
More likely with children when fed misinformation
Infantile amnesia: generally don’t have memories before 3 years old because hippocampus is not fully developed
Anterograde amnesia: can’t remember new events
Retrograde amnesia: can’t remember old memories
Brain
Hippocampus: explicit memories
Cerebellum: implicit memory formation (conditioning)
Basal ganglia: implicit memories (procedural)
Amygdala: involved in encoding flashbulb memories
Flashbulb memories: clear memory of surprising, consequential, or biologically significant event
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): biological basis of long term memory formation
Neurons strengthen synaptic connections with each other as they signal (type of neuroplasticity)
Postsynaptic neuron becomes more sensitive to presynaptic neuron's messages
Encoding: getting information into brain
Storage: retaining the information
Retrieval: getting information out
Types of long term memory
Effortful Processing Strategies
Rehearsal: repetition
Chunking: grouping
Mnemonics: acronyms, songs, imagery, rhymes, etc.
Hierarchies
Deep processing: affects encoding and long term memory (Levels of Processing Theory by Craik and Tulving)
Shallow processing: structure or appearance, just repetition
Deep processing: acoustic (sound) → imagery, semantic (meaning) from worst to best method; making personally meaningful connections
Distributed practice: space out learning so more information will be retained (Spacing Effect)
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: retention of information rapidly declined
Types of memory retrieval
Recall: retrieving information with effort
Recognition: identifying answer among choices
Relearning: learning 2nd time is quicker than 1st time
Effects on memory retrieval
Priming: unconscious associations that help retrieve memories
Context dependent memory: easier to retrieve information if it is in the same place as where it was learned
Ex) deja vu
Stage-congruent memory: states of consciousness (sleepy/under influence of drugs) → information if recalled better if person is in the same state as when it is was learned
Mood congruent memory: recall memories consistent with current mood
Serial position effect: tendency to recall first and last items from a list (middle items tend to be forgotten)
Primacy Effect: items recalled later → tend to remember first items best
Recency Effect: items recalled immediately → tend to remember last items best
Spacing effect: distributed practice is better than cramming
Forgetting
Failure to encode: sensory memory, short term/working memory
Failure to retrieve: long term memory
Decay: physical phenomenon when you don’t use memory for a long time
Interference:
Proactive interference (1st interferes with 2nd)
Retroactive interference (2nd interferes with 1st)
Freud: motivated forgetting
Ex) Repression of memories
False memories/constructed memories: memory of event that did not happen/incorrect details
Elizabeth Loftus: cars hit vs. smashed study
More likely with children when fed misinformation
Infantile amnesia: generally don’t have memories before 3 years old because hippocampus is not fully developed
Anterograde amnesia: can’t remember new events
Retrograde amnesia: can’t remember old memories
Brain
Hippocampus: explicit memories
Cerebellum: implicit memory formation (conditioning)
Basal ganglia: implicit memories (procedural)
Amygdala: involved in encoding flashbulb memories
Flashbulb memories: clear memory of surprising, consequential, or biologically significant event
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): biological basis of long term memory formation
Neurons strengthen synaptic connections with each other as they signal (type of neuroplasticity)
Postsynaptic neuron becomes more sensitive to presynaptic neuron's messages
