memory

# Types of Memory

Q: What are the three main types of memory?

A: 1. Episodic memory - personal events/experiences

2. Semantic memory - facts and general knowledge

3. Procedural memory - complicated skills and actions

Q: What is episodic memory?

A: Memory of personal events or experiences in your life (e.g., first day of school, last year's holiday)

Q: What is semantic memory?

A: Memory for facts and general knowledge (e.g., knowing the capital of England is London)

Q: What is procedural memory?

A: Memory for complicated skills stored using motor code rather than verbal code (e.g., riding a bike, swimming, tying shoelaces)

# Memory Encoding

Q: What are the three forms of encoding?

A: 1. Acoustic encoding (sound)

2. Visual encoding (picture)

3. Semantic encoding (meaning)

Q: What is acoustic encoding?

A: Processing information in memory as sound (e.g., repeating a phone number to remember it)

Q: What is visual encoding?

A: Processing information as pictures in the mind (e.g., picturing your garden when thinking about its size)

Q: What is semantic encoding?

A: Processing information through its meaning and understanding (e.g., understanding relationships and connections between concepts)

# Memory Retrieval

Q: What are the three types of memory retrieval?

A: 1. Recall

2. Recognition

3. Re-learning

Q: What is recall?

A: Searching memory to remember information without cues (e.g., answering "What is the capital of Thailand?")

Q: What is recognition?

A: Identifying items you've been previously exposed to when presented with them again

Q: What is re-learning?

A: Learning something again that was previously learned but forgotten - usually faster than initial learning

# Multi-Store Model of Memory

Q: What are the three components of Atkinson & Shiffrin's Multi-Store Memory Model?

A: 1. Sensory Memory Store

2. Short-term Memory Store

3. Long-term Memory Store

Q: What are the key features of the sensory memory store?

A: - Large capacity

- Duration of milliseconds

- Encoding occurs as information is received

- Not under cognitive control

Q: What are the key features of short-term memory store?

A: - Duration up to 18 seconds

- Capacity of 7 +/- 2 items

- Mainly acoustic encoding

- Information lost through decay or displacement if not rehearsed

Q: What are the key features of long-term memory store?

A: - Unlimited capacity

- Potentially lifetime duration

- Mainly semantic encoding

- Information transferred through elaborate/maintenance rehearsal

# Serial Position Effect

Q: What is the primacy effect?

A: Items at the beginning of a list are better remembered because they have more rehearsal time and transfer to long-term memory

Q: What is the recency effect?

A: Items at the end of a list are better remembered because they are still in short-term memory

Q: What were the key findings of Murdock's Serial Position study (1962)?

A: - Words at beginning (primacy) and end (recency) of lists were best recalled

- Middle items were least remembered

- Supported existence of separate short-term and long-term memory stores

# Memory as an Active Process

Q: What is Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory?

A: Memory is not simply recorded but reconstructed based on individual's hopes, fears, emotions, and previous experiences

Q: What is effort after meaning?

A: The process of trying to make sense of unfamiliar information by relating it to things we already know and understand

Q: What are the two types of interference?

A: 1. Proactive interference - old memories interfere with new learning

2. Retroactive interference - new memories interfere with recall of old memories

Q: How does context affect memory?

A: - Environmental context is encoded along with memories

- Returning to original context can help trigger associated memories

- Includes sights, sounds, smells, and textures from original encoding