psychology: memory

recency effect

A characteristic of memory in which recall is particularly good for the last few items in a list.

retrograde amnesia

forgetting old stuff

sensory memory

preserves info in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second. allows for the sensation of a visual pattern, sound, or touch to linger for a brief moment after the stimulation is over. transferred into short term memory.

3 Stage model of memory

sensory memory. short-term memory. long-term memory.

serial position effect

tendency to remember the first and last items better than the rest; remember things because of their POSITION

primacy effect

In free recall, the tendency to recall the first items on the list more readily than those in the middle.

can we trust our memories

NO

retroactive interference

New memories interfere with recall of old information.

proactive interference

Old memories interfere with recall of new information

flashbulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event (ex. 9/11)

working memory

a limited capacity system for temp storage and manipulation for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning; accounts for dynamic process involved in cognition. any time you need to remember something for a very limited amount of time.

relearning

a memory measure that assess the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time

echoic memory

a momentary audio memory of a sound; sounds, words, and ECHOES can be remembered within 3 to 4 seconds, even if attention is elsewhere

George Miller's Magic #7

a person can typically remember somewhere between 5 and 9 digits on average

iconic memory

a photographIC memory lasting for a few tenths of a second; everyone has it; discovered by Sperling

recognition

ability to identify items previously learned (ex. multiple-choice test)

recall

ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness (ex. fill-in-the-blank test)

LTM

declarative memory and procedural memory

episodic memory

events, self knowing, self remembering, experiences you had that personally involved you

retrieval theory

forgetting is a result of a failure to to access stored memory

anterograde amnesia

forgetting new stuff

retrieval

get info back out of memory

blocking

inaccessibility of stored info; may be on the tip of the tongue

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event (ex. How fast were the cars going when they SMASHED into eachother?)

semantic memory

knowledge, facts, not personal, not from a personal experience. info without the experience of when or how we are involved in it.

storage

maintain in memory

Decay/trace theory

memories gradually fade over time

long-term memory

memory in which associations among items are stored for a long time. retains info for periods of time beyond the capacity for STM. capacity=unlimited. duration=unlimited. research suggest that you never truly forget anything.

constructionist theory

memory is reconstructive process, memories may be distorted, we best remember events and experiences that are consistent with our schemas () and pre-existing expectations

elaborative rehearsal

method of transferring material from STM to LTM by making tat info more meaningful in some way, associate new material with familiar meaningful info. why dewald always uses personal stories in lecture.

procedural memory

not knowing through behavior, skill memory, action memoru, hard to link to langauge. ride a bike, tie shoes, type, write

short-term memory

not permanent. retains and processes info up to 30 seconds, holds info long enough for it to be actively worked on or processed by the brain.

semantic networks

organization of LTM. memory is organizzed based on semantic (meaning) rather than superficial features (what look/sound like).

chunking

organizing items into meaningful, familiar categories; occurs automatically; (it's easier to remember 1492 and 1812 instead of 1,4,9,2,1,8,1,2,)

encoding

put into memory

recognition task

recognizing previously encountered events, objects, or people; environmental content is matched to stored memory representations.

visual encoding

remembering images and visuals

acoustic encoding

remembering sounds, especially word sounds (ex. it's easier to remember rhymes)

amnesia

the loss of memory

memory

the mechanism we use to create, maintain and retrieve info about the past. learning cannot occur without memory.

declarative memory

things you are aware you are accessing and you can report the contents of that info. episodic and semantic memory