Psych-Chapter 7

What are some possible reasons for why and when we forget?

Encoding failure (information never enters the memory system) from absent-mindedness, transience, or blocking. Storage decay (encoded information is later forgotten) through misattribution, suggestibility, or bias; measured by a gradual fading of the memory trace in the brain. Retrieval failure (inability to access stored information), often caused by interference.

What biological changes enable memory storage?

Long-term potentiation (LTP) involves an increase in a synapse's firing potential; this is a neural basis of learning and memory. Intense emotions trigger hormonal changes that arouse brain areas and can produce strong memories. Especially vivid events can form flashbulb memories.

Your friend tells you that her father experienced brain damage in an accident. She wonders is psychology can explain why he can still lay checkers very well but has a hard time holding a sensible conversation. What can you tell her?

Our consciously recalled explicit (declarative) memories are processed in the hippocampus, and our implicit (non-declarative) memories of skills and procedures, such as checkers, are processed in other parts of our brain, including the cerebellum. It seems our friend's father did not suffer damage to the part of his brain that process implicit memories.

What - given the commonality of source amnesia - might life be like if we remember all our waking experiences and all our dreams?

Real experiences would be confused with those we dreamed. When meeting someone, we might there be unsure whether we were reacting o something they previously did or to something we dreamed they did. William Dement (1999) thinks this "would put a great burden on your sanity...I truly believe that the wall of memory is a blessed protection."

In what order does our brain process an external event into a memory that can last a lifetime?

Sensory Memory, Working/Short-Term Memory, Long-Term Memory

What are the recommended memory strategies you just read about?

Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall. Schedule spaced (not crammed) study times. Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material. Make the material personally meaningful, with well-organized and vivid associations. Refresh your memory by returning contexts and moods to activate retrieval cues. Minimize interference. Plan for a complete night's sleep. Test your own knowledge, both to rehearse it and to help determine what you do not yet know.

How do automatic and effortful processing helps us encode sights, sounds, and other sensations?

We unconsciously and automatically process some types of information, such as space, time, and frequency. Effortful processing, including rehearsal that is spaced out over time, requires conscious attention and deliberate effort. When learning lists, our later recall is often best for items learned first, which we may have rehearsed more (the serial position effect).

Flashbulb Memories

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event

Misinformation Effect

a memory that has been corrupted by misleading information

Children may be accurate eyewitnesses if

a neutral person asks non-leading questions soon after the event, in words the children can understand.

Working Memory

a view of short-term memory that stresses conscious, active processing of information, whether newly encoded or retrieved from long-term memory

Short-Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly (such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing) before the information is stored or forgotten

A neural basis for learning and memory is LTP, which refers to

an increase in a synapse's firing potential.

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a synapse's firing potential. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory

Retrieval Cue

any stimulus linked to a specific memory

The cerebellum plays an important role in forming and storing implicit memories created by

classical conditioning

The feeling that :I've been here before" is known as

déjà vu.

Rehearsal-the conscious repetition of information you want to remember-is part of

effortful processing

Effortfull Processing

encoding that requires attention and conscious effort

The psychological terms for taking in information, retaining it, and later getting it back out are

encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Memory Trace

enduring physical changes in the brains as a memory forms

Source Amnesia

faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined

Hippocampus damage will typically not affect the ability to learn new skills, such as riding a bike, which is an example of

implicit memory

Repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness the thoughts, feelings, and memories that arouse anxiety

The tendency to alter information as we encode it, and to fill in gaps when we try to recall something, is known as

memory construction

Recognition

memory demonstrated by identifying items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test

Recall

memory demonstrated by retrieving information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test

Relearning

memory demonstrated by time saved when learning material a second time

Imagery

mental pictures; a powerful aid to effortful processing, especially when combined with encoding meaning

The tendency to recall experiences consistent with our current emotions is called

mood-congruent memory

Testing Effect

repeated testing of previously studied material

Storage

retaining of encoded information over time

To access a memory, we think of things associated with that memory, such as odors, images, or emotions, which are all examples of

retrieval cues

When we are tested immediately after viewing a list of words, we tend to recall the first and last items more rapidly than those in the middle. This tendency is called the

serial position effect

You recognize a face in a crowd, but you can't recall how you know that person. This is an example of

source amnesia

Deja Vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience

Interference

the blocking of recall as old or new learning disrupts the recall of other memories

Rehearsal

the conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to encode it for storage

Sensory Memory

the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system

Memory

the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of information

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage • Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) designed a memory model based on a computers information-processing system. They proposed that we form memories in three stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

Long-Term Memory

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Spacing Effect

the tendency for disturbed study or practice to yield better long-term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice

Serial Position Effect

the tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Mood-Cingruent Memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with your current good or bad mood

Automatic Processing

unconscious encoding of everyday information, such as space, time, frequency and well learned word meanings

The process of forming mental images as we encode information in memory is called

visual encoding

What two important new concepts now update the classic three-stage information-processing model?

(a) We form some memories through unconscious processing, without our awareness. (b) To stress the active processing that takes pale in the middle stage, many psychologists now prefer the term working memory

Explicit Memory

(declarative; with conscious recall; long-term memory; cerebellum) memories of facts and personal events that you can consciously retrieve

Implicit Memory

(non-declarative; without conscious recall; long-term memories; hippocampus) retaining learned skills or conditioning, often without conscious awareness of this learning

Our short-term memory capacity is about

7 items.

Encoding

: the process of getting information into the memory system

Psychologists involved in the study of memories of abuse tend to DISAGREE about which of the following statements?

? We tend to repress extremely upsetting memories. Which means they agree on that the memories of events that happened before age 3 are not reliable, memoires can be emotionally upsetting, and that sexual abuse happens.

What would be the most effective strategy to learn and retain a list of names of key historical figures for a week? A year?

A week? Make the names personally meaningful. A year? Overlearn the list and space out rehearsals over the course of several weeks.

Which of the following is not a good suggestion for improving your memory?

Cram just before a test rather than spacing out your studying. Which means the following are good suggestions for improving your memory: make the material you are reading as personally meaningful as possible, overlearn by studying repeatedly, and study in a way that reduces the interference of other topics and distractions