Chapter Six

The three types of encoding processes

Semantic encoding, visual imagery encoding, and organizational encoding

Collaborative inhibition

Negative effect on group recall on memory. The same number of individuals working together to recall fewer items than they would've on their own.

Implicit memory

Occurs when past experiences influence later behavior and performance, even without an effort to remember them or an awareness of the recollection.

Explicit memory

Occurs when people consciously or intentionally retrieve past experiences. Whenever you say I remember you are talking about explicit memory.

Procedural memory

The gradual acquisition skills skills as a result of practice or knowing how to do things. Things you remember are automatically translated into action.

Transfer appropriate processing

The idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match.

Retrograde amnesia

The inability to retrieve information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the date of injury or surgery.

Memory

The ability to store and retrieve information over time. They are the residue of things we have felt, experienced, etc., the enduring changes that experience makes in our brains and leaves behind when it passes. It's remarkably complex and remarkably fragile.

Storage

The process of maintaining information in memory over time.

Encoding

The process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory.

Blocking

A failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you were trying to produce it. Example, the tip of your tongue experience. Some individuals with brain damage lives in the near perpetual tip of the tongue state.

Echoic memory

A fast-decaying store of auditory information. The hallmark of both the iconic in echoic with memory stores is that they hold information for very short time. Iconic memory usually decay about one second or less, and echoic memories usually decay in about five seconds.

False recognition

A feeling of familiarity about something that hasn't been encountered before. False recognition occurs, at least in part, because when presented with a similar new object on its own, participants don't recall specific details about the object actually studied, but these details need to be retrieved in order to correctly indicate that a similar object is new.

Absentmindedness

A lapse in attention that results in memory failure. Attention plays a vital role in encoding information into long-term memory. Greater activity in the lower left frontal region during encoding is associated with better memory. Dividing attention then prevents the lower left frontal lobe from playing its normal role in semantic encoding and the result is absentminded forgetting. Divided attention often leads to less hippocampal involvement in encoding. Another common cause of absentmindedness is forgetting to carry out actions that we planned to do in the future.

Semantic memory

A network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world. For example, recalling what the capital of France is.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

A process whereby the communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier. It occurs in several pathways within the hippocampus, it can be induced rapidly, and it can last for a long time.

Encoding specificity principle

A retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps re-create that specific way in which information was initially encoded. For example, being in the environment in which he memory was learned can help you remember it.

Sensory

A type of storage that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less.

Active processing

A visual search task.

Working memory

Active maintenance of information in short-term storage. It includes subsystems that store and manipulate visual images or verbal information, as well as a central executive that coordinates the subsystems. If you're playing chess, it includes the visual representation of the positions of the pieces, your mental manipulation of the possible moves, and your awareness of the flow of information into an out of memory, all stored for a limited amount of time.There is a link between this part of the working memory system (the verbal subsystem) and the ability to learn language. The central executive component of working memory depends on regions within the frontal lobe that are important for controlling and manipulating information on a wide range of cognitive tasks.

Hippocampal regional index

Although the hippocampal regional index is critical when new memories first form, it may become less important as the memory ages. Another possibility is that hippocampal index remains involved over long period of time with some memories (highly detailed recollections of personal experiences, the kinds of memories that give us the feeling that we are reliving the past experience), but does not stay involved in less detailed, more general memories.

Priming

An enhanced ability to think of the stimulus such as a word or object as a result of a recent exposure to the stimulus. It is an example of an implicit memory. For example, participant correctly identified fragmented drawings of studied than new objects, and identified for studying objects than did participants in a control group who had never seen pictures. This test was done 17 years after the presentation of the study list. Experiments have shown that priming is associated with reduced activity in various regions of the cortex that are activated when people perform in unprimed task. The brain saves a bit of processing time after priming.

What happens during an experience?

Any experience that results in memory produces physical changes in the nervous system.

Memory missattribution

Assigning a recollection or an ideas to the wrong source (thinking there were two suspects when there was only one—one looked like the suspect).

Flashbulb memories

Detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events such as 9/11.

Transactive memory (collaborative remembering)

Each member of the couple remember certain types of information that they can share with the other.

The three key functions of memory

Encoding, storage, and retrieval

Iconic memory

Fast-decaying store visual information.

Why does visual imagery encoding work so well?

First, visual imagery encoding to some of the same things does not including does: when you create a visual image, you relate incoming information to knowledge already in memory. For example, a visual image of a parked car might help you create a link to memories of your first kiss. Second, when you use visual imagery 10 code words and other verbal information, you end up with two different mental placeholders for the items—a visual one and a verbal one—which give you more ways to remember them than just a verbal placeholder alone.

Transience

Forgetting what occurs with the passage of time. It occurs during the storage fees of memory, after an experience has been encoded and before it is retrieved. It occurs in sensory storage and short-term storage and also in long-term storage. Memories can be distorted overtime and by other memories.

Organizational encoding

Grouping or categorizing. It is the process of categorizing information according to the relationship among a series of items. For example suppose you have to memorize the words peach, chair, apple, table, cherry, lion, and desk. If you organize the items into categories such as fruit the task becomes much easier. Organizational encoding activates the upper surface of the left frontal lobe grouping or categorizing. It is the process of categorizing information according to the relationship among a series of items. For example suppose you have to memorize the words peach, chair, apple, table, cherry, lion, and desk. If you organize the items into categories such as fruit the task becomes much easier. Organizational encoding activates the upper surface of the left frontal lobe.

Hippocampal structures?

Hippocampal structures are not needed for implicit procedural memory. Regiona outside the hippocampal area including areas in the motor cortex are involved in procedural memory. It is crucial for learning the various kinds of motor, perceptual, and cognitive skills.

Short term

Hold non-sensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute. Lasts about 15 to 20 seconds. Short-term memory is limited in how long it will information, and also limited in how much information you can hold.

Collaborative memory

How people remember in groups. Collaboration benefits memory.

Semantic encoding

How we remember something depends on how we think about it at the time. It is the process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory. prIt is uniquely associated with increased activity in the lower left part of the frontal lobe and the inner part of the temporal lobe. The more activity there is any areas the more likely the person will remember the information.

Chunking

Involves combining small pieces of information into larger clusters or chunks are more easily held in short-term memory.

Are memories constructed or recorded?

Memories are constructed, not recorded, and encoding is a process by which we transform what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory.

How are memories made?

Memories are made by combining information we already have in our brains with new information that comes in through our senses. It's like cooking, staring from a recipe but improvising along the way, we add old info to new info.

Source memory

Recall of when, where, and how information was acquired. The frontal lobes play a significant role in effortful retrieval processes, which are required to dredge up the correct source of memory.

Semantic judgments

Required participants to think about the meaning of words (is hat a type of clothing?).

Rhyme judgments

Required participants to think about the sound of words (does hat rhyme with cat?)

Visual judgments

Required the participants to think about the appearance of the words (is HAT written uppercase or lowercase?)

Memory storage depends on what?

Research suggest that memory storage depends strictly on the spaces between neurons. A synapse is the small space between the axon of one neuron and the dendrite of another, and neurons communicate by sending neurotransmitters across the synpases. The act of sending actually changes the synapse—specifically it strengthens the connection between the two neurons, making it easier for them to transmit to each other the next time. This is why researchers sometimes say cells that fire together wire together.

The three major kinds of memory storage

Sensory, short-term, and long-term

Proactive interference

Situations in which earlier learning impairs memory for information acquired later (ex. parking in the same spot, but then parking somewhere new and forgetting).

Retroactive interference

Stuations in which later learning impairs memory for information acquired earlier (forgetting what you did Monday, but remembering what you did Friday at work).

Suggestibility

Tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections. Visual imagery plays a important role in constructing false memories.

Consistency bias

The bias to reconstruct the past to fit the present.

Episodic memory

The collection of passed personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place. For example, recalling your favorite birthday. It is a form of memory that lets us time travel. The hippocampus is not necessary for requiring a new semantic memories. Episodic memory also allows us to travel into the future. A common brain network is activated when people remember episodes that actually occurred in their personal pasts and when they imagine episodes that might occur in their personal futures. This network includes the hippocampus, a part of the medial temporal lobe long known to play an important role in episodic memory. Episodic memory is a flexible system that allows us to recombine elements of past experience in new ways, so that we can mentally try out different versions of what might happen.

Nominal group

The combined recall of several individuals recalling target items on their own.

Bias

The distorting influences of present knowledges, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences.

Retrieval cue

The information outside your head. It is the external information that is associated with stored information and helps you bring it to mind. Results suggest that information is sometimes available in memory even when it is momentarily inaccessible, and that retrieval can help us bring inaccessible information to mind. Can be thoughts.

Persistence

The intrusive recollection of the events that we wish we could forget. It occurs after dramatic incidents. Emotional experiences tend to be better remembered the nonemotional one.

Consolidation

The process by which memories become stable in the brain. Shortly after encoding, memories exist in a fragile state in which they can be easily disrupted; once consolidation has occurred, they are more resistant to disruption. Big boost from sleep. Sleep plays an important role in memory consolidation. Experiments have shown that even seemingly consolidated memories can be vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, thus requiring them to be consolidated again. This process is called the reconsolidation. When a traumatic event was reactivated after the administration of the drug that reduces anxiety, there was a subsequent reduction symptoms. Related work indicates that disrupting reconsolidation can simulate a conditioned fear memory in a part of the brain called the amygdala (which plays a key role in emotional memory).

Retrieval

The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored. The process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded and stored, and it is perhaps the most important of all memory processes. One of the best ways to retrieve information from inside your head is to encounter information outside of your head that is somehow connected to it. Retrieval changes the state of the memory system in important ways. Retrieval can strengthen a retrieved memory, making easier to remember that information at a later time. Retrieval induced forgetting: a process by which retrieving items from long-term memory in subsequent recall of related items. The act of retrieval can change what we remember from an experience. Trying to recall the incident and successfully recall one are fundamentally different processes that occur in different parts of the brain. For example, regions in the left frontal lobe show heightened activity when people try to retrieve information that was presented earlier. Successfully remembering a past experience tend to be accompanied by activity in the hippcampal region. Successful recall also activates parts of the brain that play a role in processing the sensory features of an experience.

Rehearsal

The process of keeping information in short-term memory by mentally repeating it. Each time you repeat something, you are reentering it into short-term memory, giving another 15 seconds of shelf life.

Visual imagery encoding

The process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures. It is simply converting the information that you want to remember into a visual visual image and then storing it in a familiar location. Numerous experiments have shown that visual imagery encoding can substantially improve memory.

State dependent retrieval

The tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval. For example, retrieving information when you're in a sad or happy mood increases the likelihood that you will retrieve happy or sad episodes. Being in a good mood affects patterns of electrical activity in parts of the brain responsible for semnatic processing, suggesting that mood has a direct influence on semantic encoding. If a person's states at the time of retrieval matches the person state at the time of encoding, the state is self serves as a retrieval cue.

Change bias

The tendency to exaggerate differences between what we feel or believe now and what we felt or believed in the past.

Egocentric bias

The tendency to exaggerate the change between present and past in order to make ourselves look good in retrospect (students saying they were more anxious before taking a test than they actually were).

The seven sins of memory?

Transience, Absentmindedness, blocking, memory misattribution, suggestibility, bias, and persistence

Visual imagery encoding activates what?

Visual imagery encoding activates visual processing regions in the occipital lobe, which suggests that people actually enlist the visual system when forming memory space on mental images.

Long-term

What type of storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years. No known capacity limits. When the hippocampus is damaged, individuals suffer from the condition as anterograde amnesia, which is the ability to transfer new information from the short-term store to the long-term store.