Chapter 7

Levels of Processing

A continuum of memory processing from shallow to intermediate to deep, with deeper processing producing better memory.

Anterograde Amnesia

A memory disorder that affects retention of new information and events

Recall

A memory task to retrieve previously learned information.

Semantic Memory

A person's knowledge about the world, including his or her areas of expertise; general knowledge, such as of things learned in school, and everyday knowledge.

Schema

A preexisting mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information. Schemas from prior encounters with the environment influence the way individuals encode, make inferences about, and retrieve information.

Long-term Memory

A relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a short time.

Script

A schema for an event, often containing information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon

A type of effortful retrieval associated with a person's feeling that he or she knows something (say, a word or a name) but cannot quite pull it out of memory

Use of Mental Imagery

A visual way of remembering and retaining information.

Working Memory

Alternative approach to explaining short-term memory. Three part system to hold information temporarily. A combination of components, including short-term memory and attention, that allow individuals to hold information temporarily as they perform cognitive tasks; a kind of mental workbench on which the brain manipulated and assembles information to guide understanding, decision making, and problem solving.

Sustained Attention

Attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time

Echoic Memory

Auditory sensory memory Retained for us to several seconds

Phonological loop

Briefly stores speech-based information (about the sound of language.)

Multi-tasking

Completing to physical activities at one time. Activities will not be completed to their best capability.

Divided Attention

Concentrating on more than one activity at the same time; attending to several things simultaneously

Rehersal

Conscious repetition of information

Levels of Processing

Continuum from shallow to deep Deeper processing, better memory Elaboration

Repressed memories

Defense mechanism by which person, traumatized by an event, forgets it and then forgets the act of forgetting.

Flash bulb memory

Emotionally significant events. Recalled with vivid imagery.

Selective Attention

Focusing on specific aspects Limitation on brain's resources

Motivated Forgetting

Forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable.

Chunking

Grouping information into high-order units

Encoding Specific Principle

Information present at time of learning tends to be effective as retrieval cue

Short-term Memory

Limited capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless the individual uses strategies to retain it longer. Miller's Magic Number 7 - Limited capacity (7 + or - 2) Information retained for up to 30 seconds, without strategies to retain it longer.

Anmesia

Loss of memory

Memory for traumatic events

May contain inaccuracies because the memory was reconstructed.

Duel-code Hypothesis

Memory for pictures better than memory for words Pictures stored as both image codes and verbal codes

Implicit Memory Non declarative memory

Memory in which behavior is affected by prior experience without a conscious recollection of that experience.

Retrograde Amnesia

Memory loss for a segment of past but not for new events

Sensory memory

Memory system that involved holding information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant, not much longer than the brief time it is exposed to the visual, auditory, and other senses. Holds information in sensory form for an instatnt

Recognition

Memory task to identify or recognize, learned items.

Encoding Failure

Not forgotten but never encoded. Information never entered into long-term memory

Shallow (depth of processing)

Physical and perceptual features are analyzed.

Use of Mental Energy

Powerful Encoding tool Verbal code Image code

Retrieval Failure

Problems retrieving information from memory; forgotten information

Context-dependent Memory

Remembering better when attempting to recall information in same context in which it was learned

Prospective memory

Remembering information about doing something in the future; includes memory for intentions

Retrospective memory

Remembering information from the past

How informations is...

Retained overtime Represented in memory

Memory

Retention of information or experience overtime. Key process: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Deep (depth of processing)

Semantic, meaningful, symbolic characteristics are used.

Proactive Interference

Situation in which material that was learned earlier disrupts the recall of material that was learned later

Retroactive Interference

Situation in which material that was learned later disrupts the retrieval of information that was learned earlier

Autobiographical Memories

Special form on episodic memory containing recollections of own life experiences.

Intermediate (depth of processing)

Stimulus is recognized and labeled.

Explicit Memory

The cerebellum is active in the implicit memory required to perform skills.

Explicit Memory or Declarative Memory

The conscious recollection of information, such as specific facts or events and, at least in humans, information t hat can be verbally communicated.

Encoding

The first step in memory; the process by which information gets into memory storage.

Elaboration

The formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at any given level of memory encoding

Memory Retrieval

The memory process that occurs when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage.

Episodic Memory

The retention of information about where, when, and what of life's happenings - that is, how individuals remember life's episodes.

Storage

The second step in memory; the process in which you retail and remember the memory.

Serial Position Effect

The tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle.

Connectionism or Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)

The theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections among neurons, several of which may work together to process a single memory.

Interference Theory

The theory that people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember

Retrieval

The third step in memory; the process in which you retrieve your old memories.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Theory

Theory stating that memory storage involved three seperate systems: Sensory memory Short-term memory Long-term memory

Attention

To begin memory encoding, must pay attention to information

Iconic Memory

Visual sensory memory