Psychology: Human Memory

Retrieval Cues

stimuli that help gain access to memories

Three levels of processing

structural, phonemic, semantic

Consolidation

taking a memory from short-term memory and putting it in long-term memory; the hippocampus is a very important part of the brain for it

tip-of-the-tongue

temporary inability to remember something you know accompanied by a feeling that it's just out of reach

The three things that must happen to make a memory

Encoding, storage, and retrieval

Ways to improve memory

Engage in adequate rehearsal, distributive practice, deepen the level of processing, enrich encoding

The role of attention in the memory process

Focused awareness on a small amount of stimuli

Two possible explanation for what happens to the neural circuitry

New memories alter the transmissions in the synapse; new memories create unique, reusable pathways

Working memory (4 parts)

Phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, central executive

Procedural Memory

also known as nondeclarative memory; skills, basic conditioned responses, and learned skills

Episodic Memory

autobiographical record of personal experiences, more affected by amnesia

Suppression

conscious forgetting, simply not thinking about it

Central Executive

controls what you are paying attention to

Recall

direct retrieval of facts or information; serial position effect- being able to recall the beginning and end of a list but not the middle; primary effect- more likely to recall items at the beginning of a list; recency effect- likely to recall items at the end of a list

Ways to enrich encoding

elaborate, visual imagery

Ineffective encoding

encoding failure; also known as puedoforgetting; a memory was never formed

Anterograde Amnesia

events that follow an injury or trauma are forgotten; often caused by hippocampus damage

Retrograde Amnesia

events that occurred before an injury or trauma are forgotten; usually occurs during consolidation

Clustering

factual information is organized into simple categories

Declarative Memory

factual information, two types: semantic and episodic

Semantic memory

factual knowledge about the world, less affected by amnesia

Echoes in sensory memory

fleeting auditory record

Icons in sensory memory

fleeting visual image

Herman Ebbinghaus (curve of forgetting)

graph that shows how much info is retained over time, as learning becomes stronger knowledge may become more permanent

Chunking

grouping information smaller units of information

Storage

holding encoded information for an extended amount of time

Sensory Memory

holds an exact copy of incoming stimuli for up to two seconds; capacity is a large amount of information; duration is very short; stored by icons and echoes

Episodic buffer

it integrates the different components of working memory and moves things into LTM

Selective Attention

it is our filter for incoming stimuli

Eidetic Memory

the ability to retain an image for more than thirty seconds; most common in children

Retention

the amount of material that is retained in memory (remembered)

Missing cues

the cues are missing so we cant retrieve information

Decay

the fading or weakening of memory traces from short-term memory

semantic

the meaning of the incoming stimuli (long-term)

Elaborate

the new information to old information; tie what you are learning into your prior knowledge

Phonemic (acoustic)

the sound of the incoming stimuli (short-term memory)

Short-term Memory

the storehouse for relatively small amounts of information; capacity is a digit span of 4-9 bits of info (usually 7); duration is 15-20 seconds; stored by sound

Interference

the tendency of new memories to impair the retrieval of older memories

Encoding Specificity Principle

the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code

Phonological loop

this is the part that is working when you are practicing rehearsal

Visuospatial sketchpad

this part is working when you manipulate a visual image

Visual imagery

turn new information into some form of visual image

Encoding

turning information into a useable form for your brain

Structural (visual)

what is the structure of the incoming stimuli

Transfer-appropriate processing

when initial processing of information is similar to the way and type of processing is required

Misinformation effect

when participants' recall is altered by introducing misleading post event information

Long-term Memory

you memory's permanent storehouse for information; capacity is unknown possibly unlimited, duration is unknown possibly permanent

Rehearsal

maintenance rehearsal- repetitive verbalizing or thinking of information; elaborative rehearsal- tying information into your past experiences

Source Monitoring

making attributions about the source of memories; source-monitoring error - mistakenly attributing the source of behavior

Disuse

memories in long-term memory not retrieved and rehearsed become weaker over time

Relearning

most sensitive measure of memory

Repression

motivated forgetting, usually due to emotional trauma, unconscious forgetting

Conceptual Hierarchy

multilevel classification system based on common properties among items

Retroactive Interference

new learning inhibits retrieval of old learning

Semantic Networks

nodes of concepts with pathways connecting to other similar concepts, interconnected system of memories, redintegrative memory- when one memory leads to another memory and then another

Working Memory Capacity (WMC)

one's ability to hold and manipulate information in conscious attention, influenced by heredity, can be reduced by several factors

Schemas

organized cluster of knowledge about something based on prior experiences

Explicit Memory

past experiences that are consciously brought to mind; you know it's there and you can retrieve it and use it

Context cues (state dependent learning)

physically put yourself back in the place you learned the information

Recognition

previously learned material is correctly identified; distracters- recognition can be poorer if the distracters are nearly the same as the original; false positive- false sense of recognition; recognition is always better than recall UNLESS the distracters are similar

Implicit Memory

priming; memories that lie outside of consciousness and we are not aware of

Proactive Interference

prior learning inhibits the recall of later learning

Reality Monitoring

process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources or internal sources

Retrieval

pulling previously encoded information out of your storage and using it

Measures of forgetting/measures of memory

recall, recognition, and relearning

Destination Monitoring

recalling to whom one has told what

Retrospective Memory

remembering things from the past or previously learned information

Prospective Memory

remembering to do things in the future

Amnesia

result of physical damage to the brain

How to improve STM

Rehearsal and Chunking