Psychology in Your Life Ch 7 Memory ***

How do we maintain memories over time

1. Sense information is maintained in sensory storage up to a few seconds 2. Short term storage keeps about 8 items for up to 20 seconds 3. Long term storage or memories is relatively permanents and virtually limitless 4. Information in long term storage is based on meaning through schemas and associations netweorks

What is the age of the earliest memory people have

3 years old

Procedural memory

A form of Implicit Memory - driving a car while daydreaming. Involves motor skills, habits and other behaviors employed to achieve goals - riding a bicycle...completely unconscious. They last a long time.

Recognition

A type of memory retreival in which a person identifies material as familiar or s having been encountered before. Like a multiple choice test

Working Memory

An active processing system that allows manipulation of different types of information to keep it available for current use. can process sounds, images and ideas.

Networks of associations

An items distinctive features are linked in ways that identify them. Each unit of information in the network is a node which is connected to other nodes. Activating one node will activate others.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Based on meaning. (semantic) How something is meaningful to us and we can link it to knowledge already in our long term storage. Best type of memory

Why is memory necessary for survival skills

Because memory facilitates adaptation

Memory Bias

Changing memories over time so that they become consistent with our current beliefs or attitudes

Crytptoamnesia

Coming up with a new idea but really we are remembering information from an old source. Song fraud. Plagerism

Sensory Storage

Creates perceptual continuity for the world around us. Brief maintenace system for sensory information. A memory system that very briefly holds a vast amount of information from the five senses in close to their original form. Trail of light by sparklers Encoding - it is experience, visual, auditory, smell and touch Duration - Up to a few seconds depending on the sense Capacity of storage - vast due to huge amount of sensory input

Implicit memories/Non-Declarative memories

Does not require conscious effort and cannnot be verbally described.

Filter Theory

Donald Broadbent explains how we selectively attend to the most important information. Headphones - filter

What are the two sources of Memory

Environmental Stimuli (all five senses) and already existing memories

Consolidation

Experiences becoming lasting memories. Neural connections have become stronger, new synapses have been constructed. Medial temporal lobes responsible for this . Sleep helps with this process

Temporal Lobe

Explicit memory

Attention

Focusing mental resources on information allows further processing for perception, memory and response. be alert and focus on information.

Prospective Memory

Future oriented. We will remember to do something in the future. This takes up valuable cognitive resources. This reduces the number of items we can deal within short term storage or the things we can process in working memory. Cues can help

What are things that can affect long term storage

Genetic Predisposition How Emotionally laidened the information is Intrinsic interests To the extent that we rehearse it - Rote How often we use the info or are exposed to a particular stimulus Psychoactive substance use - alcohol, pot Developemental (age) Diseases (Dimentia, Alzheimers, Diabetes) Stress (trauma)

Important information

Has to be personally relevant or particularly loud or different in some obvious way

Storage Phase of Memory

How you maintain the coded representation in a network of neurons in the brain. Storage can last a fraction or a lifetime

What kind of memories do advertisers rely on for you to make a purchasing decision.

Implicit memories

Amygdala

Implicit memory - fear learning

Context-dependent memory

Includes information like location, odors and background music. It produces a sense of familiarity that helps retrieve the memory. Scuba divers remember better in environment where they learned info

Negative side of schemas

It can lead to biasencoding - people leave out information that is hard to encode in long term storage

Mnemonics

Learning aids that use retrieval cues to improve access to memory. Using a visual walk to remember things

Visual Attention

Less attention is needed to find one thing - red coat More attention is needed to find more two features. Limited process

Sperling 1960

Letters flashed on a screen for 1/20 second. Most people could only recall 3/4 letters. Test repeated but used sound and longer exposure. Participants recalled items in sensory storage for 1/3 second

Autobiographical Memories

Life flashing before you die

Auditory Attention

Like visual attention. Limited process

What facilitates survival through adaptation?

Long Term Storage

Short term Storage

Maintains information for immediate use. Holding place Encoding - Primarily Auditory, also visual and semantic Duration - 20 seconds; indefinite with working memory manipulation of items Capacity of Storage - 7 items plus or minus 2, using working memory aids capacity

Miller 1956

Memory Span. Capacity limit of short term storage is 7 items

NonDeclarative Memories

Memory for the perceptual, motor and cognitive skills required to perform a task. Driving a car, Dr giving orders in ER

Attkinson Shiffrin Theory

Memory involves a three part memory storage system. Sensory storage, Short term storage and long term storage

Misattributation

Misremebering the time, place, person or circumstances of the memories. Source amnesia is a form of this.

Change Blindness

Often we are blind to large changes in our environment. Switch out strangers asking for directions

Retrieval Phase of Memory

One re accesses the information

Semantic Memories

Our knowledge of facts independent of personal experience. We might knot know where we learned it but we know it. What is means that three strikes and a batter is out. Not emotional

Memory Persistence

PTSD. Remembering bits and pieces. Reliving it

Anterograde amenesia

People lose the ability to form new memories

Mood congruent

People tend to remeber information beter when their mood is the same when encoding and retreival

Episodic memory

Personal experiences and includes information about the time and place each experience occurred. emotional

Atkinson and Shiffrin 1968

Proposed 3 types of memory stores. Sensory Storage Short Term Storage Long Term Storage

Purpose of working memory

Purpose is to store new information briefly and work on that information

Frederic Barlett 1930

Read Folktale and asked participants to retell folktale. It was altered so that it made sense from their own cutural standpoint. INformation that does not fit into our prexisiting schemas can be hard to encode into long term storage.

Recall

Reconstruction of perviously learnes material in absence of cues or hints

Long Term Storage

Relatively permanent storage of information for re-access and use at a later time. Based on meaning of semantic mental representations Encoding - primarily semantic, also visual and auditory, dual coding provides richest encoding Duration - probably unlimited Capacity of Storage - probably unlimited

Explicit Memories/Declarative memories

Requires conscious effort and often can be verbally described. What did you have for dinner last night

Memories

Semantic information about concepts and what those concepts mean to you.

Hippocampus

Spacial Memory. Storage

Blocking

Temporarily being unable to remember something. Tip of the tongue phenomenon. It occurs from interference from words that are similar in some way - sound, meaning. This phenomenon increases with age.

What are the Medial Temporal lobes responsible for?

The are responsible for coordinating and strengthening the connections among neurons when we learn something

Spreading Activation Models

The idea that activating one node will trigger another node being activated in long term storage. Something being heard or seen.

Chunking

The process of using/expanding working memory to organize information into groups or units. NH FBI TSA CA MS CIA

Flashbulb Memories

Vivid memories seem like a flash photo, capturing the circumstances in which we learned of certain event. 9/11. These memories are hard to use in research because of the accuracy of the memories and collaborating information with others. People are more confident about their flashbulb memories and other memories.

State-dependent memory

When our internal states are the same during both encoding and retrieval, the situation provides a retrieval cue that enhances memory. Alcoholics remembering where they put their paychecks

The difference between primacy and recency

When participants study a long list of words, they repeat the ones at the beginning of the list the most. This is transferred into long term storage. last few go into short term storage

Suggestibility

When people are given the wrong information, this can affect their memory for an event. Red datsun approaching a stop sign other group yeild sign. Smashed group saw glass on ground.

Can episodic memories and semantic memories work independently of each other

Yes, semantic and episodic memories do not have work together. You can have memories of knowledge and facts with no personal memories.

Multitasking

You do not retain important information

Proactive Interferrence

access to newer memories is impaired by older memories

Retroactive Interferrence

access to older memmories are impaired by newer memories

Cues

anything that can help a person access information in long term storage. Sometimes random

Retreival Cues

anything that helps a person access information in long term storage

False Memories

being told something about your youth by your parents and then remembering the event. People create a mental image of what is being described to them. later they recall that mental image as a memory and not an image.

Classical conditioning

if you have fear of a person in a lab coat, you might have past associations with white lab coats and pain

Cerebellum

implicit memory

Forgetting

inability to access memory from long term storage. If we never forgot stuff we would go crazy with too much information

Absentmindedness

inattentive or shallow coding of events. Major cause is failure to pay attention or you are caught up in an other activity.

Declarative Memory

information that can be communicated to another person including facts and personal information. Semantic and episodic

Distortion

memory recall is not accurate

Reconsolidation

once memories are activated, they need to be consolidated again for long term storage. This process changes our memories every time we access them.

Retrograde amnesia

people lose memories for past events, facts, people and even personal information

Maintenance Rehearsal

repeating the item over and over provides shallow encoding of information. Auditory information

Emotional Stimuli

stimuli that evoke emotions can readily capture our attention because they provide important information about potential threats in our environment. faces

Retrieval cue

stimuli that trigger memories. Smell of turkey, a favorite song

Primacy Effect

the better memory people have for items presented at the beginning of the list. Long term storage

Recency Effect

the better memory people have for the most recent items, the one at the end of the list. Short term storage

Encoding Phase of Memory

the brain changes information into meaningful neural code that it can use

Memory

the nervous systems capacity to learn skills and knowledge for later retreival

The common function of the memory system is

to retain and use information but each memory system encodes and stores information differently

Persitence

unwanted memories recur despite our desire not to have them. Trauma. PTSD

Dual encoding

using a combination of semantic and visual coding to remember things.

Schemas

ways of structuring memories in long term storage that help us perceive, organize, process and use information. can lead to bias encoding. Affect your ability to retrieve information from long term storage

Forgetting curve

when a person repeatedly practices with nonsense syllables. it takes then less time to relearn them later on.

Prefrontal cortex

working memory