Human Memory

Human Memory

1. Encoding- forming a memory code

   • Attention- focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events. Selective attention is critical to everyday functioning
     • Acts as a filter to screen stimuli into conscious awareness
     • High-load tasks consume our attention spans early, whereas simpler tasks allows for later processing
       • Human brains can effectively handle one task at a time
     • Levels-of-processing theory- deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes
   • Elaboration- linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
     • Visual Imagery- creating images to represent words remembered
       • Dual coding theory- memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes
         • Mental imagery can help with memory
   • Self- referent encoding- deciding how or whether information is relevant
     • How information affects one personally

2. Storage- maintaining encoded information in your memory over time

   • Sensory Memory- preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time
     • Allows the sensation of visual pattern, sound, or touch to linger for a moment after the stimulus is over
       • People perceive an afterimage instead of the actual stimulus
   • Short-term memory- limited capacity store that can retain information for up to 20 seconds
     • Rehearsal- the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
     • Working memory is a limited capacity storage system that maintains and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action
       • Working memory capacity is one's ability to hold and manipulate info in conscious attention
   • A chunk is a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
   • Long term memory is an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over a long time
     • Clustering- it is easier to remember similar and related items in a group
     • Schema- organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with that object or event
       • Semantic network- nodes representing concepts joined together by pathways that link related concepts

3. Retrieval- recovering information from memory stores

   • Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon- temporary inability to remember something you know, with a feeling that it is out of reach
     • Misinformation effect- occurs when participants recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post event info
   • Reality monitoring- process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources or internal sources
     • Source monitoring- making attributions about the origins of memories
       • Source-monitoring error occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source
         • Destination memory involves recalling to whom one has told what

4. Forgetting- adaptive way to remove unneeded information

   • Retention- proportion of material retained
     • A recall measure of retention requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without a cue
       • A recognition measure of retention requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options
         • A relearning measure of retention requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having already learned it
   • Decay theory- forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time
     • Interference theory- people forget info because of competition from other material
       • Retroactive interference occurs when new info impairs the retention of previously learned information
         • Proactive interference occurs when previously learned info interferes with the retention of new info
         • Transfer-appropriate processing- when the initial processing of info is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention
       • Consolidation- process involving the gradual conversion of info into memory codes stored in long term memory
   • Repression- keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious

5. Consolidation- process involving the gradual conversion of info into memory codes stored in long term memory

   • Implicit memory is apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering
   • Explicit memory- involves intentional recollection of previous experiences
   • Declarative memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, prospective memory, retrospective memory

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