Memory

Memory

1. Studying Memory

   • encoding
     • getting info into the memory system
   • storage
     • retaining encoded info over time
   • retrieval
     • getting info out of the memory stage

2. Working Memory

   • short-term memory that stresses conscious
     • magical #7
   • active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial info
   • info retrieved from long-term memory
     • capacity varies: age and distractions. A.K.A encoding lag

3. Two-track memory system

   • explicit memory
     • consciously retrieve
     • effortful processing
       • sensory memory
         • iconic memory
           • Ex. seeing memory
         • echoic memory
           • Ex. hearing memory
       • spaced study/self testing
         • chunking/mnemonics
       • measuring retention
         • recall
           • Ex. fiil in the blank
           • serial position effect: tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.
           • mood-congruent memory: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with your current or bad mood
         • recognition
           • Ex. multiple choice
         • relaerning
           • Ex. playing a song on guitar you haven't played in 2 years
   • implicit memory
     • without conscious awarness
     • automatic processing
       • space
       • time
       • frequency

4. retaining info in the brain

   • explicit memory system
     • hippocampus/frontal lobes
       • emotion
         • amygdala
           • from the temporal lobe
             • processes of emotions linked to both fear and pleasure
   • implicit memory system
     • cerebellum/basal ganglia

5. Forgetting

   • infantile amnesia
     • need conscious memory, command of language and well developed hippocampus to be able to form explicit memory, before age 3 we do not have these.
   • amnesia
     • "without memory" loss of memory due to brain trauma, injury or disease
   • context effects
     • getting up to do something and forgetting what you were about to do
   • encoding failure
     • what we don't encode we'll never remember
   • storage decay
     • even after encoding something we may later forget it
     • memory trace
       • physical change in the brain as the memory forms
   • retrieval failure
     • sometimes even stored information cannot be accsessed which leads to forgetting
   • "tip-of-the-tongue" forgetting
     • retrieval problem which stems from interference or from motivated forgetting
       • repression: the basic defence mechanism that banishes from concioustness the thoughts, feelings, and memory that arouse anxiety.
   • interference
     • proactive
       • forward-looking: occurs when an older memory makes it more difficult to remember new information
     • retro-ative
       • backward-learning: occurs when new learning disrupts your memory of old information
     • mis-information and imagination effects
   • source amnesia
     • a faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned or imagined
     • deja-vu
       • that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before" cues from the current situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience