Chapter 7: Memory

Chapter 7: Memory

1. encoding: forming a memory code

   • role of attention
     • attention: involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli/events.
     • selective attention is critical to everyday fxning
     • is selective, compared to a filter.
     • cocktail party phenomenon: imputed is screened late in mental processing
   • lvls of processing theory
     • proposes that deeper lvls of processing result in longer lasting memory codes
   • enriching encoding
     • elaboration
       • linking a stimulus to other info at the time of encoding
     • visual imagry
       • dual encoding theiry: Memory is enhanced by forming semantic & visual codes, since either can lead to recall
     • self referent encoding
       • involves deciding how or whether info is personally relevant

2. storage: maintaining encoded info in memory over time

   • sensory memory
     • preserves info in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second
   • short term memory: a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed info for up to 20 sec.
     • capacity
       • chunk: group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
     • working memory
       • a limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains & stores info by providing an interface b/w perception, memory, & action
     • rehearsal: the process of repetitively verbalizing/ thinking about info
   • long term memory
     • LTM: an unlimited capacity store that can hold info over lengthy periods of time.
     • flashbulb memories: unusually vivid & detailed recollections of memory events
   • knowledge representation and organization
     • clustering & heirarchies
       • clustering: the tendency to remember similar or related items in groups
       • conceptual hierarchy: multilevel classification system based on common properties among items
     • schemas
       • an organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object/event abstracted from previous experience with that object/event
     • semantic networks
       • nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts
     • PDP models
       • assume that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks

3. retrieval: recovering info from memory

   • cues
     • tip of the tongue phenomenon: temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by the feeling it's just out of reach.
   • reconstruction & misinformation
     • misinformation effect: occurs when participants recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading postevent info
   • source & reality monitoring
     • reality monitoring: the process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources(events) or internal sources(imagination)
     • 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

   • Ebbinghaus's forgetting curve
     • graphs retention & forgetting over time
   • measures
     • retention: the proportion of material retained.
     • recall: measure of retention requires subjects to reproduce info on their own w/o any cues
     • recognition: subjects select previously learned info from array of options
     • relearning: a subject to memorize info a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having learned before
   • why we forget
     • decay
       • proposes that forgetting occurs b/c memory traces fade with time
     • interference
       • proposes people forget b/c of competition from other material
       • retroactive interference: new info impairs retention of previously learned info
       • proactive interference: when old info interferes with retention of new info
     • retrieval failure
       • encoding specificity principal: the value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to the memory code.
       • transfer-appropriate processing: the initial processing of info is similar to the type of processing rewired by the subsequent measure of retention.
     • motivated forgettin
       • repression: keeping distressing thoughts & feelings buried in the unconscious

5. physiology of memory

   • neural circuitry
     • long term potentiation: long lasting increase un neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway
   • anatomy
     • retrograde amnesia: the loss of memories for events prior to the onset of amnesia.
     • anterograde amnesia: Loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia.
     • consolidation: a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of info into durable memory codes stored in LTM

6. systems & types

   • implicit vs explicit
     • implicit: apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering
       • unintentional, unconscious, accessed indirectly,
     • explicit: intentional recollection of previous experiences
       • intentional
   • declarative vs procedural
     • declarative: handles factual info
     • procedural: houses memory for actions, skills, operations, and conditioned responses
   • semantic vs episodic
     • episodic: chronological, temporally dated recollections of personal experiences
     • semantic: general knowledge that is not tied to the time when the info was learned
   • prospective vs retrospective
     • prospective: remembering to perform actions in the future
     • retrospective: remembering events in past or previously learned info

7. improving memory

   • adequate rehearsal
     • serial-position effect: subjects show better recall for items at the beginning & end of a list rather than the middle items
   • enrich encoding & visual mnemonics
     • link method
       • forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links together
     • method of loci
       • taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations
     • keyword method
       • you associate a concrete word with an abstract word and generate an image to represent the concrete word
   • mnemonic devices are methods used to increase the recall of info.