Memory
Encoding: getting information into brain
Storage: retaining the information
Retrieval: getting information out
Types of long term memory
Effortful Processing Strategies
Rehearsal: repetition
Chunking: grouping
Mnemonics: acronyms, songs, imagery, rhymes, etc.
Hierarchies
Deep processing: affects encoding and long term memory (Levels of Processing Theory by Craik and Tulving)
Shallow processing: structure or appearance, just repetition
Deep processing: acoustic (sound) → imagery, semantic (meaning) from worst to best method; making personally meaningful connections
Distributed practice: space out learning so more information will be retained (Spacing Effect)
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: retention of information rapidly declined
Types of memory retrieval
Recall: retrieving information with effort
Recognition: identifying answer among choices
Relearning: learning 2nd time is quicker than 1st time
Effects on memory retrieval
Priming: unconscious associations that help retrieve memories
Context dependent memory: easier to retrieve information if it is in the same place as where it was learned
Ex) deja vu
Stage-congruent memory: states of consciousness (sleepy/under influence of drugs) → information if recalled better if person is in the same state as when it is was learned
Mood congruent memory: recall memories consistent with current mood
Serial position effect: tendency to recall first and last items from a list (middle items tend to be forgotten)
Primacy Effect: items recalled later → tend to remember first items best
Recency Effect: items recalled immediately → tend to remember last items best
Spacing effect: distributed practice is better than cramming
Forgetting
Failure to encode: sensory memory, short term/working memory
Failure to retrieve: long term memory
Decay: physical phenomenon when you don’t use memory for a long time
Interference:
Proactive interference (1st interferes with 2nd)
Retroactive interference (2nd interferes with 1st)
Freud: motivated forgetting
Ex) Repression of memories
False memories/constructed memories: memory of event that did not happen/incorrect details
Elizabeth Loftus: cars hit vs. smashed study
More likely with children when fed misinformation
Infantile amnesia: generally don’t have memories before 3 years old because hippocampus is not fully developed
Anterograde amnesia: can’t remember new events
Retrograde amnesia: can’t remember old memories
Brain
Hippocampus: explicit memories
Cerebellum: implicit memory formation (conditioning)
Basal ganglia: implicit memories (procedural)
Amygdala: involved in encoding flashbulb memories
Flashbulb memories: clear memory of surprising, consequential, or biologically significant event
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): biological basis of long term memory formation
Neurons strengthen synaptic connections with each other as they signal (type of neuroplasticity)
Postsynaptic neuron becomes more sensitive to presynaptic neuron's messages
Memory
Encoding: getting information into brain
Storage: retaining the information
Retrieval: getting information out
Types of long term memory
Effortful Processing Strategies
Rehearsal: repetition
Chunking: grouping
Mnemonics: acronyms, songs, imagery, rhymes, etc.
Hierarchies
Deep processing: affects encoding and long term memory (Levels of Processing Theory by Craik and Tulving)
Shallow processing: structure or appearance, just repetition
Deep processing: acoustic (sound) → imagery, semantic (meaning) from worst to best method; making personally meaningful connections
Distributed practice: space out learning so more information will be retained (Spacing Effect)
Ebbinghaus forgetting curve: retention of information rapidly declined
Types of memory retrieval
Recall: retrieving information with effort
Recognition: identifying answer among choices
Relearning: learning 2nd time is quicker than 1st time
Effects on memory retrieval
Priming: unconscious associations that help retrieve memories
Context dependent memory: easier to retrieve information if it is in the same place as where it was learned
Ex) deja vu
Stage-congruent memory: states of consciousness (sleepy/under influence of drugs) → information if recalled better if person is in the same state as when it is was learned
Mood congruent memory: recall memories consistent with current mood
Serial position effect: tendency to recall first and last items from a list (middle items tend to be forgotten)
Primacy Effect: items recalled later → tend to remember first items best
Recency Effect: items recalled immediately → tend to remember last items best
Spacing effect: distributed practice is better than cramming
Forgetting
Failure to encode: sensory memory, short term/working memory
Failure to retrieve: long term memory
Decay: physical phenomenon when you don’t use memory for a long time
Interference:
Proactive interference (1st interferes with 2nd)
Retroactive interference (2nd interferes with 1st)
Freud: motivated forgetting
Ex) Repression of memories
False memories/constructed memories: memory of event that did not happen/incorrect details
Elizabeth Loftus: cars hit vs. smashed study
More likely with children when fed misinformation
Infantile amnesia: generally don’t have memories before 3 years old because hippocampus is not fully developed
Anterograde amnesia: can’t remember new events
Retrograde amnesia: can’t remember old memories
Brain
Hippocampus: explicit memories
Cerebellum: implicit memory formation (conditioning)
Basal ganglia: implicit memories (procedural)
Amygdala: involved in encoding flashbulb memories
Flashbulb memories: clear memory of surprising, consequential, or biologically significant event
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): biological basis of long term memory formation
Neurons strengthen synaptic connections with each other as they signal (type of neuroplasticity)
Postsynaptic neuron becomes more sensitive to presynaptic neuron's messages