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42 Cards in this Set

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Encoding
is the process of coding information so that it can be placed in sensory, short-term, or long-term memory. There are three types of codes: visual, acoustic, and semantic
Acoustic codes
are representations of the sounds we hear
Example: Think of your favorite song and hum it to yourself. The memory of how the melody sounds is an acoustic code in long-term memory
Visual codes
are representations of the images we see
Example: If you think of a Christmas tree or the car you would buy if you had enough money, you will most likely see images of these things in your mind. You do so because you have visual codes for them
Semantic codes
are representations of the meaning of experiences or factual information
Example: If you visit Israel, you may notice that the children can sing the top rock songs from the United States, but that they do not know what the words mean. This is because they are using an acoustic code to remember a song and sing it, but they do not have a semantic code for the meaning of the words
Storage
is the process of maintaining or keeping a memory.
Example: Memories of your kindergarten class, your second-grade teacher, or the first home you lived in are old memories. They have been stored for quite some time
Retrieval
is the process of transferring memories from storage to consciousness
Example: Whenever you remember anything, you are retrieving that memory from storage. Some memories are retrieved so quickly that you are unaware of the process. Answer the following questions: How old are you? How many people have been president of the United States? Both questions require you to retrieve information, but the retrieval process is much easier for the first question than for the second
Episodic memory
is any memory of a specific event that happened while you were present
Example: The memory of your first pony ride, a surprise birthday party that you held for a friend, or your first day of college is an episodic memory.
Remember: Episodic memories are episodes that involved you.
Semantic memory
contains factual knowledge. This memory differs from episodic memory in that its contents are not associated with a specific event
Example: Knowing that the freezing point is 32 degrees Fahrenheit, that red lights mean “stop,” and that the capital of the United States is Washington, D.C., are all examples of semantic memory. You probably cannot remember the specific time or episode during which you learned these facts
Procedural memory
holds how-to methods or processes that usually require some motor movement
Example: Knowing how to waltz, do a somersault, tie a tie, and drive a car are all procedural memories
Explicit memory
is the process of purposely trying to remember something.
Example: While you are taking an exam, you are using explicit memory to retrieve information regarding the questions
Implicit memory
is the subconscious recall or influence of past experiences.
Example: Although you don’t understand why, you are nervous whenever you wait for a bus on a specific corner. Stored subconsciously is the memory of a frightening event from your childhood in which a stranger approached you at that corner, and you ran away.
levels-of-processing model
holds that differences in how well something is remembered reflect the depth with which incoming information is mentally processed
Remember: Maintenance rehearsal does not require much processing and is effective for encoding information into short-term memory. Elaborative rehearsal requires a great deal of processing and is effective for encoding into long-term memory
Maintenance rehearsal
repeating information over and over, keeps information in short-term memory
Example: Kan arrives in New York to visit his cousin Zhou, but loses Zhou’s phone number. Kan calls directory assistance and the operator tells him the number. Kan repeats it over and over to himself while he inserts coins for the call.
Remember: Maintenance rehearsal maintains information in short-term memory
Elaborative rehearsal
involves thinking about how new material is linked or related in some way to information already stored in long-term memory. It is an effective method of encoding information into long-term memory
Example: Ursula is a world-class shopper. She has a mental image of all the major cities she has shopped in and images of the locations of all her favorite stores on each street. When Ursula wants to store information about a new store, she uses her mental image and places the new store on its street. She thinks about the new store in relationship to the stores surrounding it. Ursula is not just repeating the address of the new store, but she is also relating it to the addresses of all the other stores that she knows.
Remember: New information is elaborated with information already in long-term memory. The new address is elaborated by relating its location to all the old addresses of stores already in long-term memory
transfer-appropriate processing model
suggests that memory retrieval will be improved if the encoding method matches the retrieval method
Example: Samantha studied for an auto mechanics test by spending many weekends with her head under the hood of a car. However, much to her surprise, when it came time to take the test, the professor handed out a multiple-choice exam. Samantha, who felt that she had really learned the material, scored poorly. According to the transfer-appropriate processing model, Samantha did not do well because she encoded the material by applying what she had learned from the text, but the exam asked her only to retrieve specific facts. Samantha’s encoding process wasn’t appropriate for the retrieval process required by the exam.
Remember: Think of this model as stating that the encoding process that transfers information into long-term memory must be appropriate (match) for the retrieval cues
Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model
of memory suggests that the connections between units of knowledge are strengthened with experience. Tapping into any connection (via a memory process) provides us with access to all the other connections in the network
Example: Zoë’s knowledge that the term neonate means “newborn” is linked to her memory of seeing a premature infant taken to a neonatal unit. Both neonate and neonatal are connected to her memory that neo means “new.” When Zoë thinks of neonate, an image of her nephew as a newborn is also readily accessible. This background made it easier for her to understand that a neofreudian is a person who developed a new version of Freud’s theory
information-processing model
of memory has three stages: sensory memory; short-term, or working, memory; and long-term memory
Example: When you prepare for a psychology test, you may start by reading your notes. As you read your notes, the information you are taking in first must pass through your visual sensory memory before going to your short-term memory. In short-term memory, you are aware of the information you are studying. Finally, after elaborating on the information you are aware of in short-term memory, the information you study is stored in long-term memory for later retrieval at test time.
Sensory memory
holds sensory information for a fraction of a second in sensory registers. If the information is attended to and recognized, perception takes place, and the information can enter short-term memory
Example: When children play with sparklers on the Fourth of July in the United States, they often use the sparklers to “draw” circles in the air by rapidly rotating the sparkler so that a circle does appear visible for a brief moment. In fact, no circle actually exists, but the children’s sensory memory holds each point of light as the sparkler rotates just long enough that a circle is perceived for a moment
Sensory registers
hold incoming sensory information until it is processed, recognized, and remembered. There is a sensory register for each sense
Example: When children playing with sparklers perceive that they are drawing circles, it is the visual sensory registry that is responsible for this perception
Selective attention
determines what information is held in sensory registers. Information that is not attended to decays and cannot be processed any further
Example: Imagine going to New York’s Times Square for New Year’s Eve. The crowd is immense. Suddenly, you see someone waving a sparkler in front of you. Even though your eyes and ears are being hit with a variety of stimuli, your sensory registers will retain information about the person with the sparkler because you “selected” that particular stimulus to “attend” to
Short-term memory
receives information that was perceived in sensory memory. Information in short-term memory is conscious, but quite fragile, and will be lost within seconds if not further processed
Example: If you look up a phone number and repeat it to yourself until you finish dialing, you will have kept it active in your short-term memory. However, it is likely that you will have forgotten it by the time you get off the phone
Working memory
is the part of the memory that allows us to mentally work with, or manipulate, information being held in short-term memory. Short-term memory is a component of working memory.
Example: We often repeat a phone number until we finish dialing it, but then forget it by the time we get off the phone. The reason for this is because we are using our working memory during our phone conversation to process the new information that conversation brings. Consequently, we are no longer “working” with the phone number, and it is no longer maintained in short-term memory.
immediate memory span
is the largest number of items or chunks of information that you can recall perfectly from short-term memory after one presentation of the stimuli. Most people have an immediate memory span of five to nine items
Example: Use a telephone book to help you test your own immediate memory span. Read the first two names at the top of the page, look away, and then try to recall them. Then read the next three names, look away, and try to recall them. Continue this process, using a longer list each time, until you cannot repeat the entire list of names. The number of names that you can repeat perfectly is your immediate memory span
Chunks
are meaningful groupings of information that you place in short-term memory. The immediate memory span of short-term memory is probably between five and nine chunks of information. Each chunk contains bits of information grouped into a single unit
Example: During her first night as a waitress, Bridget needed all five to nine chunks in short-term memory to remember one order for one person. For example, a drink before dinner; a drink with dinner; a main dish; a type of salad dressing; a type of potato; and whether the customer wanted cream, sugar, or both with coffee made up five to nine chunks of information. After two years of waitressing, Bridget can easily hold in memory four to eight people’s complete food and drink orders. Each person’s order had become one chunk of information.
Remember: Chunks can be anything—letters, numbers, words, names, or locations—just to list a few. The more information you can condense or group into one chunk, the more information you can hold in short-term memory.
Brown-Peterson procedure
is a research method that prevents rehearsal. A person is presented with a group of three letters they should try to remember and then counts backward by threes from an arbitrarily selected number until a signal is given. The counting prevents the person from rehearsing the information and reduces the chances of remembering the three letters.
Example: You can see how the Brown-Peterson procedure affects your short-term memory by looking in the phone book at a number you do not already know. Look at the number, then look away and count backwards from 87 by threes until you hit 54. Can you remember the phone number now without looking? Most likely not, because the Brown-Peterson procedure prevented you from rehearsing the number.
Long-term memory
is the stage of memory in which the capacity to store new information is believed to be unlimited.
Example: When you remember things for long periods of time, such as your fifth birthday party or multiplication tables, you are retrieving information from your long-term memory.
primacy effect
occurs when we remember words at the beginning of a list better than those in the middle of the list.
Example: Sarah has just met a group of four people at her new school. However, she can only remember the name of the first person to whom she was introduced.
Remember: Primacy means “being first.” The primacy effect is the remembering of the first words in a list better than other words in the list.
recency effect
occurs when we remember the last few words on a list better than others on the list. The list’s final items are in short-term memory at the time of recall
Example: After hearing all her students’ names once, Leslie tries to recite them one by one. She remembers the names of students in the first two rows (primacy effect) and the names of the students in the last two rows (recency effect), but she has difficulty recalling the names of students in the middle two rows.
Remember: Recency means “that which occurred most recently.” The last items of a list are presented most recently
Retrieval cues
help us recognize information in long-term memory. In other words, they help you jog your memory.
Example: On a multiple-choice exam, the answer appears somewhere in the question. Some of the words in the correct answer should jog your memory and allow you to answer the question correctly
encoding specificity principle
maintains that if the way information is encoded and the way it is retrieved are similar, remembering the information will be easier
Example: As Melanie’s psychology instructor lectures, she often provides the class with vivid examples of each concept. Later, on quizzes and tests, many of the questions ask the students to identify examples of the same concepts discussed in lecture. The more similar the example on the quiz is to the example given in lecture, the easier it will be to identify the example correctly.
context-dependent memory
the environment acts as a retrieval cue. This means that it is easier to remember information when you are in the location (context) where you originally learned that information.
Example: When taking his exam in his regular classroom, Leon’s memory for lecture information is improved by glancing around at the chalkboard, peeling paint, and lecturer’s desk. Although he doesn’t realize it, he recalls the discussion of the opponent process color vision theory better because he is among familiar classmates and surroundings. Unfortunately, he does not remember as much of the information he studied in his room at home with the stereo blaring because there are fewer associated retrieval cues there than in the quiet classroom environment.
state-dependent memory
your psychological or physiological state acts as a retrieval cue. When you are trying to remember and if you are in the same psychological state you were in at the time of learning, you will retrieve more material
Example: In the evening when she studied psychology, Lydia had several cups of coffee to keep her alert. The next morning, she did not do well on the quiz. Later, when drinking coffee with some friends, she was in the same state as when she studied for the quiz and, to her amazement, she remembered some of the material that had escaped her during the quiz.
Spreading activation
describes the way in which information is retrieved from long-term memory according to semantic network theories. Whenever a question is asked, neural activation spreads from those concepts contained in the question down all paths related to them.
Example: When Jane thinks about pizza, this activates other concepts such as food, delivery, cost, etc
Schemas
are summaries of knowledge about categories. We tend to automatically place people, objects, and events into classes
Example: Suppose your schema for a classroom is a square room filled with desks. Upon seeing people seated on pillows in a round room, you might be likely to classify it as a lounge, not a classroom
method of savings
is a term introduced by Ebbinghaus to refer to the difference in the amount of time required to relearn material that has been forgotten and the amount of time it took to learn the material initially
Example: If it took a participant twenty repetitions to learn a list of items, but only five repetitions to relearn the list a semester later, there would be a savings of 75 percent.
Decay
is a mechanism whereby information not used in long-term memory gradually fades until it is lost completely
Example: Marissa learned Spanish but has not tried to speak it in years. When Marissa tries to say, “Hello, how was your day?” to her roommate, she cannot remember the necessary vocabulary
Interference
is a mechanism whereby the retrieval or storage of information in long-term memory is impaired by other learning (retroactive and proactive interference).
Retroactive interference
occurs when information in memory is displaced by new information.
Example: You learned Latin in high school, but in college you have been taking only Spanish courses. You now find it difficult to remember the Latin from high school because you remember the Spanish you have studied more recently.
Remember: Retro means “back.” New information goes back and interferes with old information.
Proactive interference
occurs when old information in long-term memory interferes with the remembering of new information
Example: If you have ever learned something incorrectly and then tried to correct it, you may have experienced proactive interference. Young children who take music lessons once a week experience this. They learn an incorrect note, and at their lesson the next week, their teacher points out the mistake. However, it is very difficult to play the correct note because the old memory of the wrong note interferes with the new memory of the correct note.
Remember: Pro means “forward.” Old information goes forward and interferes with new information.
Anterograde amnesia
is a loss of memory for events that occur after a brain injury. Memory for experiences prior to the trauma remains intact.
Example: People with anterograde amnesia cannot remember the new people they meet because they are unable to form new memories.
Remember: Anterograde amnesia is a loss of memory for the future, or after some point in time.
Retrograde amnesia
is a loss of memory of events prior to a brain injury. Memories encoded days or years before the injury or trauma can be lost. Usually most memories return
Example: Characters on soap operas who experience head injuries will often wake up and not remember who they are or where they are from. They cannot retrieve memories from their past.
Remember: Retro means “backward.” The memory loss goes back in time.
Mnemonics
are encoding methods that increase the efficiency of your memory.
Example: To remember the name “Hathaway,” you might picture the person coming “half the way” to you.