Psychology: Memory

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Memory

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The retention of information over time

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Memory Illusion

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False but subjectively compelling memory. Our brain simplifying the memory to make it easier to remember it.

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The Three Systems of Memory

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sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

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Sensory Memory

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Brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short-term memory.

Feeding raw materials(senses) into the assembly line of memory.

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Iconic Memory

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A type of sensory memory that applies to visual sensory memory

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Echoic Memory

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A type of sensory memory that applies to auditory sensory memory

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Short-Term Memory

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Information that has made it passed sensory information and is now in short-term memory:

Working memory is our ability to hold onto information we're currently thinking about, attending to, or processing actively.

At this stage we either move the memory into long-term or scrap it all together.

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Decay

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Fading of information from a given memory over time.

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Interference

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Loss of information from short-term memory because of competition from additional information.

In other words, our memories get in the way of each other like radio signals getting jammed by other radio signals.

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Retroactive Interference

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Happens when learning something new hampers earlier learning.

For example, learning Spanish and then learning Italian and finding that you make more mistakes in Spanish that you never did before learning Italian.

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Proactive interference

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Happens when earlier learning gets in the way of new learning.

For example, knowing how to play tennis may interfere with learning how to play racquetball.

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Magic number

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The span of short-term memory, according too George Miller: seven plus or minus two pieces of information is the magic number of what you can remember in short-term memory

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Chunking

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Organizing information into meaningful groupings, allowing us to extend the span of short-term memory.

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Rehearsal

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Repeating information to extend the duration of retention in short-term memory and promote the likelihood of transfer to long-term memory

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Maintenance rehearsal

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Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory.

Keep the information "alive" in short-term memory like keeping a ball in the air. Not intended to go into long-term but keep it in short-term long enough for you to be able to use it.

Such as, repeating a phone number until you've dialed it.

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Elaborative rehearsal

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Linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retention of information in short-term memory perhaps with visualizing them or trying to understand their inter-relationship.

This will have a better chance of going from short-term memory to long-term memory.

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Long-Term Memory (LTM)

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Relatively enduring (from minutes to years) retention of information stored regarding our facts, experiences, and skills.

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Permastore

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Type of long-term memory that appears to be permanent such as learning a new language.

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Primacy effect

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Tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well.

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Recency effect

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Tendency to remember words at the end of the list especially well.

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von Restorff effect

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Tendency to remember stimuli that are distinctive or that stick out like sore thumbs from other stimuli - different from the norm.

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Serial Position Curve

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Graph depicting both primacy and recency effects on people's ability to recall items on a list.

What the graph looks like: Starts high for what they can recall, dips down in the middle and goes up a little at the end of the list.

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Semantic Memory

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Our knowledge of facts about the world.

Not unique to our own experiences in the world.

"Know what" memory.

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Episodic Memory

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Recollection of events in our own lives, such as when you learned to ride a bike.

It is unique to our own experiences and this will create more vivid memories than semantic memory.

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Explicit Memory

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Memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness.

Both semantic and episodic memories are examples of this.

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Implicit Memory

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Memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously.

You can remember how to unlock your door without specifically recalling the steps on how to do so, you just do it.

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Procedural Memory

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Memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits.

For example, riding our bike or opening a can of pop.

"Know how" memory.

Things you just do without thinking though you use your memory to do them.

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Priming

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Our ability to identify a stimulus more easily or more quickly after we've encountered similar stimuli. This type of memory is implicit because it doesn't require any deliberate effort on our part.

Such as quickly flashing the word Queen in a bunch of words - participants are more likely to fill in the blank of a word starting with the letter "K" with "King" even if they can't recall having seen the word Queen in the group of words.

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The Three Processes of Memory

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Encoding, Storage, Retrieval

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Encoding

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Process of getting information into our memory banks.

The role of attention - if you're not actively paying attention you won't encode a memory.

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Mnemonic

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"nee-MAH-nik"

A learning aid that helps us to more easily encode memories so that they are easier to recall.

e.g. Every Good Boy Does Fine - EGBDF are notes to remember

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Storage

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Process of keeping information in memory.

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Schema

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Organized knowledge structure or mental model that we've stored in memory.

They give us reference for interpreting new situations given from past memories.

Simplifying memories to make understanding the world around you much easier

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Memory Illusion

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This happens when your schema oversimplifies a memory and can cause us to remember something that never happened to us.

For example, One twin remembering something that they think happened to them but actually happened to their other twin.

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Retrieval

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Reactivation or reconstruction of experiences from our memory stores.

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Retrieval Cues

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Hints that make it easier for us to recall information.

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Recall

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Generating previously remembered information

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Recognition

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Selecting previously remembered information from an array of options.

Such as recalling an answer from multiple choice questions.

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Relearning

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Reacquiring knowledge that we'd previously learned but largely forgotten over time.

You tend to re-learn much more quickly than it took you to learn it the first time.

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Distributed Versus Massed Practice

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Spreading your study time out - review your notes and text in increments rather than cramming.

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Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

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Experience of knowing that we know something but being unable to access it.

People are often able to recall the first letter of the word they are trying to recall and are often correct more times than not.

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Encoding Specificity

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Phenomenon of remembering something better when the conditions under which we retrieve information are similar to the conditions under which we encoded it (put it into memory).

Two of this type of encoding are: context-dependent learning and state-dependent learning.

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Context-Dependent Learning

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Superior retrieval of memories when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context.

Being able to recall information better when you recall the information in the same place you encoded it.

The "place" you were in when encoding.

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State-Dependent Learning

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Superior retrieval of memories when the organism is in the same physiological or psychological state as it was during encoding.

The "state-of-mind" you were in when encoding.

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Long-Term Potential (LTP)

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Long-lasting strengthening of the connections between two neurons after synchronous activation.

"Neurons that fire together, wire together".

Our ability to recall memories are better when there are more connecting neurons and this is thanks to the hippocampus in our brain.

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Long-Term Depression (LTD)

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Long-Lasting weakening of the connections between two neurons after low patterns of activation.

If you don't use it, you lose it.

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Retrograde Amnesia

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Loss of memories from our past.

OR

Loss of memories before the accident that caused the amnesia.

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Anterograde Amnesia

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Inability to encode new memories from our experiences.

OR

Loss of memories after the accident that caused the amnesia.

Case example: H.M. was unable to take short-term memories and turn them into long-term memories. Though his IQ did not suffer and he was able to learn new skills.

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Dementia

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Severe memory loss and associated with the loss of cognitive functions, such as:

Loss of newest memories first then loss of older memories last.

Confused thinking, unable to make dinner, or a cup of tea - can't remember how.

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Most common form of Dementia?

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Alzheimer's Disease.

Counts for 50-60% of all Dementia cases.

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Other forms of dementia not being the most common type?

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Senile plaques: build up of protein on the outside of your microtubules.

This creates neurofibrillary tangles in the now disintegrating microtubules that is the result of a build up of plaque and can also cause dementia.

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Meta-Memory

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Remembering that our memory has it's own abilities and limitations.

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Infantile Amnesia

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Inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place at an early age.

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Flashbulb Memory

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A type of false memory that is an emotional memory with extraordinarily vivid and detailed recollection.

Though they may seem to be extremely detailed and vivid, odds are they aren't very accurate.

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Source Monitoring Confusion

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Lack of clarity about the origin of a memory.

You can recall a memory but are unsure how you did it or why.

Difficulty identifying the origin of a memory.

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Cryptomnesia

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Failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else.

You tell your dad a joke; later that day he tells you the joke thinking he heard it from somewhere else.

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Suggestive memory technique

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Procedure that encourages patients to recall memories that may or may not have taken place.

Why eye-witness reports should never be used.

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Misinformation effect

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Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place.

You're encouraging your brain to recall a memory falsely based on new information provided to it.