Unit 5: Cognition

• Memory- The persistence of learning over time through the process of encoding, storage, & retrieval of info
• Recall- Retrieving info that is not currently in your conscious awareness but that was learned at an earlier time

  EX: FRQ
• Recognition- Identifying items previously learned

  EX: Multiple Choice
• Relearning - Learning something more quickly when you learn it in a second or later time
• Encoding - The process of getting information into memory system

  EX: typing in google doc
• Storage - Process of retaining encoded info over time

  EX: saving file in folder
• Retrieval - Process of getting info out of memory storage

  EX: open document & pulling it back out
• Components of the Info-Processing Model-Encoding, Storage, Retrieval
• Sensory Memory - Immediate, brief recording of sensory info in the memory system EX: not remembering everyone you saw during passing period, but you briefly saw them
• Short-Term memory - Activated memory that holds a few items briefly before info is stored or forgotten - encoded through rehearsal

  Long-Term Memory-Relatively permanent & limitless storehouse of the memory system

  EX: knowledge, skills, experiences
• Working Memory - Newer understanding of short-term memory that adds conscious, active processing of auditory/visual info, and info retrieved from long-term

  EX: listening & looking at note slides
• Central Executive - Integrating memory inputs existing long-term memory & focuses
• Explicit (Declarative/Episodic) memory-Retention of facts & experiences that one can consciously know & “declare”
• Effortful Processing-Encoding that requires attention & conscious effort
• Automatic Processing - Unconscious encoding of incidental info & well-learned info
• Implicit (Nondeclarative/Procedural) Memory-Memory independent of conscious recollection
• Procedural Memory-Skills/procedures that we do all the time

  EX: muscle memory, “I could do it in my sleep”
• Conditioned Associations - Classically conditioned things (involuntary)
• Automatic Processes (SPACE)-Encoding where stuff is located
• Automatic Processes (TIME)-Sequencing events throughout the day
• Automatic Processes (FREQUENCY)-Encoding how many times things should happen
• Iconic Memory -A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli lasting no longer than a few tenths of a second
• Echoic Memory - A momentary sensory memory of auditory stimulus lasting between 3-4 seconds

  EX: “What did I just say” phenomenon
• Short Term Memory Capacity (George Miller)-Proposed short-term memory can retain 7 (plus or minus 2) pieces of info
• Short Term Memory Capacity (George Miller)-Proposed short-term memory can retain 7 (plus or minus 2) pieces of info
• Chunking-Organizing items info familiar, manageable units

  EX: Phone numbers, SSN, familiar eng. sentences
• Mnemonics-Memory aids that often use vivid imagery and organization devices
• Peg-Word Mnemonics-Uses a jingle to associate “peg words” w/items

  EX: One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree (milk w/buns, deodorant in a shoe, carrot tree)
• Acronyms-Create a word from the first letters of to-be-remembered items

  EX: ROY-G-BIV, RID
• Hierarchies- Broad concepts divided & subdivided into narrower concepts & facts

  EX: Grouping
• Spacing Effects-Encoding is better retained when distributed practice is completed over time
• Massed Practice - Produces speedier learning, but a false sense of confidence

  EX: Cramming
• Testing Effect-Enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than rereading info

  EX: Repeatedly testing yourself to practice recall of info
• Shallow Processing - Encoding on a basic level, based on the structure/appearance of words
• Deep Processing-Encoding semantically, based on the meaning of words; yields best retention
• Hippocampus- Neural Center in the limbic system that processes explicit memories
• Infantile Amnesia- Is the inability to recall memories from the first three years of life
• Synaptic Changes- Eric Kandel & James Schwartz studied a slug & found that the synapse changes during learning
• Long-Term Potential- Increased firing potential of a cell after brief, rapid stimulation

  Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
• Retrieval Cues- Memories are held in webs of associates w/each bit of being connected to many other bits

  EX: you encode the name of the person sitting next to you with the class they’re in