Memory

• memory: cognitive process of noticing, encoding, storing, and retrieving info
• encoding: process of making info meaningful for easy storage and recall
• reconstructive memory: when reconstructing an event from our memory, we often add, change, or omit certain details, often due to our expectations and past experience
• reconstructive memory = misinformation effect
• memory GOAT = Elizabeth Loftus
• reconstructive memory hugely impacts eyewitness testimony
• there are 2 types of memory interference
• proactive: older memories interfere with storing/retrieval of new memories, ex: can't remember new locker combo cause the 9th grade combo is stuck in your head
• retroactive: newer memories interfere with storing/retrieval of older memories, ex: after a crime, you see Bob in a lineup and now it's Bob's face in your memory of the actual crime
• Proactive: Old blocks new, Retroactive: New blocks old
• sensory memory: very brief memory for sensory info
• the RF filters out unimportant info for sensory memory
• iconic memory: visual memory = 0.5 sec
• masking: new visual info immediately replaces old info
• echoic memory: auditory memory = 2-4 sec
• important info is selected for further use or attention and transferred to short term memory
• short term memory: holds all info you're currently working with, hearing, thinking about, and remembering
• short term memory = desktop/workstation
• limited duration of STM: 20-30 sec
• limited capacity of STM: 7 +/- 2 units of info
• capacity can be maxed through chunking
• info can be kept in STM using "rote rehearsal"/matinance rehearsal: straight repeating of info to memorize it
• visual memory is better than auditory memory
• spacing is better than cramming
• testing effect: intermittent testing (review questions), improves encoding and recall
• recall is more difficult than recognition
• serial position effects: position/placement matters
• primacy effect: remember 1st thing in a series of items
• recency effect: remember last thing in a series of items
• factors influencing memory/recall: visualization > auditory, spacing > cramming, testing effect, recall is more difficult than recognition, serial position effect
• george franklin = dad, eileen franklin = daughter, susan = eileen's dead friend
• the big picture of reconstructive memory is that eyewitness testimony (and memory in general) can be inaccurate due to the way our memory system works
• elizabeth loftus's research is based on the use of a "false presupposition" (a question that presupposes or implies something to be true that's not) to plant or suggest info
• when people are asked presupposing questions, they may "accept" the presupposition as true, and later when asked directly they incorporate that false info into their recollection of the event
• other factors of eyewitness testimony are wording, confidence (high confidence doesn't mean high accuracy), cross race identification (less accurate), and incluces info obtained later on (ex: photo lineup)
• source amnesia: inability to remember how/when you learned something
• source amnesia can also include falsely remembering someone else's memory as your own
• long term memory: virtually unlimited and premanent, memories are stored by the hippocampus
• long term potentiation: neural equivalent of elaborative rehearsal, improves ability of 2 neurons (pre and postsynaptic) to communicate w/ one another across a synpase (stronger neural communication)
• procedural memory (LTM): memory for everyday tasks/skills (handwriting, brushing teeth, riding a bike, typing, etc)