individual differences in memory

• what individual difference factors affect memory

  1 - processing speed

  2 - age

  3 - personal experiences

  4 - schemas

  5 - gender

  6 - mental health

  7 - autobiographical memory
• what is processing speed

  the speed at which an individual can process information eg dealing with words, numbers, pictures
• how is processing speed an individual difference

  people will have different ones, some higher and some lower
• how does processing speed impact memory

  impacts the time it takes for info to be encoded and stored in the brain so impacts the speed of memory processing
• what does fast processing speed mean for memory

  it allows more effective and efficient memory encoding and retrieval
• how is age seen to be an individual difference in memory

  digit span increases with age
• what does the fact digit span increases with age suggest for all memory

  general memory capacity must also increase with age
• how do personal experiences as an individual difference affect memory

  our memory is influenced by our personal and past experiences and these are unique to ourselves so memory will be different for everyone
• how do schemas as an individual difference affect memory

  people with more developed, relevant schemas should differ in the way they process info in memory
• how do schemas affect memory as we age

  we develop more complex schemas as we experience a wider variety of situations
• how has gender been shown to be an individual difference that affects memory

  in Palombi et als experiment, tests showed men scored better on spatial memory tests
• how has mental health been shown to affect memory

  people with depression scored lower on episodic and semantic memory tests showing mental health affects memory
• what type of memory are autobiographical memories

  both episodic and semantic
• how are autobiographical memories episodic

  they are referenced in terms of time and location (spatial referencing), and are associated with emotion
• how are autobiographical memories semantic

  made up of personal semantic memories including names, places
• what are autobiographical memories crucial to

  our sense of identity, they make us who we are
• what is the reminiscence bump

  a bump showing our memories are not evenly distributed over the course of our life
• what ages is the reminiscence bump typically

  10-30
• what is the reminiscence bump linked to

  key changes and important goals/events
• what could individual differences in autobiographical memory arise as

  consequence of the goals that are important to us, what we find interesting, and what is relevant to our sense of self identity