Memory

• Memory


  Active system that receives, stores, organizes, alters, and recovers (retrieves) information
• Encoding


  Converting information into a usable form
• Selective Attention


  Focusing our attention on some information and letting the other information fade in the background
• Storage


  Holding information in memory
• Consolidation


  A physiological change or process that occurs in the hippocampus, a part of the brain where permanent memory is formed
• Retrieval


  Taking memories out of storage
• Memory acts like a computer
• Sensory Memory


  Temporary storage of information from all senses, held for the briefest period of time (visual images ~ 1/10 of a second and sounds ~ 2 seconds)
• Sensory Memory


  • Capacity: large
  • Duration: 2 seconds or less
• Short-Term Memory (STM)

  Brief storage of information, also called working memory: the process of attending to information in Sensory Memory, or to conscious thoughts and perceptions at any given moment
• Short-Term Memory (STM)

  • Capacity: about 7 (+/- 2) items or bits of information
  • Duration: less than 30 seconds without rehearsal
• Phonetic storage


  Storing information by sound, how most things are stored in STM
• Short-Term Memory is very sensitive to interruption or interference
• Long-Term Memory (LTM)


  Permanent storage of information, the process of manipulating new information and storing it permanently
• Long-Term Memory (LTM)


  • Capacity: unlimited
  • Duration: from minutes to a lifetime
• Sensory Memory


  Storing an exact copy of incoming information for a few seconds, the first stage of memory
• Icon


  A fleeting mental image or visual representation
• Echo


  After a sound is heard, a brief continuation of the sound in the auditory system
• Digit Span


  Test of attention and short-term memory; string of numbers is recalled forward or backward
• Magic Number 7 (Plus or Minus 2)

  STM is limited to holding seven (plus or minus two) information bits at once
• Information Bits

  Meaningful units of information
• Recoding


  Reorganizing or modifying information in STM
• Information Chunks


  Bits that are grouped into larger chunks
• Maintenance Rehearsal


  Repeating information silently to prolong its presence in STM
• Elaborative Rehearsal

  Links new information with existing memories and knowledge, a good way to transfer STM information into LTM
• Constructive Processing


  Updating long-term memories on basis of logic, guessing, reasoning, or adding new information
• Pseudo-Memory


  False memories that a person believes are true or accurate
• Memory Structure


  Pattern of associations among bits of information in LTM
• Redintegrative Memory


  Memories that are reconstructed or expanded by starting with one memory and then following chains of association to related memories
• Procedural Memory


  Long-term memories of conditioned responses and learned skills
• Declarative Memory


  Long-term memories of factual information
• Semantic Memory


  Impersonal facts and everyday knowledge
• Episodic Memory


  Personal experiences linked with specific times and places
• Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT)


  Feeling that a memory is available but not quite retrievable
• Feeling of Knowing


  Feeling that allows people to predict beforehand if they will be able to remember something
• Recall


  Supply or reproduce facts or information with some external cues; direct retrieval of facts or information
• Serial Position Effect


  Hardest to recall items in the middle of a list
• Primacy Effect


  Easiest to remember first items in a list because they are still in STM
• Recency Effect


  Easiest to remember last items in a list because they are still in STM
• Recognition Memory


  Identifies correctly previously learned material, usually superior to recall