ap psych unit 5

• Memory

  How and why we remember and forget things
• Thinking


  Another major area of study in psychology
• Information processing model

  1. Information is sensed

  2. Encoded to short term memory

  3. Encoded to long term memory

  4. Retrieved from long term memory to short term memory
• Levels of Processing Model


  The more deeply processed, the more likely to recall it later
• Sensory Memory


  A split second holding tank for incoming sensory information
• Iconic memory


  Split second memory of a scene
• Echoic memory


  Split second memory of sounds
• Short Term (Working) Memory


  Limited to about 7 items
• Chunking


  A mnemonic device; divide items or numbers into chunks
• Chunking

  • Phone number written like 520-330-1111
• Rehearsal


  Spacing effect; it's easier to remember something if you rehearse it over a period of time
• Cramming before tests is not advised
• Mnemonic device

  Memory aids
• Types of long term memory

  • Explicit memory
  • Implicit memory
• Explicit memory


  Must be consciously recalled (hippocampus)
• Episodic memory


  Specific sequence of events
• Semantic memory

  Memory of facts, meanings, and words
• Implicit memory


  Without conscious recall (cerebellum)
• Procedural memory


  Remembering how to do something even after a while
• Prospective memory


  Memory of future events (ex: remembering to take medications) tends to decrease as we age
• Recall


  Fill-in-the-blank test
• Recognition

  Multiple-choice test
• Relearning


  Easier to remember something you learn multiple times
• Priming


  Giving a context to help remember
• Priming

  • Saying "apple" and then getting reminded of "pear" vs. saying "double" and then getting reminded of "pair"
• Primacy effect


  Tendency to recall the first item of a list
• Recency effect


  Tendency to recall the last item of a list
• Serial Position effect


  Recall is affected by the order of items in a list
• Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon


  Trying to remember something that is already in long term memory
• Flashbulb memory


  Split second memory of an emotionally significant event
• Context-dependent memory

  Easy to remember a memory when you are in the place/ context of where it happened
• Mood-congruent memory


  Increased likelihood of recall if you are in the same mood
• State-dependent memory

  Increased likelihood of recall if you are in the same state of consciousness
• Method of loci


  Picturing items or words at certain locations in a familiar place
• Peg word system

  Connecting a list with a simple order of other words
• The olfactory nerves are connected to the hippocampus, making smell the strongest sense/most associated with memory
• Constructive Memory


  Ability of humans to report false details/memories of events (not intentional)
• The misinformation effect exists in witnesses due to constructive memory
• Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve


  At first we forget a lot of information rapidly but the amount we remember levels off after some time
• Proactive Interference


  Trying to recall new information but the old information comes in the way