psychology memory

• Memory


  The encoding, storage and retrieval of stored information
• Types of memory


  • Episodic memory
  • Semantic memory
  • Procedural memory
• Episodic memory


  • Memories of personal events or experiences
• Semantic memory


  • Memory for facts and general knowledge
• Procedural memory


  • Memory that helps us recall information on complicated skills
• Forms of encoding


  • Acoustic encoding
  • Visual encoding
  • Semantic encoding
• Acoustic encoding


  Holding information in memory in the form of sound
• Visual encoding


  Processing information visually in the form of a picture in the mind
• Semantic encoding


  Encoding something through its meaning
• Retrieval systems


  • Recall
  • Recognition
  • Re-learning
• Recall


  Remembering information by searching memory
• Recognition


  Being presented with items and asked if you remember them from a previous exposure
• Re-learning


  Being exposed to something learned previously but forgotten, and re-learning it faster
• Multi-store model of memory

  • Consists of sensory, short-term and long-term memory stores
• Sensory store


  Stores sensory information, has large capacity but short duration
• Short-term memory store


  Stores information through rehearsal, has limited duration and capacity
• Long-term memory store


  Stores information processed through elaborate or maintenance rehearsal, has unlimited duration and capacity
• Primacy effect


  Items at the beginning of a list are more likely to be remembered
• Recency effect


  Items at the end of a list are more likely to be remembered
• Murdock's serial position curve study (1962) provided evidence for the multi-store model of memory
• Murdock's study found that the words at the end of the list and the beginning of the list were recalled the best
• Recency effect


  Words recalled at the end of the list were still in the short-term memory store
• Primacy effect


  Words recalled at the beginning of the list had time to be rehearsed and transferred to the long-term memory store
• Words in the middle were the least remembered
• A distractor task took up the capacity of the short-term memory store, making it harder to recall words from the end of the list
• Bartlett proposed the reconstructive explanation of memory, suggesting memories are "reconstructed" and interpreted to fit the individual's hopes, fears, emotions and previous experiences
• Bartlett's "War of the Ghosts" study

  1. Participants passed on a story, altering details to fit their own experiences and culture

  2. Ghosts were omitted, the story was recalled more logically, and details were changed to more familiar concepts
• Bartlett's reconstructive memory model


  • Memory is not an accurate recording, but is constructed and reconstructed to fit the individual's understanding
  • Individuals try to make sense of unfamiliar information by relating it to what they already know
• Effort after meaning


  People try to make sense of something unfamiliar by changing their memories into versions that are more sensible to them
• Proactive interference


  Old memories interfere with remembering new information
• Retroactive interference


  New memories interfere with recalling old information
• Research has shown false memories can be easily planted in people
• Context


  The sights, sounds, smells and textures around us when encoding information become part of the memory, and returning to that context can aid recall