Psychology Paper 1 Memory

• memory

  the mechanism we use to create, maintain and retrieve info about the past. learning cannot occur without memory.
• flashbulb memory

  a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event (ex. 9/11)
• encoding

  put into memory
• storage

  maintain in memory
• retrieval


  get info back out of memory
• 3 Stage model of memory

  sensory memory.

  short-term memory.

  long-term memory.
• sensory memory

  preserves info in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second. allows for the sensation of a visual pattern, sound, or touch to linger for a brief moment after the stimulation is over. transferred into short term memory.
• short-term memory

  not permanent. retains and processes info up to 30 seconds, holds info long enough for it to be actively worked on or processed by the brain.
• long-term memory

  memory in which associations among items are stored for a long time. retains info for periods of time beyond the capacity for STM. capacity=unlimited. duration=unlimited. research suggest that you never truly forget anything.
• working memory

  a limited capacity system for temp storage and manipulation for complex tasks such as comprehension, learning, and reasoning; accounts for dynamic process involved in cognition. any time you need to remember something for a very limited amount of time.
• serial position effect

  tendency to remember the first and last items better than the rest; remember things because of their POSITION
• visual encoding

  remembering images and visuals
• acoustic encoding

  remembering sounds, especially word sounds (ex. it's easier to remember rhymes)
• semantic networks

  organization of LTM. memory is organizzed based on semantic (meaning) rather than superficial features (what look/sound like).
• chunking

  organizing items into meaningful, familiar categories; occurs automatically; (it's easier to remember 1492 and 1812 instead of 1,4,9,2,1,8,1,2,)
• iconic memory

  a photographIC memory lasting for a few tenths of a second; everyone has it; discovered by Sperling
• echoic memory

  a momentary audio memory of a sound; sounds, words, and ECHOES can be remembered within 3 to 4 seconds, even if attention is elsewhere
• amnesia

  the loss of memory
• recall

  ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness (ex. fill-in-the-blank test)
• recognition

  ability to identify items previously learned (ex. multiple-choice test)
• relearning

  a memory measure that assess the amount of time saved when learning material for a second time
• blocking

  inaccessibility of stored info; may be on the tip of the tongue
• proactive interference


  Old memories interfere with recall of new

  information
• retroactive interference


  New memories interfere with recall of old information.
• misinformation effect

  incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event (ex. How fast were the cars going when they SMASHED into eachother?)
• George Miller's Magic #7


  a person can typically remember somewhere between 5 and 9 digits on average
• elaborative rehearsal

  method of transferring material from STM to LTM by making tat info more meaningful in some way, associate new material with familiar meaningful info. why dewald always uses personal stories in lecture.
• LTM

  declarative memory and procedural memory
• declarative memory


  things you are aware you are accessing and you can report the contents of that info. episodic and semantic memory
• episodic memory


  events, self knowing, self remembering, experiences you had that personally involved you
• semantic memory


  knowledge, facts, not personal, not from a personal experience. info without the experience of when or how we are involved in it.
• procedural memory


  not knowing through behavior, skill memory, action memoru, hard to link to langauge. ride a bike, tie shoes, type, write
• can we trust our memories

  NO
• constructionist theory

  memory is reconstructive process, memories may be distorted, we best remember events and experiences that are consistent with our schemas () and pre-existing expectations
• Decay/trace theory


  memories gradually fade over time
• retrieval theory

  forgetting is a result of a failure to to access stored memory
• retrograde amnesia


  forgetting old stuff
• anterograde amnesia


  forgetting new stuff
• recognition task

  recognizing previously encountered events, objects, or people; environmental content is matched to stored memory representations.
• primacy effect


  In free recall, the tendency to recall the first items on the list more readily than those in the middle.