memory

• Memory


  A process of information flowing through a system
• Cognitive psychologists


  • Explain how information flows in mental systems
• Encoding


  Changing the form of information as it comes in so it can be stored in the brain
• Types of encoding


  • Mental imagery (visual)
  • Acoustic (voice)
  • Semantic (meaning)
• Short-term memory


  Holds information you pay attention to, lasts about 18 seconds
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Repeating information in short-term memory
• Elaborative rehearsal


  Giving meaning to information in short-term memory
• Types of long-term memory


  • Episodic (personal experiences)
  • Semantic (facts and meanings)
  • Procedural (skills)
• Episodic and semantic memories use different brain regions, suggesting they are separate processes
• HM lost ability to form new episodic and semantic memories but not procedural memories after surgery
• Memories are often complex combinations of different memory types
• Multi-store model


  A model that describes how information is processed in the mind
• Multi-store model


  • Identifies three memory stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory
• Information processing in the multi-store model

  1. Sensory information enters the sensory register

  2. Attended information passes to short-term memory

  3. Information in short-term memory is either lost or processed into long-term memory through rehearsal (maintenance or elaborative)
• Sensory register


  Stores sensory information briefly, with large capacity but short duration
• Short-term memory


  Stores information acoustically, with limited capacity (around 7 items) and short duration (around 18 seconds)
• Long-term memory


  Stores information semantically, with unlimited capacity and duration
• The multi-store model is supported by evidence, such as the case study of Clyde Wearing who had short-term memory but no long-term memory
• The multi-store model is criticised as being too simplistic, as long-term memory is not just one store and short-term memory is better explained by the working memory model
• Serial position effect


  The tendency to better recall items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list, compared to middle items
• Murdoch's study on serial position effect


  1. Participants listened to a word list and recalled as many words as possible

  2. Results showed both primacy and recency effects, suggesting evidence for both long-term and short-term memory stores
• Memory is an active process
• Schema


  Packages of information about objects in the world that we use as mental shortcuts when recalling memories
• Bartlett's method


  1. Told the story of "The War of the Ghosts"

  2. Asked participants to retell the story after gaps of 15 minutes to 10 years

  3. Used serial recall
• Bartlett's findings


  • Participants remembered the overall meaning but not the details accurately
  • Participants left out details, shortening the story
  • Participants changed parts of the story to make more sense to them based on their schemas
• Reconstructive memory


  An active process where we bring together small remembered parts to create a memory that isn't accurate
• Effort after meaning


  We remember the overall meaning of a memory but then use mental effort to interpret that memory so it matches our cultural expectations
• Not all memories are reconstructed, as memories with emotional significance seem to be accurately recorded
• Factors influencing the accuracy of recall


  • Interference (proactive and retroactive)
  • Context
  • False memories
• Proactive interference


  Old information influences the recall of new information
• Retroactive interference


  New information affects the recall of old information
• Recall is more accurate if information is learned and recalled in the same location</b>
• False memories


  Memories that feel true but didn't actually happen
• Much of the research on the limitations of memory has been conducted in artificial environments using unnatural activities, so the findings may not apply to how we use memory in the real world
• Sensation


  The detection of information about the world outside of our brain