Memory

• Processing


  The operations we perform on sensory information in the brain
• Input


  For human memory, this refers to the sensory information we recieve from our environment
• Storage


  The retention of information in our memory system
• Encoding

  Turning sensory information into a form that can be used and stored by the brain
• Acoustic encoding


  The process of sorting sound in our memory system
• Visual encoding


  The process of storing something that is seen in our memory system
• Semantic encoding 


  The process of storing the meaning of information in our memory system, rather than sound of a word, we store the definition/ meaning of that word
• Output


  For memory, this refers to the information we recall; in broader sense, output can refer to behavioural response
• Retrieval


  The recall of stored memories
• Short-term memory

  • Temporary store that lasts for around 18 seconds, if rehearsed then many minutes
  • Holds 7 items of information
  • Acoustic
• Long-term memory

  • Lasts minutes or up to an entire lifetime
  • unlimited capacity
  • Largely semantic
• Displacement


  When short term memory becomes full and new information pushes our older information
• Interference


  When new information overwrites older information, for example when a new phone number takes place of an old number in our memory
• Multi-store model: Atkinson and shiffrin

  
• Amnesia


  Memory loss, often through accident, disease or injury
• Anterograde amneisa


  Long-term memories cannot be made, cant rememeber after the incident
• Retrograde amnesia


  Affects recall of memories before to the injury
• Active reconstruction


  Memory is not an exact copy of what we experienced, but an interpretation or reconstruction of events that are influenced by our schemas
• Schema


  A packet of knowledge about an event, person, or place that influences how we perceive and remember
• Schemas influence memory by..?

  • Omissions - we leave out unfamilliar, irrelevant or unpleasant details when remembering something. Our schema simplifies the information
  • Transformation - Details are changed to make them more familiar and rational
  • Familiarisation - we change unfamiliar details to align our own schema
  • Rationalisation - We add detauls into our recall to give a reason for something that we may not have originally fitted with a schema
• Cognitive interview

  A police interview designed to ensure a witness to a crime does not activrly reconstruct their memory
• Bartlett aimed to test the nature of reconstructive memory using an unfamilliar story, looking at whether or not personal schemas influence what is remebered from the story
• Bartletts procedure:

  • Participants read "the war of the ghosts" story
  • Serial reproduction - participants retell something to another participant to form a chain
  • Repeated reproduction - Participants are made to recall something over and over again
• Peterson and peterson aimed to test the true duration of short-term memory
• Peterson and petersons procedure:

  • 24 students
  • Had to repeat a trigram and then count backwards in threes or fours
• Peterson and petersons results

  • After 3 seconds, 80% of trigrams were remebered correctly
  • After 18 seconds, less than 10%
• Reductionsim 


  The theory of explaining something according to its basic constituent parts, only looking at one part
• Holism


  The theory of explaining something as a whole, looking at the whole picture