Memory

• Memory


  The processes involved in retaining, retrieving, and using information about stimuli, images, events, ideas, and skills after the original information is no longer present
• Cognitive psychologists have identified three common operations of memory

  • Encoding
  • Storage
  • Retrieval
• Recall


  You produce a fact, a word, or other item from memory
• Recognition


  You select or identify an item as being one that you have been exposed to previously
• Encoding


  Transform sensory data into a form of mental representation
• Storage


  Keep encoded information in memory
• Retrieval


  Pull out or use information stored in memory
• Types of recall tasks

  • Serial recall
  • Free recall
  • Cued recall
• Serial recall


  Recall items in the exact order in which they were presented
• Free recall


  Recall items in any order you choose
• Cued recall


  You are first shown items in pairs, but during recall you are cued with only one member of each pair and are asked to recall each mate
• Explicit memory


  Participants engage in conscious recollection
• Implicit memory


  We use information from memory but are not consciously aware that we are doing so
• The modal model of memory

  • Includes sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory
• Sensory memory


  Retention, for brief periods of time, of the effects of sensory stimulation
• Echoic memory


  Sensory memory for auditory stimuli
• Short-term memory


  The system involved in storing small amounts of information for a brief period of time
• The duration of short-term memory is about 15-30 seconds without rehearsal
• Proactive interference


  Interference that occurs when information that was learned previously interferes with learning new information
• Digit span


  The number of digits a person can remember
• Short-term memory capacity is about 4 items
• Chunking


  Combining small units into larger meaningful units to increase the ability to hold information in short-term memory
• Types of coding in short-term memory

  • Auditory coding
  • Visual coding
  • Semantic coding
• Auditory coding


  Representing items in short-term memory based on their sound
• Visual coding


  Representing items in short-term memory visually
• Semantic coding


  Representing items in short-term memory in terms of their meaning
• Parallel processing


  Simultaneous handling of multiple operations
• Serial processing


  Operations being done one after another
• Exhaustive serial processing


  Participant always checks the test digit against all digits in the positive set
• Self-terminating serial processing


  Participant checks the test digit against only those digits needed to make a response
• Long-term memory


  The system responsible for storing information for long periods of time
• Primacy effect


  Superior memory for stimuli presented at the beginning of a sequence
• Recency effect


  Superior memory for stimuli presented at the end of a sequence
• Explicit memory


  Our conscious recollection of events we have experienced or facts we have learned
• Episodic memory


  Memory for personal experiences
• Semantic memory


  Stored knowledge and memory for facts
• Implicit memory


  Memories that are used without awareness
• Types of implicit memory

  • Priming
  • Procedural memory
  • Classical conditioning
• Priming


  The presentation of one stimulus changes the response to a subsequent test stimulus
• Repetition priming


  Occurs when the test stimulus is the same as or resembles the priming stimulus