Chap 6 - Memory

• Memory


  A process and has a "place" in the brain
• Memory


  • Receives information from the external world
  • An active system that receives information from the senses
  • Organizes and alters that information as it stores it away
  • We then retrieve the information from storage
• Three Processes of Memory

  1. Sensory memory

  2. Short-term memory

  3. Long-term memory
• Models of Memory


  There is no "right" model. Each model of memory speaks to different aspects of memory.
• Depth of Processing


  Video
• Sensory memory


  The first stage of memory<|>Point at which information enters the nervous system through the sensory systems<|>Raw information from the senses is held briefly
• Sensory memory


  • Iconic memory (visual, lasting only a few seconds)
  • Echoic memory (auditory, lasting 2-4 seconds)
• • Iconic memory capacity: everything that can be seen at once
  • Iconic memory duration: information that has just entered iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly by new information, a process called masking
• Eidetic imagery


  The (rare) ability to access a visual memory for thirty seconds or more
• Short-Term Memory


  The memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used
• Selective attention


  Ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input
• Digit-span test


  A series of numbers is read to subjects who are then asked to recall the numbers in order
• Miller (1956) concluded the capacity of STM is about seven items or pieces of information, plus or minus two items—or from five to nine bits of information.
• More recent studies suggest working memory capacity can vary by individual and is likely only 3 to 5 items without using chunking or other strategies
• Chunking


  Bits of information are combined into meaningful units, or chunks, so that more information can be held in STM
• Maintenance rehearsal


  Repeating information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in STM
• • STMs tend to be encoded in auditory form
  • STM lasts from about twelve to thirty seconds without rehearsal
  • STM is susceptible to interference
• Long-Term Memory (LTM)


  The system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more or less permanently
• Elaborative rehearsal


  A method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way
• Types of long-term information

  • Nondeclarative (implicit) memory
  • Declarative (explicit) memory
• Nondeclarative (implicit) memory


  Memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses<|>These memories are not conscious, but their existence is implied because they affect conscious behavior
• Anterograde amnesia


  Loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward, or the inability to form new long-term memories
• Declarative (explicit) memory


  Memory for facts and information<|>Memory for personal events
• Types of Declarative Memory

  • Semantic memory
  • Episodic memory
• Semantic memory


  Declarative memory containing general knowledge
• Episodic memory


  Declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others
• Semantic network model


  Assumes that information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion<|>Related concepts are stored physically closer to each other than to unrelated concepts
• Retrieval Cues


  Stimulus for remembering<|>Can be limiting if used only in context of maintenance rehearsal<|>The more cues you have, the easier you can remember something
• Encoding specificity


  Tendency for memory of information to be improved if related information (e.g., surroundings or physiological state) available when memory was first formed is also available when memory is retrieved
• Recall


  Memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be "pulled" from memory with very few external cues
• Tip of the tongue (TOT) phenomenon


  Retrieval failure: recall has failed (at least temporarily)
• Serial position effect


  Information at beginning and end of a body of information more accurately remembered than information in middle
• Recognition


  The ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact
• False positive


  Error of recognition in which people think that they recognize a stimulus that is not actually in memory
• Automatic Encoding


  Tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long-term memory with little or no effortful encoding
• Flashbulb memories


  Automatically remember something<|>Automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for person remembering it
• Constructive processing


  Memory retrieval process in which memories are "built," or reconstructed, from information stored during encoding
• Forgetting


  Forgetting is normal, even necessary
• Hyperthymesia


  Enhanced ability to recall specific events from one's personal past
• Adaptive forgetting


  Experienced bad events, forcibly forget, to avoid recalling something bad