Chap 6 Overview Flashcards
(21 cards)
Describe each of the stages in the three stage model of memory, including the duration and capacity of each stage
Sensory memory: environmental information is registered, large capacity for information, duration: 1/4 a second to three seconds.
Short term memory :
New information is transferred from sensory memory . Old information is retrieved from long-term memory. Limited capacity for information. Duration: approximately 20 seconds.
Long-term memory :
Information that has been encoded in short term memory is stored
Unlimited capacity for information
Duration potentially permanent
Describe how Sperling demonstrated the existence of sensory memory.
Sperling flashed the images of 12 letters on a screen for 1/20 of a second. The letters were arranged in four rows of three letters each. Participants focused their attention on the screen, and immediately after the screen went blank, reported as many letters as they could remember on average participants could report only 4 to 5 of the 12 letters, however, several participants claimed that they had actually seen all the letters, but that the complete image had faded from their memories as they spoke, disappearing before they could verbally report more than four or five letters, his experiment demonstrated our visual sensory memory holds a great deal of information very briefly, for about half a second.
State the capacity of short term/working memory and the strategies that enable it to be increased
Generally, you can hold most types of information and short-term memory up to about 20 seconds. The process of maintenance rehearsal (the mental or verbal repetition of information) can help you maintain memory longer. Psychologist George Miller described as the limits of short term memory- You can usually remember between five and nine numbers, it’s no coincidence that our phone numbers are seven digits long.
Define encoding
Transforming information into a form that can be stored by the memory system
Explain the difference between maintenance, rehearsal, and elaborative rehearsal
Maintenance rehearsal: The mental or verbal repetition of information in order to maintain it beyond the usual 20 second duration of short term memory
Elaborative rehearsal: rehearsal that involves focusing on the meaning of information to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory
Define and identify examples of implicit and explicit memories
Implicit memory: information or knowledge that affects behavior or task performance, but cannot be consciously recollected; also called non-declarative memory. An example of this would be your ability to type on the keyboard a sentence without looking, but the inability to list the letters on the bottom row of the keyboard. This demonstrates that you do know the location of the letters, but your inability to recite that knowledge demonstrates that your memory of each keys location cannot be consciously recollected.
A teenager might forget being frightened by an angry Chihuahua as a young toddler. Yet even in the absence of an explicit memory of the incident, the implicit memory might lead to feel nervous around small dogs.
Explicit memory: information or knowledge that can be consciously recollected; also called declarative memory. This would be like remembering what you did last New Year’s Day or the topics discussed in your last psychology class.
Define and give examples of each of the three types of long-term memories
Semantic: category of long-term memory that includes memories of general knowledge, concepts,facts, and names. Ex: knowing that there are different time zones across the United States.
Procedural: category of long-term memory that includes memories of different skills, operations and actions. Ex: texting, riding a bike, and making scrambled eggs.
Episodic: category of long-term memory that includes memories of particular events, including the time and place that they occurred. Ex: a memory of attending a wedding or your first day of university.
Define autobiographical memory, and describe how it is related to semantic and episodic memory
Autobiographical memory: memory of specific personal relevant events or episodes, including information that relates them to other events in your life. All adds up to your life story. This combines episodic and semantic memory.
Describe how memory is organized according to the semantic network model
Semantic network model: a model that describes units of information in long-term memory as being organized in a complex network of associations. For example, the word red might activate blue, Apple, firetruck.(objects that are red.), or alert as in the phrase red alert these associations can activate other concepts in the network.
Define clustering and its role in long-term memory storage
Clustering: organizing items into related groups, or clusters, during recall from long-term memory.
If you need to memorize a list of words, you may cluster them into groups, such as vehicles, fruits, and Furniture- in order to memorize them easier
Explain the role of associations and long-term memory
Associations: exist between stored information and concepts. Associations are based on shared properties, logical connections, personal experiences.
Identify examples of the context effect, and mood congruence
Context effect: Information is retrieved more easily in the same setting where it was learned. Encoding is specific to the environment. The environment acts as a retrieval clue.
Mood congruence : information retrieved more easily when consistent with your current mood. For example: unpleasant memories are harder to recall when you are happy. Positive information is harder to recall when you are unhappy.
Explain the role of retrieval cues in long-term memory
Retrieval cues: Clue, prompt, or hint that can trigger recall. One piece of the information itself, a similar, sounding word, a first letter.
Describe the tip of the tongue phenomenon
Tip of the tongue experience: a memory phenomenon that involves the sensation of knowing that specific information is stored in long-term memory, but being temporarily unable to retrieve it
Identify examples of schemas and scripts affecting long-term memory
Schemas: Organized clusters of knowledge and information about particular topics. Influenced by previous experience.
Scripts : schemes that involve typical sequences of actions and behaviors. Social interactions, rules, and social groups.
Define false memory
False memory: a distorted or fabricated recollection of something that did not actually occur
Define lost in the mall technique
Lost-in-the-mall technique: creating or inducing false memories of childhood experiences. Information from family members as used, research participants experience, real events, and imagine false events.
Define imagination inflation
Imagination inflation: memory phenomenon, and which vividly imagining an event market increases confidence at the event actually occurred
Define encoding failure
Encoding failure: information is not encoded initially into long-term memory often due to an attention
Retrograde amnesia
Inability to remember the past
Anterograde amnesia
Loss of memory caused by the inability to store new memories
