Chapter 7 Flashcards by Shana Iqbal

Memory

Collection of several systems that store information in different forms for differing amounts of time

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Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

3 memory stores: Sensory Memory, Short term memory, long term memory
Stores: Retain information in memory without using it for any specific purpose
Control process: Shift information from one store to another

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Sensory Memory

Memory store that accurately holds perceptual information for brief amount of time
Iconic (visual)-0.5-1s
Echoic (auditory) -5-10s
Spotlight of attention:
Small amount of information from sensory is sent to STM for further processing
Information out of spotlight not transferred, unlikely to be remembered (change blindness)

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Short Term Memory

Memory store with limited capacity and duration
Approx 30s
Magical number: 7(+-2)units of info
Chunking
Organizing smaller units of info into larger meaningful units

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Long Term Memory

(Encoding from STM to LTM)
Holds information for extended-permanent periods of time
Organization:
1.Semantic (meaningful categories)
2. How the word ‘sounds’ and ‘looks’
-tip of the tongue phenomenon
Retrieval: accessing memory LTM and returning to STM

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Serial Position Effect

People are generally able to recall first few items from a list and last few items, but not middle items

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Proactive Inferference

First information learned occupies memory
Leaves less resources for newer information to be remembered
(LTM)

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Retroactive Interference

Recently learned information blocks older memories not yet encoded into LTM
(STM)

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During Recall(Primary)

Hippocampal Activation
(Formation of LTM)

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During Recall(Recency)

Brain regions associated with sensory (hearing, vision) more active

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Working Memory

A model of short term remembering that includes a combination of memory components that can temporarily store small amounts of info for short period of time
Stimuli are encoded in a number of different ways
3 storage components
1. Phonological loop
2. Visuospatial Sketchpad
3. Episodic Buffer

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Phonological loop

Storage component relying on rehearsal
-store info as sounds or auditory code

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Visuospatial Sketchpad

Store component that maintains visual images and spatial layouts in Visuospatial code

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Episodic Buffer

Storage component that combines phonological loop and Visuospatial Sketchpad into story like episodes
Allows you to organize and make sense of incoming stimuli

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Central Executive

Control center of working memory
Coordinates attention and exchange of info among 3 storage components
Focuses attention on component most relevant to a person’s goals, interests and prior knowledge
Controlled by frontal lobe regions

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LTM systems: Declarative (Explicit) Memories

Memories we are consciously aware of and can speak about
1. Semantic Memory
-Facts about the world
2. Episodic Memory
-organized as episodes
-first person

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LTM memory systems: Non-declarative (implicit) memories

Unconscious behaviours
1. Procedural Memory
-learned patterns of muscle movement
2.Classical Conditioning
-potentially unconscious learning associations between two paired events/stimuli

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Long Term Potentiation(LTP)

Increase in connectivity and communication between nerve cells that fire together
These strengthening synapses may be underlying mechanism allowing memories to form

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Consolidation

Converting short term memories to long term memories in the brain
Cellular consolidation- connections between neurons becoming more permanent (via LTP)

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Cellular Consolidation

Evidence suggests hippocampus plays a role in memory consolidation

Amnesia

Significant loss of at least one form of memory

Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new memories for events occurring after brain injury
-patient HM
Medial temporal lobes surgically removed (includes hippocampus, amygdala)
Couldn’t transfer new declarative memories from STM-LTM

Retrograde Amnesia

Memory for events preceding trauma or injury are lost

Memory Storage

Time and manner in which info is retained between encoding and retrieval
Active Process> stored memories can be updated regularly
Reconsolidation: Hippocampus functions to update, strengthen or modify existing LTMs

Cross cortical storage

LT declarative memories distributed through the cortex rather than localized to one brain region New memories not established these networks more likely to be lost >following trauma or brain injury

Rehearsal

Repeating information Maintenance rehearsal: simply repeating information Elaborative Rehearsal: thinking about meaning of information

Levels of Processing (LOP) framework

Our ability to recall information is most directly related to how it was initially processed

Shallow Processing

Encoding more superficial properties of a stimulus -sound or spelling of word

Deep Processing

Encoding information about an item’s specific meaning or function -Self reference effect > how does the information relate to you?

Retrieval

Recognition: Identifying a stimulus or piece of information when presented to you (retrieval cues) Recall: Retrieving information when asked but without information present during retrieval process

Encoding Specificity Principle

Retrieval most effective when conditions at time of encoding and retrieval are same -retrieval cues

Context dependent memory

Retrieval is more effective when taking place in same physical context as encoding -increase activity in hippocampus, prefrontal cortex

State dependent memory

Retrieval more effective when internal state matches state during encoding

Mood dependent memory

Retrieval more effective when mood matches mood during encoding

Emotional memories

Emotion-related aspects enhance memory of events Tend to focus attention on emotional contexts of a scene Emotion likely contribute to memory consolidation Emotional arousal unrelated to stimulus can also influence memory consolidation

Temporal Lobe

Hippocampus: Memory consolidation Amygdala: Activated by emotional memories, Can influence activity in temporal lobe> send input to hippocampus

Flashbulb Memories

Extremely vivid and detailed memory about an event and conditions surrounding learning of event Not more accurate than regular memories Confidence in accuracy increases

The Forgetting Curve

Most forgetting occurs right away Rate of forgetting slows to point of almost nothing

Schemas

Organized clusters of memories that constitute a person’s knowledge/beliefs about events, objects and ideas

Self schema

Used to organize and encode self relevant info; process info about ourselves

Constructive memory

Process of remembering events > first recall a generalized schema, then more specific details

Memory Bias

Different motivations can influence which schemas we access Memories have potential to change

False memory

Remembering events that did not occur or incorrectly recalling details of event

Misinformation Effect

Information encoded after event can alter/become part of memory of original event

Imagination Inflation

Increased confidence in false memory following repeated imagining of event

Guided Imagery

Technique used to recover details of events unable to remember

Deese-Roediger-McDermott(DRM) Paridgm

Participants study list of highly related words>Semantic associations List missing critical lure> obvious related word Participants remember critical lure as part of list> intrusion

Recovered Memory

Memory of traumatic event suddenly recovered after blocking memory of event for long period of time Controversy: Debate about validity of recovered memories