Memory 5 Flashcards
know everything
Explain encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Encoding is transforming sensory data into a form of mental representation, storage is keeping encoded information in memory and retrieval is pulling out or using information stored in memory.
What did Conrad et al. (1964) find about the encoding in short-term storage?
Conrad et al. (1964) found that encoding in short-term storage is primarily acoustic, as people tend to confuse letters that sound alike rather than those that look alike.
What kinds of encoding are used for short-term storage? Which one is generally the
most used?
Encoding types used for short term storage are semantic and visual encoding but primarily acoustic.
In what ways do we encode information in long-term storage?
Primarily semantic but also visual and acoustic.
Explain what is meant by the terms interference and decay.
Interference occurs when new information makes it harder to recall older information, or vice versa, Decay is when a memory fades or weakens over time simply because it hasn’t been used or rehearsed.
What are some processes that facilitate the transfer of information into declarative long-
term memory?
Processes that facilitate the transfer of information into declarative long-term memory include rehearsal, organization, chunking, visualization, elaboration, sleep, attention, mnemonics, and emotional/contextual associations.
What is consolidation?
It is a process of integrating new information into stored information.
What is metamemory?
Being aware and understanding ones memory processes, controlling how our memory is being processed, encoded, stored and retrieved.
What is metacognition?
Meta cognition is being aware and controlling your own cognition processes like how we learn, remember, problem-solve.
What are the two forms of rehearsal?
Elaborative and Maintenance rehearsal.
Explain the difference between elaborative and maintenance rehearsal.
Elaborative rehearsal is meaningful integration or association of items to be remembered (it is necessary for transfer of information from STM to LTM) and maintenance rehearsal is just repetition of items ( holds information temporarily in STM not sufficient to transfer it into LTM).
What kind of rehearsal is necessary to move information into long-term memory?
Elaborative rehearsal.
Explain the spacing effect.
The distribution of rehearsal over time affects the consolidation of information in LTM ( it is better to have multiple study session in a mont than 2 big ones in a few days).
What are some possible reasons for the spacing effect?
Better consolidation, variability in encoding, less interference, better attention and focus, better retrieval.
What kind of sleep is of particular importance to memory?
Deep sleep for declarative memory and REM for procedural knowledge.
What is one way to experimentally show that memories are organized?
Participants spontaneously organise information in free-recall tasks.
What are mnemonic devices, and how do they generally work?
They are meta-memory strategies used for enhancing memory - that add meaning to otherwise meaningless list of items (method of loci…).
Describe interactive images as a mnemonic device.
They visualise the information to make it more easy to remember like visualising the grocery list.
Describe acronym and acrostic as mnemonic devices.
An acronym is a mnemonic device where you create a word from the first letters of a series of words you need to remember. An acrostic is a mnemonic device where you create a sentence or phrase where the first letter of each word corresponds to the first letter of the items you need to remember.
Describe the method of loci as a mnemonic device.
You visualise a path you know very very well and add items in that path to remember them.
Describe one instance where you used a mnemonic device and explain how it worked.
When I was learning wars in history I used to imagine countries as characters and then have them fight in my mind so I would remember who was against who.
What are forcing functions?
Physical restraints that prevent us from acting before at least considering the key information we need to - like a car won’t start without putting our seatbelt on making us think about our safety .
Explain the difference between prospective and retrospective memory.
Prospective memory is for when we need to remember to do tasks in the future like taking a pill or a nail appointment and retrospective memory allows us to remember things from the past.
Compare and explain predicted serial and parallel processing reaction times in
Sternberg’s memory scanning test (1966). What did the experiment show?
Sternberg’s (1966) memory scanning test showed that reaction times increased linearly with the number of items in memory, supporting the idea of serial processing, where each item is checked individually rather than all at once (parallel processing).
