Psych Exam 1 Flashcards
(63 cards)
Why were scientists worried about studying memory?
Worried about controlling for individual experiences; questions about exploring the processes involved and accuracy of memories reported
Who was Herman Ebbinghaus?
An early psychologist who sought to prove that we could examine the concept of memory scientifically
What did Ebbinghaus use?
He worked with nonsense syllables to control for stimulus differences
What was the focus of Ebbinghaus’s work?
The focus of his work was to determine how we acquire and forget information
What did Ebbinghaus study?
Varies list sizes, varied time after learning material, varied time after reading material, and varied number of reads
What did Ebbinghaus discover?
Memory capacity (7+/- 2); learning and forgetting curves
Where did Ebbinghaus’s work lead us?
Showed that we could scientifically study the topic of memory; gave info on memory capacity and the malleability of our minds
What did Ebbinghaus’s work not explore?
1) ability to display memory of information when we are asked to reproduce it in approach
2) different types of memory that potentially exist
3) if memory capacity changes for meaningful information
4) if/how we alter our memory of information
What were Ebbinghaus’s tests called?
Free recall test
What is the cued recall test?
A test where you are given hints to remember
What is the recognition test?
When you are asked to assess memory of something by being able to identify info from a list (ex. mc test)
What are the savings tests?
When people are able to remember something easier that was already learned in the past
What did the savings tests reveal?
They suggested that Ebbinghaus missed some things in his studies
What are the implicit memory tests?
They are stimulus/response pairs (classical conditioning) and learned motor tasks (anterograde amnesia-50 first dates)
What are the three steps that we undergo when we display memory?
1) Encoding
2) Storage
3) Retrieval
What is encoding?
The process of converting information into a form that will allow us to retrieve that information later
What is storage?
The process of retaining critical information for later use
What is retrieval?
The process of assessing the stored information that we have encoded in order to use it in a situation
What are the temporal memory stages?
External events + sensory input = sensory memory
sensory memory + attention to important info = STM
STM + encoding = LTM
LTM + retrieval = STM
What is sensory memory?
All of the information taken in by the senses in a split second which is then reduced to only the important aspects
What was Sperlings sensory memory experiment?
A screen would flash a list of words and the participant would have to read off a line indicated to the best of their capabilities after hearing a tone
What did Sperlings tests give us?
The evidencce that sensory memory exists
What is the serial order effect?
The primacy effect and the recency effect
What is the primacy effect?
The ability to remember information at the beginning more easily
