tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
- its in memory but its due to having trouble with retrieval
- temporary inability to remember something you know, accompanied by a feeling that its just out of reach
encoding
- forming a memory code
- usually requires attention
storage
- maintaining encoded information in memory over time
- not enough that you are guaranteed to remember something
retrieval
- recovering information from memory stores
- some retrial strategies are more effective than others
attention
- focusing awareness on a narrowed set of stimuli
- key part of memory
selective attention
- selection of input
- critical to everyday functioning
next in line effect
- trying to figure out what you’re going to say so you don’t encode what the person before you said
early selective attention
- ignore surrounding conversations
- no access to their meaning
- elect some info for further processing
- filter out everything and focus on one stream of information
late selective attention
- cocktail party phenomenon
- hear your name despite ignoring surrounding conversations
- focus on all information and recognize meaning
cocktail party phenomenon
you expect no to be processing info outside of the conversation you are having but you actually are
- hearing your name in another conversation even when you are focused on your own
deep processing
- semantic encoding
- emphasizes the meaning of verbal input
- how the word would fit into a sentence
- longer lasting memory codes
intermediate processing
- phonemic encoding
- emphasizes that a word sounds like
- what does the word rhyme with
shallow processing
- structural encoding
- emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus
- is the word written in capital letters
elaboration
- linking stimulus to other information at encoding (more likely to remember)
- also helpful when given multiple examples
self-referent encoding
- make it personally meaningful
- we remember things that are related to ourselves
visual imagery
- creation of visual images to represent words to be remembered
- patient was given 7 minutes to remember complex math formula and he made it into a story
photographic memory
eidetic memory
paivio and colleagues
- high imagery vs low imagery
- gave people lists of words in pairs (high/high, low/low, high/low)
- more people remembered high/high imagery
dual-coding theory
- paivio and colleagues
- we use 2 codes if you can create mental image that mental image will help us remember
high imagery
- concrete
- can come up with a solid picture of it
- dress
low imagery
- abstract
- hard to come up with a picture
- duty
analogies
- information storage in wax or computers
- old philosophers thought memory like a block of wax, better memory=bigger block
information processing theories
- subdivided memory into 3 separate memory stores
1) sensory
2) short-term
3) long-term
sensory memory
brief preservation of information in original sensory form
iconic sensory memory
sensory info for visual representation
echoic sensory memory
auditory memory lasts ~4-5 seconds then its gone unless we focus on it
sperlings classic experiment on visual sensory store
- people could remember letter better if the tone played right after vs the tone playing a second later
- proves that there is a brief preservation of stimulus is sensory memory
short term memory
- limited-capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed info for up to 20 seconds
rehearsal
process of repetitively verbalizing/thinking about information
Peterson & Peterson
- testing to see how long people could remember 3 letters if not allowed to rehears
- to prevent rehearsal they had the students count backwards by 3s from the time they heard the words until a light flashed
- memory decayed quickly
interference
- numbers interfere
- letters interfere worse
limited capacity
- people can only recall 7 items in a task with unfamiliar material
- recent view is 4 items
chunking
- grouping familiar stimuli for stage as a single unit
- allows us to remember better
working memory
limited capacity storage system that temporarily maintains and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action
baddeley
- proposed short-term memory as working memory
- when we hold info to use in a certain way
- we have different parts that compose short-term memory
phenological rehearsal loop
- important for learning language
- calculating a tip
visuospatial sketch pad
- vials and spatial in nature
- using both kinds of info
- reorganizing living room
executive control system
- what we pay attention to commanding how we use information
- air traffic controller
episodic buffer
- bringing into from long-term in conjunction with short term memory
- creativity, musical ability, reading comprehension
long term memory
- unlimited capacity that holds info for a long time
- unlikely we have unlimited capacity
wilder penfield
- keep people awake during neurosurgery and stimulate parts of their cortex to see their reaction
- memory is there permanently we just need the right stimulus
flashbulb memories
- vivid and detailed recollections of momentous events
- seemingly perfect storage
- ex: 9/11
hypnosis
people had many memories that were not true
clustering
tendency to remember similar or related items
conceptual hierarchy
multilevel classification system based on common properties among items
schemas
- organizing cluster of knowledge about and object or event
- can help recall info but you might recall something that wasn’t there
script
- script is a special type of schema
semantic network
- consists of nodes representing concepts
- joined together bu links between concepts
- info is connected in some way
- things that are associated will be activated relatively
retrieval cues
- stimuli that help gain access to memories
recalling an event
- use context cues (can be related to mood, location etc.)
- retracing your steps
retrieval
- getting information out of memory
- memories are reconstructed which often leads to errors
war of ghosts
- read a story twice and asked to remember details of the story
- they remembered the gist but would change something that happened in the story
Elizabeth loftus
- misinformation effect
- post-event information disrupts memory
- when asked “hit” 14% said broken glass
- when asked “smashed” 32% said broken glass
- there was no broken glass
misinformation effect
- occurs when participants recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post-event information
source monitoring
the process of making inferences about the origins of memories
source monitoring error
when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source
reality monitoring
- did this actually happen?
- real memories vs false memories
destination memory
- retold old stories
- who we tell the story to (telling same story multiple times to same person)
serial position effects
better recall for items at beginning and end of a list
primacy effect
remembering things at start of list
recency effect
remembering things at end of list
ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve
- interested in how we forget information
- tried to memorize triplets of letters to see how long it would take him to forget the info
- looked at retention intervals
- different forgetting curve due to nonsense information
retention
- proportion of material retained
relearning measure of retention
- requires a subject to memorize info a second time to determine how much time/practices are saved having learning it before
recognition measure of retention
- requires subject to select previously learned info from any array of options
- multiple choice, true/false
recall measure of retention
- requires subjects to reproduce info on their own without any cues
- essay questions, fill in the blank
measuring retention: recognition vs recall
- different effects over time
ineffective encoding
- pseudoforgetting
- due to lack of attention
decay theory
- forgetting that occurs due to fading of memory traces with time
- yes for STM
- no for LTM
interference theory
- retroactive and proactive interference
- different info=less interference
retroactive interference
- new learning interferes with old
- impairs old memory
proactive interference
- old learning interferes with new
- impairs new memory
to distinguish info
- pair studying of 2 different classes
- elaborate in different ways
- change location, music etc
encoding specificity principle
effectiveness of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds with a memory code
- match between context and location have better results
- context can be physiological mood, and location
motivated forgetting
purposely forgetting things you don’t want to remember
repression
- burying distressing thoughts/feelings in the unconscious so you are not constantly affected by them
- repressed memories can be true or false, hard to determine
memory illusions
- people are very likely to recall info that is not presented
- dense-roediger-mcdermott paradigm is list of 15 similar words listed off and asked to be recalled
physiology of memory
- changes in brain underlie memory
- memory formation results in alterations of synaptic transmissions at specific sites
long term potentiation
localized neural circuits
- a lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway
- happens for hours, days, ~months
amygdala
emotional memories
hippocampus
- medial temporal lobe
- consolidation of memories
neurogenesis
- formation of new neurons
- contributes to sculpting of new neural circuits that underly memory
- why we can get new info
prefrontal cortex
- executive attention/function
- attention
- working memory
left hemisphere
- phonological information loop
right hemisphere
- visual spatial sketch pad
- spacial information
procedural/nondeclarative memory system
- skills that feel automatic
- last for a long time but can’t necessarily explain procedure
- does not require attention
- implicit memory we don’t know about
- riding a bike, passwords
- related to cerebellum
declarative memory systems
- takes some effort and attention to access info
- related to hippocampus
- semantic and episodic
semantic memory system
- general knowledge we have learned over the course of our lives
- knowing what breakfast is
episodic memory system
- autobiographical
- episodes we have experiences
- dated recollections of personal experiences
- knowing what you ate for breakfast yesterday
amnesia
something that has happened to a part of your brain that causes memory loss
- retrograde and anterograde
retrograde amnesia
- K.C.: motorcycle accident had loss of memory for what happened before accident, knew what chess was but didn’t know he knew how to play, learned certain things but no real lasting memory
—> loss of memory from before head injury
anterograde amnesia
- H.M.: removed hippocampus, would very quickly forget what had just happened, procedural memory was intact
- discovered hippocampus and medial temporal lobe are important for memory
—> memory loss of event after the head injury
retrospective memory
- anything that happened in the past
prospective memory
- memory for things that will happen in the future
hyperthymestic syndrom
- highly superior autobiographic memory
- ability to remember personal experiences in extreme detail
- memory does not seem to benefit them in any particular way