Memory Concepts and Processes

Memory

• Memory involves encoding, storing, and retrieving information.
• Sensory memory, short-term memory (with limited capacity and duration), and long-term memory are different stages.
• Levels of processing affect memory. Shallow processing (e.g., appearance of words) results in poor memory, while deep processing (e.g., meaning of words) leads to superior recall.
• Rehearsal (maintenance, elaborative, chunking) improves encoding and storage. Maintaining information is a form of repeated retrieval; Elaborative rehearsal connects new information to existing knowledge; Chunking groups information into more manageable units.
• The serial position effect involves better recall of items at the beginning (primacy effect) and end (recency effect) of a list.
• Different memory types exist: declarative (explicit, episodic, semantic) stores facts and events; non-declarative (implicit) memories are unconscious, procedural (skills). Indigenous storytelling traditions also create types of memorable stories. Flashbulb memories vividly store emotionally significant events.
• Memory is biological, involving consolidation (especially in the hippocampus), the amygdala's role in emotional memories, long-term potentiation (strengthened synaptic connections), memory traces, and the importance of sleep in memory consolidation.
• Retrieval is aided by cues: mnemonics, contextual cues, priming.
• Forgetting happens due to decay (fading of memories over time), proactive/retroactive interference (one memory disrupting another), amnesia (various types), and others. Ebbinghaus' forgetting curve shows this process.
• Memory is reconstructive. Misinformation and false memories can affect recall (e.g., Loftus' work on the misinformation effect), leading to errors in eyewitness testimony.

Thinking, Language, and Intelligence

• Thought involves mental representations (images, concepts, prototypes).
• Problem-solving uses diverse methods (means-ends analysis, working backward, heuristics, and algorithms). Different problem types exist (transformational, inducing structure, arrangement). Barriers, like mental sets or functional fixedness, hinder problem-solving abilities.
• Heuristics like availability and representativeness, and confirmation bias impact judgment. Framing a problem alters solution strategy and possibly behavior.
• Language encompasses phonemes (sounds), syntax (sentence structure), and semantics (meaning). Language development follows stages (babbling, telegraphic speech, overgeneralization, comprehension before production), shown also by the Genie case (critical periods).
• Language development has different theories (nativist, learning, interactionist). Bilingualism has cognitive advantages, (illustrated by Dr. Bialystok's work).
• Intelligence has interpretations of its measures and theories from Galton's attempt, to Spearman's "g" (general intelligence factor) to Sternberg's triarchic theory, Gardner's multiple intelligences and the concept of emotional intelligence. Intelligence testing includes achievement, aptitude, and general IQ tests.
• Research on group differences in intelligence and the range of reaction theory are complex areas.