Memory Models and Processes

Memory Basics

• Memory involves three core processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval.
• Encoding transforms information into a usable format for the memory system.
• Storage maintains the encoded information over time.
• Retrieval is subsequently finding and accessing stored information.

3-Stage Memory Model

• This model proposes that information passes through three memory stores: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Memory Store Comparison

• Sensory memory has a large capacity but a very short duration.
• Short-term memory (STM) has a limited capacity and duration.
• Long-term memory (LTM) boasts a vast capacity and long duration.

STM Capacity and Duration

• STM capacity increases through chunking, a method of encoding information into meaningful groups.
• STM duration is lengthened through repetition and associating new information with existing knowledge.

Rote vs. Elaborative Rehearsal

• Rote (maintenance) rehearsal involves direct repetition to keep information active in STM.
• Elaborative rehearsal relates information to existing knowledge, promoting deeper encoding, benefiting long-term recall, and requiring more cognitive effort.

Duration of Sensory Memory

• Sensory memory lasts less than one second.

Serial Position Effect

• The serial position effect describes memory recall related to the position of items in a list, relevant to STM and LTM.
• The primacy effect is the tendency to remember the first items in a list due to more time for rehearsal and storage in LTM.
• The recency effect refers to the better recall of the last few items on a list because they are still in STM.

Von Restorff Effect

• Known as the isolation effect.
• It refers to the phenomenon where distinctive items in a set are more easily remembered.

Declarative vs. Procedural Memories

• Declarative memory is long-term, involving facts and events.
• Procedural memory relates to short-term skills and habits.

Types of Memory

• Remembering your first day in kindergarten is episodic memory.
• Remembering how to ride a bicycle is procedural memory.
• Knowing that Washington, D.C., is the capital of the U.S. is semantic memory.

Implicit vs. Explicit Memories

• Implicit memories are unintentionally committed to memory (like song lyrics).
• Explicit memories are intentionally committed to memory (like studying for a quiz).

Recall vs. Recognition

• Recognition is easier than recall.

Levels of Processing Theory

• Shallow processing (focus on surface features) leads to weak memory.
• Deep processing (focus on meaning) results in strong, lasting memories.

The Forgetting Curve

• Hermann Ebbinghaus proposed the forgetting curve.
• The forgetting curve illustrates the rate at which information is lost over time without effort to retain it.
• There are likely different forgetting curves for different people at different times.

Eyewitness Testimony

• Eyewitness testimony is often unreliable.
• Memory is constructive and can be influenced by many factors.
• This includes new ideas, false suggestions, and personal biases.
• Memory does not always accurately reflect reality.

Decay Theory of Forgetting

• The decay theory suggests that memories fade over time if not used or retrieved.

Interference Theory of Forgetting

• Interference theory states that forgetting occurs due to competition from other memories.
• Retroactive interference: New information interferes with the recall of old information.
• Proactive interference: Old information interferes with the learning of new information.

Context and Memory

• Context-dependent memory: Recall is improved when the context during encoding matches the context during retrieval.
• Contextual cues trigger memories.
• Encoding specificity suggests we remember better in the same place or situation where we learned something.
• State-dependent memory: Our emotional state affects recall. If you learned something while happy, you might remember it better when you feel happy again.
• Context links new information with what we already know.

State-Dependent Memory Explained

• State-dependent memory: Information is better remembered when someone is in the same state as they were in the memory.
• Memories are connected to smells, touches, sounds, and emotions.

Memory Strategies for Studying

• Employ active recall by self-testing after reading.
• Use spaced repetition; reviewing material over several days.
• Break information into smaller parts using chunking.
• Create mnemonic devices for memory tricks.
• Use visualization to picture things in your mind.
• Teach the material to someone else.
• Take short breaks during study sessions.
• Get enough sleep to help the brain store information.

Motivation and Emotion

• Incentive theory holds that external goals, like rewards or punishments, motivate behavior, refuting the idea that instincts are the sole drivers.

Drive-Reduction Theory

• Physiological needs create aroused states that motivate us to satisfy those needs.
• Homeostasis is the physiological aim of drive reduction.

Incentive Approach to Motivation

• Motivation arises from the desire to obtain valued external goals, driving behavior towards rewards and away from punishments.

Cognitive Approach to Motivation

• Intrinsic motivation: engaging in activities for internal satisfaction (e.g., reading for pleasure).
• Extrinsic motivation: performing actions for external rewards or to avoid punishment (e.g., studying for a good grade).

James-Lange Theory

• This theory posits that the conscious experience of emotion results from perceiving autonomic arousal.

Cannon-Bard Theory

• Emotion occurs when the thalamus simultaneously sends signals to the cortex (conscious experience) and the autonomic nervous system (visceral arousal).

Schachter-Singer Theory

• Emotional experience depends on autonomic arousal and the cognitive interpretation of that arousal, leading individuals to seek explanations for their physiological state in their environment.

Developmental Factors

• Teratogens: Environmental factors that negatively affect a developing fetus.
• Maternal nutrition impacts fetal development.
• Maternal stress and emotion affect the fetus.
• Maternal drug use harms the fetus.

Infant Visual Preferences

• Infants prefer to look at bright colors in blue, red, or green.

Infant Depth Perception

• Researches used the "visual cliff" experiment: Some infants would try to cross without trying to see if they could fall off. Those who just went to their mom did not have depth perception.

Ainsworth Strange Situation

• Controlled observation to test attachment security.
• Assesses infant response when playing in a room, being left alone, with a stranger, and reunited with the caregiver.

Types of Attachment

• Securely attached.
• Avoidant.
• Anxious ambivalent.
• Disorganized-disoriented.

Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

• Each stage involves resolving a crisis with two opposite outcomes.

Piaget’s Theory

Proposed these stages:

• Sensorimotor (0-2 years).
• Preoperational (2-7 years).
• Concrete Operational (7-11 years).
• Formal Operational (12 years-adult).
• Critiques include underestimating cultural factors, progress occurring in overlapping waves, and underestimating early cognitive development.

Kohlberg’s Levels of Moral Development

• black and white perspective.
• Conventional, where mortality is tied to social order.
• Postconventional, with a personal code of ethics.

Gilligan’s Critique of Kohlberg

• Kohlberg only tested males. Proposing:
• Caring for self.
• Caring for others.
• Caring for both yourself and others.

Risky Teen Behavior

• Risky teen behavior stems from personal fable.

Kubler-Ross Stages of Grief

• Denial is the first stage.
• Anger is the second stage.
• Bargaining is the third stage.
• Depression is the fourth stage.
• Acceptance is the fifth stage.

Social Psychology Definitions

• Stereotypes are widely held beliefs.
• Prejudice involves unconscious biased due to stereotypes.
• Discrimination is a treatment that hurts someone based on discriminatory beliefs.

Attribution

• Attribution is the process of explaining others' behavior.
• Fundamental attribution error: Attributing behavior to personal factors.

Actor-Observer Bias

• Actors consider situational factors, observers assume its personal.

Defensive Attribution

• Defensive attribution is the tendency to blame the victims for their own misfortune.

Self-Serving Bias

• Attribute success to personal factors and failures to situational factors.

Top of Reasons for Interpersonal Attraction

• People are attracted to one another because they have positive feelings for each other.