Memory Processes and Attention

Memory Processes

• Key Memory Processes: Encoding, storage, retrieval, and consolidation are fundamental to memory. Attention is a related process influencing memory.

Attention Types

• Selective Attention: Focusing on a specific aspect while filtering out irrelevant information.

• Divided Attention: Concentrating on multiple activities simultaneously.

• Sustained Attention (Vigilance): Maintaining focus over an extended period.

Levels of Processing

• Deep Processing: Leads to the best memory because it involves meaningful connections.

• Intermediate & Shallow Processing: Less effective for long-term memory.

Encoding Strategies

• Elaboration: Creating multiple connections around a stimulus.

• Self-Reference: Relating material to your own experiences improves memory.

• Mental Imagery: Utilizing vivid imagery to make memories distinctive.

Memory Systems

• Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Proposes three distinct memory storage systems: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

• Sensory Memory: Briefly holds sensory information (a fraction of a second to several seconds). Echoic (auditory) and iconic (visual).

• Short-Term Memory: Holds information for a limited duration (up to 30 seconds without rehearsal).

• Chunking: Grouping items into meaningful units to improve short-term memory capacity.

• Rehearsal: Repeating information to maintain it in short-term memory.

Working Memory

• Baddeley's Model: A more complex model of working memory that includes the phonological loop (verbal information) and the visuospatial sketchpad (visual/spatial).

Long-Term Memory

• Long-Term Memory: Stores information relatively permanently, with potentially limitless capacity.

• Explicit (Declarative) Memory: Consciously recalled memories.

• Episodic Memory: Personal experiences.

• Semantic Memory: General knowledge.

• Implicit (Nondeclarative) Memory: Unconscious influences on behavior.

• Procedural Memory: Skills and habits.

Memory Organization

• Schemas: Pre-existing mental frameworks that organize information.

• Scripts: Schemas for events.

• Connectionism: Emphasizes the distributed storage of memory within interconnected networks of neurons.

Memory Retrieval

• Serial Position Effect: Better recall of items at the beginning and end of a list.

• Recall: Retrieving information without cues.

• Recognition: Identifying learned items.

Memory Errors and Processes

• Flashbulb Memories: Vivid and detailed, but not always accurate recollections of emotional events.

• Childhood Amnesia: Difficulty recalling early childhood memories.

• Repressed Memories: Controversial; debated whether true repression of traumatic memories occurs.

• Encoding Failure: Information not entered into long-term memory.

• Interference Theory: Forgetting caused by other information interfering with retrieval.

• Retroactive Interference: Newer information interferes with older memories.

• Proactive Interference: Older information interferes with new memories.

• Decay Theory: Forgetting due to gradual disintegration of memory traces.

• Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: Inability to access stored information, even though it feels readily available.

• Prospective Memory: Remembering to perform future actions.

• Amnesia: Loss of memory.

• Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new memories.

• Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of past memories.