Psychology Chapter: Memory Systems

Memory

• Memory is an active system that stores, organizes, alters, and receives information.
• It retains learned information, experiences, and prior events; however, it is selective.
• Information Processing Theory of Memory includes:
  • Encoding: getting information into the system.
  • Storage: retaining information over time.
  • Retrieval: accessing information from storage.

A Simplified Model of Memory

• Sensory Memory: Holds an exact copy of sensory input briefly, allowing for processing and identification.
  • Iconic Memory: Visual sensory memory (½ second duration).
  • Echoic Memory: Auditory sensory memory.
• Short-Term (Working) Memory: Conscious memory, holds limited information (approximately 7 bits) for a short time (20-30 seconds).
  • Easily interrupted or interfered with.
• Encoding Information:
  • Effortful Processing: Transferring information from short-term to long-term memory through conscious effort (rehearsal strategies).
  • Automatic Processing: Transferring information with little effort or awareness (e.g., time, sequence of events).

Long-Term Memory

• Retains information for extended periods.
  • Encoding Failure: Some current information may never be encoded (e.g., not perceived as important).
  • Rehearsal: Repetition to maintain information in short-term memory to aid encoding
    • Maintenance Rehearsal: Repeating information for short-term retention; little attention to meaning
    • Elaborative Rehearsal: Linking new information with existing knowledge
    • Distributed Rehearsal: Studying over time is more effective than massed rehearsal. Less productive over time
• Encoding Types:
  • Acoustic Encoding: Encoding by sound.
  • Visual Encoding: Encoding by images.
  • Semantic Encoding: Encoding by meaning (relating to personal experience).

Encoding: Serial Position Effect

• Serial Position Effect: Better recall of items at the beginning (primary effect) and end (recency effect) of a list.
• Items in the middle require more rehearsal.

Encoding: Forgetting

• Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting: Forgetting is initially rapid, then levels off over time.

• Ebbinghaus Retention Curve: More practice yields fewer repetitions for relearning.

• Spacing Effect: Distributed practice is better for long-term retention than massed practice.

Interference

• Proactive Interference: Earlier learning disrupts later learning.
• Retroactive Interference: Later learning disrupts earlier learning.

Encoding Specificity Principle

• Retrieval is best when the context at retrieval matches the context at encoding.

Encoding: Mood & State

• Mood-Congruent Memory: Memories are retrieved better when the current mood matches the mood during encoding.
• State-Dependent Learning: Retrieval is better when the physiological state at retrieval matches the encoding state.

Long-Term Memory: Process & Structure

• Stores vast amounts of information over long periods, based on meaning and importance.
• Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): Strengthening of neural pathways with repeated use.
• Network Model of LTM: Related ideas are stored in interconnected node networks.
• Memory Redintegration: Expanding or reconstructing memories based on associations.

Constructive Processing

• Updating memories based on logic, guesses, or new information.
• Misinformation Effect: Introducing misleading information can distort or create false memories.
• Flashbulb Memories: Vivid, detailed memories of significant emotional events.

Explicit vs. Implicit Memory

• Explicit Memory (declarative): Consciously known facts (semantic) and experiences (episodic).
• Implicit Memory (procedural): Skills and motor responses without conscious recollection.

Recall, Recognition, & Retrieval Cues

• Recall: Retrieving information without cues.
• Recognition: Identifying information with cues.
• Retrieval Cues: Information encoded during learning; help in retrieval.
• Priming: Unconsciously activating associations in memory.

Improving Memory

• Seven sins of memory:

  • Transience
  • Absent-mindedness
  • Blocking
  • Misattribution
  • Suggestibility
  • Bias
  • Persistence

• Some memory limitations may be adaptive.

Cognitive Processes

• Mental Images: Mental representations of sensory experience. Mental Concepts: Generalized ideas representing a class of objects or events
• Mental Concepts: Generalized ideas representing a class of related objects or events.
• Language: Rules for combining words or symbols for thinking and communicating
• Schemas: generalized ideas representing a class related objects or events

Problem Solving Strategies

• Trial and Error: Trying solutions sequentially.
• Algorithm: Step-by-step procedure to solve problems, guaranteed to yield solution(but can be inefficient).
• Heuristic: Strategy to limit solutions to be tried, quick but error prone (based on experience).
  • Representative Heuristic
  • Availability Heuristic

Thinking Patterns

• Inductive Thought: Reasoning from specific to general.
• Deductive Thought: Reasoning from general to specific.

Creative Thinking

• Fluency: Number of suggestions.
• Flexibility: Shifting between ideas.
• Originality: Uniqueness of suggestions. Sternberg's 5 components: expertise, imaginative thinking skills, venturesome personality, intrinsic motivation, and creative environment

Convergent vs. Divergent Thinking

• Convergent Thinking: Directed toward a single solution. Convergent thinking uses logic and rules to produce a solution, typically a single solution.
• Divergent Thinking: Generating many solutions from a starting point; creativity.

Language

• Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis: Language influences our thinking and perception.

• Language Structure:

  • Phoneme: Smallest sound unit.
  • Morpheme: Smallest meaningful sound unit.
  • Grammar: Rules for combining sounds and words.

• Language and the Brain:

  • Broca's Area: Speech production.
  • Wernicke's Area: Speech comprehension.

• Language Acquisition Theories:

  • Behavioral Theory (Skinner): Learning through association, reward, and punishment.
  • Nativist Theory (Chomsky): Innate language acquisition abilities ("Language Acquisition Device").

Explore the fascinating world of memory systems in this quiz covering sensory, short-term, and long-term memory. Engage with concepts like encoding, storage, and retrieval, and test your understanding of how information is processed. Perfect for psychology students looking to deepen their knowledge!