Psychology Chapter on Memory and Schemas

A mental framework that organizes and facilitates our knowledge about the world, people, and events.

The tendency for familiar information to be more easily encoded, stored, and retrieved.

The tendency for typical examples of a category to be more easily recalled.

A process where our memories are influenced by our existing knowledge and expectations.

A story used in memory research to demonstrate the impact of schemas on recall. Participants often omit, reformulate, and add details to fit their own cultural understanding.

The ability to recall information is greatly affected by the context or situation we are in. This refers to the retrieval of information.

A phenomenon where a missing title or context makes it difficult to understand and remember information.

The process of reorganizing and recalling information from memory.

The idea that our knowledge is organized in a hierarchical structure, with more general concepts at the top and more specific concepts at the bottom. This means that information about a specific concept (like 'canary') is stored only once at the highest level where it applies, reducing redundancy and allowing for efficient access.

Semantic Networks are models that represent knowledge as interconnected nodes representing concepts and links representing relationships between them. This model explains how we access and process information by traversing these networks, spreading activation through them. The strength of association between concepts influences the speed of accessing related information.

A structured representation of a common event or routine, such as going to a restaurant. It contains slots for typical actions and objects involved, allowing us to predict and understand situations based on pre-existing knowledge.

A mental framework or structure representing a typical situation, event, or object. They help us organize and interpret incoming information using our pre-existing knowledge. For example, our 'restaurant' schema includes typical elements like tables, waiters, menus, and ordering food.

This theory suggests that we represent concepts by comparing them to a 'prototype', the most typical example of that category. The closer an item is to the prototype, the easier it is to categorize. For example, a robin is a more typical bird than a penguin, making it easier to categorize as a bird.

This paradigm demonstrates the influence of knowledge on memory recall. It shows that exposure to a set of related words (e.g., 'bed', 'sleep', 'dream') increases the likelihood of falsely recalling a non-presented word that fits the theme ('rest'). This reveals that our stored knowledge can influence what we remember, even leading to false memories.

This effect demonstrates the impact of encoding context on memory retrieval. When we label stimuli during encoding, it improves later recall. For example, if you view images and label them with words, your recall is better than if you just view them silently. This shows knowledge and our interactions with information can improve memory.

States that forgetting occurs due to the gradual fading of memory traces over time. Think of it like a footprint in the sand slowly eroding away with time.

Memory distortions are systematic errors in recalling information, often occurring due to limited resources.

The theory that memory operates like a lossy compression system, discarding information to save resources.

A mental model that helps us understand and organize information, incorporating existing knowledge and biases.

The unique patterns of memory distortions caused by relying on a generative model.

A deep learning technique that uses complex networks to learn and mimic generative models.

Experiences or background knowledge that influence how we store and recall information.

The tendency to remember the gist or general meaning of information, rather than specific details.

How our current surroundings or thoughts affect what we can remember.

A structure that represents specific aspects of the world or objects, including their attributes, characteristics, and relationships. It helps us understand and categorize information.

The influence of existing knowledge on our interpretation, memory, and understanding of information. It shapes how we perceive and recall experiences.

Knowledge structures, like schemas and frames, help us organize and store information. They provide a foundation for understanding and retrieving information, making our memory more efficient.

The process of understanding and labeling information based on our existing knowledge. We try to make sense of new information by connecting it to what we already know.

A phenomenon where forgetting certain details can be beneficial to simplify and compress our memories. We retain the essential information without being overwhelmed by unnecessary details.

A memory paradigm where participants are instructed to forget some items while remembering others.

A memory task where participants are presented with a list of words and instructed to either "think" or "no-think" about each word.

A memory phenomenon where retrieving some information inhibits the recall of other related information.

The inability to form new memories after an injury or event.

The inability to recall past events or information before an injury or event.

A type of amnesia where the individual has a more profound deficit for events that happened closer to the injury.

A model of memory that proposes three basic processing modes: rapid/slow encoding, associative/single item encoding, and flexible/rigid encoding.

A famous case study of a patient with anterograde amnesia and a temporal gradient of retrograde amnesia.