Psych

CH. 7
Memory
Memory: the capacity to retain and retrieve information
Encoding - requires attention
Storage
Retrieval how we get the memory out
Memory is Selective and a Reconstructive process
High-Load Attention more complicated/important matter
Low-Load Attention less serious
Performing once task yields better performance.
Traditional 3 Stage Memory Model
Sensory Memory goes to Thalamus
o Stored as sensory ()
o Smell chocolate chip cookies, store that smell so you
recognize it next time
Processing Memory
1. Structual
a. CAT uppercase letters, not interpreting word
2. Phonemic
a. How we remember things?
3. Semantic
a. Meaning of word
b. Most important
Short-Term Memory only remember for 10-20 seconds
*For us to remember something we have to do rehearsal
The average person can remember 7 things, +/- 2
Chunking: How we categorize things so we can recall info more easily
Working Memory going through the memory and doing it
Ability to hold and manipulate infor with conscious attention
o Ex. Writing notes
Associated with intellect
Impacted by
o Phonological Loop loop of repetition to recall
o Visuo-Spatial Thinkpad seeing things and being able to
map them

 Good at directions
o Central executive system what needs to be attended to &
when
o Episodic Buffer integrates short term and working
memory into long term term
Long term unlimited capacity store
Flash-Bulb Memories remembering specific details of a certain time
Procederal forgetting something because youre already so familiar
with it
Ex. Riding a bike, driving to work
Declarative Memory
Memories in general that are spoken
Semantic actual words we remember
Episodic situation/surroundings
Encoding
Elaboration ability to encode things through various techniqies
Effortful- time into remembering
Rehearsal recycling, going over and over again
o Visusal imagery vs. abstract
Dual Coding Theory
Self Referent Encoding makes things more personal
Storage memories are ordered by importance and decay after time
Interference anothing thing interferes you remembering
Primacy Effect memorize first things/beginning
Recency Effect memorize last things/end
Confabulation remembering things wrong
Source monitoring error + reality monitoring error
Eye-Witness Testimony
Misinformation
Retelling a story is dangerous
Embellish facts
Hypnosis cannot be used in court

Reality Monitoring Error process of deciding whether memories are

based on external sources or ones own thoughts
Explicit Memory from an external source and you try to retrieve
where the memory came from
Recall Spontaneously remember something
Recognition measure of retention that requires subjects to relearn
previously
ex. Mult choice
Schema organize cluster of knowledge about particular event thats
abstracted from previous experience
Ex. We know what a classroom looks like before we go in.
Semantic Networks remember things that are closely related
(chart about firetruck, loud, babies whats connected)
Implicit Memory what we learn along the way (original)
Priming parents teach you to ride a bike (prepare you)
Relearning actually getting on and trying to ride bike
Forgetting
Decaying memory fades with times
Interference people forget information because of additional
information that its competing with
Retroactive new information impairs the retention of previously
learned information (recent)
Value of the retrieval que depends on how well
Cue dependent?
Repression?
Memory formations are the change in the synapses
Short term memory areas in frontal lobe
In frontral lobe we have room for exec functioning (planning
organizing)
temporary changes in chemical (neurotransmitters) activity in
brain
Long term memory - Within hippocampus
Actual structural changes in synaptic connections (Long-term
potentiation)
Hippocampus involved in formation of declarative memories
Long term potentiation excitiability (it becomes active) along
pathaways
Neurogenesis formation of new neurons (takes place in hippocampus)

 Prefrontal cortex and areas in temporal lobes used in encoding

pictures & words
Cerebellum important in formation and retention of procedural
memories
Areas used for formation of memories more than likely not also
used for storage
Hormones
Scents
Procedural memories (cerebellum)
Hormones play an affect on whether youre able to remember things
Area around the hippocampus is the medial temporal lobe memory
system controls consolidation of memories, storage of long term
cond
Organic Amnesia a stressor causes one to forget things

Retrograde Amnesia loss of memories for events that occurred

prior to the onset
o More common
o If someones in a comma theyd recall what happened
right before the accident

Anterograde Amnesia- loss of memories for events that occur

after

Dissociative Amnesia
Dissociative Fugue Types of Memory
Declarative
Nondeclarative
Procedural
Doesnt require conscious effort
Episodic: chronologically or temporally dated
Recollectional memories
Sweet 16, learning to drive
autobiography
Semantic: general knowledge not tied to a time when it was
learned

 Encyclopedia
Retrospective:
Prospective: ability to plan ahead