Modes of Memory
Explain each part of the Information Processing Perceptive: encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding: getting the information in; that is, using the mental operations necessary for converting sensory information into a form that the brain can store away into the proper systems
Storage: retaining information for some period of time (sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory)
retrieval: getting the information out; that is, getting your memories out of storage, and in a form you can use
What's the capacity and duration of sensory memory (SM)?
Capacity: REALLY, REALLY, REALLY big
Duration: 1/3 of a second
Give an example of change blindness.
Change blindness is when we're unable to detect a change in a visual stimuli. An example of this is when you look between two, different photos—let's say they're photos of a sunset, but the second photo has some birds flying along the horizon while the first one doesn't—and you don't notice this change.
What are examples of exceptional memory?
Autobiographical memory (These are the people who can remember pretty much everything that's ever happened to them) and memory championships (These are those ordinary joes who join the memory championships, and they can remember massive amounts of information through various methods like chunking).
What parts of the brain correspond to implicit and explicit memory?
Explicit: Hippocampus
Implicit: Basal Ganglia and cerebellum
What's the difference between short-term memory and working memory?
While both retain information, working memory is more of a mental workbench for the retrieval and usage of already known information.
Remember: refer back to Dr.Danek's slides on how the Working Memory model looks. You'll wanna have a general idea on how working memory processes information vs. the modal model.
What's the capacity and duration of short-term memory (STM)?
Capacity: 7 ± 2 items
Duration: 18-20 seconds
What's the idea of chunking?
A chunk is a meaningful unit of information.
Instead of remembering each individual item of something, you can chunk it all into one unit of information (This is how we overcome the limited capacity of short-term memory!).
Example: remembering to turn on the faucet, wet your toothbrush, spread some toothpaste on it, scrub your teeth for 2 or so minutes, then spitting it out, and washing off your toothbrush as just brushing your teeth.
What are mnemonics? Make sure to provide examples.
Mnemonics are strategies for remembering information.
Examples: Rhyme, chunking, imagery, acronym, acrostic, Method of Loci, and Peg-words
What's the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?
Anterograde amnesia: inability to form new long-term explicit memories (usually due to trauma)
Retrograde amnesia: inability to retrieve memories from the past (usually due to trauma)
What are the primacy and recency effects?
Primacy effect: your tendency to remember things at the very beginning of the list
Recency effect: your tendency to remember things at the very end of the list
What's the capacity and duration of long-term memory (LTM)?
Capacity: appears to be limitless
Duration: can last a lifetime (minus infant amnesia)
What are the two types of long term memory?
Explicit: episodic and semantic
Implicit: procedural, skills, habit, conditioned responses
You can retrieve information from your long term memory (LTM) two ways: recognition and recall. What's the difference?
Recognition: material acts as a cue (like when you look for the most familiar material on a multiple choice exam)
Recall: you reproduce material on your own (like when you take an essay or short answer exam)
Quick notes: recall fits into our STM because the information we can recall is the information we've practice elaborative rehearsal on. Also, retrieval cues are those pathways, or cues, that lead us to a certain memory.
What's Alzheimer's disease and what parts of the brain does it affect?
A progressive disease with no cure in which those suffering from it mainly experience anterograde amnesia (although, as the disease progresses, retrograde amnesia is also experienced) and generally have issues with memory, problem solving, language, spatial perception, and among other things, judgement.
This disease starts around the hippocampus then progresses to the prefrontal cortex
What's the Retrieval practice effect?
Test-taking involves recall, which requires better memory. This means tests can improve memory, hence the Retrieval practice effect.
What is sensory memory, short-term memory, or long-term memory used for respectively?
Sensory memory is for incoming stimuli
Short-term memory is for holding information for a short period of time while you actively use it.
Long-term memory is for holding all our information (At least that which we preform elaborative rehearsal on) for a more or less permanent basis.
What's the difference between forgetting something from your short-term memory and forgetting something from your long-term memory?
None! Both fall prey to to decay and interference.
What's memory reconstruction and what things affect it?
Memory reconstruction refers to the fact that our memory is not concrete images of the past.
We reconstruct our previous experiences, and this is problematic because things like your current mood, prior experiences, new information, and expectations can affect how you reconstruct past events.
Which two structural changes does Alzheimer's disease cause?
1. Atrophy (Shrinking)
2. Enlargement of ventricles
Draw and label the Modal model
Refer back to Dr.Danek's slides. Make sure to remember what parts of the model you'll label as "attention", "maintainance rehersal", "output", "elaborative rehearsal", and "retrieval".
How do we forget things?
Decay: use it or lose it! "Memory traces" fade over time (don't forget to rehearse, y'all)
Interference: proactive interference (previously stored information info interferes with new info) & retroactive interference (newly stored info interferes)
What are some good ways to improve your memory?
Make durable memories! You can do this by the way you encode; i.e, your level of processing, your sense of timing, your use of context, and your organization.
What's the Loftus study and what did it find?
The Loftus study: when subjects watched a video of an accident between two cars, they were either asked, "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other," or, "How fast were the cars going when they contacted each other?"
Subjects who were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed into each other guessed higher speeds.
Subjects who were asked how fast the cars were going when they contacted into each other guessed lower speeds.
This shows us that the retrieval of our memories is guided by cues (i.e., smashed or contacted).
What issues does Alzheimer's disease cause around neurons?
Senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles.