Through the waterways

Through the water ways

We are 'non-big'

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Monday, July 30, 2007

Psychology chapter 5 /2:21 AM

I have attempted to find many creative ways to revise my work. This just so happens to be one. =P

Memory= an active system that receives information from the senses, organizes and alters it as it stores it away, then retrives the information from storage.

Processes of Memory:

1) Encoding- the set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain's storage system.
2) Storage- holding on to information for some period of time.
3) Retrival- getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used.

Sensory memory
-the very first stage of memory, the point at which information enters the nervous system through the sensory system.

1) Iconic memory- visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a second.
Capacity: Everything that can be seen at one time.
Duration: Information that has just entered iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly by new information, a process called masking.
Eidietic imagery- the rare ability to access a visual image memory for 30secs or more.

2) Echoic memory- the brief memory of something a person has just heard.
Capacity: limited to what can be heard at any one momen and is smaller than the capacity of iconic memory.
Duration: lasts longer than iconic- about 2-4secs.

Short-term Memory (aka STM or working memory)
- the memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used.

1) Selective attention- the ability to focus on only one stimulus from among all sensory input.
2)Digit-span test- memory test in which a series of numbers is read to subjects in the experiment who are then asked to recall the numbers in order.
Conclusion: Capacity of STM is about seven items or peices of information, plus or minus two items. Ranging from five to nine items.
3) Chuncking- bits of information are combined into meaningful units, or chunks, so that more information can be held in the STM.
4) Maintenance rehersal- practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one's head in order to maintain it in short termed memory (STMs tend to be in auditory form)
5) Duration of the STM usually lasts for about 12-30 secs without rehersal.
6) STM is subject to interference.

Long-term Memory (aka LTM)
-the system of memory into which all the information is placed to be kept more r less permanantly.

1) Elaborative rehearsal- a method of transferring information from STM into LTM by making that information meaningful in some way.

Types of LTM

1) Procedural memory (non-declarative memory)- type of long-term memory including memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responces. These memories are not concious but are implied to exist because they affect concious behaviour.
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:
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-----------------------------------------> Skills people know how to do.
Also include emtional associations, habits, and simple conditioned reflexes that may or may not be concious.
Anterograde amnesia- loss of memory from the point of injury or trauma forward, or the inability to form new long-term memories. Usually does not affect procedural LTM.
Procedural LTM is often called implicit memory- memory that is not easily brought into concious awareness.

2) Declarative memory- the type of LTM containing information that is concious or known (facts and knowledge).
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-----------------------------------------> All things that people know.
Semantic memory- type of declarative memory containing general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned from formal education.
Episodic memory- type of declarative memory not readily avaliable to others, such as daily activities amd events.
Both of these types of memories are forms of explicit memories, which are memories that are conciously known.

Cues to help remember

1) Retrival Cue- a stimulus for remembering.
2) Encoding specificity- the tendancy for memory of information to be improved if related information is available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrived.
--------------> State dependant learning- memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be easier to recall when in a similar state.

Recall!
-type of memory retrival in which the information to be retrived must be 'pulled' from memory with very few external cues.
-------> Retrival failure- recall has failed, tip of the tongue phenomenon.

1) Serial position effect- tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information.
-------> Primary effect- tendancy to remember information at the beginning of the body of information than the information that follows.
-------> Recency effect- tendancy to remember information at the end of a body of information better than the information ahead of it.

Eyewitness Testimony

Elizabeth Loftus study.
-> What people see and hear about an event after the fact can easily affect the accuracy of their memories of the event.
->Eye witness testimony is not always reliable.

Automatic Encoding and Flashbulb Memories

1) Automatic encoding- tendancy of certain kinds of information to enter LTM with little ot no effortful encoding.
2) Flashbulb memories- type of automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering it.

Memory Retrieval Problems

->Misinformation effect- the tendancy of misleading information presented after an even to alter the memories of the event itself.

Reliability of Memory Retrieval

1) False memory syndrome- the creation of inaccurate or false memories through the suggestion of others, often while the person is under hypnosis.
2) Evidence suggests that false memories cannot be created for just any kind of memory. The memories must be at least probable.

Forgetting

1) Curve of forgetting- a graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast witin the first hour after learning a list and then tapers of gradually.
2) encoding failure- failure to process information into memory.

Forgetting: Memory trace theory
Memory trace- physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed.

1) Decay- loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the mrmory trace is not used.
2) Disuse- another name for decay, assuming that the memories that are not used will eventually decay and disappear.

Forgetting: Intereference theory

1) Proactive interference- memory retrival problem that occurs when older inforamtion prevents or interferes with the retrival of newer information.
2) Retroactive interference- memory retrival problem that occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrival of older information.

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