Human Memory

Encoding- forming a memory code
1. Attention- focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events. Selective attention is critical to everyday functioning
  1. Acts as a filter to screen stimuli into conscious awareness
  2. High-load tasks consume our attention spans early, whereas simpler tasks allows for later processing
    1. Human brains can effectively handle one task at a time
  3. Levels-of-processing theory- deeper levels of processing result in longer-lasting memory codes
2. Elaboration- linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding
  1. Visual Imagery- creating images to represent words remembered
    1. Dual coding theory- memory is enhanced by forming semantic and visual codes
      1. Mental imagery can help with memory
3. Self- referent encoding- deciding how or whether information is relevant
  1. How information affects one personally
Storage- maintaining encoded information in your memory over time
1. Sensory Memory- preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time
  1. Allows the sensation of visual pattern, sound, or touch to linger for a moment after the stimulus is over
    1. People perceive an afterimage instead of the actual stimulus
2. Short-term memory- limited capacity store that can retain information for up to 20 seconds
  1. Rehearsal- the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about the information
  2. Working memory is a limited capacity storage system that maintains and stores information by providing an interface between perception, memory, and action
    1. Working memory capacity is one's ability to hold and manipulate info in conscious attention
3. A chunk is a group of familiar stimuli stored as a single unit
4. Long term memory is an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over a long time
  1. Clustering- it is easier to remember similar and related items in a group
  2. Schema- organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with that object or event
    1. Semantic network- nodes representing concepts joined together by pathways that link related concepts
Retrieval- recovering information from memory stores
1. Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon- temporary inability to remember something you know, with a feeling that it is out of reach
  1. Misinformation effect- occurs when participants recall of an event they witnessed is altered by introducing misleading post event info
2. Reality monitoring- process of deciding whether memories are based on external sources or internal sources
  1. Source monitoring- making attributions about the origins of memories
    1. Source-monitoring error occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source
      1. Destination memory involves recalling to whom one has told what
Forgetting- adaptive way to remove unneeded information
1. Retention- proportion of material retained
  1. A recall measure of retention requires subjects to reproduce information on their own without a cue
    1. A recognition measure of retention requires subjects to select previously learned information from an array of options
      1. A relearning measure of retention requires a subject to memorize information a second time to determine how much time or how many practice trials are saved by having already learned it
2. Decay theory- forgetting occurs because memory traces fade with time
  1. Interference theory- people forget info because of competition from other material
    1. Retroactive interference occurs when new info impairs the retention of previously learned information
      1. Proactive interference occurs when previously learned info interferes with the retention of new info
      2. Transfer-appropriate processing- when the initial processing of info is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention
    2. Consolidation- process involving the gradual conversion of info into memory codes stored in long term memory
3. Repression- keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious
Consolidation- process involving the gradual conversion of info into memory codes stored in long term memory
1. Implicit memory is apparent when retention is exhibited on a task that does not require intentional remembering
2. Explicit memory- involves intentional recollection of previous experiences
3. Declarative memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, prospective memory, retrospective memory

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Human Memory

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	Created by Kristen Thorpe over 7 years ago