Download Capacity of Short-term and Working Memory

Unit VII: Cognition
Modules 31-33 Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/177146059/ap-psychology-modules-31-33-flashcards/
Modules 34-36 Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/177947484/ap-psychology-modules-34-36-flashcards/
Module 31
Studying Memory
● Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and
retrieval of information
Memory Models
● Memory models help us think about how our brain forms and retrieves memories
● Information-processing models: analogies that compare human memory to a computer’s
operations
○ Encoding: the processing of information into the memory system
■ Ex: extracting meaning
○ Storage: the process of retaining encoded information over time
○ Retrieval: the process of getting information out of memory storage
● Parallel processing: the processing of many aspects of a problem simultaneously; the
brain’s natural mode of information processing for many functions. Contrasts with the
step-by-step (serial) processing of most computers and of conscious problem solving.
○ Ex: when you enter the cafeteria, you simultanteously process information about
the people you see, the sounds of voices, and the smell of the food
● Connectionism: views memories as products of interconnected neural networks
○ Every time you learn something new, your brain’s neural connections change
● Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin (1968) explained the memory-forming process
○ Sensory memory: the immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in
the memory system
○ Short-term memory: activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the
information is stored or forgotten
■ Ex: the seven digits of a phone number while dialing
○ Long-term memory: the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the
memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.
● Working memory and automatic processing have been added to the memory model
Working Memory
● Alan Baddeley and others challenged Atkinson and Shiffrin’s view
● Working memory: a newer understanding of short-term memory that focuses on
conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual-spatial information, and of
information retrieved from long-term memory
○ Ex: right now you are using your working memory to link the information you’re
reading with your previously stored information
● Baddeley suggested a central executive that handles this focused processing
(auditory/visual/etc.)
Building Memories: Encoding
Dual-Track Memory: Effortful Versus Automatic Processing
● Explicit memory (declarative memory): memory of facts and experiences that one can
consciously know and “declare”
○ Atkinson and Shiffrin’s model focused on this
● Effortful processing: encoding that requires attention and conscious effort
○ This is how we encode explicit memories
● Automatic processing: unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space,
time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings
● Implicit memory (nondeclarative memories): retention independent of conscious
recollection
Automatic Processing and Implicit Memories
● Procedural memory
○ Included in implicit memories
○ Automatic skills
■ Ex: how to ride a bike
● Association
○ Ex: start sweating when you go to the dentist because you link the dentist with
scary drills
● We automatically process…
○ Space
○ Time
○ Frequency
Effortful Processing and Explicit Memories
● Learning to read was not automatic
● Experience and practice makes reading automatic
Sensory Memory
● George Sperling (1960) flashed nine letters on a screen for 1/20 of a second and people
could only remember about half of the letters
○ This was enough time for people to view and recall all of the letters
○ Demonstrated iconic memory: a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a
photographic or picture-image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a
second
● Echoic memory: a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is
elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds
Capacity of Short-term and Working Memory
● George Miller (1956) proposed that short-term memory can retain about seven
information bits give or take two
● Capacities vary based on age and other factors
Effortful Processing Strategies
● Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically
● Mnemonics: memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and
organizational devices
● Hiearchies: composed of a few broad concepts divided and subdivided into narrower
concepts and facts
Distributed Practice
● Spacing effect: the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long-term
retention than is achieved through massed study or practice
● Testing effect: enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply rereading,
information
Levels of Processing
● Shallow processing: encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of
words
● Deep processing: encoding semantically; based on the meaning of the words; tends to
yield the best retention
Making Material Personally Meaningful
● If new information is not meaningful/related to our experiences, we have trouble
processing it �
● Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) said that learning meaningful material required 1/10
of the effort it takes to learn nonsence material
● Self-reference effect: information deemed “relevant to me” is processed more deeply and
remains more accessible
Module 32
32-1
● Long-term memory capacity is unlimited
● Many parts of the brain interact as we form and retrieve memories
32-2
● Hippocampus: a neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit
memories for storage
● The frontal lobes and hippocampus are parts of the brain network dedicated to explicit
memory formation
● The frontal lobe processes information sent by other regions of the brain
● The hippocampus registers and temporarily holds elements of explicit memories before
moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage
32-3
● The cerebellum and basal ganglia are parts of the brain network dedicated to implicit
memory formation
○ Cerebellum stores classically conditioned memories
○ Basal ganglia are involved in motor movement and help form procedural
memories for skills
● Infantile amnesia: we cannot consciously remember learning associations and skills from
our first 3 years of development
32-4
● Flashbulb memory: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event
32-5
● Long-term potentiation: an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid
stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory
32-6
● Recall: a measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned
earlier as on a fill-in-the-blank test
● Recognition: a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items
previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test
● Relearning: a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning
material again
32-7
● Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory
● Mood-congruent memory: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with
one's current good or bad mood
● Serial position effect: our tendency to recall best the last (a recency effect) and first
items (a primacy effect) in a list
Module 33
33-1
● Anterograde amnesia: an inability to form new memories
● Retrograde amnesia: an inability to retrieve information from one's past
● Proactive interference: old learning disrupts recall of new information
○ Ex: doing math in different ways
● Retroactive interference: new learning disrupts recall of old information
P
O
R
N
● Repression: in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from
consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories
33-2
● Misinformation effect: incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an
event
● Source amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard
about, read about, or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Along with the
misinformation effect, it is at the heart of many false memories
● Déjà vu: that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current
situation may unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience
33-3
● Children are most susceptible to the misinformation effect
○ If questioned in neutral words, they can accurately recall events and people
involved in them
● The debate between memory researchers focuses on whether most memories of early
childhood abuse are repressed and can be recovered during therapy using “memory
work” techniques using leading questions or hypnosis
● Psychologists can all agree that…
○ Sexual abuse happens
○ Injustice happens
○ Forgetting happens
○ Recovered memories are commonplace
○ Memories of things that happened before age 3 are unreliable
○ Memories “recovered” under hypnosis or the influence of drugs are especially
unreliable
○ Memories can be emotionally upsetting
33-4
● You can improve memory by…
○ Studying repeatedly
○ Make material meaningful
○ Activate retrieval cues
○ Use mnemonic devices
○ Minimize interference
○ Sleep more
○ Test yourself to sure sure you can reteieve, as well as recognize, material
Module 34
Concepts and Creativity
● Concepts
○ Mentally grouping similar objects, ideas, or people.
○ One example of a concept is a prototype, which is a mental image or best
example of a category formed on the basis of frequently experienced features.
○ Natural Concepts
■ Imprecise mental classifications that develop out of our everyday
experiences.
■ Examples: Being able to remember what someone looks like without
looking at them, knowing how to walk without instructions every time you
do it.
○ Artificial Concepts
■ Concepts defined by rules, definitions, and precise characteristics.
■ Example: Knowing the quadratic equation, the definition of “psychology.”
● Creativity
○ The ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable.
■ Intelligence plays a part in creativity, but there are other measures.
■ Can be measured through the Purdue Creativity test
○ Convergent thinking: Choosing the “right” answer, using minimal creativity.
■ Picking the single best solution.
■ Can easily be measured with IQ and other aptitude tests.
○ Divergent thinking: Expanding the possible correct answers using more
creativity.
■ Not assuming the number of possible solutions to a problem is limited by
anything.
■ How many uses can you think of for a brick?
Module 35
Solving Problems and Making Decisions
● Problems
○ Types of problems
■ Inducing structure
● Requires the problem solver to determine the relationship between
multiple elements, such as in an analogy
● “Fish: Swim; Horse: ______”
■ Arrangement
● Requires the problem solver to order separate elements in a way
that fulfills particular criteria
● Examples: Patterns and anagrams.
■ Transformations
● Requires the problem solver to make a series of changes in order to
meet a specific goal
● Examples: The fox, hen, and corn problem.
○ Solving problems
■ Algorithms: Problem solving, logical procedures of formulas that
guarantee a correct outcome if correctly applied.
● Designed to solve particular kinds of problems for which you have
all the necessary information
● Examples: A map of routes from point A to point B, a
mathematical equation.
■ Heuristics: Basic rules that serve as shortcuts to solve larger tasks.
● Working backward
● Searching for analogies
● Breaking a big problem into multiple smaller ones.
■ Failures of Heuristics
● Mental Set
○ Approaching a new problem in the same way we’ve
approached problems in the past
● Functional fixedness
○ The inability to perceive a new use for an object that we’ve
already mentally assigned a purpose to.
● Judgements and Decision Making
○ Intuition
■ When making all the decisions we have to in a day, we often follow our
effortless, immediate, automatic feelings or thoughts.
■ This is like our gut-feeling, or our instinct.
■ However, our intuition can be wrongly influenced by our biases.
○ Belief Bias
■ Tendency for our pre-existing beliefs to distort logic
■ This can sometimes lead to invalid conclusions seeming valid or valid
conclusions seeming invalid.
■ One example of this is the belief perseverance phenomenon
● Clinging to one’s original beliefs even when the premise their
beliefs is founded on is discredited.
Module 36
Language and thought
● Language
○ Our spoken, written, or gestured work that is the way we communicate meaning
to ourselves and others.
● Units of sound
○ Spoken language is broken into
■ Phonemes
● The smallest distinctive sound units in a language
● English has about 40
■ Morphemes
● The smallest units that carry meaning
● Prefixes, suffixes and roots i.e.
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