Download Module 31: Studying and Building Memories

AP Psychology Midterm Review
Unit VII, Cognition: Modules 31-36
Module 31: Studying and Building Memories
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Memory: the persistence of learning over time through the encoding, storage, and retrieval of
information
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Information - Processing Models: analogies that compare human memory to a computer’s
operations
1. Encoding: processing information into the memory system
2. Storage: retaining encoded information over time
3. Retrieval: getting information out of memory storage
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The information-processing model has limits because the dual-track brain processes many things
simultaneously through parallel processing: the processing of many aspects simultaneously
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Connectionism: memories are products of interconnected neural networks
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Richard Atkinson and Richard Shiffrin’s model:
1. Sensory memory: immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory
system
2. Short-term memory: activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the
information is either stored or forgotten
3. Long-term memory: permanent and limitless memory system, including knowledge, skills
and experiences.
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Working memory: an understanding of short-term memory that focuses on conscious, active
processing of incoming auditory and visual information.
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Some information will go straight to the long-term memory (ex. Classical conditioning)
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Two types of Memories:
1. Explicit Memories: memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know; uses
effortful processing: encoding requiring conscious effort
2. Implicit Memories: retention independent of conscious recollection; uses automatic
processing: unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time and
frequency.
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George Sperling demonstrated iconic memory, a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, or
echoic memory, a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli.
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George Miller showed that the short-term memory can retain ~7 pieces of information.
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Effortful Processing Strategies
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Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units
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Mnemonics: memory aids, especially those that use vivid imagery and organizational
devices
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Peg-word system: visual-imagery skill to create a song/jingle
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Hierarchies: broad concepts are divided into narrower concepts and facts
Spacing Effect: the tendency for distributed study to yield better long-term retention than is
achieved through massed study / practice.
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Testing Effect: enhanced memory after retrieving rather than rereading info.
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Self-Reference Effect: people have good recall for information meaningfully related to
themselves.
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Levels of Processing
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Shallow Processing: encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of
words
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Deep Processing: encoding semantically, based on the meaning of words
If information is not meaningful, people have trouble processing it.
Module 32: Memory Storage and Retrieval
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The capacity for storing long-term memories is essentially limitless.
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Memories do not reside in single, specific spots. Instead, different memories reside in different
areas of the brain.
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Explicit - Memory System
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Memory requires brain networks to process and store explicit memories in the frontal
lobes and the hippocampus. Includes facts and personal experiences.
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Hippocampus: saves and processes information for storage
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Brain scans and autopsies indicate that new explicit memories are laid down via
the hippocampus.
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Memories are not permanently stored in the hippocampus. It holds the elements of the
remembered scenario, including sound, location, etc.
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Sleep supports memory consolidation, as the hippocampus and the brain cortex display
simultaneous activity rhythms during sleep.
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Frontal Lobes: many brain regions send input here for working memory processing. Left
frontal lobe processes logics, and the right, visual designs.
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Implicit - Memory System
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Implicit memories are for skills and conditioned associations. Includes motor and
cognitive skills and classical and operant conditioning.
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Cerebellum: forms and stores the implicit memories created by classical conditions.
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Basal Ganglia: deep brain structures involved in motor movement. It facilitates formation
of the procedural memories for skills.
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Infant Amnesia: the conscious memory of the first three years of a child’s life is blank.
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Hippocampus is one of the last brain structures to mature
Emotions enhance memory to remember events for survival purposes.
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It triggers stress hormones and makes more glucose energy available to fuel brain
activity, signaling to the brain that something important has happened.
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Stress provokes the amygdala to initiate a memory trace in the frontal lobes and basal
ganglia in order to boost activity in the brain.
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Significantly stressful events can form indelible memories, which disrupts the ability to
process normal memories of the same day.
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Flashbulb memory: a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment (9/11)
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Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): an increase in a cell’s firing potential after brief, rapid
stimulation.
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LTP creates a current that keeps old memories but wipes very recent memories (ex.
concussions).
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Three measures of retention:
1. Recall: a measure of memory in which one must retrieve information learned earlier (ex.
Fill-in-the-blank test)
2. Recognition: a measure of memory in which one needs to identify items that were
previously learned (ex. Multiple choice test)
3. Relearning: a measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when one must
learn material again.
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Hermann Ebbinghaus showed that the more frequently something is repeated on day one, the
fewer repetitions are needed to relearn the information on day two.
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Retrieval cues come from associations, such as smell, taste, sight, people, etc.
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Priming: the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.
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Context-Dependent Memory: putting oneself back in the same context can help one
remember what happened before in the same context.
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State-Dependent Memory: what one learns in one state may be more easily recalled when
in the same state.
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Mood Congruent: the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with
one’s current good or bad mood.
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Serial Position Effect: Our tendency to recall the first (primacy effect) and the last
(recency effect) items in a list.
Module 33: Forgetting, Memory Construction, and Memory Improvement
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Forgetting
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We discard useless or out-of-date information.
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After Henry Molaison had brain surgery, he was unable to form new conscious
memories, but kept his old memories.
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Anterograde amnesia: an inability to form new memories
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Retrograde amnesia: an inability to retrieve information from one’s past
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Tasks that can be learned with anterograde amnesia include nonverbal tasks or other
classically conditioned tasks.
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What we fail to encode, we will never remember.
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Hermann Ebbinghaus demonstrated that the course of forgetting is initially rapid, but it
will level off with time.
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Given retrieval cues, one can retrieve elusive memories. However, there is retrieval
failure.
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Proactive Interference: the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new
information
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Retroactive Interference: the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old
information
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Positive Transfer: previous learned information often facilitates learning of new
information (“good” interference)
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Because memory is an unreliable, self-serving historian, our memories are
extremely malleable.
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Repression: the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness
anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories.
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Memory Construction Errors: we infer our past from stored information plus what we later
imagined, expected, saw, or heard.
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Misinformation Effect: incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an
event.
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Source Amnesia: attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard
about, read about, or imagined.
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Deja Vu: cues from the current situation unconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier
experience.
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Children’s memories are the most easily molded, especially when asking leading
questions. The questions need neutral words.
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Strategies to Improve Memory
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SQ3R: Survey, Question, Read-Retrieve-Review
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Rehearse repeatedly
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Make the material meaningful
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Activate retrieval cues and mnemonic devices
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Minimize interference
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Sleep more
Module 34: Thinking Concepts and Creativity
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Cognition: all the mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and
communicating
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Concept: a mental grouping of similar objects, event, ideas, or people
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Prototype: a mental image that is the best example of a category
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While concepts and prototypes speed thinking, they can lead to misremembered
information
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Creativity: the ability to produce ideas that are both novel and valuable
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Five Parts
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Expertise (well-developed base of knowledge to draw from)
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Imaginative thinking skills
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Venturesome Personality (seeks new experiences, intrepid)
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Intrinsic Motivation
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Creative Environment (spark, support, challenge, and refine ideas)
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Convergent Thinking: narrows the available problem solutions to determine the single
best solution
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Divergent Thinking: expands the available problem solutions; creative thinking that goes
off in different directions
Module 35: Solving Problems and Making Decisions
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Algorithm: methodical, logical rule/procedure that guarantees solving a particular problem
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Guaranteed to produce an answer, but can be ridiculously tedious
Heuristic: a simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgements and solve problems
efficiently
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Often much quicker than algorithms, but also much more prone to error
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Availability Heuristic: judging the likelihood of things (especially events) based
on their availability in memory
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Instances that come readily to mind may seem more common
Representative Heuristic: judging the likelihood of things in terms of how well
they seem to represent/match particular prototypes
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May lead us to ignore relevant information
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Insight: a sudden realization of a problem’s solution; contrasts with strategy-based solutions
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Mental Set: a tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been
successful in the past
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Confirmation Bias: a tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to
ignore or distort contradictory evidence
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Overconfidence: the tendency to be more confident than correct
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Belief Perseverance: clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were
formed has been discredited
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Framing: the way an issue is posed significantly affects related decisions and judgements
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Intuition: an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit,
conscious reasoning
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Unconscious processing, thinking about a decision without realizing you are thinking
about it; extremely helpful in evaluating evidence, making plans, and listening to
“creative whispers”
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Adapts with experiences; growth of implicit knowledge
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Can be dangerous if one “under-thinks” and “over-feels”
Module 36: Thinking and Language
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Language: our spoken, written, or signed words and the ways we combine them to communicate
meaning
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Phoneme: in language, the smallest distinctive sound unit
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Morpheme: in language, the smallest unit that carries meaning ; may be a word or part of
a word, e.g. prefixes
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Grammar: in language, a system of rules that enables us to communicate with and
understand others
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Semantics: the set of rules for deriving meaning from sounds
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Syntax: the set of rules for combining words into grammatically sensible
sentences; word order
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Chomsky’s Universal Grammer
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All human languages have nouns, verbs, and adjectives
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All humans are born with predisposition to learn grammar rules
Stages of Acquisition
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Receptive: babies do not speak, but can read lips and recognize different speech sounds
by four months
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Babbling: after four months, babies begin “trying out” random speech sounds
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Babies will transition to imitation after about ten months
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One-Word: around twelve months, babies can express single-word thoughts
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Two-Word/Telegraphic: by month 24, babies can express two-word thoughts
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Language develops rapidly into complete sentences when the child is about two
Language Association Areas
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Broca’s Area: controls language expression (left frontal lobe)
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Wernicke’s Area: controls language understanding (left temporal lobe)
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Aphasia: impairment of language, usually caused by left-hemisphere damage either to
Broca’s or Wernicke’s area