A comprehensive study guide for Exam 3: Cognitive Module of the course General Psychology (PSYC 111), taught by Dr. Brittany Race, offered at SUNY Binghamton. This study guide covers the exam's important notes, vocabulary, etc.. Also includes review questions and answers.
STEPS: all three steps have to be successful for memory to be possible
- ENCODING: creation of memory, recording your perception of the event; taking
external concepts to create memory
- ENGRAM: mythical location of the brain that “stores memory” based on a
theory of memory going to a specific part of the brain (through research
theres not a single part of the brain that stores memory)
- STORAGE: personalized (how people store memories is different than you); not
a specific location to store b/c it’s throughout the brain
- RETRIEVAL: access memory you stored
LEVELS OF PROCESSING - weakest to strongest
- STRUCTURAL: weakest, trying to create memory by focusing on the visual
aspect of things; occipital lobe
- PHONEMIC: focus on sound of info in order to try to create memory; temporal
lobe
- SEMANTIC: focus on meaning of memory you’re trying to encode; frontal lobe
- ORGANIZATIONAL: focus on connection with info that’s already in your
memory; frontal lobe (usually semantic and organizational tend to go hand in
hand)
- Craik & Tulving, 1972: 48-60 different words, ask participants to look at words
structurally (capitalization), phonemically (does this word have this sound in it), or
semantically (is this thing a lie); tested people on how many words they
remember; semantic won both times, with a great increase second time
- IV: either processing words structurally, phonemically, or semantically;
- DV: how many words they recall
IMPROVING ENCODING
- ENCODING SPECIFICITY PRINCIPLE: the greatest likelihood of success is
when your encoding matches w/ your retrieval (e.g. if you encode something
auditory, it’s easier to recall that info if you retrieve it w/ auditory instead of
visually)
- ELABORATION: add info to what you’re trying to encode; when adding info
you’re automatically doing semantic processing (actually makes encoding easier
and more effective even though it seems like you’re trying to remember more
info)
, - DUAL-CODING THEORY: encoding info with two processing methods (e.g.
chewing two flavors of gum when studying for test, on test chew the same flavors
b/c those gums acts as dual-code that triggers your memory of studying for the
exam)
- SELF-REFERENT ENCODING: if you relate info to yourself you remember it
more clearly
- COCKTAIL PHENOMENON: we’re always trying to find our name (e.g.
loud atmosphere, we would be able to pick up someone calling out to you)
- MOTIVATION TO REMEMBER: e.g. need to bring your friend’s backpack,
putting it next to door so “you don’t forget it”; this creates a strong motivation to
remember something and therefore you will most likely remember it
- PEGWORDS: remembering words w/ numbers, creating mashups w/ words and
numbers. (e.g. one is bun, two is shoe, three is tree, four is door, five is hive)
- METHOD OF LOCI: sometimes called “memory palace”; choose location that’s
important to you/you really like, imagine a path through that location, along the
path place the items you need to remember; when you encode you’re placing
those items along the path, when you retrieve you are going along the path to try
and remember what item goes where
- CHUNKING: when you have a lot of overwhelming info to remember, therefore
it’s easier when you group info together so it’s less info (e.g. a phone number,
chunk/group by 3-4 numbers at a time)
- SPACING/TESTING EFFECT: you’re going to be more successful if you space
out the encoding (e.g. studying a group of info today and testing yourself, then
study another group the next day); cramming = opposite of this
ATKINSON-SHIFFRIN MODEL OF MEMORY: proposed that memory consisted of
three stores: a sensory register, short-term memory (STM), and long-term
memory (LTM)
, - SENSORY MEMORY: We take in enormous amounts of information through our
senses but the vast majority of it cannot be processed correctly due to the
limitations of our memory, that info is held in our sensory memory for a very short
period of time; environmental stimuli goes in here; this model relates to sight
and sound known as iconic and echoic memory; iconic (visual) memory lasts less
than half a second while echoic (sound) memory ceases after three or four
seconds.
- SHORT-TERM MEMORY: relates to memories of information which is retained
by our senses long enough for them to be used.
- LONG-TERM MEMORY: believed that STM could be transferred to Long-Term
Memory (LTM) if the information was processed and learned fast enough. LTM
has a limitless capacity and is capable of lasting a lifetime. This basically means
we never lose the ability to store new information regardless of how long we live.
OTHER TYPES OF MEMORY
- SENSORY
- Sperling, 1960: flashed an image of a grid for one second, then asked for
a full report or a partial report; when ask for full report, they would usually
only get to 4th letter of grid, but in a partial report they’re usually able to
tell you all letters; reason: sensory memory has a very short duration (~2
secs) but large capacity (sensory memory doesn’t last long but it can hold
a lot of info in that short period of time)
- SHORT-TERM: little longer than sensory memory (15-30 secs)
- Miller 7 +/- 2 rule: average person can hold between 5-9 pieces of info in
their short-term memory
- IMPLICIT VS. EXPLICIT: most memory is explicit (e.g remembering what you
had for breakfast today), memory we have to work for to retrieve; implicit memory
= memory that you don’t have to think about, its stuff you learned & you’ve
already used so much and we are able to access it w/o realizing (like an instinct)
(e.g. walking)
LONG TERM MEMORY: remembering for a long duration
- PROCEDURAL: motion & motor memory, e.g. tying your shoes
(automatic/procedural process), riding your bike; most procedural memories are
IMPLICIT
- DECLARATIVE: where you’re actively trying to search for that info, what we
usually think of (EXPLICIT)
- SEMANTIC: factual info (e.g. on the show Jeopardy answering by relying
on facts)
- EPISODIC: your memory with regards to personal events
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