Memory Terms

Created by AP Psychology

2009 2nd Block

Mrs. Whitlock

Method of Loci (plural for locus, meaning location)

"in the first place", "in the second place“

Associate items with locations

of familiar room,

building, or street.

"stroll down memory lane"

and visualize same locations

Hebb Hypothesis aka Hebb Rule

strength of connection across synapse between two neurons will increase whenever two neurons are

simultaneously active • So,memories are stronger if connections are

stronger – if connection is not permanent = STM – if connection is permanent = LTM • Donald Hebb introduced terms short term/ long term memory

If you don’t use it, you lose it! (connection dies)

Serial Position Effect

• serial position effect n. In serial learning (1), a tendency for the items near the beginning and end of the series to be recalled best, and those in the middle worst, producing a U-shaped serial position curve of recall as a function of serial position.

Procedural Memory• long-term memory of

skills, procedures

• “how to” knowledge

• Ex.: learning to ride a bicycle, play an instrument, how to swim, etc.

By Briana Morgan

Repression• Repressed memory is a

concept described as a significant memory, of a traumatic nature that is unavailable for recall.

• In the movie, ‘The Butterfly Effect’ a young man has the ability to travel back to his repressed memories.

Episodic Memory• Memory of autobiographical

events

•Example: A memory you have of a sports practice you participated

inMade by: Carlee Forrest

Echoic Memory• A sensory memory in which

there is a brief mental echo that continues to sound after stimuli has been heard.

• Lasts for only about 3-4 seconds.

• For example, your mother needs you to go to the grocery store after school. She names off a list of items you need to pick up. Because she knows teenagers don’t listen, she asks you to list off the things she said. Echoic memory can replay the last few seconds of a conversation quite accurately. You name off the last few things she said correctly. She thinks you were listening completely and you don’t get yelled at! (:

Eidetic Memory

• Photographic Memory (Total Recall)• The ability to recall images, sounds, or

objects from memory with extreme accuracy• Akira Haraguchi recited the number Pi to 100,000 decimal places from memory• Rain Man

Miller’s Magic 7

• Individual can only process or retain 7+/-2 pieces of information in short term memory

• Ex: trouble with long words or names

Hermann Ebbinghaus’Forgetting Curve

1885—Discovered the exponential nature of forgetting

Strength of Memory- Physical memory traces

through the brain - The stronger the memory,

the easier to recall it- More reviewed, stronger

traces, and therefore easier to recall

R=e -

(t/S)

Gayle-Anne Hendricks

aka Deterioration Theory• When something new is learned a neurochemical, a

“memory trace,” is formed. • Unless this memory trace is occasionally used it will

disintegrate and the memory will fade and decay away.

By: JA Alexander

• This is 1 of 4 reasons memory loss is believed to occur.

TOTPTip-of-the-tongue Phenomena

• Is an instance of knowing something that cannot immediately be recalled.

• Every Thursday in social studies class the teacher always played jeopardy games to review for tests. Mark was up for the question he had studied the night before really hard, but when the teacher asked him the question he remembered it but he couldn’t quite get the word out it was the tip of his tongue.

• Jennifer Baker

• 2nd block 3-5-09

Chunking

• Strategy of making efficient use short-term memory.

• Using mnemonics to remember to remember a word, phrase, or sequence of numbers.

• Example- 14101946

Use mnemonics by remembering them in groups as 14, 10, and 1946

Generic/Declarative Memory• 2 types of Declarative Memory

(Stores Facts)– Semantic - Knowing something is

what it is(Example: Knowing a banana when one sees it)

– Episodic – This type comes from personal experiences

(Example: Remembering when and where you were when you broke your arm)

• Generic Memory is the memory for items of knowledge

(Example: Knowing the

population of Georgia)

By: Jason Reese

Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to recall events that happened before the development of amnesia.In an episode of NCIS, Agent Jethro Gibbs suffers head injuries, causing him to forget much of the past, including his retirement from the Marines.

Andrew Smith 2nd block

3/5/09

Mnemonics• the process or technique of improving

or developing the memory; devices that helps us remember; memory aids.

• Example: acronyms, rhymes, images

Priming•Prior experience to a stimulus causes increased sensitivity to that same or similar stimuli

•Relies on implicit memory

- previous experience aids in future performance

•Believed to occur outside conscious awareness

Practice makes perfect!

Iconic Memory- A type of short term visual memory that occurs after a brief exposure to a stimulus.

-The brain remembers all visual information for less than one second.

-During that second, the brain processes what should be stored into short term memory, compares that immediate visual information with the visual information that has been stored as iconic memory, and decides what should be discarded.

-The ability to see motion can be attributed to iconic memory because a new image must be compared to a previous image in order to detect motion like the individual frames of a cartoon.

-If only there is nothing to compare a frame of a cartoon to, then there will be no perception of a change in the image.

Terry Hinkemeyer

• Encoding is the processing of physical sensory input into one’s memory.

• The four types of encoding are: Visual- processing of images Acoustic- sound, particularly the sound of words Semantic- meaning, particularly the meaning of

words Tactile- how something feels, normally through touch

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

• Is the strengthening of the connection between two nerve cells lasting a long period of time.

• Often takes place in hippocampus.

• One of the major cellular devices that contribute to learning and memory.

Interference TheoryWilliam Pike II

• Idea that forgetting occurs because the recall of certain items interferes with the recall of other items

• Example: attempting to remember a short sequence of letters, such as “BWV,” after counting backwards for a short period of time.

• Proactive interference • Retroactive interference• Output interference