Episodic Memory
Episodic memory is your memory for personally experienced events that happened at a specific time and place. It answers: What happened?, Where did it happen? and When did it happen?. This type of memory is part of a long tern memory, specifically explicit (declarative) memory.
Semantic Memory
Semantic memory is your memory for facts, concepts, meanings, and general knowledge about the world. It answers: What is it?, What does it mean?, What do I know about it?. It is part of long term explicit (declarative) memory, alongside episodic memory
Episodic Memory
Episodic memory is your memory for personally experienced events that happened at a specific time and place. It answers: What happened?, Where did it happen?, When did it happen?. This type of memory is part of long term memory, specifically explicit (declarative) memory.
Semantic Memory
Semantic memory is your memory for facts, concepts, meanings, and general knowledge about the world. It answers: What is it?, What does it mean?, What do I know about it?. It is part of long term explicit (declarative) memory, alongside episodic memory
Autobiographical Memory
Autobiographical memory is memory for your own life experiences. It combines: Episodic memory (specific events) and Sematic memory (facts about yourself). Personal life story
Emotional Memory
Emotional memory refers to memories that are enhanced or influenced by emotion. Emotions doesn’t create a separate memory system - instead, it modulates encoding and consolidation, making some memories stronger and more vivid.
Encoding, Storage and Retrieval
This is the three-stage memory process explaining how information moves into and out of long term memory.
What is encoding?
Encoding = transforming sensory input into a form that can be stored in memory.
Types of encoding:
- Visual encoding = based on images
- Acoustic encoding = based on sound.
- Semantic encoding (most effective) = based on meaning and lead to deeper processing -> stronger memory
What is Storage?
Storage = maintaining encoded information over time. - Memory is stored across different systems: sensory memory, short term/working memory, long term memory
What is Retrieval?
Retrieval = accessing stored information
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850 - 1909), Hermann Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who conducted the first scientific studies of memory. He is famous for: The Forgetting Curve, The Spacing Effect, Using nonsense syllables to study memory objectively.
Forgetting Curve
The forgetting curve shows how memory decline over time after learning
Peterson and Peterson (1959) study
This study investigated how long information lasts in short term memory (STM) without rehearsal.
Aim - How long can information be retained in short term memory if rehearsal is prevented?
Miller (1959) study
In 2956, George A. Miller published a famous paper showing that short term memory has a limited capacity. He found that most people can hold about 7 items + or - 2
Problems with a unitary model of memory
The unitary model is problematic because evidence from brain-damaged patients, primary and recency effects, and double dissociations shows that memory consists of separate systems (e.g., STM and LTM) rather than one single store.
Levels of explanation
Levels of explanation refer to the idea that behaviour can be understood at multiple levels (biological, cognitive, behavioural, and social), and that these levels provide complementary rather than competing explanations
