Processes which make memory possible
- attention
- organization and rich encoding of info
- long term memory
Attention
- we only capture what we attend to
- we filter out other available and maybe important info
Inattentional blindness
- failure to notice obvious changes or events
- similar filtering/spotlighting process occurs with auditory info (Ex. Cocktail party effect)
Levels of processing
- How deeply you attend/encode info
- Surface and deep
- Deeper = better memory
- Dictate how much we remember something
Attention: what can we take away?
- Multimodal
- Selective
- Cost to focus attention
- Divided attention
Schema
-cluster of interrelated concepts that organize and encode general knowledge of people, objects, and procedures
Scripts
- Similar to schema, sequences of actions/behaviours/events
- -> Action based
- -> Based on several experiences
What schemas/scripts do for our memory system
- Promotes organization of our memory system
- BUT may reconstruct info based on our prejudices/expectations/biases rather than facts
2 Components of long term memory
- Explicit/declarative memory
- Store facts and info
- Has 2 subsystems - Implicit/non-declarative/procedural memory
- Motor skills, habits, classically conditioned responses
Sematic Memory
- Memory for general knowledge
- Contains facts and info (not personal)
- Mental dictionary/encyclopedia
Strategies of Sematic Memory
- Facilitate encoding and retrieval
- -> Chunking
- -> Mnemonics - SCUBA
- -> Elaboration
Declarative memory: episodic memory
- Memories of personally experienced events, episodes of our lives, autobiographical memory (remembering where, what time, place, action)
Episodic vs Sematic Memories: retrieving episodic memories
- Recollective experience
- Feels like you are in the experience again
- Emotional connection
- vulnerable to forgetting
Episodic vs Sematic Memories: retrieving sematic memories
- Isolated facts
Encoding specificity
- If you learn content from one prof in one room you would retrieve the info better in the same location with the same prof present
Encoding error
-you didn’t forget, you just never had the info
Retrieval error
- don’t really forget, cant remember when you needed to (tip of my tongue)
Memory Decay
- lose details over time (forgetting curve: fast at first then levels out)
- Saves gist of it, some details, others are gone
Memory interference
-New info can interfere w past learning
