Review Session 5: Memory

I. What is Memory? DEF: Memory refers to the cognitive abilities to encode information that is retrieved later for the purpose of comprehension. EX: If I taste a food and I later see that food, I might be able to “taste” the food before it goes in my mouth.

II. Encoding: DEF: The ability to enter information into our memory in a logical fashion. -Acoustic Encoding: Creating mental representations as a sequence of sounds. -Visual Encoding: Creating mental representations as images. -Semantic Encoding: Creating mental representations based on their general meaning

III. Storage: DEF: The process of maintaining information in memory over time -Sometimes this will go into our long-term, working, or short-term memory based on necessity.

IV. Retrieval: DEF: The process or recalling information from stored memories -Cognitive diseases, like Alzheimer's and Dementia can interfere with our retrieval of memory -So can old age

V. Retrieval Cues: DEF: Certain stimuli can “trigger” the retrieval of a memory. EX: Just like Grandmama used to make!!!

VI. Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon: DEF: When we are trying to recall something, but it is just out of reach EX: You see an old friend at a high school reunion and you remember 50 things you did together, but cannot spit out his name.

VII. Chunking: DEF: Linking information together as one meaningful unit from a larger piece of information EX: Trying to remember the lyrics to a song verse by verse

VIII. Amnesia: The loss of information from our memory. This can either be temporary or permanent -Anterograde Amnesia: A loss of memory for any event that occurs after a brain injury -Retrograde Amnesia: A loss of memory for any event that occurs before a brain injury

IX. Episodic Memory: DEF: When we remember a specific event that occurred in our lives. EX: If you met Johnny Depp at a café in LA and got to talk to him for 10 minutes

X. Semantic Memory: DEF: These are general things that you know that do not involve a specific event from your life EX: What does George Washington look like?

XI. Procedural Memory: DEF: Remember how to do things in an ordered and logical fashion This can be enhanced through practice (repeated rehearsal of a procedure) EX: I am prepping to play Jean Valjean in the theatre. I must practice my lines.

XII. Explicit Memory: DEF: Things that we learn that we are specifically trying to remember for some reason EX: If I want to do well on my AP tests, I must remember my vocabulary

XIII. Implicit Memory: DEF: When we remember things that we are not even trying to remember EX: When we are driving around, we will learn where we are going even if we are not trying to.

XIV. Flash-Bulb/Snap Shot Memory: DEF: A type of episodic memory that is remembered because of the intensity of the situation EX: -The Moon Landing -JFK’s Assassination -911

XV. Context-Dependent Memory: DEF: Memories that are helped or hindered by similarities or differences between the context in which they are learned and the context in which they are recalled. EX: I met my girlfriend at Caesar’s Palace. While I will remember when I met her, I might remember more if I return to where it happened.

XVI. State-Dependent Memory: DEF: Memory that is aided or impeded by a person’s internal state EX: If you received a phone call at 2:30 am while you were sleeping, you would be less likely to remember the conversation than when you are fully awake.

XVII. Short-Term Memory: DEF: This part of our memory is designed to store limited amounts of memory for a limited amount of time (between 15-30 seconds) EX: I just met Joe, but who cares???

XVIII. Working (Functional) Memory: DEF: Information that is stored within our short term memory that we need to keep long enough to do a task EX: If I am making corsages for the prom, I will need to remember how to make them while I am in the process

XIX. Long-Term Memory: EX: The day my children were born DEF: When we remember something for a longer period of time (maybe a lifetime) EX: The day my children were born

XX. Decay: DEF: The gradual disappearance of the mental representations of a stimulus EX: I am in calculus class and I memorize all my formulas. Years later, when my child takes calculus, I cannot remember them.

XXI. Interference : DEF: The process through which either the storage or the retrieval of information is impaired by the presence of other information. -Retroactive: Old info interferes with new info. -Proactive: New info interferes with old info. EX: I learned to play a song one way, but I am struggling to play a newer version of that song.

XXII. Memory in the brain: