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 Memory encoding: taking in information
 Memory storage: retaining information in memory
 Memory retrieval: accessing stored information
Encoding specificity principle says that retrieval of specific
memories will be more successful when cues that were
present in encoding are present when retrieving
Context-dependent memory – the tendency for information
to be better recalled in the context in which it was first
learned
State-dependent memory – Idea that people have an
easier time recalling information when in the same physical
and psychological state as when they learned it
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We pay attention to
important or interesting
information
External
Events
see
smell
hear
feel
taste
Rehearsal
Phonological
Loop
Stage 1
Stage 2
Sensory
Memory
ShortLong Term
term/working
Memory
Encoding
Memory
Encoding
3-4 Seconds
Iconic Memory
Echoic Memory
30 seconds
Stage 3
Retrieving Unlimited space
Consolidation
Elaborate Rehearsal
Mnemonic Devices
- Acrostics
- Acronyms
- Visualspatial Sketch
- Chunking
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Declarative Memory (Explicit)
• Memory of facts and experiences
• Key phrase “knowing that”
• Memory of facts = Semantic
Memory
• Memory of experiences =
Episodic Memory
• Deeply emotionally charged
memories = Flashbulb
Memories
• Where were you when
the Twin Towers fell, when
JFK died, Michael Jackson
died
Procedural Memory (Implicit)
• Memory of skills and
procedures
• Tasks that we perform without
thinking: how to tie our shoes,
how to drive a car, how to ride a
bike
• Often learned through shaping
(step by step learning)
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Hierarchies & Schemas
• Hierarchies: systems in which concepts are
arranged from general to more specific
• Concepts: mental representations of
related things; could be physical objects,
events, organisms, or abstract ideas
• Prototypes: common examples of the
concept. For example, if the concept
was “bird” a prototype could be
“robin”
• Concepts broken into 3 levels
• Superordinate (broadest category)
= Building
• Basic (more specific level) = Business
• Subordinate (examples of basic) =
Dentist Office
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Hierarchies & Schemas
• Semantic Networks: More irregular and less strict
hierarchies; link multiple concepts together.
• For example, in a semantic network, the
concept of “bird” can be linked to “fly,
feathers, wings, animals, vertebrate, penguin,
robin, sky” all of which could be connected to
several concepts.
• Schemas are preexisting frameworks that exist
that allow us to organize and interpret new
information.
• Script: the specific things we associate
with an event, person, or item
• For Example: A script for “elementary
school” may include
• Teachers
• Young students
• Principal
• Classrooms with desks and chairs
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Hierarchies
Superordinate
Concept
Schemas
Wheel
Automobile
Dome
light
Drive
Basic
Concept
Car
Breaks
Car
4-door
Engine
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Road
Subordinate
Concept
Ford Taurus
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• Interference Theory: Believes that memories
held in STM or LTM may be pushed aside by
other memories
Proactive Interference
Retroactive Interference
Misinformation Effect
Decay Theory
• Proactive Interference: when something we
learned earlier disrupts new information
we are trying to learn
• Trying to remember your grandparent’s
new phone number, but you keep
messing it up with their old one.
• Retroactive Interference: when something
we have recently learned disrupts the
recall of old information
• Someone asks for your old address and
it is blocked because our new address
interferes with our recall of it.
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Proactive Interference
Retroactive Interference
Misinformation Effect
Decay Theory
Interference Theory
• Misinformation Effect: when we incorporate
misleading information into our memory of
an event.
• We forget what actually happened so
we fill in the blanks with what we think
did, leading to inaccuracies
• Decay Theory: The idea that over time our
brains physically decay leading to memory
loss
• Serial Position Effect: we are more likely to
forget the middle items in a list than those
at the beginning for the end
• Primacy effect: the tendency to recall
items learned first
• Recency effect: the tendency to recall the
last items learned
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 Motivated Forgetting: Memories
Hidden from Awareness
 Sigmund Freud Theorized that the
psychological defense mechanism
of repression, or motivated
forgetting, banished threatening
material from the consciousness
Repression
Retrograde Amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia
 Amnesia: Memories Lost or
Never Gained
 Retrograde Amnesia – the loss of
memory of past events
 Anterograde amnesia – the loss of
the ability to form or store new
memories
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• Mnemonic Devices: memory tricks used
when encoding memory information
that aid in retrieval of information
• Acronyms: A word formed from the
first letters of each one of the
words in a phrase or list of terms
• “CART” could be used to remember
items to get at the store: Carrots,
Apples, Radishes, and Turnips
• Acrostics: A sentence formed with
the first letter of each word
referencing the first letter of a list
of terms
• “My very educated mother just sent
us nine pizzas” referred to the
order of the planets: Mercury,
Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn,
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
• Phonological Loop: the use of verbal
repetition of information to deepen
memory retention.
• Chunking: grouping items together to
allow for more material to be learned
• Visualspatial Sketchpad: the creation
of a visual image to improve memory
• Mental map of your house is an example
• Context-Dependent Memory: The idea
that we retrieve information better when
in the same location it was obtained
• State-Dependent Memory: The idea that
things are more easily recalled when we
are in the same physical and mental state
when the information was encoded.
• So if you were really tired when you hid a
gift, you would be more likely to recall
where you put it if you were really tired.
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