Elizabeth Worndl
December 2, 2010
Psych 100- Module 3 Tutorial
If we were to remember everything, as in, all information was worked into
our long-term memory, it may clutter the brain
We do have the capacity to maybe remember everything, however the
retrieval process, as in the time it takes to bring things from our long-term
memory into our working memory would perhaps take longer
Modal Model
o Sensory Memory
Things in our environment, pretty much everything around us, but
not necessarily put into our working memory
Short duration, everything around us that we may unconsciously
sense
Sensation is not necessarily conscious whereas perception,
perceiving the world is a conscious thought of how we take in our
senses
o Working memory
Retrieval of long-term memory or sensory memory; not only taking
things from our sensory memory, but also retrieving things from our
long-term memory
Working with information that we’re actually aware of at that time
o Long-term memory
Stored information; very large, infinite amount of information
Both conscious and unconscious memories
Sensory memory- more specifically
Constantly taking in new information, yet we don’t have the capacity to
take in ALL information into our working memory
ATTENTION acts as the gate from our sensory into our working memory
All sensations are unconsciously taken in
Performance of sensory memory degrades with time- only stays in the
mind for a very brief amount of time
Working Memory
Conscious, attentive processing
Cognitive interference tasks- if we try to get someone to remember
something, perhaps a number or a postal code, then they are asked to count
backwards in time, this acts as a distraction, and their memory of the original
number or code was difficult for them to remember after the distraction
The longer the distraction, the less accuracy there was in recalling their
code- degrades exponentially
There are three components to working memory
o Central executive
o Visuospatial sketchpad
o Phonological look; different modalities can be interpreted with
different senses i.e. I could see a horse (visual) but could interpret it
with language as “horse” (sound) or some other sense
Long Term Memory
Explicit- Declarative, consciously aware of
Episodic- things we’ve experienced, things we recall
Semantic- the knowledge we’ve gained
Implicit- motor skills, you may not say how you learned to do something.
Processes you learned but not consciously aware of how to describe this-
riding a bike
Priming; situation where you’ve interpreted cues that you’ve experienced
i.e. cues that lead us to believe what some things are like the Ice cream
example
Classical conditioning; paired stimuli which cause the reflex i.e. the dog
salivates when he hears the bell
Procedural; learning how to do something very well but not really being
able to describe how to do it
Amnesia
Retrograde; inability to remember old memories. Procedural memories can
be immune.
Antrograde Amnesia; inability to form new memories
HM
Suffered from severe epilepsy
Removed the medial temporal lobes
Hipocampus
He suffered from antrograde amnesia; can’t form new memories
Could form Implicit memories- i.e. if he shook someone’s hand and got a
shock, even if they left the room and came back, he would not remember
their face but if they went to shake his hand again, he could pull his hand
away
Narrative as a mnemotic device; a way of remembering things by remembering as
a story
Method of Loci is; items to be remembered are associated with physical locations
Encoding specificity is when you learn something and if you can mimic the
conditions when you learned it, it will be easier to remember- example setting.
Refers to when the sensory conditions when you learned the information as a way
of better remembering the information.
Maintenance rehearsal; repeating things many many times- however this is not
the most effective way to study, because the information is not being encoded.
You’re not strengthening any connections you have so it will most likely not go to
the long-term memory.