Gray Chapter 9- Memory and Consciousness

Memory

all of the information in a person's mind and the mind's capacity to store and retrieve all of that information

consciousness

the experiencing of one's own mental events in a manner that one can report them back to others.

synonyms

consciousness and awareness are ________/

modal model of the mind

sensory memory---> working (short-term) memory---> long-term memory. useful beginning point for thinking about the mind, but it is far from complete. its greatest deficiency is its failure to account for unconscious effects of sensory input.

memory stores

sensory memory, working/short term memory, and long term memory

control processes

attention, rehearsal, encoding, and retrieval

sensory memory

some trace of sensory information stays in your information processing system for a brief period-less than 1 second for sights and only a few seconds for sounds- even when you're not paying attention to the input

working/short term memory

major workplace of the mind. seat of conscious thought- the place where all conscious perceiving, feeling, reasoning, and computing take place. information in this store is short and fleeting, lost within seconds if not attended to

long term memory

long term memory corresponds most closely to each person's average idea of memory- it is the stored representation of all that a person knows.

attention

the process that controls the flow of information from the sensory store to the working memory

encoding

the process that controls movement from working memory into the long term memory store

retrieval

the process that controls the flow of information from the long term memory into into the working memory- often called remembering or recalling

preattentive processing

all information that is picked up by the senses enters briefly into sensory memory and is analyzed to determine it's relevance to the current task and the overall importance for the individual's well being. sometimes obligatory.

cocktail party phenomenon

the ability to listen and to understand one person's voice while disregarding other equally loud or louder voices and noises nearby

echoic memory, echo

auditory sensory memory. brief memory trace for a certain sound is called the _______.

iconic memory, icon

visual sensory memory. brief memory trace for a certain image is called an ______.

priming

the activation, by sensory input, of information that is already stored in the long term memory

obligatory memory

impossible to suppress

stroop interference effect

the test where you have to say the colors and then the word, and then the color of the ink- proves obligatory memory

selective listening and viewing

we can effectively focus attention, screening out out irrelevant stimuli

phonological loop

responsible for holding verbal information

visuospatial loop

responsible for holding visual and spatial information

central executive

responsible for coordinating the mind's activities and for bringing new information into the working memory from the sensory and long term stores

span of short term memory

the number of items such as words, images, or digits that a person can keep in mind and report back immediately after a brief delay

pre frontal cortex

serves as the neural hub for the central executive

maintenance rehearsal

the process by which a person holds information in working memory for a period of time

encoding rehearsal

the process by which a person encodes information into the long term store

elaboration

to think deeply about an item is to do more than simply repeat it- it is to tie that item to a structure of information that already exists in long term memory

chunking

technique for remembering things- group items into categories, making them easier to remember than all alone. example- separating a grocery list into food dishes

hierarchical

related items are clustered together to form categories, related categories are clustered to form larger (higher order) categories, and so on

HM Henry Molaison

the most fully studied person in the history of psychology and neurology. underwent epilepsy surgery that left him unable to encode long term memory

amnesia

memory loss after some kind of brain damage

anterograde amnesia

the inability to process events that happen after the damage

retrograde amnesia

the inability to remember events that happened before the damage

consolidation

the process by which the labile memory form is converted into the stable form

labile form, stable

long term memories first exist in a _______, and then become gradually more ________ after consolidation.

associations

long term memories are not stored in isolation, but in networks in which item is linked to many others through connections known as ______.

retrieval clue

a stimulus or thought that primes a particular memory

association by contiguity

some concepts are associated because they have occurred together (contiguously) in the person's mind

association by similarity

items that share one or more properties in common are linked in memory whether or not they were ever experienced together.

schema

one's generalized mental representation or concept of any given class of objects, scenes, or events. example would be a livinf room.

scripts

schemas that involve the organization of events in time rather than of objects in space. example would be a birthday party

true

true or false: memories can be constructed and reconstructed.

explicit memory

the type of memory that can be brought into a person's consciousness. provides the content of conscious thought and is highly flexible

implicit memory

the type of memory that does not enter into the contents of consciousness

episodic memory

explicit memory from one's own past experiences- always have a personal quality

semantic memory

explicit memory that is not tied mentally to a particular past experience. includes knowledge of word meanings, plus all of the facts, ideas and schemas that constitute one's general understanding of the world

procedural memory

implicit memory that consists of motor skills, habits, and unconsciously learned rules

episodic and semantic

explicit memory includes two subclasses.

learning from classical conditioning, procedural memories, and priming

implicit memory includes two subclasses