2. Definition: Learning that has persisted over time Happens in three stages: 1.Encoding – getting information in 2.Storage – maintaining information over time 3.Retrieval – getting memory back out

3. Automatic processing – we unconsciously encode information about space, time and frequency and well-learned information

4. Effortful processing – encoding that requires attention and conscious effort Can be boosted through rehearsal – conscious repetition spacing effect – retaining information better when rehearsal is spread out over time serial position effect – tendency to better recall the last and first items in a list

5. Levels of processing: Visual encoding – encoding of picture images Acoustic encoding – encoding of sounds Semantic encoding – encoding of meaning

6. Organizing information for encoding: Mnemonics – memory aids, especially those that use vivid imagery and organizational techniques Chunking – organizing items into familiar, manageable units Often happens automatically

7. Information processing model: 1.Sensory memory – immediate memory; information is kept here for a few seconds or less Iconic memory – fast-decaying store of visual information Echoic memory – fast-decaying store of auditory information

8. 2.Short-term memory Limited in duration and capacity Capacity is generally 7 +/- 2 “bits” of information Slightly better for random numbers than random letters Slightly better for what we hear than what we see 3.Long-term memory Unlimited

9. Memories are not stored in precise locations in the brain Long-term potentiation (LTP) – increase in a synapse’s firing potential after a brief, rapid stimulation Thought to be a neural basis for learning and memory

10. Flashbulb memory – a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event Stronger emotional experiences produces stronger, more reliable memories Prolonged stress can corrode neural connections and shrink the hippocampus

11. Amnesia victims Have implicit (or nondeclarative) memory – how to do something The cerebellum helps form and store implicit memories Often don’t have explicit (or declarative) memory – memory of facts and experiences The hippocampus helps process explicit memories for storage Infantile amnesia – we have no accurate memories before age 3 because Most explicit memories are indexed by words non-speaking children don’t have Hippocampus is one of the last brain regions to mature

12. Retrieval cues Tastes, smells and sights aid in recall of associated episodes Priming – activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

13. Context effects déjà vu – sense that “I’ve experienced this before” Cues from current situation might subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience State dependent memory – what we learn in one state can be more easily recalled when we are again in that state Losing keys while intoxicated and remembering their location while again intoxicated Mood-congruent memory – tendency to recall experiences that are consistent w/one’s current good or bad mood When depressed, we recall sad events which perpetuates the depression

14. A.Three sins of forgetting 1.Absent-mindedness - inattention to details 2.Transience - storage decay over time 3.Blocking - inaccessibility of stored info

15. B.Three sins of distortion 1.Misattribution - confusing the source of the information 2.Suggestibility - lingering effects of misinformation 3.Bias - belief-colored recollections C.One sin of intrusion 1.Persistence - unwanted memories

16. Proactive interference – disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information Retroactive interference – disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information Repression – in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories Most memory researcher think repression rarely occurs

17. Misinformation effect – incorporating misleading information into one’s memory of an event “How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other Source amnesia – attributing to the wrong source of an event we have experienced, heard about, read about or imagined Madonna vs. Lady Gaga

18. False memories may feel as real as true memories The most confident and consistent eyewitnesses are the most persuasive but often not the most accurate Children’s memories are especially unreliable and easily influenced

19. Study repeatedly Make the material meaningful Activate retrieval cues Use mnemonic devices Minimize interference Sleep more Test and retest

21. Cognition – mental activities associated with thinking, knowing, remembering and communicating Concepts – mental groupings of similar objects, events, ideas or people Prototypes – mental image or best example of a category

22. Strategies Algorithms – step-by-step procedures that guarantee a solution Heuristics – simple thinking strategy that often allows us to make judgments and solve problems efficiently Faster, but more prone to errors than algorithms Insight – sudden and often novel realization of the solution to a problem

23. Creativity – the ability to produce novel and valuable ideas Five components of creativity identified by Robert Sternberg 1.Expertise 2.Imaginative thinking skills 3.A venturesome personality 4.Intrinsic motivation 5.A creative environment

24. Confirmation bias – tendency to search for information that supports our preconceptions and to ignore or distort contradictory evidence Fixation – inability to see a problem from a fresh perspective Mental set – tendency to approach a problem in one particular way, often a way that has been successful in the past Functional fixedness – tendency to think of things only in terms of their usual functions

25. Representativeness heuristic – judging the likelihood of things in terms of how they seem to represent, or match, particular prototypes May lead us to ignore other relevant information Availability heuristic – estimating the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory If instances come readily to mind, we assume such events are common

26. Overconfidence – tendency to be more confident than correct Belief perseverance – clinging to one’s initial conceptions after the basis on which they were formed has been discredited Intuition – effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought, as contrasted with explicit conscious reasoning See chart on p. 310 for its pros and cons

27. Framing – how an issue is posed can significantly affect decisions and judgments

28. Phoneme – smallest distinctive sound unit in language Morpheme – smallest unit of language that carries meaning Ex: “I”, “s” to indicate something is plural, “ed” or “pre” Grammar Semantics – set of rules by which we derive meaning from morphemes, words and sentences syntax – rules for combining words into grammatically sensible sentences

29. Receptive language – ability to comprehend speech Develops by 4 months

30. Productive language Babbling stage – spontaneously uttering a variety of sounds Begins around 4 months By 10 months language can be identified One-word stage – child speaks mostly in single words Usually from age 1 to 2 Two-word stage – speaks mostly in two-word statements Usually starts about age 2 Telegraphic speech – early speech stage in which a child speaks like a telegram, using mostly nouns and verbs

31. B.F. Skinner: Operant learning Argued babies learn to talk through association, imitation and reinforcement Noam Chomsky: Inborn universal grammar Believed that given adequate nurture, language will naturally occur Statistical learning and critical periods Childhood is a critical period for mastering certain aspects of language

32. Language determinism – Benjamin Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think More likely words influence our thinking