Memory Unit Overview

Types of Memory

Explicit Memory

• Definition: Memory of facts and experiences that can be consciously known and declared.
• Subtypes:
  • Episodic Memory: Memory of personally experienced events.
  • Semantic Memory: Memory of facts and general knowledge.

Implicit Memory

• Definition: Retention of learned skills or classically conditioned associations independent of conscious recollection.

Prospective Memory

• Definition: Remembering to do something in the future, like taking medication.

Sensory Memory

• Definitions:
  • Iconic Memory: Visual stimuli memory lasting a few tenths of a second.
  • Echoic Memory: Auditory stimuli memory, recalled within 3-4 seconds.

Short-Term Memory

• Definition: Briefly activated memory for a few items, which can be stored or forgotten.

Long-Term Memory

• Definition: Permanent and limitless memory archive including knowledge, skills, and experiences.

Memory Processing

Automatic Processing

• Definition: Unconscious encoding of incidental information.

Effortful Processing

• Definition: Encoding requiring attention and conscious effort.

Shallow vs. Deep Processing

• Shallow Processing: Basic encoding based on structure or appearance of words.
• Deep Processing: Semantic encoding based on word meanings, leading to better retention.

Memory Techniques and Effects

Mnemonics

• Definition: Memory aids using vivid imagery and organizational devices.
• Method of Loci: Associating items to be remembered with specific locations or positions.

Serial Position Effect

• Description: Tendency to recall the last (recency effect) and first (primacy effect) items in a list.

Testing Effect

• Description: Enhanced memory after retrieval rather than simply rereading.

Spacing Effect

• Description: Better long-term retention from distributed study/practice over massed practice.

Chunking

• Definition: Organizing information into manageable units.

Amnesia and Memory Phenomena

Anterograde Amnesia

• Definition: Inability to form new memories.

Retrograde Amnesia

• Definition: Inability to remember past information.

Infantile Amnesia

• Definition: Inability to recall events from early childhood.

Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomenon

• Definition: Difficulty retrieving a specific word or name from memory.

Source Amnesia

• Definition: Faulty memory for how, when, or where information was learned.

Imagination Inflation

• Definition: Reporting richer details of false memories.

Context and State Effects

Context-Dependent Memory

• Definition: Easier memory retrieval in the context where it was first experienced.

Mood-Congruent Memory

• Definition: Tendency to recall experiences that match current mood.

State-Dependent Memory

• Definition: Easier recall of information if in the same state as when learned.

Metacognition

• Definition: Being aware of and evaluating one's own cognitive processes.

Forgetting Curve

• Definition: Rapid initial forgetting which levels off over time.