Twenty flashcards covering the core models and studies of human memory and attention. Includes the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model, Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model, levels of processing, interference and decay theories of forgetting, reconstructi...
Twenty flashcards covering the core models and studies of human memory and attention. Includes the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model, Baddeley and Hitch's working memory model, levels of processing, interference and decay theories of forgetting, reconstructive memory and the classic filter models of attention. Essential revision for A-Level and AP Psychology cognitive units.
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The internal mental processes that mediate between stimulus and response — perception, attention, memory, language, reasoning and problem solving.
Sensory register, short-term memory (STM) and long-term memory (LTM), with attention moving information from sensory to STM and rehearsal moving it to LTM.
Capacity is roughly 7 ± 2 items (Miller's magic number) and duration is about 15–30 seconds without rehearsal.
The central executive, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad and the episodic buffer.
It stores and rehearses verbal and acoustic information, comprising a phonological store (the "inner ear") and an articulatory process (the "inner voice").
Declarative (explicit) memory holds consciously recalled facts and events. Procedural (implicit) memory holds skills and habits performed without conscious awareness.
Episodic memory stores personally experienced events with time and place context. Semantic memory stores general factual knowledge and concepts, detached from context.
Memory durability depends on depth of encoding rather than rehearsal. Semantic (meaning-based) processing produces stronger traces than phonemic or structural processing.
In free recall of a list, items at the beginning (primacy effect, rehearsed into LTM) and end (recency effect, still in STM) are recalled better than middle items.
Grouping individual items into larger meaningful units, increasing effective short-term memory capacity — for example recalling 07700900123 as three chunks.
Proactive: old learning disrupts recall of new material. Retroactive: new learning disrupts recall of older material.
Forgetting occurs because the physical memory trace fades over time through disuse, rather than because of competing information.
Retrieval is most effective when cues present at recall match those present at encoding, giving rise to context-dependent and state-dependent forgetting.
That leading questions distort eyewitness memory — participants asked how fast cars "smashed" gave higher speed estimates than those asked how fast they "hit".
Memory is not a faithful recording but is actively rebuilt at recall using schemas, expectations and post-event information, which introduces systematic distortion.
A vivid, highly detailed and confidently held autobiographical memory of the circumstances surrounding a surprising, emotionally significant event.
Sensory input enters a buffer, then a filter selects one channel by physical characteristics for further processing; unattended channels are blocked before meaning is extracted.
Unattended channels are weakened rather than completely blocked, so highly salient information such as your own name can still break through — explaining the cocktail party effect.
Naming the ink colour of a mismatched colour word is slower than for a neutral word, demonstrating that skilled reading is automatic and interferes with controlled processing.
Spacing: learning distributed over time is retained better than massed cramming. Testing: actively retrieving information strengthens retention more than re-reading it.
