AP Psychology
Guided Notes #6
Fall Semester 2014
Bacile
Unit VI: Learning & Memory
Corresponding Chapter(s): Modules 26-35
Topic: Learning & Memory (7-9%)
INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY: MEMORY (RETRIEVAL & FORGETTING)
Memory: Storage

Measures of Memory
o Recall
 A measure of memory in which a person must retrieve/reproduce information in the absence of _______________________
o Recognition
 A measure of memory in which a person must _________________________________________________________________________________
o Relearning
 A measure of memory that assess the amount of ____________________________________ when learning material for a second
time
RETRIEVAL CUES

Retrieval Cues
o Stimuli that help gain access to stored memories; _____________________________________________________________________________
 ___________________________________________
 ___________________________________________
 ___________________________________________
 ___________________________________________

Priming
o The activation, often unconsciously, ___________________________________________________________________________________________
o Often referred to as “____________________________________________________________________”
 Occurs without explicit remembering

Context Effects
o Involves placing yourself in the context where you _________________________________________________________________________
 Helps to prime memory retrieval
o _____________________________________________________________________
 Cues from the current situation that may subconsciously trigger the retrieval of a similar experience in one’s past
MOOD & MEMORIES


State-Dependent Memory
o What someone learns in a particular state, is _________________________________________________________ when he/she is again in that
state
 Someone who hides money while drunk may forget its location until drunk again
Mood-Congruent Memory
o We usually recall experiences that are _________________________________________________________________________________________________
 In a bad mood, one may interpret someone’s look as a glare
 In a good mood, one may encode the same look as interest
Memory: Forgetting

Forgetting
o The inability to retrieve information due to ________________________________________________________________________________________________
 The SEVEN SINS OF MEMORY
 Absent-Mindedness
 Suggestibility
 Transience
 Bias
 Blocking
 Persistence
 Misattribution

Encoding Failure
o Obviously, we will not remember what we _________________________________________________________
 Without encoding, information never enters into one’s long-term memory
 EXAMPLE: Nickerson & Adams’ Penny Test
 NOTE: ____________________________________________________________________________

Storage Decay
o ____________________________________________ of stored memories
leads to their decay
 Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885)
 The Forgetting Curve
o The course of forgetting is
___________________________________________,
but levels off over time

Retrieval Failure
o Although the information is retained in the memory store,
___________________________________________________________________
 You may lack the information needed to retrieve it
 _____________________________________________________________________________________

Proactive Interference (Forward)
o ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
 As you collect more information, your mental “attic” becomes cluttered
 Example
 You drop your phone in the toilet & have to get a new phone number
 Your memory of the old phone number interferes with the new one

Retroactive Interference (Backward)
o ________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________
 As you collect more information, your mental “attic” becomes
cluttered
 Example
 You drop your phone in the toilet & have to get a
new phone number
 Your new phone number interferes with your
memory of the old one
o Sleep prevents retroactive interference & leads to better recall

Motivated Forgetting
o The unknowing revision of memories
 Freud proposed that our memory systems do indeed self-censor painful information
 Repression
 A ______________________________________________ that banishes anxiety-arousing thoughts, feelings and memories
from consciousness
 Memory researchers think that repression, rarely, if ever, actually occurs