Encoding

Things to remember about encoding
1. The next in line effect: we seldom remember what the person has just said or done if we are next
2. Information minutes before sleep is seldom remembered; in the hour before sleep, well remembered
3. Taped info played while asleep is registered by ears, but we do not remember it

Spacing effect: we encode better when we study or practice over time
-do not cram!

Serial positioning effect: our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list

Semantic encoding: the coding of meaning, like the meaning of words

Acoustic encoding: the encoding of sound, especially the sounds of words

Visual encoding: the encoding of picture images

Self reference effect: the idea that we remember things (like adjectives) when they are used to describe themselves

Tricks to encode
Use imagery: mental picture

Mnemonic devices use imagery. Like my "peg word" system

Chunking: organizing items into familiar, manageable units
-often it will occur automatically

Storage
Iconic memory: a momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli, a photograph like quality lasting only about a second
-we also have an echoic memory for auditory stimuli

Long term potentiation: long lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously
-in other words they learn to fire together and get better at it...creating a memory

Hippocampus
Damage to the hippocampus disrupts out memory
Left=verbal
Right=visual and locations

Types of retrieval failure
Proactive interference: the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information

Retroactive interference: the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information