Cognitive Psychology - Connecting Mind Research and Everyday Experience

Comparing Short-Term and Long-Term Memory Process Serial position curve is the phenomenon that memory for a list of words is better for the beginning of the list rather than the middle of the list. The primacy effect is the phenomenon that when a word is presented, the very first word has the individual’s 100% attention, while there are no other words presented. For more words presented in a list the rehearsal time should be longer. The recency affect is the phenomenon that the most recent words are still in short-term memory. There is different coding for short-term memory and long-term memory, this is the form in which stimuli is presented. Visual coding in short-term memory is the representation of a pattern by the visual image in your mind. Visual coding for long-term memory is the visualization in your mind of a person or a place. Auditory coding is in short-term memory is shown by Conrad in his demonstration of the phonological similarity effect. Auditory coding in long-term memory for example is when you remember a song and it plays in your head. The predominant type of coding is auditory coding. There is also semantic coding, in short-term coding the phenomenon is it’s easier to remember words that tend to have similar categories. Semantic coding for longterm memory measures recognition memory, therefore this determines whether the meaning of the passage is remembered, or the actual words used. Episodic and Semantic Memory There are many distinctions between episodic and semantic memory. Episodic memories give an individual the experience that involves mental time travel. This mental time travel is the experience to reconnect with events that took place in the past by mentally traveling back in time with memory. Episodic memory is tied to frontal lobes, the limbic system, etc. Semantic memory is the experience that involves remembering any information that doesn’t require a personal experience to remember. Semantic memory is tied to occipital lobes, temporal lobes, and other sensory areas as well. There are also interactions between episodic and semantic memories. Our episodic memories are shaped by our knowledge of our experiences, and they influence how we perceive or experience an event. Our knowledge is our semantic memory, and our experiences contain our attention. Autobiographical memory is memory for specific experiences in an individual’s life, this can include both semantic and episodic memories. Episodic memories aid semantic memories. Semantic memories are more for ‘facts’ such as a person’s name, therefore sematic memory is used when episodic memory is absent. Back to the Future Evidence has been found between remembering things from the past and actively imagining the future. Researchers don’t concern themselves with how well anyone can predict the future, rather their focus is on how well possible future scenarios can be mentally created. There are correlations in the brain when thinking about the past and thinking about the future. Researchers have found that the same regions in the brain become active when thinking about the past and the future. We extract episodic memories and combine them to create simulations of the future, by doing this we create mental images of what we believe our future will be. Therefore, sometimes our brain has a hard time finding a distinction between the past and the future. It is very important to imagine the future, individuals must be able to act effectively when the future becomes the present. Researchers argue that episodic memories aren’t used for remembering the past, rather the main role is enabling individuals to stimulate thinking about future scenarios. This helps anticipate any future needs and help guide behaviors in the future. The mind tends to wander, and researchers have found people tend to think about the future more than the past or present. Suggestions for the mind wandering are that we utilize our semantic memories to stimulate future scenarios to help us prepare for future events. Procedural Memory, Priming, and Conditioning Explicit memories are the memories that we are aware of, implicit memories are the memories we are not aware of. For example, we do many things without any explanation of how we did it. Procedural memories have both called skill memory and motor skills. Calles skill memory is remembering skills that were once learned, implicit memories include motor skills. This is memories that involve movement and muscle action. Priming occurs when one stimulus effects how someone will react to another stimulus. Repetition priming occurs when test stimulus resembles the prime stimulus or is exactly the same. There are a couple different concepts to different effects on our memory. Such as the spacing effect creates an advantage for study sessions that are short, therefore it would benefit to be an active note taker. Lastly, consolidation is the process of transforming new memories in a fragile state, there is also synaptic and systems consolidation.