AP Psychology Memory Terminology

AP Psychology Memory Terminology Memory the ability to remember the things that we have experienced, imagine, or learned; first explored by Hermann Ebbinghaus Chunking method of organizing information into easy that meaningful units of information; example-if short-term memory is best for max of 10 items that you must remember 12 numbers group them (junk) into three meaningful groups: now you have three numbers remember not 12 Information processing (IP) model to explain the way humans create memories; in code, store, and retrieve information like a computer Decay theory evidence from distractor studies; forgetting is caused by the passage of time; memories deteriorate Sensory receptors entry points for raw data that has potential to become a memory; length of stay is only a couple of seconds; unlimited capacity; experiment-George Sterling (1960) shows that echoes (auditory) lasts longer than icons (visual) masking Interference theory forgetting caused by information getting mixed up by other information Attention the filtering process one uses for all the data in the sensory registers to determine what is transferred to STM; Cocktail Party Phenomenon-Broadbent-when in a noisy environment, a person pays attention to the conversation they are in, not to others; "On/Off"-Triesman-people turn down the other signals, but not off, so an important signal can leak through