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Psychology

Unit 6

Memory and Thinking

6 topics · 24 practice questions · Free responseNot yet reviewed

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Notes

Memory

  • Memory involves encoding, storage and retrieval. The Atkinson-Shiffrin model: sensory memory, short-term (working) memory, long-term memory.
  • Long-term memory: explicit (episodic and semantic) and implicit (procedural, priming).
  • Better encoding: deep processing, elaborative rehearsal, mnemonics, spacing and testing.

Forgetting and reliability

  • Forgetting: encoding failure, decay, interference (proactive and retroactive), retrieval failure. Recognition is easier than recall.
  • Memory is reconstructive. The misinformation effect shows memory can be changed.

Thinking

  • Algorithms guarantee a solution; heuristics are shortcuts. Common biases: availability, representativeness, confirmation, anchoring, hindsight bias, overconfidence. Obstacles: functional fixedness and mental set.

Topics in this unit

Each topic has its own short notes and practice.

Practice

A student reviews her notes for 20 minutes a day for a week instead of for 140 minutes the night before the test. This uses the:
Pedro remembers how to play piano without thinking about each finger. This is:
Kai studied French last year. This year, in Spanish class, he keeps recalling French words instead of the new Spanish ones. This is:
A witness is asked a leading question and later "remembers" seeing broken glass that was not there. This shows:
A shopper sees a coat marked "Was 200 dollars, now 120 dollars" and thinks it's a great deal, relying heavily on the first number. This is:
Which is an example of an algorithm?

Free response

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Free-response question

Zoe is preparing for a biology exam. She reads her notes five times the night before. During the exam, she cannot recall a term she thinks she knows ("it's on the tip of my tongue"). Her friend suggests she should have studied differently.

(a) Identify one weakness of Zoe's study method and describe a better one.

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Cramming relies on shallow, repeated reading. Better methods are spacing study over several days and testing herself (practice recall).

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(b) Explain how deeper (elaborative) encoding would help Zoe's retrieval.

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Linking the term to its meaning and to what she already knows creates more retrieval cues, so it is easier to find later.

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(c) Name the memory phenomenon that Zoe experienced, and name one retrieval strategy that may help.

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She experienced a tip-of-the-tongue state, a retrieval failure. She might use cues such as recalling the context, first letter or related concepts.

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