Psychology chap 7

Working memory is used for things you are currently doing storing temporary information. It helps you think of a specific task by remembering the details temporally. It is very limited though and will only remember a certain amount. The two forms of long term memory are implicit and explicit memory. Implicit is the memorizing facts for example its not very detailed. Explicit is recalling personal memories in great detail such as a traumatic event in your life where you recall everything about it. Long term memory is stored in a way that it can be retrieved based on its importance. So that certain situations are associated with it and are therefore easily recalled when needed. Most of the time we recall long term memories by things that we associate with it. For example when I see Idaho States football field I associate it with state football playoffs which brings back memories of our good plays there. These associations are due to memory cues. The medial temporal lobes are commonly identified as responsible for the declarative memory. There is evidence for this in the case of H. M. He had a brain surgery that removed part of the medial temporal lobes and afterwards was no longer able to remember new things he only had a short working memory. The long term memory was not seemingly effected he still had memories of before the surgery but was unable to create new memories. We have sensory memory that lasts only a fraction of a second that ties closely with our senses. It is so brief under most circumstances we are not even aware that it is working. The serial position effect is how the order we learn is related to how well we remember. We tend to have good memory at the beginning then not as well through the middle but then progress again toward the end. Distraction is one of the major forms of interference with memory. This was proved in class when after presented with the words we were asked to do a math problem then asked to recall again. Once we took are mind off the words it was had to think of them again. Two mnemonic devices I use to recall things are associating words with actions and picturing it with my mind. For example my dad taught me to screw and unscrew by telling me righty tighty lefty loosey. With football I try to picture the playbook in my mind and recall all the routes that way. There are two types of false memories where its episodic but we recall it wrong. The other is a type of amnesia where we recall something but do not remember where we got the information.