2.4 - Encoding Memories

Encoding: How Information Gets Into Memory

• Encoding: The process of getting information into memory storage. Think of it as converting information into a format your brain can understand.

• Two Main Types of Encoding:

  • Automatic Processing: Unconscious and effortless encoding of information like space, time, and frequency. Example: Remembering where you parked your car.

  • Effortful Processing: Requires attention and conscious effort. Leads to more durable memories.

Memory Effects

• Next-In-Line Effect: Difficulty remembering information presented right before your turn to perform. Example: Forgetting what the person before you said in class.

• Spacing Effect: Spreading out study sessions over time leads to better long-term retention than cramming.

• Self-Reference Effect: We remember information better when it relates to ourselves or our personal experiences.

• Serial Position Effect: Our tendency to remember the first and last items in a list best.

  1. Primacy Effect: Remembering the first items best.

  2. Recency Effect: Remembering the last items best.

• Overlearning: Continuing to practice even after you think you've mastered the material. Helps solidify the information in long-term memory.

Mnemonics: Memory Aids

• Definition: Techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices to improve memory.

• Examples:

  • Method of Loci: Associating items to be remembered with specific locations along a familiar route.

  • Peg-Word System: Used to remember lists whereby each item is associated in imagination with a number–word pair (the peg).

  • Acrostic: A mnemonic device that uses the first letter of each word in a phrase or sentence to represent information to be remembered. Example: ROY G. BIV for the colors of the rainbow.

  • Chunking: A way of dealing with or remembering information by separating it into small groups or chunks. Example: Remembering a phone number by remembering the groups of numbers.