PSYCH101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 8: Long-Term Memory, Word Game, Coding Theory

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: John Campbell

Document Summary

Memory: refers to the processes that allow us to record and later retrieve experiences and information. The advent of computers gave rise to the metaphorical comparison that the mind is a processing system that: encodes, stores, and retrieves information. Encoding: getting information into the system by translating it into a neural code that your brain processes. When you type on a computer keyboard, as your keystrokes are translated into an electrical code that the computer can understand and process. Once information is in the system, it must be filed away and saved for future access. Retrieval: the ability to pull information out of storage when we want to use it. With a computer we would give a command like, open file to retrieve specific information. Involves all 3 of these processes: encoding, storage, retrieval. Failure in any one of these processes can result in memory failure. Dr. thompson: psychologist who studied (ironically) human memory.