PSYC 3310 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Eyewitness Identification, Cognitive Dissonance, Convenience Store

• School: York University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3310
• Professor: Justin Friesen

Document Summary

Encoding involves gathering information and putting it in a form that can be held in memory. Storage refers to holding the encoded information in the brain over time; Retrieval refers to accessing and pulling out the stored information at a later time. Errors in memory can occur at each stage of the process: Information about the witnessed event might not be well encoded (our attention sometimes lapses and crucial information does not get stored; what we store in memory is a selective, inexact replica of what we actually heard or saw) Imperfections can also occur in the process of storage; memory trace (the biochemical representation of our experience in the brain) appears to deteriorate with time. Forgetting, vulnerability to revision and corruption are possible in our memory as time passes. During the process of retrieval, we may not have the necessary cues locate and reinstate the stored memory.