PSYC 205 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Intelligence Quotient, Cerebellum, Striatum

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 205
• Professor: Mary C Olmstead

Document Summary

3. 1 preliminary issues: memory - the stored representation of past experiences - (cid:862)the (cid:373)e(cid:374)tal p(cid:396)o(cid:272)ess of a(cid:272)(cid:395)ui(cid:396)i(cid:374)g a(cid:374)d (cid:396)etai(cid:374)i(cid:374)g i(cid:374)fo(cid:396)(cid:373)atio(cid:374) fo(cid:396) late(cid:396) (cid:396)et(cid:396)ie(cid:448)al(cid:863) 3. 1. 1 learning versus memory: learning (acquisition) and memory (retention, acquisition, retention, retrieval. Memory may facilitate functions such as spatial navigation, but it cannot explain the phenomenon entirely. Memory contributes to this process by using past experience to update spatial computations. 3. 2 stages of memory processing: the time lag between an experience and subsequent behavioural change (the operational definition of memory) can vary from a few seconds to several decades, depending on the species. A partial solution to this problem is to reorganize discrete elements of sensory input into larger units: chunking - increases memory capacity by reducing the amount of information that is encoded. The first occurs within minutes to hours and is dependent on protein synthesis. The second stage, which may take weeks to years, has only been characterized in mammals.