Memory and cognition
| English | Chinese | Pinyin |
|---|---|---|
| encoding | 编码 | biān mǎ |
| storage | 存储 | cún chǔ |
| retrieval | 提取 | tí qǔ |
| multi-store model | 多重存储模型 | duō zhòng cún chǔ mó xíng |
| working memory | 工作记忆 | gōng zuò jì yì |
| cognition | 认知 | rèn zhī |
| heuristics | 启发式 | qǐ fā shì |
| biases | 偏差 | piān chā |
Three stages, three ways to forget
- Encoding 编码 gets information in. Storage 存储 keeps it. Retrieval 提取 gets it out.
- Forgetting can happen at any of the three, and they have different remedies.
- A name you never encoded was never forgotten. You never had it.
Put the three stages of memory in order.
Forgetting can happen at any of the three, and the remedies differ.
The multi-store model
- The multi-store model 多重存储模型 separates sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.
- Short-term memory holds only a few items for a few seconds unless rehearsed.
- Working memory 工作记忆 is short-term memory doing something — holding a number while you add to it.
- Its capacity is famously small, which is why a long instruction spoken once is often lost.
Holding a phone number in mind while you dial it uses what?
Short-term memory doing something. Its capacity is small, which is why long spoken instructions are lost.
Cognition, heuristics and bias
- Cognition 认知 covers thinking, problem-solving, decision-making and language.
- Heuristics 启发式 are mental shortcuts that usually work: judging frequency by how easily examples come to mind.
- Biases 偏差 are the systematic errors those shortcuts produce.
- The shortcut is not a flaw. It is what makes fast decisions possible, and the bias is its predictable cost.
Why do people overestimate deaths from shark attacks?
Availability: ease of recall stands in for frequency. Usually a good shortcut; here a predictable bias.
Which is more common: death by shark attack or by falling coconut?
Shark attacks come to mind instantly, because they are reported. Falling coconuts are not. Availability makes the vivid case feel frequent.
The shortcut — if examples come easily, it must be common — is right often enough to be worth having. Here it is wrong, and predictably so, which is what makes it a bias rather than a mistake.
A word is on the tip of your tongue. Which stage has failed?
It is stored but not accessible, which is why a cue can produce it a moment later.
Retrieval failure is not the same as storage failure. A word on the tip of your tongue is stored and not retrieved — which is why a cue can produce it a moment later, and why cued recall outperforms free recall.
Do not describe memory as a recording. It is reconstructive: each retrieval rebuilds the event and can incorporate what you have learned since. This is exactly why eyewitness accounts change, and a question about reliability is testing whether you know it.
Memory works like a recording that plays back what was stored.
It is reconstructive — each retrieval rebuilds the event and can absorb what you learned since.