Chapter 7 - Memory

Question 1

Freudian model of memory

Answer 1

• All memories remain permanently intact but may be “repressed”
• Some therapists claim to gain access by hypnosis, dream interpretation, etc, which can cause false memory implants (suggestibility), and other negative effects
• No scientifically acceptable evidence to support it

Question 2

Videotape model of memory

Answer 2

• Some memories remain intact for a long time, or forever
• Can be played back like videotape
• No scientific evidence and lots of contradictory evidence (our memory declines over time)

Question 3

Eidetic memory

Answer 3

• Known as “photographic” memory, although there’s no evidence anyone has ever had memory that’s instant, passive, effortless, like photocopy.
• We actively reconstruct our memories

Question 4

Simple biological model of memory

Answer 4

• Memories are stored in brain

- Not stored in single cell, therefore not susceptible to “decay” if some brain cells die

Question 5

Role of Amygdala in memory

Answer 5

• Associated with emotional memory
• Emotional memories tend to be stored for a long time
• Damage to amygdala: patients remember facts but not emotion (esp. fear)

Question 6

Role of Hippocampus in memory

Answer 6

• Significant for LTM
• Injury impairs explicit memory
• Injury causes Anterograde amnesia more commonly than retrograde amnesia

Question 7

Define: Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 7

Inability to form new memories (ie, after injury)

Question 8

Define: Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 8

Inability to remember memories in the past (ie, before accident)

Question 9

Define: Flashbulb memory

Answer 9

• Extremely vivid memory of emotional memory

- Tend to be way less accurate than we think, because of intense emotions and rehearsal

Question 10

Cognitive model of memory (in relation to older models)

Answer 10

• Takes good/useful stuff from common sense, videotape (ff, rewind), Freudian (some memories can be difficult to access), biological models.
• Adds emphasis on practical problems, accounts for anomalies, recognizes physiology

Question 11

Per cognitive model of memory, how is memory reconstructed?

Answer 11

• No individual brain cell for each memory

- Memories are result of reactivating the pattern of neural connections

Question 12

Define memory distortions

Answer 12

• Info loss and false addition caused by loss of cells and pattern overlap
• Eg, volunteers waiting in office remembering book but there were none

Question 13

Three memory stages

Answer 13

• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval

Question 14

Define memory Encoding

Answer 14

• Transferring information into a form that can be stored in memory
• Requires selective attention
• Use mnemonic devices (First-letter technique; method of loci; pegword method; keyword method)

Question 15

Define memory Storage

Answer 15

-Involves consolidation and long-term-potentiation (LPT)

Question 16

Define schema

Answer 16

• Organized knowledge structure or mental model, stored in memory
• Allow us to retrieve examples, make inferences, draw conclusion
• Are one expl. for paradox of memory
• When something doesn’t fit schema at encoding: info stands out
• When something doesn’t fit schema at retrieval: prone to distortion and reconstruction

Question 17

Define: Retrieval

Answer 17

• Information stored in memory is reconstructed

- Retrieval cues help

Question 18

The Three Memory Systems (Atkinson-Shiffron): Cognitive Model of Memory

Answer 18

• Sensory memory
• Short-term memory
• Long-term memory

-Information can be lost at all stages

Question 19

Describe: sensory memory

Answer 19

• Temporary storage
• Large capacity
• Very brief (<1 sec. for iconic; 5-10 for echoic)
• Those with “photographic memory” can hold their iconic memory for longer than normal

Question 20

Describe: short-term memory

Answer 20

• Information we’re currently working on

- Capacity: 7+- 2 items (chunking helps, eg, phone numbers)

Question 21

Define: Proactive Interference

Answer 21

• Old information interfering with creating new memories

- [Remember: word refers temporally to memory being affected ]

Question 22

Define: Retroactive Interference

Answer 22

• New memories interfering with retention of old memories
• More temporary because old memory is better remembered
• [Remember: word refers temporally to memory being affected ]

Question 23

Define: working memory

Answer 23

-System that allows us to hold and manipulate information

Question 24

Define: Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 24

-Memory strategy where you repeat over and over (not the best way)

Question 25

Define: elaborative rehearsal

Answer 25

-Linking stimuli to something meaningful (deeper processing)

Question 26

Define: Long-term memory

Answer 26

- No known limits to capacity - Enduring (minutes to years) information storage - Information loss due to interference, or encoding, consolidation, retrieval failures)

Question 27

Three types of LTM retrieval

Answer 27

- Recognition - Recall - Relearning

Question 28

Define: LTM Recognition

Answer 28

- Previously learned item is selected from a range of alternatives - Role of hippocampus - Eg, multiple choice, police lineup

Question 29

Define: LTM Recall

Answer 29

- Information retrieved from scratch | - Eg, essay question, police interview, serial recall (alphabet, poem)

Question 30

Define: LTM Relearning

Answer 30

- Measuring retention in terms of percentage of time saving for second time you learn something (1st x 60 min VS 2nd x 30 min) - More sensitive measure than recognition or relearning

Question 31

Define: Declarative Memory

Answer 31

-aka Explicit memory -Memories we recall intentionally -Two types: 1-Episodic memory (recollection of events on our lives) 2-Semantic memory (knowledge of facts about the world) -Damage to hippocampus impairs declarative memory

Question 32

Define: Non-declarative memory

Answer 32

-aka Implicit memory -Memories we don't deliberately remember -Four types: [remember 1st one] 1-Procedural memory (how to do things, esp motor skills) 2-Priming (identify a stimulus more quickly after we've encountered a similar stimulus, eg, see QUEEN, more likely to comlplete K___ as KING) 3-Conditioning 4-Habituation

Question 33

Define: Primacy effect

Answer 33

- Tendency to remember stimuli early in list | - Reflects workings of LTM due to rehearsal

Question 34

Define: Recency effect

Answer 34

- Tendency to remember stimuli later in list | - Reflects workings of STM (was there more recently)

Question 35

Define: Von Restorff effect

Answer 35

-Remembering items that are distinctive/stick out

Question 36

Children and memory

Answer 36

- Younger children overestimate their recall ability | - Older are more accurate

Question 37

Implicit memory in infants

Answer 37

- "moving mobile" experiment - 2mo old retained memories for 24 hrs - 3mo old retained for one week - Infantile memory partly due to underdeveloped hippocampus (for LTM and episodic memory)

Question 38

Define: Source monitoring [confusion]

Answer 38

- Misattribution of source of memory | - eg, Father's bedtime stories become your actual memories

Question 39

Define: misinformation effect

Answer 39

- creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading info about event after it takes place - eg, saying car "crashed, bumped, hit, contacted" affects memory of car's speed

Question 40

Optimizing eye-witness testimony

Answer 40

- Sequential is better than simultaneous (photos/lineup) - Person conducting interview should not know who suspect is--bias - Caution witness against guessing - The shorter the time after the event, the better

Question 41

Define: State-dependent vs Context-dependent

Answer 41

- State-dependent: superior memory retrieval when in same psychological/physiological state as during encoding (mood/alcohol, etc) - Context-dependent: superior memory retrieval when in same external context (scuba divers, etc)