Lecture 3 Human Memory

Question 1

​1. Differentiate between declarative and procedural memories.

Answer 1

Declarative memories: explicit memories, memory concerning facts and events, knowledge of which we are consciously aware, includes semantic and episodic memories:
Semantic: generalized knowledge about the world, e.g. capital of North Dakota, how to tell time, etc. it is independent of sequence and context in which information occurs, stored independently from where and when they were learned – know not to cross street on red light, don’t know when you learned it
Episodic: specific events as related to an individual – where and when you attended grammar school. it is autobiographical, and context and sequence related – when and where events occurred

Procedural memories: knowledge of how to perform tasks

• contains memories underlying skills in all three domains of skilled behaviour – cognitive, perceptual, and motor
• can know everything there is to know about something, and still not be able to do it
• skills carried out without need for conscious thought –> referred to as “automaticity”
• procedural knowledge not stored directly into the procedural memory system – transferred from declarative –> must first learn the ‘rules’

Question 2

3 stages of memory

Answer 2

sensory
short term (working)
long term

Question 3

sensory memory

Answer 3

• first stage in memory process
• info from the environment enters memory through this stage
• acts as a clearing house
• filters through unimportant info
• separate sensory memory stores (registers) for each sense
• visual info is held for about 1/2 a second
• auditory info is held for 1+ seconds
• 99% of info in sensory memory is never transferred farther than that

Question 4

semantic vs episodic memories

Answer 4

Semantic: generalized knowledge about the world, e.g. capital of North Dakota, how to tell time, etc. it is independent of sequence and context in which information occurs, stored independently from where and when they were learned – know not to cross street on red light, don’t know when you learned it

             Episodic: specific events as related to an individual -- where and when you attended grammar school. it is autobiographical, and context and sequence related -- when and where events occurred

Question 5

short term memory

Answer 5

• ‘working memory’
• temporary workspace in which long-term memories can be retrieved and coupled with sensory inputs as part of the decision making process
• essential part of conscious awareness, attention, mental activity, and motor control
• responsible for decision making and commanding the musculature to carry out those decisions
• limited capacity (7 +/-2) (chunks the STM is capable of handling)
• can hold it for 20-30 seconds or 8-10 minutes with rehearsal

Question 6

Long term memory

Answer 6

• responsible for learning
• permanent
• unlimited capacity
• includes procedural, semantic, and episodic information encoding in a way that allows for retrieval
• process for encoding from working memory is dependent on rehearsal
• 3 variables; greater attention to it, greater your motivation or interest, greater the probability to encode it
• lack of motivation leads to near impossibility at forming LTMs

Question 7

Consolidation

-how can we enhance it?

Answer 7

-Consolidation is the process by which memories become permanent –> encoding from working to long term memories
-can be facilitated by practice, attention, motivation, but also the schedule and presentation of practice
-Primacy-Recency Effects;
-order in which info is presented
-“serial-order effect”
-the effect on learning of positioning during a practice session
-the observation that the beginning (primacy) and the ending (recency) of practice will be best recalled
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