Lecture 9 Memory

Question 1

Who established the experimental study of memory?

Answer 1

Hermann Ebbinghaus, using lists of nonsense trigrams.

Question 2

What are Spacing Effects?

Answer 2

Repetitions are more effective if spaced out over time (A-B-C) rather than massed consecutively (A-A-A).

Question 3

What are List Length Effects?

Answer 3

Worse memory when studying longer lists versus shorter lists. Explained by Interference Theory.

Question 4

Describe Ebbinghaus’s Forgetting Curve.

Answer 4

The shape of how memory declines is non-linear: a lot of forgetting happens quickly, then less over time. Supports a Power function.

Question 5

What is the Law of Recency?

Answer 5

Recent information is better remembered. The decay rate for older information is slower than for newer information.

Question 6

What is the Law of Primacy?

Answer 6

Better memory for items that were at the start of a sequence (or induced by event changes).

Question 7

What is the Testing Effect?

Answer 7

Testing/retrieval practice improves memory more than re-learning, especially after a delay.

Question 8

What are the two main causes of forgetting?

Answer 8

Encoding Failure (never learned) and Retrieval Failure (learned but inaccessible).

Question 9

What is the mechanism of Decay Theory?

Answer 9

Stored memories fade or degrade over time.

Question 10

What lab paradigm supported Decay Theory initially?

Answer 10

Brown-Peterson Paradigm (trigram + counting backward).

Question 11

What is the main criticism of Decay Theory?

Answer 11

Time itself does not cause forgetting; it is likely caused by interfering mental activity.

Question 12

What is the mechanism of Interference Theory (Response Competition)?

Answer 12

Forgetting occurs because of competition between items being retrieved by the same cue.

Question 13

Define Proactive Interference (PI).

Answer 13

Inability to retrieve new associates because of interference from older ones.

Question 14

Define Retroactive Interference (RI).

Answer 14

Inability to retrieve old associates because of interference from newer ones.

Question 15

What did Keppel & Underwood (1962) show about Interference?

Answer 15

Showed almost no forgetting in Brown-Peterson task on the first trial, but memory quickly worsens due to PI from previous trials.

Question 16

What is Release from PI?

Answer 16

Switching the stimulus type (e.g., digits to letters, or changing semantic category) causes a big improvement in performance.

Question 17

What are the two memory states in Consolidation Theory?

Answer 17

Perseveration Period (fragile, vulnerable) and Consolidation Phase (permanent, stored).

Question 18

What is the Consolidation Theory prediction regarding sleep?

Answer 18

Mental inactivity (e.g., sleep) following learning should enhance consolidation.

Question 19

What evidence falsified Consolidation Theory’s prediction of permanent loss?

Answer 19

Memories forgotten after trauma (ECS) were retrieved 72 hours later, suggesting retrieval failure, not storage loss.

Question 20

What is the mechanism of Inhibition Theory?

Answer 20

Remembering a specific item causes the suppression/forgetting of related, competing items.

Question 21

Describe the Retrieval-Induced Forgetting (RIF) paradigm.

Answer 21

Practicing some items from a category (e.g., FRUIT-ORANGE) impairs recall for unpracticed items (e.g., FRUIT-APPLE) from that same practiced category.

Question 22

What is Cue Independence in RIF?

Answer 22

Forgetting (inhibition) is evident even when using a novel cue (e.g., a different color cue). This supports Inhibition over Interference.

Question 23

What is Retrieval Dependence in RIF?

Answer 23

RIF occurs only when there is competition during retrieval (not just restudying), also supporting Inhibition over Interference.

Question 24

What is the traditional view of attention (space-based)?

Answer 24

Attention acts on regions of space (e.g., Spotlight Theory, FIT, Guided Search).

Question 25

What is the alternative, object-based view of attention?

Answer 25

Attention acts on perceptual objects rather than space itself.

Question 26

Rock & Gutman (1981) – What did overlapping figure studies show?

Answer 26

Selective attention was possible for objects in the same space; memory only for attended object.

Question 27

Tipper (1985) – What is negative priming?

Answer 27

Slower naming of an object if it was ignored previously → ignored objects processed up to recognition.

Question 28

Duncan (1984) – What was the main finding?

Answer 28

Higher accuracy reporting two attributes of the same object vs. different objects.

Question 29

Egly, Driver & Rafal (1994) – What did the rectangle cueing task show?

Answer 29

Same-object advantage: faster responses to targets within the same object, even at equal spatial distance.

Question 30

Moore, Yantis & Vaughan (1998) – What did occlusion studies reveal?

Answer 30

Same-object advantage persisted despite occlusion → attention spreads to whole perceived objects.

Question 31

What neuroimaging evidence supports object-based attention?

Answer 31

fMRI: Attending to faces ↑ FFA, attending to houses ↑ PPA → neural signatures of object selection.

Question 32

What does object-based attention summary suggest?

Answer 32

Attention enhances entire objects; ignored objects still influence performance.

Question 33

What is visual neglect?

Answer 33

Deficit in attending to stimuli on one side (usually left) after right parietal damage.

Question 34

Is neglect blindness?

Answer 34

No, visual input intact but inaccessible to awareness.

Question 35

How does neglect manifest clinically?

Answer 35

Omit left side in drawings, ignore left in cancellation tests, fail to groom/dress left side.

Question 36

What did Posner’s cueing show in neglect patients?

Answer 36

Valid left cues: near-normal. Invalid cues: severe left deficit → problem is disengaging/reorienting.

Question 37

What is extinction?

Answer 37

Failure to perceive contralesional stimulus when both sides stimulated simultaneously.

Question 38

What is Balint’s Syndrome?

Answer 38

Bilateral parietal/occipital damage → simultanagnosia, optic ataxia, illusory conjunctions.

Question 39

Why is Balint’s Syndrome significant?

Answer 39

Shows need for attention to bind features into coherent objects.

Question 40

What is inhibition of return (IOR)?

Answer 40

Slower response at cued location after delay → prevents rechecking old locations.

Question 41

How did Tipper (1991) show object-based IOR?

Answer 41

Rotated cued objects; inhibition followed object, not fixed space.

Question 42

What did Behrmann & Tipper (1994) find about object-based neglect?

Answer 42

Neglect shifted with rotated object (barbell task) → neglect of objects, not only space.

Question 43

Integrative conclusion – what are the two levels of attention?

Answer 43

Space-based (spotlight) and object-based (tracking/selection).

Question 44

Which unit is most fundamental for attentional selection?

Answer 44

Objects are fundamental units, supported by behavioral, clinical, and neuroimaging evidence.