TOPIC 8: MEMORY

Question 1

Predominant view of memory

Answer 1

• a form of information processing; applies metaphor
• comprised of different structures (sensory,short-term, &long-term memories) and processes (encoding,storage, &retrieval)

Question 2

Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968):

Answer 2

The Modal Model

Question 3

1. Sensory Memory

Answer 3

Sperling (1960):
Part I:
Part II:

Question 4

part I:

Answer 4

flashed matrix of letters on screen for 50 ms:

• total recall rate: ~50%

Question 5

Part II:

Answer 5

matrix flashed on and off / delay / tone presented

• brief delay: tested recall for desired row ~100%
• accuracy declined as delay increased
• implied complete image was temporarily stored

Question 6

Iconic memory

Answer 6

very accurate, very brief visual sensory memory

Question 7

echoic memory

Answer 7

auditory-based sensory memory

Question 8

2. Short-Term Memory (STM)

Answer 8

George Miller (1956): STM capacity

• measured withdigit-span task - STM capacity = “The Magical Number seven, Plus or Minus Two”

However, more recent work (Baddeley, 1994; Cowan, 2001) puts practical STS capacity at four, plus or minus one.

• chunking

Question 9

digit-span task

Answer 9

list of numbers presented; recite them in the order of presentation

Question 10

chunking

Answer 10

combining items into meaningful units reduces amount to be remembered
- applied in acronyms

Question 11

Peterson & Peterson (1959; also Brown, 1958)

Answer 11

STM duration
- subjects given three consonance and a three-digit number

- during retention interval, had to count backwards by 3s
- after a certain amount of time, recall the three letters

Question 12

results of the Peterson and Peterson

Answer 12

STM fades in less than 20 seconds withoutmaintenance rehearsal

Question 13

maintenance rehearsal

Answer 13

repeating the stimuli

Question 14

Alan Baddeley (1976):

Answer 14

working memoryview of STM emphasizes processing of memories

• phonological loop
• visuospatial sketchpad
• episodic buffer
• central executive

Question 15

phonological loop

Answer 15

stores sound-based information

• has phonological store & subvocal rehearsal process

Question 16

visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 16

for solving problems “in your head”

• has visual cache & inner scribe

Question 17

episodic buffer

Answer 17

temporary storage to/from LTM; also integrates information from other components

Question 18

Central executive

Answer 18

attentional control system

• for coordinating the other functions
• switches between tasks, storage or retrieval strategies
• also transfers memory to/from LTM

Question 19

Serial Position Effect

Answer 19

• shows functional division between STM and LTM
• primacy
• recency

Question 20

primacy

Answer 20

earlier words recalled (are in LTM); due to greater rehearsal (Atkinson & Schiffrin, 1971)?

Question 21

recency

Answer 21

later words recalled (are in STM); delaying test wipes out recency

• middle words may receive interference from both earlier and later words

Question 22

3. Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Answer 22

• capacity virtually unlimited

- duration may be unlimited–for some items, not all

Question 23

•Levels of Processing(Craik & Lockhart, 1972):

Answer 23

• gave participants list of words to remember
  
  • different groups encoded words differently
    • shallow encoding
    • intermediate encoding
    • deep encoding

Question 24

• shallow encoding

Answer 24

based on appearance

Question 25

• intermediate encoding

Answer 25

based on sound

Question 26

deep encoding

Answer 26

based on meaning - deeper processing enhances encoding

Question 27

• elaborative rehearsal

Answer 27

- when encoding new memories, relate them to existing memories - aids in memory consolidation

Question 28

memory consolidation

Answer 28

formation of long-term memories

Question 29

• self-reference effect

Answer 29

- the more meaningful some information is to you, the more likely you are to remember it

Question 30

• visual images

Answer 30

- words that form visual images remembered best (i.e., concrete nouns vs. abstract concepts) - words that form visual images remembered best (i.e., concrete nouns vs. abstract concepts) - explained by dual coding theory

Question 31

dual coding theory:

Answer 31

memory enhanced if encoded by meaning and images

Question 32

• mnemonic devices

Answer 32

techniques to aid memory, often by visually associating to-be-remembered items with a known series of images

Question 33

method of loci:

Answer 33

associate each item with locations in a familiar place (e.g., a “memory palace”)

Question 34

peg-word system:

Answer 34

relate each item to a word that rhymes with a number (e.g., one is a bun, two is a shoe, etc.)

Question 35

Storage

Answer 35

- spread of activation | - semantic (or associative) networks

Question 36

• semantic (or associative) networks:

Answer 36

related concepts in memory are interlinked

Question 37

spread of activation:

Answer 37

thinking about one concept causes other, related concepts to become activated or “primed”

Question 38

Types of Long-Term Memory

Answer 38

explicit (or declarative) memory | • implicit (or nondeclarative) memory

Question 39

explicit (or declarative) memory

Answer 39

conscious, intentional remembering of knowledge or an event -  episodic -  semantic

Question 40

implicit (or nondeclarative) memory

Answer 40

unconscious retention in memory due to previous experience -  procedural - conditioning - priming

Question 41

episodic:

Answer 41

life events

Question 42

semantic:

Answer 42

general knowledge

Question 43

- conditioning:

Answer 43

e.g., classical or operant

Question 44

- priming:

Answer 44

presentation of a stimulus affects response to a subsequent one

Question 45

- procedural:

Answer 45

skills, abilities

Question 46

types of amnesia:

Answer 46

*  retrograde amnesia | *  anterograde amnesia

Question 47

• retrograde amnesia

Answer 47

inability to remember past episodic memories

Question 48

anterograde amnesia

Answer 48

inability to form new explicit memories

Question 49

Retrieval

Answer 49

- recall - recognition - isolation effect.

Question 50

recall

Answer 50

reproducing previously encountered information from memory

Question 51

recognition

Answer 51

identifying previously learned information

Question 52

isolation effect

Answer 52

a distinctive stimulus will be better remembered

Question 53

“flashbulb” memories:

Answer 53

especially strong, vivid, and detailed memories associated with unexpected, emotionally charged events

Question 54

repeated recall:

Answer 54

- immediately following an emotional event, record a person’s experience and memories - compare these to a surprise reassessment at a later time

Question 55

are memories for saliant events and surroundings better then those for everyday events?

Answer 55

yes.

Question 56

encoding specificity principle:

Answer 56

memory retrieval is enhanced when retrieval conditions match encoding conditions

Question 57

- context- dependent memory:

Answer 57

depends on matching external cues

Question 58

results of the Godden & Baddeley (1975): does context matter?

Answer 58

- recall best when retrieval context retrieval learning context

Question 59

state-dependent memory:

Answer 59

depends on matching internal states

Question 60

• forgetting curve

Answer 60

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885):

Question 61

results from Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885):

Answer 61

- forgetting is rapid at first, then more gradual - why? Nonsense is hard to remember - also, recall depends on amount of time spent learning the list

Question 62

• spacing effect

Answer 62

Underwood (1970):

Question 63

Underwood (1970):

Answer 63

- participants practiced list of 42 nouns four times *  massed practice *  distributed practice

Question 64

• massed practice:

Answer 64

information repeated in one long session

Question 65

• distributed practice:

Answer 65

information repeated in separate sessions, with time in between

Question 66

pseudoforgetting

Answer 66

information was not encoded in the first place, so was not forgotten

Question 67

- decay theory:

Answer 67

memories fade with time

Question 68

- interference theory:

Answer 68

memories compete with each other

Question 69

decay:

Answer 69

performance will decline with time equally in both groups

Question 70

interference:

Answer 70

sleep group will perform better than awake group

Question 71

Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924): results

Answer 71

* sleep group had better recall | * implies that interference is responsible for forgetting

Question 72

Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924):

Answer 72

- subjects learned nonsense syllables - tested after certain retention interval, up to 8 hours - one group slept, other stayed awake

Question 73

retroactive interference:

Answer 73

new info makes it harder to remember older info.

Question 74

proactive interference:

Answer 74

already-learned info makes it more difficult to remember new info.

Question 75

misinformation effect

Answer 75

information given after an event can distort the memory

Question 76

 misinformation effect:

Answer 76

information given after an event can distort the memory

Question 77

Loftus:

Answer 77

memory is reconstructive; it is a “rebuilding” of reality, not an exact copy

Question 78

ohnson & colleagues (1993):

Answer 78

source monitering:

Question 79

source monitering

Answer 79

making attributions about the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs

Question 80

source failure:

Answer 80

not knowing the source of a memory

Question 81

source confusion:

Answer 81

misattributing the source of a memory

Question 82

repression:

Answer 82

active submerging of a painful memory without conscious awareness

Question 83

Freud (1901):

Answer 83

- considered repression to be the most powerful defense mechanism used by the ego to reduce anxiety - not confirmed experimentally

Question 84

false memory syndrome:

Answer 84

memory of traumatic experience which is objectively false, but in which the person strongly believes it to be true

Question 85

Loftus & Pickrell (1995):

Answer 85

- participants were made to believe they had been lost in a shopping mall - parents and family members kept reintroducing the topic into conversation - researchers kept asking questions about the (false) event - participants were initially uncertain about these memories, but gradually became more sure

Question 86

results form the Loftus & Pickrell (1995):

Answer 86

* 29% of participants “remembered” false events | * some even provided additional details about the event that never happened

Question 87

Karl Lashley (1950): Where are memories stored?

Answer 87

- trained rats to run a maze, then removed sections of brain - performance gradually deteriorated as more brain removed - could not localize the engram (the physical trace of a memory) - complex memories must be distributed

Question 88

Eric Kandel & colleagues (1971): How are simple memories stored?

Answer 88

- studied Aplysia californica (sea slug): has large, few (20,000) neurons - examined learning via habituation: decrease in response to a stimulus due to repeated stimulus presentation - conditioned the gill withdrawal reflex: stimulation of siphon causes gills to be withdrawn into the body - repeated jets of water produced habituation that lasted several hours - however, multiple daily sessions produced change in behaviour that lasted weeks - studied synapse between siphon sensory neuron and motor neuron for gill withdrawal - found that more neurotransmitters was released - other studies found increased sensitivity in postsynaptic neurons, requiring less neurotransmitter to be released  

Question 89

what does sensory memory allow?

Answer 89

the transfer of information to STM