Chapter 7: LTM: Encoding, Retrieval, Consolidation

Question 1

What is encoding?

Answer 1

Acquiring information and transforming it into memory

Question 2

What is storage?

Answer 2

Maintaining information over time

Question 3

What is retrieval?

Answer 3

Transferring information from LTM to working memory the means of using stored information

Question 4

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 4

Repetition of stimulus that maintains information but does not transfer it to long-term memory

Question 5

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 5

Using meanings and connections to help transfer information to long-term memory

Question 6

What does memory depend on?

Answer 6

How information is encoded.

Question 7

What are the two processing depths?

Answer 7

Shallow processing
Deep processing

Question 8

What is shallow processing?

Answer 8

*Little attention to meaning
*Focus on physical features
*Poor memory

Question 9

What is deep processing?

Answer 9

*Close attention to meaning
*Better memory

Question 10

What other factors aid encoding?

Answer 10

Visual imagery, self-reference effect, generation effect, organizing to-be-remembered information, relating words to survival value, and retrieval practice

Question 11

What is cued recall with visual imagery?

Answer 11

It turns a repeated word/phrase into a memorable picture. It can be extremely powerful.

Question 12

What are our failures to remember?

Answer 12

Mostly, it’s our failure to retrieve a memory.

Question 13

What is cued recall?

Answer 13

A cue presented to aid recall. Increased performance over free recall. Most effective when created by the person who uses them.

Question 14

Where did the best recall occur?

Answer 14

Best recall occurred when encoding and retrieval occurred in the same location

Question 15

What can affect study?

Answer 15

Place, noise, and mood

Question 16

What is State-Dependent Learning?

Answer 16

Learning is associated with a particular internal state; better memory is person’s mood at encoding matches the mood during retrieval.

Question 17

What is transfer-appropriate processing?

Answer 17

Memory task results improve if the type of processing used during encoding in the same as the type during retrieval

Question 18

What does consolidation do?

Answer 18

Transforms new memories from a fragile state to a more permanent state. Consists of synaptic and systems consolidation, which occur together and not in stages

Question 19

What is synaptic consolidation?

Answer 19

Rapid (minutes or hours); occurs at the synapses

Question 20

What is systems consolidation?

Answer 20

Gradual (months or years); reorganization of neuron circuits in the brain

Question 21

What is long-term potentiation?

Answer 21

Enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation (neurons that fire together, wire together); structural changes and enhanced responding

Question 22

What connections between the cortex, hippocampus, and cortical areas are initially strong and weak in the standard model of consolidation?

Answer 22

Connections between the cortex and hippocampus are initially strong and connections between cortical areas are weak.

Question 23

What is activity between the hippocampus and cortex called?

Answer 23

Reactivation

Question 24

During consolidation, what happens to the connections between the cortex, hippocampus, and cortical areas?

Answer 24

Connections between the hippocampus and cortex weaken and connections between cortical areas become stronger until eventually, only intercortical connections remain

Question 25

What is the difference between retrograde and anterograde amnesia?

Answer 25

Retrograde amnesia is the degradation of long-term memory from previously established memories. Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new long-term memories.

Question 26

Graded amnesia

Answer 26

Memory for recent events is more fragile than for remote events

Question 27

When is the hippocampus activated during the trace model of consolidation?

Answer 27

During retrieval of both recent and remote memories.

Question 28

What is the multiple trace mode process?

Answer 28

Like the standard model, connections between the hippocampus and cortex are initially strong, and intercortical connections are weak. But as time passes, intercortical connections strengthen and the hippocampus-cortical connection remains

Question 29

When is memory consolidation enhanced?

Answer 29

During sleep, perhaps because sleep stops environmental interference from stimuli.

Question 30

What parts of sleep are important for memory?

Answer 30

*REM is important for memory that includes motor skills
*Slow waves (stages 3&4) sleep is important for verbal learning

Question 31

What is reconsolidation?

Answer 31

Memories that are taken out to be examined and then consolidated again; retrieved memories become fragile and open to errors

Question 32

What happened in the Brunet and coworkers (2008) Reconsolidation and PTSD experiment?

Answer 32

Participants reactivated a traumatic memory and took the drug propranolol, which blocks amygdala stress receptors during reconsolidation of the memory, and found that later reactivation of the same memory showed lower stress responses.

Question 33

What are some effective studying strategies?

Answer 33

*Elaborate—associate what you are learning with what you know
*Generate questions and self-test
*Take breaks/multiple study sessions are much better than one large block
*Consolidation is enhanced by sleep
*Avoid the “Illusion of learning”; familiarity does not mean comprehension