Chapter 8: Memory

Question 1

Memory can be though of as an _________ process, meaning that we remember what is appropriate to remember by combining what we have already stored about the past and our current perception of the situation at hand.

Answer 1

interpretive

Question 2

A memory for the circumstances and events surrounding emotionally significant and surprising events is a _________.

Answer 2

flashbulb memory

Question 3

In terms of memory, what is reconstruction?

Answer 3

a change in our memory of something that we may think we remember as verbatim

Question 4

Define the following memory terms: memory, encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Answer 4

memory-capacity to preserve and recover information

encoding-process that controls how memories are formed

storage-process that controls how memories are stored over time

retrieval-process that controls how memories are recovered and translated into performance

Question 5

What is the flow of events in a basic memory forming process?

Answer 5

encoding –> storage –> retrieval

Question 6

An exact replica of an environmental message, usually lasting only 750 ms.

Answer 6

sensory memory

Question 7

How did George Sperling test sensory memory?

Answer 7

by flashing a group of letters for a brief time to individuals, but only asking them to remember one row instead of all of them

Question 8

There are two terms used to describe two kinds of sensory memories. What are they, and how are they different?

Answer 8

icon: storage of a visual sensory memory
echo: storage of an auditory sensory memory

Question 9

Rehearsal can be used to maintain something in our _______ ______ _________.

Answer 9

short term memory

Question 10

Describe Peterson and Peterson’s experiment that showed evidence for rehearsal in STM.

Answer 10

Had subjects remember three letters for 10 seconds, and another group remember three letters for 10 seconds while counting to ten. It was harder for those that had to remember with interference from counting.

Question 11

Rapid decay and interference get in the way of STM. Define them.

Answer 11

rapid decay-information quickly fades without rehearsal

interference-something else gets in the way of us remembering by blocking our ability to rehearse

Question 12

The time limit on what our STM can hold is approximately what we can rehearse in _____ seconds.

Answer 12

2.5

Question 13

Define these mechanisms of the working memory model: phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive

Answer 13

phonological loop-stores word sounds like the inner voice

visuospatial sketchpad-stores visual and spatial information

central executive-determines which mechanism to use, coordinates among them

Question 14

What three kinds of memory are stored long term?

Answer 14

episodic, semantic, and procedural

Question 15

Define episodic memory.

Answer 15

memory of a particular event that happened to you personally

Question 16

What type of long term memory describes memory of how to do certain things, like athletic skills, everyday skills, etc.?

Answer 16

procedural memory

Question 17

What type of long term memory relates to knowledge about the world, or facts that in no way relate to personal experiences?

Answer 17

semantic memory

Question 18

When encoding for long-term memory, it is helpful to use _____ that help us remember certain information, called the ________.

Answer 18

cues, target

Question 19

Matching cues closely to the target information is know as the _______ _______ ____.

Answer 19

encoding-retrieval match

Question 20

Encoding-retrieval match can be taken a step further with transfer-appropriate processing. What is that?

Answer 20

selecting an appropriate encoding process based on your knowledge of how the information will have to be recalled

eg. studying for an essay test by practicing essays, vocabulary test by flashcards, etc.

Question 21

Describe reconstructive remembering.

Answer 21

We tend to fill in gaps in our memories with personal experiences, cues we have available, our expectations of what we think should have happened, etc.

Question 22

What is a memory schema?

Answer 22

organized knowledge structure in long-term memory

we remember certain things based on a logical flow of how we think they should happen based on several past, similar experiences.

Question 23

What did Loftus and Palmer’s experiment illustrate?

Answer 23

how the wording of a question can affect our memory of an event, aka that memory reconstruction is adaptive and can lead to memory errors

Question 24

What is elaboration?

Answer 24

a process by which someone adds specific cues to to-be-remembered info, helping distinguish it from already remembered information or connect to already remembered information, to make retrieval easier

Question 25

What are some ways to improve elaboration?

Answer 25

(1) meaning
(2) relationships
(3) differences
(4) mental pictures
(5) spacing
(6) sequence position

Question 26

What are the primacy and recency effects in regards to sequence position?

Answer 26

primacy: tendency to remember things from the beginning of a list
recency: tendency to remember things towards the end of a list that we heard most recently

Question 27

When we remember something without a conscious awareness of it, it is termed _______ ________.

Answer 27

implicit memory

Question 28

What was Ebbinghaus’ contribution to the study of forgetting?

Answer 28

demonstrated that forgetting is rapid at first, followed by a gradual decline (forgetting curve is downward exponential)

Question 29

Why is forgetting adaptive?

Answer 29

we must update our memory and be able to discriminate one occurrence from another

e.g.: if we could never forget where we parked, we would not be able to discriminatively remember where we parked our car one day

Question 30

Why is the idea of decay a limited explanation of why we forget information?

Answer 30

It does not explain why forgotten information can sometimes be retrieved if given the right cue.

Question 31

Because of the limitations of the decay theory, what has replaced it as a more plausible theory of forgetting?

Answer 31

interference

Question 32

Name and describe the two kinds of interference.

Answer 32

retroactive: formation of new memories hurts retention of old memories
proactive: old memories interfere with the formation of new memories

The type of interference is named according to which kind memory formation it interferes with.

Question 33

Illustrate the two kinds of interference with the password example used in class.

Answer 33

At first, proactive interference occurs when the old password hinders your ability to remember the new one. Then, retroactive interference prevents you from remembering the old one.

Question 34

Name and describe the two kinds of amnesia.

Answer 34

anterograde: loss of ability to form new memories after accident
retrograde: loss of ability to remember things before accident