6. Memory

Question 1

What is encoding?

Answer 1

The process of transforming what we perceive, think, or feel into an enduring memory

Question 2

What is storage?

Answer 2

The process of maintaining information in memory over time

Question 3

What is retrieval?

Answer 3

The process of bringing to mind information hat has been previously encoded and stored

Question 4

How are memories made?

Answer 4

By combining information we already have in our brains with new information that comes in through our senses

Question 5

What is semantic encoding?

Answer 5

The process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory.

Associated with increased activity in the lower left part of the frontal lobe and the inner part of the left temporal lobe. The more activity, the more likely the person will remember

Question 6

What is visual imagery encoding?

Answer 6

The process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures
New info related to knowledge already in memory
Placeholders: verbal and visual
Occipital lobe is active for visual

Question 7

How does visual imagery encoding help memory?

Answer 7

Creating visual images of items on a list helped recall twice as many items as just repeating the words

2. Also creates two different placeholders for the items, verbal and visual

Question 8

What is organizational encoding?

Answer 8

The process of categorizing information according to the relationships among a series of items: furniture, fruit, animals
Different areas of brain
Hierarchical

Question 9

What is survival related encoding?

Answer 9

Information relevant to our survival

Draws on elements of semantic, visual imagery, and organizational encoding, encourages planning

Natural selection

Stranded experiment

Question 10

What is sensory memory?

Answer 10

Storage holding sensory information for a few seconds or less

Tone experiment

Question 11

What happened when researchers played a tone while flashing letters on a screen?

Answer 11

Participants were able to encode each row based on the tone, slipping away after a delay

Question 12

What are the two kinds of sensory memory?

Answer 12

Iconic memory is a fast decaying store of visual memory. 1 second.

Echoic memory is a fast decaying store of auditory information. 5 seconds.

Question 13

What is short term memory?

Answer 13

Holds nonsensory information for more than a few seconds but less than a minute. 15-20 seconds

Question 14

What is rehearsal?

Answer 14

The process of keeping information in short-term by mentally repeating it

Limited to 7 items
Extend 15-20 seconds

Question 15

What is chunking?

Answer 15

Combining small pieces of information into larger clusters of chunks that are more easily held in short term memory

Waitress

Question 16

What is working memory?

Answer 16

Active maintenance of information in short term storage

Ex.: Chess board

Can be trained

Question 17

What is long term memory?

Answer 17

Memory holding information for hours, days, years

Question 18

What role does the hippocampus play?

Answer 18

Index linking all of the separate sensorial and emotional bits of memories

Question 19

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 19

Inability to transfer new information from the short term store into the long term store

Hippocampus damaged

Question 20

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 20

Inability to retrieve information that was acquired before a particular date

Question 21

What is memory consolidation?

Answer 21

The process by which memories become stable in the brain

Car crash prevents consolidation of short term memory into long term

Recalling, talking about consolidates it

Question 22

What is reconsolidation?

Answer 22

Memories can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, thus requiring them to be reconsolidated

Question 23

How does sending neurotransmitters across the synapse change the synapse?

Answer 23

It strengthens the connection between the two neurons, making it easier to transmit to each other the next time

->Long term potentiation: communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier

Rats lost in a maze

Question 24

What does the encoding specificity principle state?

Answer 24

A retrieval cue can serve as an effective reminder when it helps to re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded

Divers

Question 25

Whet is state-dependent retrieval?

Answer 25

The tendency for information to be better recalled when the person is in the same state during encoding and retrieval Emotions

Question 26

What is transfer-appropriate processing?

Answer 26

The idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match

Question 27

What is retrieval-induced forgetting?

Answer 27

Selectively talking about some aspects of memories, making it harder to remember omitted events Competitors suppressed by frontal lobe When witnesses to a staged crime are questioned about details, their ability to recall related details that they were not asked about is impaired

Question 28

How does the brain activate during retrieval?

Answer 28

Trying: left frontal lobe Success: hippocampal region and associated sensorial region Repression of competitor: frontal lobe

Question 29

What is explicit memory?

Answer 29

Conscious or intentional retrieval of past experiences In long term memory Hippocampus

Question 30

What is implicit memory?

Answer 30

When past experiences influence later behaviour and performance, even without an effort to remember those experiences or an awareness of the recollection In long term memory

Question 31

What is procedural memory?

Answer 31

A type of implicit memory which is the gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice. Knowing how to do things. Doesn't require hippocampal structures (amnesia)

Question 32

What is priming?

Answer 32

An enhanced ability to think of a stimulus as a result of recent exposure to the stimulus Fill in the blank tests Fragmented drawings test Doesn't require hippocampus Less involvement of occipital lobe and frontal lobe, saving processing time

Question 33

What is semantic memory?

Answer 33

A network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world Hippocampus not necessary

Question 34

What is episodic memory?

Answer 34

The collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place Time travel Planning future Allows recombining of elements of past experience to mentally try out different versions of what might happen In hippocampus, medial temporal lobe Effects of aging

Question 35

What is collaborative memory?

Answer 35

How people remember in groups Remembering as a collaborative group leads to greater recall than would be achieved by any single member of the group, but less than the total produced by all the individuals remembering on their own Leading to collaborative inhibition

Question 36

What is transience?

Answer 36

Forgetting with time. Retroactive interference: situations in which later learning impairs memory for information acquired earlier Weekly activities Proactive interference: situations in which earlier learning impairs memory for information acquired later

Question 37

What is absentmindedness?

Answer 37

A lapse in attention that results in memory failure Cello Prospective memory: remembering to do things in the future

Question 38

What is blocking?

Answer 38

A failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it Why names of people and places? Because their links to related concepts and knowledge are weaker than for common names Block less often on descriptive names than arbitrary ones Damage to Left temporal lobe on the surface of the cortex, result of stroke

Question 39

What is memory misattribution?

Answer 39

Assigning a recollection or idea to the wrong source. Confusing culprits Source memory: recall of when, where, and how information was acquired. Déjà vu Frontal lobe damage

Question 40

How to reduce false recognition?

Answer 40

Choice between correct and similar Region: left hippocampus

Question 41

What is suggestibility?

Answer 41

The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections

Question 42

What is bias?

Answer 42

The distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences

Question 43

What is persistence?

Answer 43

The intrusive recollection of events that we wish we could forget Flashbulb memories: detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events Amygdala involvement

Question 44

What part of the brain activates during semantic encoding?

Answer 44

Increased activity in lower left part of frontal lobe and inner part of left temporal lobe. More activity present, the more likely person will remember

Question 45

Flow of information through the memory system? | Diagram

Answer 45

``` Sensory input... Sensory memory (unattended information is lost)... With attention ->Short term memory ->stays in memory with maintenance rehearsal (unrehearsed information is lost)... With encoding ->long term memory (some information may be lost over time) With retrieval returns to short term memory ```

Question 46

What did the fact that HM had worse anterograde than retrograde amnesia suggest?

Answer 46

Hippocampus is not site of long term memory. Memory is stored in different places in the cortex

Question 47

What happened when an anxiety reducing drug was administered before a traumatic event was reactivated?

Answer 47

Reduction in traumatic symptoms

Question 48

What happened when people studied and studied vs studied and tested?

Answer 48

At 5 minutes, S/S had higher recall 0.8 units 2 days, S/T had almost double 0.7 units 1 week, S/T more than double 0.6 units

Question 49

What’s the difference between trying to recall and successfully recalling?

Answer 49

Trying: left frontal lobe Success: hippocampus and sensory areas

Question 50

Do people with hippocampal amnesia have difficulty imagining new experiences?

Answer 50

Yes