B3 Objectives

Question 1

Sensory Memory

Answer 1

Registers environmental informations and stores it for a short time; continuous snapshots

Question 2

Short Term Memory

Answer 2

Working memory; temporarily holds all information you are thinking of are consciously aware of

Question 3

Long Term Memory

Answer 3

Long term storage of information

Question 4

Capacity of Information

Answer 4

The capacity of the short term memory is limited to 7 items; chunking information increases STM capacity

Question 5

Duration of Information

Answer 5

Information is held in the short term memory for 20 seconds; can be retained longer with rehearsal

Question 6

Braddeley’s Model of Working Memory

Answer 6

1) phonological loop: specialized for verbal information
2) visuospatial Sketchpad: specialized for spatial or visual information
3) central executive: controls attention, integrates information from other systems, manages activity, initiated retrieval and decision processes

Question 7

What are three factors that enhance encoding into LTM?

Answer 7

1) elaborative rehearsal: focusing on the meaning of information
2) self-reference effect: applying the information to yourself
3) visual imagery: the use of images; flash cards

Question 8

Procedural Memory

Answer 8

LTM of how to perform skills, operations and actions.

Question 9

Episodic Memory

Answer 9

LTM of specific events or episodes, including the time and place where they occurred.

Question 10

Semantic Memory

Answer 10

General knowledge; facts, names, definitions, concepts, ideas.

Question 11

Explicit Memory

Answer 11

Memory with awareness; information that can be consciously recalled.

Question 12

Implicit Memory

Answer 12

Memory without awareness; memories that affect behavior, knowledge or performance without being consciously recalled.

Question 13

Clustering

Answer 13

Organizing pieces of information into related groups

Question 14

Semantic Network Model

Answer 14

Logical associations; when concepts are activated in the semantic network it spreads and activates other associations in the network.

Question 15

Retrieval Cues

Answer 15

Clues, prompts or hints that can help trigger a stored memory

Question 16

Retrieval Cue Failure

Answer 16

The inability to recall long term memories, which results from inadequate or missing retrieval cues.

Question 17

Serial Position Effect

Answer 17

The tendency to remember things at the top and bottom of lists instead of the middle.

Question 18

Encoding Specificity Principle

Answer 18

The closer the retrieval cue is to the information you are attempting to recall, the more likely is is that retrieval will occur.

Question 19

Flashbulb Memories

Answer 19

Memories resulting from bizarre, unusual and surprising events; easier to recall due to high levels of distinctiveness

Question 20

What two conclusions can be drawn from Ebbinghaus’ research on forgetting?

Answer 20

1) every memory eventually loses its capacity for retrieval

2) crammed information soon vanishes if not grounded in study and review

Question 21

Encoding Failure

Answer 21

Occurs when information was never encoded in the LTM in the first place

Question 22

Decay Theory

Answer 22

When memories are not used they fade away as a matter of normal brain processing

Question 23

Interference Theory

Answer 23

Forgetting is caused by one memory competing with or replacing another memory; occurs when memories are very similar.

Question 24

Motivated Forgetting

Answer 24

The tendency to forget a memory because it is disturbing or unpleasant.

Question 25

Suppression

Answer 25

Occurs when you consciously forget information

Question 26

Repression

Answer 26

Motivated forgetting that occurs unconsciously; Memory is blocked from conscious awareness

Question 27

Misinformation Effect

Answer 27

A memory distortion that occurs when existing memories are altered by exposure to misleading information.

Question 28

Schema Distortion

Answer 28

Schemas are organized clusters of knowledge and information about particular topics; distortions occur when your schema fills in information wasn’t present or fails to remember information that was

Question 29

Imagination Inflation

Answer 29

A memory phenomenon in which vividly imagining an event increases confidence that the event actually occurred.

Question 30

False Familiarity

Answer 30

Increased feelings of familiarity due to repeatedly imagining an event.

Question 31

Source Confusion

Answer 31

Memory distortion that occurs when the source of a memory is forgotten or when a memory is attributed to the wrong source.

Question 32

What two conclusions can be drawn from Lashley’s and Thompson’s research?

Answer 32

1) interrelated memories are not localized, but are stored throughout the brain
2) classically conditioned reflexes are locally stored in the cerebellum

Question 33

Prefrontal Cortex

Answer 33

Memory involving the sequence of events, but not the events themselves.

Question 34

Amygdala

Answer 34

Encodes emotional aspects of memory.

Question 35

Medial Temporal Lobe

Answer 35

Encodes and transfers new explicit memories to LTM

Question 36

Hippocampus

Answer 36

Encodes and transfers new explicit memories to LTM

Question 37

Cerebellum

Answer 37

Stores memories involving movement

Question 38

Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 38

Inability to recall some or all of the past, especially episodic events; results from a blow to the head.

Question 39

Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 39

Inability to form new memories.

Question 40

Beta-amyloid Plaques

Answer 40

Dense deposits of proteins and other cell materials outside and around neurons interfering with neural communication, damaging the neurons and eventually killing them.

Question 41

Neurofibrillary Tangles

Answer 41

Twisted fibers that build up inside of neurons cutting off nutrient supplies, eventually killing them.