Chapter 8: Memory

Question 1

A set of processes in the brain allowing us to accsess information.

• Involves 3 basic activities:
• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval

Answer 1

Memory

Question 2

1 of 3 Basic activities of memory

Getting information into memeory in the first place. How our brain organizes information to make sure we can use it when we need it again.

Answer 2

Encoding

Question 3

Encoding of information with little concious awareness of effort.

• Time, space, or frequency
• Still have to pay attention (less apparent), no costs to task switching

Answer 3

Automatic Processing

Question 4

Encoding of information through careful attention and concious effort. Intentional ad conscious attention. Needed for learning new information, more effective.

• Cheryll cant walk and drink water at the same time
• Cant talk on the phone while someone else is trying to have a conversation with you.

Answer 4

Effortful Processing

Question 5

Type of Encoding

Cognitive representation of information or an event based on the meaning of the information. Linking information together based on shared meaning.

• We group things that are similar: Gestalt principles
• More connection = better ability to remember it

Answer 5

Semantic Codes

• Research suggests semantic codes (deeper processing) result in better memory than visual or acoustic codes.

Question 6

Type of Encoding

Cognitive representations of information or an event based on the image.

Answer 6

Visual Codes

Question 7

Type Of Encoding

Cognitive representations of information or an event based on the sounds of the words. Attaching a song or ryhtmic beat to something.

Answer 7

Acoustic (Phonological) Codes

Question 8

Better memory for information that relates to the self. If you can relate it to your life, you are more likely to remember it.

Answer 8

Self-reference

Question 9

1 of 3 Basic activities of memory

Retaining memories for further use.

Answer 9

Storage

Question 10

Suggests information moves among 3 memory stores during encoding, storage, and retrieval. Is analogus to a computer. One at a time through different levels. Information must pass through 3 stages, or systems of mental functioning to be put in memory.

Stages include:
- Sensory Memory (SM)
- Short-term Memory (STM)
- Long-term Memory (LTM)

Answer 10

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

Question 11

Message is fleeting. Holds everything we see (iconic), hear (echoic), taste, touch, and smell for a few seconds or less. Assumed to have large capacity. If all goes well this information will move along to the next stage.

• Very large capacity, near infinite, for a little bit of time.
• If we want information to make it back to us, has to go to short-term.

Answer 11

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Sensory Memory

Question 12

Temporary storage lasting between 15-30 sec. Finite amount of information that it can hold, has limits. If we want to keep the information, we have to go over it. Subject to interference.

Answer 12

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Short-term Memory

Rehersal: attending to information to move it from STM to LTM.
- Memory trace decay = 18 sec

Question 13

Unlimited and forever lasting storage. Organized by concepts or semantic networks.

• Spreading Activation: Ripple effect

Answer 13

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model: Long-term Memory

Question 14

Predominant model used right now. No specific area of the brain that holds memory. Working memory: workspace, the reason you can keep something in your mind while doing something else.

Answer 14

Baddeley and Hitch Model

Question 15

Main concept of the Baddeley and Hitch Model. Holds information for 30 seconds; capacity of 5-9 items. Has 3 subsystems.

Answer 15

Working Memory

Subsystems Include:
- Central Executive
- Phonological Loop and Visuospatial Sketchpad
- Episodic Buffer

Question 16

Working Memory Subsystem

Supervisory role, monitors and coordinates the working memory system.

Answer 16

Central Executive

Question 17

Working Memory Subsystem

Processes spoken and written information (“little voice”) and keeps track of images and spatiial locations (“inner eye”).

• On average
• Work on different modalities of info

Answer 17

Phonological Loop and Visuospatial Sketchpad

Question 18

Working Memory Subsystem

Links information from the other parts of working memory and creates links to time and order and links to long-term memory.

Answer 18

Episodic Buffer

Question 19

Suggests that information is represented in the brain as a pattern of activation across entire neural networks. New pieces of information immediately join with other (already acquired) information and grow networks of information.

• Memory should be viewed like a network
• Dominated memory research
• Activates related neurons

Answer 19

Parallel Distributed-Processing Theory

Question 20

Memory with conscious recall.

Declarative

2 major classifications:
- Episodic memory
- Semantic memory

Answer 20

Explicit Memory

Question 21

Classification of Explicit Memory

Events we have personally experienced. Typically reported as a narrative (hence declarative). What, when, where, types of events. You tell it like a story, it is personal to you. Also called Autobiographical Memory.

Ex: highschool graduation, birth of first child.

Answer 21

Episodic Memory

Question 22

Classification of Explicit Memory

Knowledge of words and concepts. Typically reported as facts. Facts, general knowledge, logic.

Ex: bananas are yellow, spiders have 8 legs, there are 12 months in a year.

Answer 22

Semantic Memory

• Different from semantic cues

Question 23

Memory without conscious recall. Cannot consciously recall; you can’t remember the moment when you learned the places of keys on a keyboard.

Answer 23

Implicit Memory

Question 24

Memory for how we do something. Skilled action like tying your shoes or riding a bike.

Answer 24

Procedural Memory

Question 25

Exposure to a stimulus affects later behaviour. Words, pictures, sounds. Prime the brain to recall specific things.

• Cheryll showed us the animal/faces photos

Answer 25

Priming

Question 26

Knowledge of words and concepts. Often unknowingly linked to other stimuli such as images, sounds, or smells.

• ! represents excitment
• Good On Ya strawberries and cream lip balm

Answer 26

Conditioning

Question 27

1 of 3 Basic activities of memory

Recapturing memories when you need them. Kind of ‘search’ process where the memory is scanned for information.

Answer 27

Retrieval

• Researchers are not sure how we retrieve memory

Question 28

Words, sights, or other stimuli that remind us of the information we need to retrieve from our memory.

Answer 28

Retrieval Cues

Question 29

Memory tasks in which people are asked to produce information using no or few retrival cues.

• Retrieval cues help us remember
• Different performance based tasks that can help us recall information

Answer 29

Recall Tasks

Question 30

Memory taks in which people are asked to identify whether or not they have seen a particular item before. Information is given to you, do you recognize it?

Ex: Multiple choice, the answer is there, do you recognize it?

Answer 30

Recognition Tasks

Question 31

Learning information that you have previously learned. Do I still know how to ride a bike? You get on and quickly…..

Answer 31

Relearning

• Relearn content faster than the first time you learned it
• Tons of research tells us that recognition is easier and stays in our memory longer.

Question 32

The original location where you first learned a concept or idea, rich with retrieval cues that will make it more likely to recall that information later if you are in that same location or context.

• returning to an old school, or back home =. We experience a flood of memories asociated with that place.

Answer 32

Context Dependant Learning

Question 33

Memory involving a location (physical space) for specific information or an event.

• Memory palaces inhance memory. Tie info to familiar spaces.

Answer 33

Spatial Learning

• Non human animals rely on spatial memory for survival.
• Food, predators, safe spaces, mating

Question 34

Memory loss due to disease or trauma

Answer 34

Amnestic

Question 35

Ongoing inability to form new memories after an amnesia-inducing event. Head injuries are a common cause, often damage to hippocampus. May be able to form new procedural memories.

Answer 35

Anterograde Amnesia

Question 36

Inability to remember things that occured before an organic event. Episodic memories are impacted. Can’t remember anything before the accident but can remember afterward.

Answer 36

Retrograde Amnesia

Question 37

Can’t remember something if it was never stored/was not encoded properly

Answer 37

Encoding Failure

Question 38

Forgetting, distortion and intrusion are all…

Answer 38

Memory Errors

Question 39

Loss of information from the long-term memory.

Answer 39

Forgetting

• Ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve

Question 40

The fading of memories over time

Answer 40

Transience

Question 41

Suggests that memories fade over time due to neglect or failure to accsess over long periods of time. 50% loss after 20 mins and 70% loss after 24 hours. Based on the notion that memories leave a memory trace.

• Doesnt account for relearning

Answer 41

Decay Theory

Question 42

Occurs due to breaks or lapses in attention.

• May be encoded, but not stored

Answer 42

Absentmindedness

Question 43

When you can’t get accsess to stored information.

• So stressed it didnt get encoded, could not have rehearsed it enough, etc.

Answer 43

Blocking

Question 44

Fail to record where the information originally came from. Know it, don’t know why or how you know it.

Answer 44

Misattribution

Question 45

When memory is affected by information from someone else. Also, when the effects of misinformation from external sources lead to false memories.

Cousin story example

Contruction - Reconstruction

Answer 45

Suggestibility

Question 46

After exposure to an event, additional and possibly inaccurate information can distort the memory of the orginal event. Important for eye witness testimonies.

Answer 46

Loftus’ Misinformation Effect Paradigm

Question 47

Recall of false autobiographical memories. Entire events, not just details. Remembering things that happened to them that never happened.

• Recall Freudian notions of repression
• Hypnosis or guided imagery techniques

Answer 47

False Memory Syndrome

Question 48

Your own feelings and views of the world can distort memories. Jamal and Howard: who is the basketball player and who is the engineer?

• Sterotype, ego centric, and hindsight

Answer 48

Bias

Question 49

Involuntary recall unwanted or unplesant memories.

• PTSD
• Song you cant get out of your head

Answer 49

Persistence

Question 50

Old information blocks memory of new information.

Answer 50

Proactive Interference

Question 51

New information blocks memory of old information.

• Old information does not always interfere with new information
• learning similar sports
• bilingual people

Answer 51

Retroactive Intereference

Question 52

Ability to remember content in the future. Planning, send that birthday card, and take my meds.

Answer 52

Prospective Memory

• Older people see a greater decline in prospective memory as opposed to Retrospective memory.

Question 53

Ability to remember content from the past. Did I already send that card? Did I already take my meds?

• Hippocampus starts shrinking in early 20s

Answer 53

Retrospective Memory

Question 54

Severe memory problems combined with losses in at least one other cognitive function, such as abstract thinking or language. The most common type of neurodegenerative disorder.

Answer 54

Dementia

• More than 70 forms of dementia have been identified

Question 55

Most common form of dementia (2/3). Usually beginning with mild memory problems, lapses of attention, and problems in language, and progressing to difficulty with even simple tasks and recall of long-held memories.

• Cannot make clear diagnoses until after death.
• Problems with language is a great indicator because theres not a lot of evidence to show that language deteriorates with age.

Answer 55

Alzheimers Disease

Question 56

Twisted protein fibres found within the cells of the hippocampus and certain other brain areas.

Answer 56

Neurofibrillary Tangles

Question 57

Sphere-shaped deposits of a protein known as beta-amyloid that form in the spaces between cells in the hippocampus, cerebral cortex, and certain other brain regions, and some near blood vessels.

• Means its interrupting neural communication because its blocking,

Answer 57

Senile Plaques

Question 58

If a part of the brain involved in memory is damaged, another part of the same area will takeover.

• Neuroplasticity

Answer 58

Equipotentially Hypothesis

Question 59

Suggests that strong emotions form strong memory and weak emotions form weak memory. Strong emotional experiences cause the release of neurotransmitters (glutamate) and stress hormones.

Answer 59

Arousal Theory

Question 60

Detailed and near permanent memories of an emotionally significant event or of the circumtances surrounding the moment we learned about the event. 911, Covid, Princess Dianas death.

• Emotional content can be less remebered when under sedation.

Answer 60

Flashbulb memories

Question 61

Learn through repetition. No easier way than to just know the answer. Ex: Times tables.

Answer 61

Rote Learning

Question 62

Connecting new information to existing (stored) information and create a narrative.

• Putting content into your own words.

Answer 62

Elaborative Rehersal

Question 63

Grouping bits of information together to enhance ability to hold that information in working memory. Allows us to encode more information and store more in working memory.

Answer 63

Chunking

Question 64

Techniques used to enhance the meaningfullness of information as a way of making them more memorable.

Answer 64

Mnemonic Devices