Chp 8.4: Memory As a Constructive Process

Question 1

misinformation effect

Answer 1

the distortion of a memory by misleading post-event information
Eg. Eyewitness testimony, can be affected by phrasing of questioning

Question 2

source confusion/ source monitoring error

Answer 2

tendency to recall something or recognize it as familiar, but misattribute it to a different source

Question 3

boundary extension

Answer 3

remembering a scene as more expansive—as being “wider-angle”—than it really was

Question 4

Recovered memory

Answer 4

Traumatic memory that is inaccessible for a period

Question 5

How are memories physically remembered in the brain?

Answer 5

• Any single memory likely doesn’t have a single location in the brain
• Rather distributed across multiple areas

Question 6

memory consolidation

Answer 6

the creation and binding together of neural codes that allow information to be transferred from short-term memory into long-term memory

Question 7

Hippocampus (6)

Answer 7

• “Encoding station”
• Convert short-term memories to long-term memories
• Important in memory consolidation
• Binding together elements of a memory
• Strengthening long-term memories
• Making them more resistant to interference

Question 8

Memory Consolidation and Sleep

Answer 8

• Sleep is important for stabilizing new memories, transferring them from the hippocampus to the neocortex

Question 9

Complementary Learning Systems (CLS) (2)

Answer 9

• suggests that the brain uses a ‘neocortical’ and a ‘hippocampal’ learning system to achieve complex behavior.
• Faster (plastic) hippocampal system, slower (more stable) neocortical system (McClelland et al., 1995)

Question 10

Which area of the brain mostly responsible for working memory?

Answer 10

Frontal lobes

Question 11

Which area of the brain mostly responsible for procedural memory?

Answer 11

Cerebellum

Question 12

Long-term potentiation

Answer 12

Enduring increase in synaptic strength through prior neural firing

Question 13

A patient of yours has some memory problems. But the problems are very specific– he can not seem to encode or decode emotional memories. You suspect that there may be damage to the _____

Answer 13

Amygdala