cog psych: memory

Question 1

what are the types of memory?

Answer 1

• WM (working memory)
• LTM (long term memory)

Question 2

what is WM and the serial position effect?

Answer 2

• WM: the ability to process & maintain temporary information in a range of everyday activities e.g. planning/reasoning
• serial position effect: can recall items from the beginning & end of a list, middle is forgotten (primary/recency effect)

Question 3

what are the 2 types of LTM?

Answer 3

• declarative memory (explicit): can be consciously recalled, episodic & semantic memory
• procedural memory (implicit): unconscious skills & habits, things you do

Question 4

LTM: what is episodic & semantic memory?

Answer 4

• episodic: personal experiences, autobiographical episodic memory, flashbulb memory
• semantic: general knowledge & facts, meanings

Question 5

what are the 2 types of interference?

Answer 5

• when information is learned and disrupts other information
• retroactive: forget old info
• proactive: forget new info

Question 6

biological memory, role of the hippocampus

Answer 6

• MAGUIRE ET AL. taxi drivers
• posterior hippocampus larger in taxi drivers than a control group, direct correlation to time in the job
• evidence for neuroplasticity

Question 7

memory & attention

Answer 7

• if you pay attention, the information will go into your memory
• poor attention = poor retention

Question 8

memory & perception

Answer 8

• context effects rely on memory
• top-down processing
• episodic memories are not stored as a whole narrative: perception-encode-reconstruction-memories
• how something is described affects how it’s remembered (false memories)

Question 9

memory disorders: what is dementia?

Answer 9

• broad umbrella term, cognitive decline related to brain atrophy

Question 10

memory disorders: what is Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 10

• the progressive decline in memory, reasoning & problem-solving due to neurodegeneration
• leads to loss of function

Question 11

memory disorders: dementia & personhood

Answer 11

• your identity is linked with memory and your relationships
• people with dementia lose their personhood

Question 12

memory disorders: what is amnesia?

Answer 12

• forgetting facts, information, experiences
• temporary/permanent

Question 13

memory disorders: what is aphasia?

Answer 13

• acquired due to injury
• impaired language ability
• Broca: understand but can’t produce speech
• Wernicke: produce but can’t understand speech

Question 14

memory disorders: what is PTSD?

Answer 14

• intense, disturbing, & intrusive thoughts & feelings related to an experience that lasts long after the traumatic event has occurred
• e.g. shell shock

Question 15

memory, sleep, & dreams

Answer 15

• encoding, consolidation (sleep), retrieval
• REM sleep (dreams)

Question 16

what is day-residue & dream-lag?

Answer 16

• day-residue: Freudian, dream about today’s experiences
• dream-lag: 5-7 days after today you’ll dream about what happened
• dream-lag is evidence for dreams being involved in memory consolidation
• correlation ≠ causality