Exam 2 Flashcards
(128 cards)
1
Q
contains our moment-to-moment thoughts and perceptions
A
short-term memory
2
Q
the set of mechanisms that underlies STM and communicate with LTM
A
working memory
3
Q
Ebbinghaus’ research on short-term memory
A
Ebbinghaus used nonsense syllables as the items to be remembered and determined how many runs through a list of nonsense syllables it would take to recite it perfectly. If a list had 1 item, it only took one look at the item to be able to recall it perfectly. With lists of 7 items he required a single run through the list to recall the items with 100% accuracy. With a lost if 10 items, it took 16 viewings of the list to remember it correctly. He discovered that there is a discontinuity between the length of the list and the number of viewings needed to recall it perfectly. The disconinuity occurs at about 7 items. The number 7 holds fast for lists of nonsense syllables, unrelated pictures, words, whatever you can think of as long as the individual items are unrelated.
4
Q
According to Miller, what is the capacity of STM?
A
7 + or - 2
5
Q
relating items to what you already know increasing the capacity of short-term memory by storing items in groups
A
chunking
6
Q
single units of information
A
chunks
7
Q
The average person can hold _____ items (or chunks) in short-term memory.
A
5-9
8
Q
Information in STM can be __________, which increases the capacity of memory.
A
grouped
9
Q
In order to be ________, the info must be familiar to the person and available in LTM.
A
chunked
10
Q
STM overlaps and relies on ________ to function efficiently.
A
LTM
11
Q
Memory span is influenced by:
A
pre-existing knowledge
12
Q
The standard method of calculating the duration of information in STM is called _____________.
A
Brown-Peterson task
13
Q
Findings related to the duration of STM have come out of research using the Brown-Peterson task:
A
The number of items that can be kept in STM rapidly decays with the passage of time and the duration of items in STM is related to the number of chunks that are present.
14
Q
What is the duration of unrehearsed info in STM?
A
approx. 18 seconds
15
Q
newer material interferes with the recollection of older material
A
retroactive interference
16
Q
older material interferes with the recollection of new material
A
proactive interference
17
Q
What practice is important in maintaining info in the STM?
A
rehearsal
18
Q
saying something repeatedly in order to keep it in mind
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maintenance rehearsal (rote rehearsal)
19
Q
thinking about the meaningful relationship among the items and focusing on how they connect to other things you know
A
elaborative rehearsal
20
Q
Test where participants are a set of up to 7 items to store in STM. The items are presented rapidly, one at a time, over the course of a few seconds. Soon after, a memory test item (called a probe) is presented. Participants must decide whether or not the probe is contained within their STM.
A
Sternberg Task
21
Q
theory that proposes that we search every item in our STM in response to a question and do not stop searching even when we find the item in memory but instead we search our STM in its entirety-exhaustively
A
serial exhaustive search
22
Q
Phenomenon that occurs when items at the beginning and end of the original list are mych more likely to be remembered than items in the middle of the list
A
serial position effect
23
Q
the early part of the list is remembered better than the middle of the list
A
primacy effect
24
Q
the last items on the list (those items most recently encountered) are remembered better than the middle items
A
recency effect
25
What is the reasoning for the primacy effect?
the ability to rehearse the first few items is critical; the primacy effect is affected by the presentation rate
26
What is the reasoning for the recency effect?
the last few items are newly placed in the STM
27
a tendency to recall items from the beginning of the list better than items from the end of a list happens when if the delay between the presentation of the items and recall of the items is more than 18 seconds, the last few items on the list will not be easily recalled
negative recency
28
enhanced recall of the final item of a list when the presentation is auditory rather than visual
modality effect
29
What are some ways of getting around serial position effects?
make information distinctive and find a way to connect the info you are trying to remember
30
The ______ memory serves as our support system for doing cognitive work, such as reasoning, listening, making decisions
working
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responsible for the temporary storage of phonological information
phonological loop
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a temporary reservoir in which a phonological representation of the stimulus is stored
phonological store
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refreshes information in the phonological store as if the information was being rehearsed
articulatory control process (like inner voice)
34
when STM decreases as the length of the words to be memorized increases
word-length effects
35
consists of all the experience and knowledge we gather throughout our lifetime
long-term memory
36
What are the two main divisions of LTM?
Explicit (Declarative) memory and Implicit (Nondeclarative) memory
37
contains memories that we consciously seek to store and retrieve
explicit memory
38
What are the two divisions of explicit memory?
episodic and semantic
39
memory for personal information (autobiographical)
episodic memory
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memory for general world knowledge (e.g., facts)
semantic memory
41
Can a memory of an event can include both episodic and semantic memories?
yes
42
Episodic memory can be broken down into ________ memory and ________ memory.
retrospective; prospective
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What are the two subsystems of implicit memory?
procedural and perceptual memory
44
memory for actions
procedural memories
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memory for physically based patterns
implicit memory
46
What is the duration of LTM?
nearly a lifetime
47
What is the capacity of LTM?
there are no obvious limits
48
memory for your personal past experiences; a combination of episodic and semantic memories and retrospective and prospective memories
autobiographical memory
49
What are the 3 essential elements for a fully functioning AM?
a capacity for self-reflection (the ability to reflect on your own mental states), a sense of personal ownership (the feeling that your thoughts and acts belong to you), and the ability to think about time as an unfolding of personal happenings centered around yourself
50
difficulty recalling memories from the first 2-3 years of life
infantile amnesia (aka childhood amnesia)
51
What are possible explainations for infantile amnesia?
brain development, failure to attend to the when and where of an event, may have encoded the info differently than you do later in life, and the development of self
52
People over the age of 40 tend to report more memories for events that occurred between the ages of 10 and 25 from other ages
reminiscence bump
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detailed, vivid memories of a distinctive, surprising, or significant event
flashbulb memories
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helps us remember to do things in the future
prospective memory
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What are the 2 types of prospective situations?
event-based and time-based
56
reminded by external factors
event-based
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actions are self-initiated
time-based
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declarative memory for general knowledge and facts lacking reference to the episodic context in which it was learned
semantic memory
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assume that every category stored in semantic memory is potentially connected to every other category and things are represented in memory as nodes--specific locations in memory--and the connections between the nodes are links
network theories
60
organized collections of knowledge about the world, events, people, and actions
schemas
61
schemas
Schemas function as knowledge structures that organize how we learn and behave; help us encode the stories that we read or hear and what we remember about them; in everyday lives, schemas control what we expect of the people and objects around us; may lead to errors and memory distortions
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mental representation of physical objects or events that are not longer present
mental imagery
63
What are some of the benefits of imagery?
finding your way (route learning), remembering, and problem solving
64
What are the two ways that images are represented in memory?
analog code and propositional code
65
a way to describe a mental image that preserves the relationship among the elements of the image as if they were being experienced (the internal representation is a copy of the external stimulus)
analog code
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the set of mechanisms that underlies STM and communicates with LTM
working memory
67
What are the four divisions shown in Baddely and Hitch's Working Memory System model?
phonological loop, a visuouspatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, and a central executive
68
Which is more effective: elaborative or maintenance rehearsal?
elaborative
69
The two components of the phonological loop are the:
phonological store and articulatory control process
70
Memory is worse for lists of words that sound similair. This is an example of _________.
phonological confusion
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the ability to retain info is disrubted by speech based sound in background (provides support for phonological loop)
irrelevant speech effect
72
If you were to try to remember what side the door know on your bedroom door is on (left or right), you would be using your _________.
visuospatial sketchpad
73
responsible for storing visually presented information or remembering kinesthetic movements (the cognitive processes that are mobilized for actions rely on this)
visuospatial sketchpad
74
the structure in the visuouspatial sketchpad that temporaily stores visual information and contains information about the form and color of what we percieve
visual cache
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refreshes info in visuospatial sketchpad and briefly stores relationships associated with bodily movement
inner scribe
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guides attention, allocates resources, coordinates activities, and communicates with LTM via the episodic buffer (coordinates the activities of the visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and episodic buffer)
central executive
77
The _____________ helps decide where to focus attention.
central executive
78
acts as an integrative system that places events occurring in the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop into a coherent sequence along with the memoryfor the goals that initiated those events (information from different modalities and sources are bound together to form new episodic memories)
episodic buffer
79
Research has shown that WM span predicts:
prose comprehension
ability to follow complex instructions
ability to take notes
performance in computer programming courses
ability to engage attention
efficiency with which facts can be retrieved from LTM
80
"I know that elephants have trunks and are typically grey in color." Where would this information be stored?
semantic memory
81
semiautonomous memory system; we can retrieve or use info without being aware that we have stored the info; unaware that a previous experience is influencing our performance
implicit memory
82
The Gollins Test (shows a bit of an image at a time and sees how long it takes you to figure out what the image is), involves what type of memory?
perceptual memory
83
a retrieval cue is an effective reminder when it helps create the specific way an experience was initially encoded
encoding specificity
83
Results of several studies suggest that Flashbulb Memories:
may be inaccurate, participants may report that the memories are vivid, and participants may report that they are confident in their memories (even if they are wrong)
84
Are semantic and episodic information maintained in separate systems and maybe involve different areas of the brain?
yes
85
prospective memory is associated with activity in the _______ lobes.
frontal
86
When both __________ are not working properly, people experience amnesia.
hippocampi
87
What lobe are the hippocampi found?
temporal lobes
88
condition that results from malnutrition caused by excessive alcohol consumption; associated with damage to the temporal lobes and sufferers fill in information by prevaricating
Korsakoff's Syndrome
89
The ______ (in the temporal lobes is associated with emotionality and when damaged, emotional component of the memory is lost.
amygdala
90
tendency to retrieve a greater number of pleasant memories than unpleasant ones
Pollyanna Principle
91
What is the single most frequent casue of wrongful conviction?
eyewitness testimony
92
our ability to tell the difference between something we actually observed or just heard about; refers to the process of identifying where our knowledge comes from; our ability to identify the source of our memories is far from perfect
source monitoring
93
What type of memory is often compared to a vast library?
semantic memory
94
declarative memory for general knowledge and facts laacking reference to the episodic context in which it was leaned (facts, vocabulary, rules)
semantic memory
95
component of schemas that tells us what behavior we should expect of ourselves and others in certain situations
scribe
96
What are 3 assumptions of Quillan's Network Theory?
the hierarchy contains equal lengths, has an efficient filing system (cognitive economy), and spreading activation
97
Weaknesses of Quillian's Network Theory
typicallity effect (the difference in time to answer a question)-the typical or central members of a category (like sparrow) are more closely associated with the category (bird) than are untypical members (ostrich), semantic relatedness effect-reflects the existence of inequalities across categories (people take longer to decide whether a canary is an animal than to decide whether a chicken is an animal)-shows the relatedness of items is important for the judgments, research results do not support the idea of an efficient filing system (Conrad 1972 asked participants to write down properties of various words. She found that participants wrote down properties repeatedly)
98
Support for Quillian's Network Theory:
Semantic distance effect (the time to answer questions increases with the distance between categories) and repeated path hypothesis (repeating a path speeds processing)
99
Spreading Activation Model
Collins & Loftus (1975). Says that a concept is represented by a node. Nodes are linked to other nodes--which represents a relationship. The distance between the nodes is based on the semantic relationship. An input node is activated and this activation spreads.
Support: semantic relatedness effect and priming
Weakness: does not make precise predictions
100
The Feature Comparison Model
Portrays human knowledge as a giant semantic spac. Contains a list of semantic features ordered in terms of definingness. Says that some features are defining features (essential for member ship-lays eggs) and some are characteristic features (common but not essential-nests in trees). Assumes that: when people think about categories such as birds or furniture, they have an overall sense of the defining and characterizing features that comprise these categories; that in deciding whether one category is part of another category, a person compares the total set of features associated with each category (dog and mammal) to see whether they overlap; and in deciding whether two categories overlap sufficiently to consider one category a part of another category, people use their own personal standards. The FCM emphasizes the unique aspects of every individual's semantic memory.
strength: semantic relatedness effect
weaknesses: What is a defining feature? and hard to claim that there is a feature list for "things that have wings" or "large things"
101
The Perceptual Theory of Knowledge
Views seemingly abstract knowledge as perceptually based. Knowledge is a perceptual symbol system--emphasizes that we aquire information baed on the perceptual mode in which we experience them. Properties are represented with their perceptual characteristics in LTM. Our semantic knowledge includes concrete elements as well as abstract concepts.
Example: Our first time experience (e.g., visually) an objects (pig)--store the information neurologically. Later if someone mentions object (pig), we activate an image (pig).
102
The Connectionist Model of Memory
aka neural network model and seeks to combine network theories, the feature comparison model, and the perceptual theory of knowledge, asserts that: every node of knowledge is connected directly or indirectly to every other node and that peceptual experiences are a key component of the network. Some of these connections are strong and others are weak. The strength of a connection is determined by past experiences and whether they have been used successfully to answer a question.
strengths: can be modified based on learning, illustrates how people often confuse related info, and offers a systematic explanation for the loss of information resulting from brain damage
103
The key to our ability to remember events and facts is our ______.
background knowledge
104
mental representation of physical objects or events that are no longer present
mental imagery
105
The benefits of imagery:
finding your way (route learning), remembering, problem solving
106
How are images represented in the mind?
having an analog code or a propositional code
107
a way to describe a mental image that is similar to a series of words or a sentence (internal representation is a description of the stimulus)
propositional code
108
Brain imaging studies find that manupulating images employs similar brain areas as manipulating real objects
true
109
unable to attend to scenes presented to LVF; also have difficulty processing the left side of their own mental images
hemispheric neglect (hemineglect)
110
Pictures are remembered better than words
The Picture Superiority Effect
111
the neuroscience of the dual code:
studying words alone activates the LH; studying nameable objects activates both hemispheres
112
eidetic imagery (photographic memory)
phenomenon is rare (1 in a million adults); research has not shown any reliable relationship between having eidetic imagery and possessing any other cognitive or intellectual skills
113
imagery is used to improve ______ performace
athletic (development of skill, reduce stress, increase motivation)
114
4 major steps in mneumonics:
1. basic structural knowledge to memory
2. identify each item that is to be remembered
3. combine the imagined items with the schema in LTM
4. retrieve the information
115
mneumonic that involves thinking of a path that you are familiar with and listing the items to be remembered (one at each landmark or passing objects)
Method of Loci
116
the subsystem in working memory that is dedicated to the temporary storage of phonological (sound-based) information
phonological loop
117
Bartlett's War of the Ghosts schema study:
Participants read a story a story and were asked to recall it later. The results were that the gist remained intact but there were emission errors of specific names and normalization errors (tended to add to and alter the story). Bartlett found that the recalled story fit more closely with the participant's social and cultural viewpoints.
118
Memory experts have _____ memory.
normal
119
the theory that explains how memory experts can exhibit such astonishing memory in particular areas and contains 3 basic prinicples that acount for great feats of memory by experts in any domain
skilled memory theory
120
the 3 principles that account for great feats of memory by memory experts
encoding principle, retrieval structure, and the speed-up principle
121
principle of skilled memory theory that says information should be processed meaningfully, relating it to preexisting knowledge
encoding principle
122
principle of skilled memory theory that says cues should be stored with the info to aid subsequent retrieval
Retrieval Structure Principle
123
Quillian's Network Theory (Teachable Language Comprehender)
States that our semantic network has 2 main components: the node-link structure and a question interface. Concepts are represented as nodes in a network. The meaning of a concept is composed of all the links associated with it (properties or features are associated with each concept). The 3 assumptions of Quillian's Network Theory are "Equal lengths" (the model assumes that all the links in the hierarchy are consistently of equal lengths--this matters becuase it takes time for the cognitive system to travel from node to node across a link, therefore, all questions that require accessing the same number of links will take the same amount of time and effort to answer), "Efficient Filing System" (assumes that the properties of an object are stored at the highest node in the hierarchy that is appropriate--this efficiency minimizes the demands on long-term and working memories), and "Spreading Activation" (when you are asked a question, you search to see if there is a connection in your network between the subject (canary) and the predicate (breate); spreading activation means energy spreads from the nodes activated by the question in all directions at the same time, but one level or node at a time and also activates many unnessary nodes alone the way--which accounts for why irrelevant things come to mind when we are answering a question)
124
Mnemonic that involves linking images that are in a thematic relationship with each other by linking them in a story.
Method of Story
125
Mnumonic that invovles visual imagery and a fixed ordering. The person commits to memory a fixed set of visual images that are able to be called up at a moment's notice. These are called pegs because new items to be memorized are connected (or hung) on them.
Peg-Word Method
126
Mnumonic that is used in foreign language learning. Can involve forming a bridge between a foreign word and one in your own language. For example, picturing a cat on a gate (cat=gato in Spanish)
key-word method
127
The theory that says some words evoke few images (e.g., idea). You can think of it verbally, but it's difficult to imagine a mental picture associated with it. Concrete words like chalk, have dual codes associated with them: both an image and a verbal semantic code. In contrast, abstract words tend to have only a single code: a verbal representation.
Paivio's (1969) Dual Code Hypothesis
