final review Flashcards
(53 cards)
What is metamemory, and how does it differ from memory?
Metamemory is Our ability to reflect on and become aware of what we know and do not know.
Essentially, metamemory is about thinking about your memory, while memory is about the actual retention and retrieval of information
What are monitoring and control? How do they work together to form an efficient metamemory system?
Monitoring:
Our ability to reflect on and become aware of what we know and do not know.
Control (in metamemory):
Our ability to regulate our learning or retrieval based upon our own monitoring
Metacognitive control helps guide learning by adjusting strategies based on monitoring results (e.g., increasing study time for more difficult material).
What do each of the following judgments measure? Ease of learning
Ease-of-learning judgments:
Estimates made before studying an item of how likely it will be remembered and how difficult it will be to learn.
What does the following judgments measure? Judgments of learning
Judgments of learning:
Predictions we make as we study items of the likelihood that we will remember them later.
What does the following judgments measure? Feeling of knowing
Feeling-of-knowing judgments:
Estimations of the likelihood that an unrecalled item will be recognized.
What does the following judgments measure? Tip of the tongue (TOT)
Tip-of-the-tongue states (TOTs):
Feelings that an unrecalled item will be recalled soon.
What does the following judgments measure? Retrospective confidence
Retrospective confidence judgments:
Estimations that a retrieved answer is indeed correct.
How do direct-access theory and inferential theory explain metamemory judgment differently?
Direct-access theories:
suggests that individuals have direct access to their memory accuracy and can assess how well they remember something without needing to infer it from other cues.
Indirect or inferential theories:
in contrast, posits that individuals make metamemory judgments based on indirect cues (such as the familiarity of a cue or how easy it was to study) and infer how well they will remember the information.
How does the cue-familiarity hypothesis explain feeling-of-knowing judgments?
The cue-familiarity hypothesis explains feeling-of-knowing judgments by suggesting that people judge how familiar the cue is (e.g., a question or prompt) to determine whether they will be able to recognize the answer, even if they cannot immediately recall it.
How can individuals use delayed judgments of learning to improve their learning?
Delayed judgments of learning (JOLs) can enhance learning by allowing individuals to more accurately assess their understanding after a delay, leading to more effective study strategies.
What is allocation of study time? How can it be used to make learning more efficient?
Allocation of study time:
The decisions participants make about which items to study during an experiment.
It’s a key aspect of metacognition, reflecting an individual’s ability to manage and control their mental resources to achieve optimal learning
What is the region of proximal learning?
Region of proximal learning:
A theory of metamemory that an adaptive learning strategy is to study the easiest items among those that have not yet been learned—those at the leading edge of difficulty.
What is the déjà vu experience? Why is it considered metacognition?
Déjà vu experience:
The feeling that a new situation has been experienced before.
It’s considered metacognition because it involves the cognitive processes of reflecting on and judging one’s own memory and understanding
Describe three methods that are used to investigate memory in infancy. How does each method attribute learning to the growing infant?
Visual recognition: The ability to recognize previously seen objects or people. Often tested in infants using measures like novelty preference.
Novelty preference: A tendency of infants to look longer at new stimuli. Indicates recognition memory and is used in visual recognition studies.
Nonnutritive sucking: A method to study infant memory by measuring changes in sucking rate when exposed to familiar vs. novel stimuli.
Conjugate reinforcement technique: A method to study infant memory by tying an action (like kicking) to a rewarding consequence (like a mobile moving), showing learning and memory by observing how long the infant repeats the action.
What is meant by the terms memory strategies and memory efficiency? How does each shape the development of memory in young children?
Memory strategies view:
Memory improves in young children because of the development of conscious activities a child engages in to assist the remembering of information
Memory efficiency view:
Memory improves in young children because of increases in speed and efficiency in learning new information and storing it in long-term memory.
What are memory conversations? How do they shape the development of episodic memory in young children?
Memory conversations are parent–child discussions about past events. They help children understand narrative structure, reinforce memory encoding, and improve episodic memory by providing language for organizing experiences.
Why do older children show more false memories in the DRM paradigm than younger children?
Older children have better semantic networks and associative thinking, leading them to falsely recall related (but non-presented) words. Younger children are less likely to make these semantic connections.
What is meant by the term theory of mind? How is it tested in young children?
Theory of mind is the understanding that others have different beliefs and perspectives. False-belief test:
A child learns something that another person does not have the opportunity to learn. The child must decide whether the other person knows what he or she knows
What is meant by the term overconfidence? How might it be adaptive for young children to be overconfident?
Overconfidence refers to inflated beliefs in one’s memory or cognitive abilities. It may help children persist in learning tasks and explore more, boosting development through experience.
Describe two memory components that decline in healthy older adults and two that remain stable.
Declines:
Episodic memory (e.g., remembering personal events)
Working memory (especially the central executive and storage capacity)
Stable:
Semantic memory (e.g., vocabulary, general knowledge)
Implicit memory (e.g., procedural skills like riding a bike)
What is the processing speed theory? What memory phenomena does it predict? What is the inhibition theory of memory decline? What memory phenomena does it predict?
Processing speed theory: Suggests slower processing in older adults leads to difficulty encoding and integrating information. Predicts slower recall and learning.
Inhibition theory: Suggests aging reduces the ability to filter out irrelevant info. Predicts issues with selective attention and distractibility in memory tasks.
What working memory components are spared in aging, and what components suffer declines? Describe an experiment that supports this view.
Spared: Simple storage of information (e.g., short-term memory span).
Declined: Complex working memory tasks involving manipulation of information.
Experiment: Older adults do well in forward digit span (storage) but poorly in backward digit span (manipulation), showing selective decline.
What does the phrase “use it or lose it” mean with respect to memory and aging? What evidence is relevant to testing this theory?
Suggests cognitive engagement preserves memory. Supporting evidence includes studies showing that older adults who engage in cognitively stimulating activities (e.g., puzzles, socializing, learning new skills) maintain better memory than less active peers.
Describe the amnesic symptoms of H. M. and Clive Wearing. Describe at least two differences in their memory profile following the onset of their amnesia.
H.M. (Henry Molaison) had his medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus, removed to treat epilepsy, resulting in severe anterograde amnesia. He could not form new episodic or semantic memories but retained implicit memory (e.g., motor skills) and normal intelligence.
Clive Wearing developed amnesia after viral encephalitis, damaging his hippocampus and frontal lobes. He had profound anterograde and retrograde amnesia, with a memory span of only seconds. He retained procedural memory (e.g., piano playing) but exhibited confabulation and emotional outbursts linked to frontal syndrome.
Two differences:
Clive Wearing had both anterograde and retrograde amnesia, while H.M. mainly had anterograde.
Clive exhibited confabulation and frontal lobe symptoms, while H.M. did not.
