Learning and Memory

Question 1

How many chunks of information are we thought to be able to store Miller (1956)?

Answer 1

7 (5-9)

Question 2

According to Peterson and Peterson (1959) how long does memory last if not rehersed?

Answer 2

18 seconds

Question 3

What are the 3 major components of the multi storage model (Atkinson and Shiffrin)(1968)?

Answer 3

• Sensory store (milliseconds)
• Short term memory (minutes, hours)
• Long term store (days years), the more short term rehersed the more likely it moves into long term)

Question 4

What idea did the multi storage model introduce?

Answer 4

• Memory processes were dynamic and ongoing not static and defined

Question 5

What is rehersal according to the multi storage model?

Answer 5

Processs of actively using, attending to or analysing information which supported transfer of info into long term storage

Question 6

WHat is retrieval according to the multi storage model?

Answer 6

Process of actively getting some information out of long term store to use in the here and now

Question 7

What did each type of memory storage box in the multi storage model vary in?

Answer 7

• Type of info took or encoded
• Length they kept the info in for, duration
• How much info in the stores, capacity

Question 8

What is the encoding in long term memory like in the multi storage model?

Answer 8

Mainly semantic (but can be visual and auditory)

Question 9

What is the primacy and recency effect?

Answer 9

When presented with a list of woeds participants will remember the first few words (LTM) and the last few (STM)

Question 10

What part of the multi storage model is specifically affected most in Alzheimer’s?

Answer 10

Long term memory - rehersal to put information from the STM into the LTM

Question 11

How well you remember things depends on what according to Craig and Lockhart (72)?

Answer 11

• Not on what store the info is in but on how the info has been processed
• The more we think about something the better you remember it

Question 12

What are the two classifications of processing?

Answer 12

• Shallow: focusing on the sound or appearence of things mainly
• Deep: Elaborating when rehersing info, thinking about its meaning (more likely to be recalled)

Question 13

What is the general idea of the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch 1974)?

Answer 13

• STM store is oversimplistic so instead devised working memory model
• 2 components of STM which process different types of sensory info
• Work independantly but co-ordinated, monitored and instructed by a central executive

Question 14

What are the 2 components of the working memory model (Baddeley and Hitch 1974) which are overshadowed by a central executive?

Answer 14

• Visuo-spatial sketchpad (inner eye)
• Articulatory-phonological loop (inner ear)
• Process different types of sensory info

Question 15

What ar flashbulb memories as described by (Brown and Kulik 1977)?

Answer 15

• Vivid, highly detailed snapshots created often but not necessarily at times of shock or trauma
• Memories self referent most often, recall feelings rather than aspects of event itself
• Consider memories stuck at sensory threat level rather tham processed into long term stor normally
• Aging does not affect

Question 16

What can eye movement desensitisation therapy be used to treat?

Answer 16

PTSD - flashbulb memories

Question 17

What is interference theory?

Answer 17

Pruposes that interference occurs when learning of something new causes one to forget older material due to displacement

Question 18

What is proactive interference?

Answer 18

When something learned a time ago stops you frim remembering something new (you should open the door this way, but you keep doing it like you always done)

Question 19

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 19

When something you have recently learned changes, or interferes with, something you remembered in times gone by (you start to open the door the new way and swear blind you always did it like this)

Question 20

What is the supervisory attentional system (Norman and Shallice 1980)?

Answer 20

Something that can be done without full conscious awareness.

• “Metacognition”
• What do i want to remember?

Question 21

What is memory for events and facts?

Answer 21

Episodic memory

Question 22

What is memory for automatic ‘how to do things’

Answer 22

Procedural memory

Question 23

What is the pre frontal cortex involved in?

Answer 23

Attention, SMT and is implied in retention of LTM

Question 24

What are the medial temporal lobes involved in?

Answer 24

Conscious learning and ‘episodic memory’

Question 25

What is the hippocampus essential for?

Answer 25

• Transference from STM to LTM

- Control of spatial memory and behaviour

Question 26

What impairs the ability of the hippocampus?

Answer 26

Glucocorticoids

Question 27

What is the amygdala involved in?

Answer 27

• Performs primary role in processing and memory of emotional reactions and social and sexual behaviour, as well as regulating smell

Question 28

What is the basal ganglia involved in?

Answer 28

SUb-cortical system (inside cerebral cortex) essesntial :
- Memory function; particularly striatum (or neostriatum) which is important in the formation and retrieval of procedural memory