Learning + Memory

Question 1

what are the three main memory processes?

Answer 1

1. encoding: processes used to store information in memory
2. storage: processes used to maintain information in memory
   - rehearsal and elaboration
3. retrieval: processes used to get information back out of the memory

Question 2

define

iconic memory

Answer 2

information from our senses

Question 3

define

short-term/working memory

Answer 3

what is currently in mind/what are we doing with that information

Question 4

define

long-term memory

Answer 4

‘stored’ information

Question 5

what is chunking?

Answer 5

breaking things into smaller amounts of information via grouping

Question 6

what is rehearsal?

Answer 6

allows us to keep information in short-term memory longer

Question 7

what are the two main serial position effects?

Answer 7

1. primacy
2. recency

Question 8

define

primacy effect

Answer 8

remembering the first few words
-sent to LTM

Question 9

define

recency effect

Answer 9

remembering the last few words
-still in STM

Question 10

what are the two types of interference?

Answer 10

1. proactive
2. retroactive

Question 11

define

proactive interference

Answer 11

when stored knowledge (LTM) interferes with the ability to learn new information

Question 12

define

retroactive interference

Answer 12

new learning interferes with old learning

Question 13

what is the capacity and duration of long-term memory?

Answer 13

unlimited (as far as we know)

Question 14

what are the two types of long term memory?

Answer 14

1. declarative
2. non-declarative

Question 15

contrast

declarative memory and non-declarative memory

Answer 15

declarative: explicit, you can express it verbally and are consciously aware of it
- facts usually
non-declarative: implicit memory, expressed behaviorally
- skills, learned responses

Question 16

what are the two types of declarative memory?

Answer 16

1. episodic: discrete events, context information
2. semantic: facts and general knowledge
   - no context really, (you dont remember where or when you learned the information)

Question 17

name three types of non-declarative memory

Answer 17

1. procedural: motor skill learning (riding a bike), automatic cognitive skills (reading)
2. priming: perceptual or conceptual
3. conditioning

Question 18

who is Patient H.M. and what is his story?

Answer 18

Henry Molaison (1926):
- suffered severe seisures
- had to remove the medial temporal lobe at 27, where the seizures were localized
- he had severe memory impairments

Could NOT remember:
- people he had met before
- conversations he had before
- some information before surgery
- names of people he met after surgery

Could:
- remember most information from before surgery
- perform short-term memory tasks
- improve motor learning tasks (procedural memory)
- experience priming and conditioning

Question 19

what are the two main types of amnesia?

Answer 19

1. retrograde: can’t remember things in the past
2. anterograde: new information cannot be learned

Question 20

what did patient HM and other amnesic patients teach us about how memory works?

Answer 20

1. STM and LTM are different systems that rely on different braina reas
2. explicit LTM is reliant on different brain areas than implicit
3. the hippocampus/medial temporal lobe strucutes are vitially important for consolidation

Question 21

what is memory consolidation?

Answer 21

moving info from STM to LTM
- hippocampus holds info for a while and ‘teaches’ it to the rest of the cortex

Question 22

what is hebb’s rule?

Answer 22

neurons that fire together, wire together

Question 23

where are memories ‘stored’ in the brain?

Answer 23

over time, memories may be transferred away from the hippocampus and into a pattern of activation in the cortex

Question 24

what is the atkinson & shiffrin modal model?

Answer 24

environmental input -> sensory memory (->attention->) short term (->consolidation->) long-term memory

Question 25

what are some problems with the modal model?

Answer 25

1. there is evidence for multiple STM systems - auditory info interferes less with visual performance than visual info - vice versa - example: music interferes less with driving than texting/reading off your phone 2. when we hold info in mind, we often want to actually do something with that info

Question 26

what is the baddelley & hitch working memory mode?

Answer 26

central executive -> (visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological loop) -> (visual knowledge, episodic long-term, language)

Question 27

what is the central executive? | baddeley and hitch working memory model

Answer 27

directs and controls WM functions - CEO of attention - directs, divides, and switches attention

Question 28

what is the phonological loop?

Answer 28

auditory working memory system

Question 29

what is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 29

visual and spatial working memory system

Question 30

what is the episodic buffer?

Answer 30

working memory system that binds pieces of information together into a single event