Memory

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The retention, retrieval and use of information after the information source is no longer available

Question 2

What are the three types of memory stores?

Answer 2

Sensory, short-term and long-term

Question 3

What is sensory memory?

Answer 3

Brief preservation of information in its original form, lasts approx half a second after the stimulus has disappeared

Question 4

What is iconic memory?

Answer 4

Momentary memory for visual information (i.e. visual trace)

Question 5

What is echoic memory?

Answer 5

Momentary memory for auditory information

Question 6

What is short-term memory?

Answer 6

A memory store that holes a small amount of information in the consciousness, lasts 20-30 seconds without repetition

Question 7

What is the limited capacity of short-term memory?

Answer 7

Holds an average of 7 items +/- 2

Question 8

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 8

The process of repeating information over and over to retain it in short-term memory

Question 9

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 9

The process of thinking about information while committing it to memory (i.e. long-term memory)

Question 10

What is long-term memory?

Answer 10

The representations of information that may persist over a lifetime, potentially limitless in duration & capacity

Question 11

What is retrieval?

Answer 11

The process of bringing information from long-term memory back into short-term memory

Question 12

What is the serial position effect?

Answer 12

The tendency to remember information towards the beginning and end of a list rather than in the middle

Question 13

On the serial position curve, what does the primacy effect reflect?

Answer 13

Long-term memory

Question 14

On the serial position curve, what does the recency effect reflect?

Answer 14

Short-term memory

Question 15

What does working memory refer to?

Answer 15

The temporary storage and processing of information that can be used to solve problems, respond to environmental demands or achieve goals

Question 16

True or false: Working memory is active memory

Answer 16

True

Question 17

What are the three components of working memory?

Answer 17

Central executive (divides attention), visual memory store (imagination) & verbal memory store

Question 18

True or false: Working memory does not influence ability to control focus of attention

Answer 18

False

Question 19

What is chunking?

Answer 19

Using knowledge stored in LTM to group information in larger units to expand working memory capacity (e.g. phone numbers)

Question 20

What are the two ways in which information is stored in long-term memory?

Answer 20

Declarative and procedural memory

Question 21

What is declarative memory?

Answer 21

Facts and events, subdivided into semantic and episodic memory

Question 22

What is semantic memory?

Answer 22

General world knowledge or facts

Question 23

What is episodic memory?

Answer 23

Autobiographical events

Question 24

What is procedural memory?

Answer 24

‘How to’ knowledge of procedures and skills

Question 25

What are the two ways in which knowledge is expressed from long-term memory?

Answer 25

Explicit and implicit memory

Question 26

What is explicit memory?

Answer 26

Conscious recollection of information

Question 27

What is implicit memory?

Answer 27

Memory that is unconsciously expressed in behaviour, e.g. tying a shoelace

Question 28

What are the two types of explicit memory?

Answer 28

Recall and recognition

Question 29

What is recall and what is the phenomenon experienced when recall fails?

Answer 29

Spontaneous, conscious recollection of information from LTM; tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Question 30

What is recognition?

Answer 30

The explicit sense or recollection that something currently perceived has been previously encountered or learned

Question 31

What is everyday memory?

Answer 31

Memory as it occurs in daily life

Question 32

What is prospective memory?

Answer 32

Memory for things that need to be done in the future

Question 33

What is retrospective memory?

Answer 33

Memory for events from the past or previously learned information

Question 34

What must happen in order for information to be retrievable from memory?

Answer 34

Encoding

Question 35

What does level of processing refer to?

Answer 35

The degree to which information is elaborated, reflected upon and processed in a meaningful way during storage

Question 36

What are the three levels of processing?

Answer 36

Structural (shallow), phonemic (intermediate) and semantic (deep)

Question 37

What is elaboration?

Answer 37

The process of linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding (i.e. thinking of examples)

Question 38

What is visual imagery?

Answer 38

The creation of visual images to represent words

Question 39

What does the encoding specificity principle refer to?

Answer 39

Ease of retrieval depends on the match between the way information is encoded and later retrieved (e.g. studying multiple choice for an essay exam = poor recall)

Question 40

What does context-dependent memory refer to?

Answer 40

Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same context (e.g. studying in a quiet room)

Question 41

What does mood congruent memory refer to?

Answer 41

Information is easier to recall when it is encoded and retrieved in the same emotional state

Question 42

Why does having the same context during encoding and retrieval facilitate recall?

Answer 42

Because the context provides retrieval cues

Question 43

What is the spacing effect?

Answer 43

Superiority of memory for information rehearsed over longer intervals

Question 44

What are mnemonic devices?

Answer 44

Systematic strategies for remembering information

Question 45

What does the mnemonic device, method of loci use?

Answer 45

Visual imagery as a memory aid

Question 46

What is the SQ4R method?

Answer 46

A study designed to help students study textbook material efficiently by encouraging them to survey, question, read, recite, review and write

Question 47

What do pieces of information stored in memory form?

Answer 47

Networks of association

Question 48

What are networks of associated composed of?

Answer 48

Interconnected nodes that contain information

Question 49

How do schemas affect the way people remember?

Answer 49

1) By influencing the way information is encoded | 2) By shaping the way information is reconstructed

Question 50

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 50

Vivid memories of exciting or highly consequential events

Question 51

What is the misinformation effect (MPI)?

Answer 51

Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how that person later describes the event

Question 52

What types of people are most at risk for misinformation?

Answer 52

People with poor general memory, high scores on imagery vividness and high empathy scores

Question 53

What three errors can occur during eyewitness testimony?

Answer 53

Errors due to attention/arousal, familiarity and suggestion

Question 54

What are the three theories of forgetting?

Answer 54

Decay, interference and motivated forgetting

Question 55

What does the decay theory suggest?

Answer 55

Forgetting is the result of a memory trace fading due to disuse

Question 56

What does the interference theory refer to?

Answer 56

Conflict between new and old memories; proactive = old interferes with new, retroactive = new interferes with old

Question 57

What does motivated forgetting suggest?

Answer 57

Forgetting can avoid painful memories

Question 58

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 58

Inability to retain new memories

Question 59

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 59

Losing memories from a period of time before brain damage occurred