Memory - Chapter 5 Content

Question 1

Describe the Modal Model for memory.

Answer 1

The info that you perceive in going to go into your sensory memory for a very brief time as it is basic information. From there, if you attend to the info then you are able to put it into short-term memory (conscious, what you attending to) with the 7+/- 2 rule and this is also a brief but more elaborate concept. If the info then goes into long term then this can hold onto all complicated and not brief information. Assuming that info is received, processed, and stored differently for each kind of memory.

Question 2

How did ionic memory get measured for the quantity?

Answer 2

They used an assessed visual sensory memory where they presented 3x4 letters and had two conditions for the participants. They had a whole report where they would get them to report as many letters as possible after being shown them for like a second (only say about 4). The other is that they would get them to do a partial report, where they used tones to indicate what 4 letters to recall (on average report 3)

Question 3

What are the main facts of iconic memory?

Answer 3

Duration: less than 1 sec
Quantity: the visual field
Contents: Physical feature

Question 4

What are the main facts of echoic memory?

Answer 4

Duration: 4-5 sec
Quantity: less than iconic
Contents: categorical

Question 5

What is the ecological purpose of sensory memory?

Answer 5

To ensure that the visual system has some minimum amount of time to process the information.

Question 6

Give a brief description of each of the kinds of memory.

Answer 6

Sensory: unattended, quickly presented and only stored briefly
Short Term: holds attended info for 20 - 30 seconds
Long Term: info needed for longer periods of time

Question 7

Describe the serial position effect.

Answer 7

This is explaining how depending on the locations of words and how you remember the first (primacy) and last (recency) words better than the ones in the middle.

Question 8

What is chunking?

Answer 8

With a list of letters for example that is longer than the 7 +/- 2 items, we tend to group things together to make it fit into that specific requirement so it can stay in our short-term memory. (grouping 12 letters into 4 groups of 3)

Question 9

What is coding?

Answer 9

It is the way in which info is mentally represented, in the form that we hold the info.

Question 10

What is retention duration?

Answer 10

If information is not rehearsed within the first 20 seconds (duration) of hearing it or seeing it, then the information is lost.

Question 11

What is an encoded mental representation of the things needed to be remembered that aren’t rehearsed?

Answer 11

Memory trace

Question 12

What is proactive interference?

Answer 12

This refers to the fact that material learned first can disrupt the retention of subsequently learned material. Old info makes it difficult to learn new info.

Question 13

What is the difference between a parallel, serial, self-terminating, and exhaustive search?

Answer 13

Parallel is simultaneously comparing something to all the other things on the list, no matter how long the list is.

Serially is comparing it one by one, the longer the list the longer it takes to compare.

Self-terminating is when a match is found, you immediately stop looking more at the list.

Exhaustive is where you keep looking even if you have found the match already.

Question 14

What is paired associates learning?

Answer 14

A memory paradigm is used to understand how people encode and retrieve newly formed associations in their long-term memory amount stimulus but using pairs of words.

Question 15

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 15

This is when conditions in which new learning interferes with old learning. Contrasted with proactive (old interfere with new)

Question 16

Describe the fan affect.

Answer 16

This is where recognition times or error rates for a particular concept increase as more info is acquired. The fan is referring to the number of associations correlated with the specific concept.

Question 17

What is the principle of retrieval?

Answer 17

Categorization: that organized material into certain categories can be easily recalled vs. info with no specific organization. Mostly occurs when info is presented in random order.

Question 18

Explain the principle of encoding specificity.

Answer 18

This idea is that memory is improved when info is available at encoding and retrieval. An example is writing a midterm in the same room where information was learned, this is referred to as the context effect (performing in original environment)

Question 19

Define working memory.

Answer 19

Limited capacity workspace that can be divided between storage and control processing.

Question 20

What are the 3 components of working memory?

Answer 20

Central Executive: directing the flow of info, choosing what, when and how to operate on info. More attentional than memory storage.
Phonological Loop: carry out a subvocal rehearsal to maintain verbal material
Visuospatial Sketch Pad: used to maintain visual material through visualisation

Question 21

What is episodic memory?

Answer 21

Holding memories of specific events in which you yourself somehow participated in

Question 22

What is semantic memory?

Answer 22

Holds information that has entered your general knowledge base

Question 23

What is episodic and semantic memory described as?

Answer 23

They are memory systems that operate on different principles and hold onto different kinds of information.

Question 24

What are the two main types of amnesia?

Answer 24

Anterograde is not able to remember new events and retrograde is not remembering old events.

Question 25

What is the process of long-term potentiation?

Answer 25

This is involving the persistent strengthening of synapses that leads to a long-lasting increase in signal transmission between neurons.

Question 26

What is the trace decay theory?

Answer 26

The automatic fading of the memory trace when something else comes into memory and displaces it. When presented with 3 letters, and then told to count backwards by 3 from 500, and then recall those same 3 letters. This stops you from rehearsing the 3 letters and the info automatically disappears as no attention is being focused on it.

Question 27

What is inference theory?

Answer 27

The disruption of the memory trace by other traces, where the degree of interference is based on the similarity of the two traces.

Question 28

Explain the experiment done to explain how interference works.

Answer 28

They had 2 groups be told groups of 3 letters over an interval of time and for the last set, one was still presented with different letters but the experimental group was presented with numbers. From this, they concluded that because numbers were not similar to the original letters, there was less interference versus the group only showing letters.

Question 29

What were the syntactic verification tasks with working memory?

Answer 29

This was explaining that after being shown a group of 7+/- 2 items, and were to rehearse these while it interfered with reasoning and comprehension tasks. When recalling the original numbers that there was a consistent error as the number of digits initially shown increased. So this is explaining that the STM is not always 7+/- 2 items and that numbers only take one subsystem while the reasoning is free to use.

Question 30

What is the evidence shows that the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop work independently of each other?

Answer 30

Articulatory suppression is about suppressing sub-vocal articulation by repeating non-sense material (the,the,the,…). It showed to disturb memory for linguistic info (hard to process if someone is talking to you) but it did not disturb memory for visual info (able to still use the visuospatial sketchpad as it isn’t being occupied)

Question 31

What is procedural, explicit and implicit memory?

Answer 31

Procedural (how to do something), explicit (conscious), and implicit (unconscious)

Question 32

Define recency and primary effects.

Answer 32

Primary: rehearsing makes info go info LTM and therefore able to recall later on
Recency: Since it was a recent item on a list, it is still being processed in your STM memory and able to recall well right after the task. (if not recalled immediately, it will be gone from STM)

Question 33

Explain Clive’s story.

Answer 33

Clive had damage to his temporal lobe and had no episodic memory, but had working memory and procedural memory that remained intact. He had damage to his amygdala, entorhinal cortex and hippocampus.

Question 34

How does LTM code information?

Answer 34

You are only able to code things that are sematic, that they have a meaning. where as STM mostly codes things based on acoustics, like superficial things.

Question 35

How does LTM code information?

Answer 35

You are only able to code things that are semantic, that they have a meaning. whereas STM mostly codes things based on acoustics, like superficial things. Example is parking in a different spots, more interference is harder to remember where as parking in the same spot is easier.

Question 36

Describe encoding with LTM.

Answer 36

You encode things based on the level at which you process them, deep vs. shallow. maintenance rehearsal is repetition and elaborative rehearsal is elaborating on the meaning giving it a deep level of processing.

Question 37

Explain the generation effect.

Answer 37

Based on ACOSR, associate, category, opposite, similarity, and rhyme. This s understanding that when you make yourself generate an answer, you are more likely to remember it cause you have to work on the info to process and create it.

Question 38

Describe retrieval with LTM.

Answer 38

The encoding specificity principle is understanding that to properly retrieve info, its needs to be properly encoded. Context dependent memory is explain that info learned in a particular content is better recalled when put back into that context, with either external or an internal environment-specific context. (examples are underwater vs. land and sober vs. drunk). Then there is with personalities, someone with dissociative identity disorder was able to remember specific words linked to one of the personalities when they were in that only in that specific personality.