Memory Week 11

Question 1

episodic memory

Answer 1

The ability to learn and retrieve new information or episodes in one’s life.

Question 2

semantic memory

Answer 2

The more or less permanent store of knowledge that people have.

Question 3

autobiographical memory

Answer 3

Memory for the events of one’s life.

Question 4

three necessary stages in the learning and memory process

Answer 4

encoding, storage, and retrieval

Question 5

encoding

Answer 5

The pact of putting information into memory.

Question 6

storage

Answer 6

The stage in the learning/memory process that bridges encoding and retrieval; the persistence of memory over time.

Question 7

retrieval

Answer 7

The process of accessing stored information.

Question 8

distinctiveness

Answer 8

The principle that unusual events (in a context of similar events) will be recalled and recognized better than uniform (nondistinctive) events.

Question 9

flashbulb memory

Answer 9

A highly detailed and vivid memory of an emotionally significant event.

Question 10

recoding

Answer 10

The ubiquitous process during learning of taking information in one form and converting it to another form, usually one more easily remembered.

Question 11

memory traces

Answer 11

A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event.

Question 12

engrams

Answer 12

A term indicating the change in the nervous system representing an event; also, memory trace.

Question 13

consolidation

Answer 13

The process occurring after encoding that is believed to stabilize memory traces.

Question 14

retroactive interference

Answer 14

The phenomenon whereby events that occur after some particular event of interest will usually cause forgetting of the original event.

Question 15

misinformation effect

Answer 15

When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.

Question 16

encoding specificity principle

Answer 16

The hypothesis that a retrieval cue will be effective to the extent that information encoded from the cue overlaps or matches information in the engram or memory trace.

Question 17

cue overload principle

Answer 17

The principle stating that the more memories that are associated to a particular retrieval cue, the less effective the cue will be in prompting retrieval of any one memory.

Question 18

mneumatic devices

Answer 18

A strategy for remembering large amounts of information, usually involving imaging events occurring on a journey or with some other set of memorized cues.

Question 19

When Tyler was a child, he got separated from his mother in a department store, but she found him after 2 minutes and all was well. Now, as an adult, he mis-remembers the event as having been a ten-minute separation, during which time store security intervened. This may be an example of the __________.

Answer 19

misinformation effect

Question 20

Define and note differences between the following forms of memory: working memory, episodic memory, semantic memory, collective memory.

Describe the three stages in the process of learning and remembering.

Describe strategies that can be used to enhance the original learning or encoding of information.

Describe strategies that can improve the process of retrieval.

Describe why the classic mnemonic device, the method of loci, works so well.

Question 21

encoding

Answer 21

The pact of putting information into memory.

Question 22

decay

Answer 22

The fading of memories with the passage of time.

Question 23

consolidated

Answer 23

Process by which a memory trace is stabilized and transformed into a more durable form.

Question 24

retrieval

Answer 24

The process of accessing stored information.

Question 25

interference

Answer 25

Other memories get in the way of retrieving a desired memory

Question 26

Five impediments to remembering

Answer 26

1. encoding failures 2. decay 3. inadequate retrieval cues 4. interference 5. trying not to remember

Question 27

medial temporal lobes

Answer 27

Inner region of the temporal lobes that includes the hippocampus.

Question 28

Patients with damage to the temporal lobes may experience _____

Answer 28

anterograde amnesia.

Question 29

anterograde amnesia

Answer 29

Inability to form new memories for facts and events after the onset of amnesia.

Question 30

declarative memory

Answer 30

Conscious memories for facts and events.

Question 31

temporally graded retrograde amnesia

Answer 31

Inability to retrieve memories from just prior to the onset of amnesia with intact memory for more remote events.

Question 32

retrograde amnesia

Answer 32

Inability to retrieve memories for facts and events acquired before the onset of amnesia.

Question 33

dissassociative amnesia

Answer 33

Loss of autobiographical memories from a period in the past in the absence of brain injury or disease.

Question 34

Identify five reasons we forget and give examples of each. Describe how forgetting can be viewed as an adaptive process. Explain the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia.

Question 35

misinformation effect

Answer 35

When erroneous information occurring after an event is remembered as having been part of the original event.

Question 36

photo spreads

Answer 36

A selection of normally small photographs of faces given to a witness for the purpose of identifying a perpetrator.

Question 37

foils

Answer 37

Any member of a lineup (whether live or photograph) other than the suspect.

Question 38

mock witnesses

Answer 38

A research subject who plays the part of a witness in a study.

Question 39

schemata

Answer 39

A memory template, created through repeated exposure to a particular class of objects or events.

Question 40

false memories

Answer 40

Memory for an event that never actually occurred, implanted by experimental manipulation or other means.

Question 41

Describe the kinds of mistakes that eyewitnesses commonly make and some of the ways that this can impede justice. Explain some of the errors that are common in human memory. Describe some of the important research that has demonstrated human memory errors and their consequences.