MIDTERM 2 Flashcards
(140 cards)
1
Q
How was Clive Wearing’s life affected by amnesia after a viral infection
A
- unable to form new memories
- remembers wife (but not that he was with her a few minutes before)
- can remember skill sets (ex: playing music)
2
Q
What are the 3 processes of learning and memory
A
Acquisition
Storage
Retrieval
= similar to creating, storing, opening a computer file
3
Q
What does the modal model by Atkinson and Shiffrin consist of
A
Sensory memory (lasts less than a second) ->
SHORT TERM memory (unique to modal model) ->
Longterm memory
STM was later replaced by working memory in modern theory
4
Q
How does working memory (modern theory) differ from short term memory (from Atkinson’s model)
A
WM = storage + ability to manipulate info for tasks (more dynamic)
STM = temporary storage for info
5
Q
Where is working memory theorized to happen
A
Perirhinal cortex
6
Q
Where is long term memory theorized to happen
A
HC
7
Q
What is the difference between long term memory and working memory
A
LTM has more capacity and takes more effort to consolidate/retrieve
8
Q
What are examples of experiments that support the modal model
A
participants study a long series of words and asked to free recall showed
1) primacy effect = better mem for items at beginning
2) recency effect = better mem for words at end
9
Q
How did they test claims about primacy and recency
A
WM manipulation should affect recall of recent items but not items presented earlier…
1) delayed recall with different task loses recency effect
2) early items should not be affected because LTM doesn’t depend on current activity
Slowing down list presentation allows more rehearsal for ALL items, increasing transfer to LTM
3) w/ slowing down, recall improves for everything except recent items (because still in WM)
10
Q
True or false: ppl can differ in WM capacity
A
True
11
Q
What is a digit span and what is the average
A
Digit span = # of digits a person can echo back w/o error
Average WM capacity/chunks: 7 +/- 2
12
Q
Working memory capacity (but not static span measures such as digit span) correlates strongly with
A
Standardized academic tests (ex: SAT)
Reasoning tests (ex: reading comprehension tests)
13
Q
What components make up the working-memory system
A
Central executive
Visuospatial buffer
Articulatory rehearsal (phonological) loop
(+ episodic buffer)
14
Q
What were the findings regarding the working memory system
A
1) repeat syllables while completing a verbal span test reduces WM capacity (across cultures and languages)
2) sound-alike errors are made even if items are presented visually (ex: F, S)
3) articulatory suppression eliminates sound-alike errors
4) WM for visuospatial info is much more restricted (~3-4 items)
15
Q
A
16
Q
The episodic buffer has been proposed to be a part of the WM system. What is its role and what did they find about it in patients with amnesia
A
Role: helps the central executive organized info from chronological sequence
Ex: amnesia patients, who cannot rely on LTM, can still recall more info with a story than the WM capacity
17
Q
What are the two types of rehearsal
A
1) maintenance rehearsal (shallow)
2) relational/elaborative rehearsal (deep)
18
Q
What is incidental learning vs intentional learning and what does it make learning easier
A
Incidental = learning in absence of attention to learn
Intentional = deliberate, expectation that mem will be tested later (little to no effect)
19
Q
What is an example of shallow vs deep processing
A
Shallow: how many vowels in this word (maintenance rehearsal)
Deep: does this word fit in this sentence (elaborative rehearsal), requires semantic thinking
20
Q
How does depth of processing promote recall
A
Facilitates retrieval due to connections between to-be remembered items and memory… thinking about semantics involves more thinking about relationships
21
Q
True or false: more complex sentences result in higher percent of words recalled
A
True!
Similar to word superiority effect of letter recognition
22
Q
What are examples of different types of mnemonic strategies
A
1) first-letter mnemonics (ex: ROYGBIV)
2) visualization strategies/mental imagery
3) peg-word systems
23
Q
How can someone control their own memory (capacity)
A
1) effective learning depends on how the info will later be retrieved
2) new learning is grounded in previous knowledge
3) creating schematics helps
24
Q
How can HM and Korasakoff syndrome patients be tested indirectly for “unconscious memories”
A
Motor skills can still be acquired by amnesia patients
Ex: drawing star task
25
What are retrieval paths and when they are useful
Connections between new material and existing memory
-> only useful when learning type and retrieval type match
26
What is context dependent learning and what 2 experiments show its effect
Learning is dependent on state in which learner is during encoding
Ex: underwater studies = recalled more words in same setting
Ex: studying in room A, tested in B: performance unaffected by room change in participants thought about Room A before test
27
What is context reinstatement and what experiment is associated with it
Re-creating context (thoughts, feelings) of learning episode
Ex: studying in room A, tested in B: performance unaffected by room change in participants thought about Room A before test
28
What is spreading activation and how does it work
Activation travels within a network from node to node via associative links
A node (idea)’s activation level increases with increasing input form neighboring nodes
Node fires if response threshold is reached -> activates neighboring nodes, draws attention to firing nodes
Summation: substhreshold activation can accumulate
29
What is encoding specificity
Things are better recognized as familiar later if they’re accessible appear in/are cued by a similar context
30
What is semantic priming and what task is it demonstrated by
Activation of an idea in memory that causes activation to spread to other ideas related to the first in meaning
Ex: blood - red
Demonstrated by: lexical decision tasls
31
What are the different forms of memory testing
Recall: individuals generates the memory after being given a broad cue
- requires memory search
- depends heavily on memory connections
Recognition: individual must decide if info is correctly matched
- w/o source memory, often depends on feelings of familiarity
32
What is source memory
Ability to recall where and when info was learned (the source from where info was acquired)
33
What is the distinction between remember/know
Do you remember encountering or do you just know you did?
“Remember” = source info
“Know” = feelings of familiarity
34
What is implicit memory and how is it tested
Unconscious awareness of memory
Ex: motor skills
Indirect memory tests look at how a second encounter yields different responses than the first
-> priming indicates memory of the first encounter
Ex: lexical-decision, word-completion task
35
What is an example of a repetition priming task that measures implicit memory
Word-stem completion taks:
- participants are given a string of letters and asked to produce a word beginning with the string
- if they’ve encountered one of these words recently, they are more likely to provide it as a response even if they do not remember seeing that word
36
What is explicit memory and how is it tested
Conscious awareness of memory
Ex: semantic knowledge
Tested by recall tests/standard recognition tests
37
What is an example of an experiment showcasing misattribution of familiarity
1) participants read aloud fake names
2) participants rated the fame of each person on a new list of 1/2 famous and 1/2 fake names
-> participants were more likely to rate the made up names as being those of real famous people IF its list 2 is 24 hours after, if tested right after, source if recalled
38
What is the illusion of truth
the effect of implicitly memory in which claims that are familiar or communicated to us by someone familiar seem more plausible
- familiarity increases credibility
- social media, advertising, propaganda, etc
39
What is an experiment finding that showcases source confusion
29% of participants falsely believed they saw a person commit a crime when they actually only saw that person in a previous photograph
40
True or false: people can be influenced by previous encounters without a sense of familiarity
True
41
What is the processing pathway
The sequence of detectors and connections between them that leads to recognizing/remembering a stimulus/idea
Repeated use -> increased strength + processing fluency
.. people are sensitive to degree of processing fluency and discrepancies between expectations/reality = familiarity
42
What are the two ways familiarity can be triggered
1) exposure to a stimulus -> practice perceiving -> fluency -> stimulus registered as “special” -> attribution of fluency -> “familiarity”
2) manipulation of stimulus presentation designed to make perceiving easier -> fluency -> stimulus registered as “special” -> attribution of fluency -> “familiarity”
43
What is highly superior autobiographical recall
Remarkable autobiographical memory
Otherwise normal cognition
44
What are examples of memory errors
1) after a cargo plane crash, 55% of participants reported seeing it on TV but no footage exists
2) 9/30 participants “remembered” seeing books in the office even though there weren’t any
45
True or false: recall is driven solely on reality,not expectations
False
Partly driven by expectations
46
What is the main hypothesis regarding memory errors
Memory connections link each bit of knowledge in memory of other bits of knowledge/other memories (no actual boundaries separating contents of one memory to another)
= connections serve as retrieval paths but also memory errors
47
What is it called when knowledge incorrectly intrudes into a remembered event
Intrusion error
48
What is the DRM procedure
Participants are presented with a list of related words
(Ex: best, rest, awake, tired)
Participants tend to mistakenly recall the theme word (ex: sleep) even though it wasn’t on the list
Errors occur even when participants are warned
49
What is a schema
Knowledge about what is typical of a given situation, event, location, etc
50
What is a classic study that demonstrates the importance of schematic knowledge
A Native American story presented to British participants -> participants had to narrate the story to each other w/o any corrective feedback -> story became smoother, more coherent, w/o original off elements
= memory is reconstructive
51
What are the pros and cons of memory connections
Pros:
- serve as retrieval paths
- enrich understanding
- link to schematic knowledge
Cons:
- undermine accuracy
52
Are eyewitness testimonies trustworthy
Not necessarily…
Contributed to at least 75% of false convictions that have been overturned in recent years
53
What are examples of planting false memories done in experiments
1) participants viewed a film depicting a car accident
= estimated speed of car changes depending on phrasing of question
2) participant experiences an event -> participant is exposed to misleading suggestion -> delay -> memory test
= more than 1/3 of participants incorporate false suggestion into their mem of event
54
What are some qualities of planting false memories
1) easier to plant plausible memories
2) easier to add to a memory than replace
3) imagery can increase one’s confidence in a false memory
55
What experiment was conducted regarding false confessions
Participants were persuaded they had committed a crime that actually never happened -> participants remembered this imaginary event a few years later due to use of repetition, social pressures guided imagery -> people may confess to crimes they did not commit
56
True or false: recollection is usually detailed, long-lasting, and correct
True
57
What experimental findings were there regarding memory confidence
When given positive feedback on response, participants reported much higher memory confidence than those who got no feedback
58
True or false: the goal of memory is to keep a detailed record of every experience rather than to guide us in life
False
59
What is retention interval
The amount of time elapsed between initial learning and subsequent retrieval, one of the best predictors of true forgetting
Ex: Ebbinghaus forgetting curve
60
True or false: as retention interval increases, so does forgetting
True
61
What are some causes of forgetting
1) Retention interval = amount of time elapsed between initial learning and subsequent retrieval
2) Decay theory of forgetting = memories may fade over time
3) interference theory = newer learning may disrupt older memories
4) retrieval failure = memory is intact but cannot be accessed
- can be partial (ex: tip of the tongue phenomenon)
62
How does hypnosis affect memory
makes people more open to misinformation and prone to errors…
- recovered memories may actually be false memories due to mix of recollection, guesses, inferences
63
What is the effect of the cognitive interview procedure
Effort toward context reinstatement + diverse retrieval cues can trigger memories -> diminishes forgetting
Supports idea that forgetting results from retrieval failure, not loss of memory
64
What is autobiographical memory
The memory of episodes and events in one’s own life
65
How can memories about ourselves be flawed
Memories about self = genuine recall + schema-based reconstruction
- subject to errors
- biased to emphasize consistency and positive traits
66
True or false: emotion weakens consolidation
False!
Emotions enhance consolidation
67
How does emotion enhance consolidation?
1) emotional events -> increased activity in amygdala
2) increased amygdala activity -> increased HC activity
3) increased HC activity -> better memory
68
What is the role of memory in emotion
Emotional events are likely to be important….
- narrowing of attention
- shift to emotion-relevant goals
Tendency to mull over emotional events similar to repeated rehearsal = repeated rehearsal
69
70
What are flashbulb memories
Memories of extraordinary clarity, typically for highly emotional events, retained even years after
Remembered with high confidence
71
What is an example of substantial errors found in flashbulb memories
37% of people gave a substantially different account of 9/11 yet had high confidence
72
Why are some flashbulb memories accurate and others are inaccurate?
- discussion with other people can act as rehearsal
- people will alter their accounts to improve conversation and/or include new info from other’s, altering memory
73
True or false: physiological arousal and stress at the time of a traumatic event increase consolidation
True
74
What is the role of stress in (traumatic) memories
Can enhance memory for materials directly relevant to source of stress
Undermines memory for details + other aspects of
75
What are the arguments for “recovered” memories
- lots mems can be due to ordinary retrieval failure
- but some of the memories reported as “recovered” may actually be false memories
76
What have they found regarding long, long-term memory (ex: recalling high school classmates)
- participants tested after 10 years remembered as much as those tested after 3 years
- how quickly memories “fade” may depend on how well established they were in the first place
77
What did they find cross culturally about the ages at which we have the largest percentage of memories
Childhood amnesia: 0-3yrs
Reminiscence bump: 10-30yrs
78
Our ability to acquire stable and persistence knowledge relies on….
Rules + concepts
79
How do we apply concepts to new learning
Apply general knowledge to new cases + draw broad conclusions from experiences
80
What is the problem with the definitional approach
Ex: a dog is an animal with four legs that barks and wags its tail
Always possible to find exceptions to definitions /outside the boundaries
81
What is family resemblance
Shared by memories of a category
= no “defining feature” common to ALL family members but “characteristic features” probabilistically shared across family members
82
True or false: the more characteristic features of a category an object has the more likely it is to belong to that category
False
83
What is the prototype theory
A concept is represented by the prototype: the category example that posses all the characteristic features
Suggests category membership is based on typicality
84
What is typicality
How much something resembles a prototype
85
True or false: a category’s protype is universal
False: differs across individuals based on their experiences
Can arise from all experiences even if it does not truly exist (ex: AI)
86
What is graded membership
Objects close to a protype are “better” members of the category than objects further from it
87
What was the main finding from the prototype distortion task
People (and monkeys) make more categorization errors for high-distortion examples than for low-distortion examples
Argument for graded membership
88
What was the main finding in a sentence verification task
- judgements about items that are more distant from the prototype take more time to make (ex: penguins are birds)
- more categorization errors for high-distortion examples than for low distortion examples
89
What did they find from a production task (testing protypes)
- participants generally name the most typical category members first
- these category members also yield faster response times in the sentence verification task
90
What did they find from rating tasks
- items closer to a prototype rated as more “typical” of a category
- the “protype-ness” of some examples are consistently seen in rating/sentence verification/production tasks
91
Why are basic level categories (ex: furniture vs wooden table)
92
What is the difference between exemplars and prototypes
Prototypes =
Exemplars
92
True or false: conceptual knowledge is a mix of exemplars and prototypes
- early learning often involves exemplars
- experience often involves averaging examplars to get prototypes
- w/ more experience, use both for category membership and object recognition
92
What is exemplar based reasoning
Categorization relies on knowledge about specific category numbers rather than the prototype
93
True or false: decisions about which features are important to resembalance are more reliant on typicality than one’s beliefs about the concept
False
Ex: counterfeit bill rejected as category number
94
Categorization enables us to
1) apply general knowledge to new cases (deductive reasoning)
2) draw broad conclusions from prior experiences (inductive reasoning)
95
Concepts can be categorized by
1) features
2) goal-driven categories (ex: exercise equipment)
3) relational categories (ex: rivalry)
4) event categories (ex: trips)
96
What is embodied cognition
Idea that our concepts include representations of perceptual properties and motor sequences
Ex: sensory areas + motor brain areas active when thinking about “kick”
97
What is the hub and spoke model and what does damage to each result in
A “hub” connects and integrates more specialized info “the spokes” from other brain areas
Damage to anterior temporal lobe “hub” -> loss of general knowledge
Damage to a “spoke” -> loss of specific knowledge
98
What did they find from a sentence verification task about knowledge retrieval
- faster responses when traversing zero links in memory (ex: a canary is a canary), slower w/ one link, even slower w/ two
- responses slower when test requires traversing from a category (ex: bird) to representing a property of the category (ex: can fly)
99
What are the two problems with traveling through a knowledge network to retrieve knowledge
1) sentence verification is faster if sentence is more typical (ex: a canary vs an ostrich is a bird)
2) principle of “nonredundancy” does not always hold
(Ex: ‘sparrows have feathers’ is slower than ‘peacocks have feathers’)
100
What is a proposition
The smallest unit of knowledge that can either be true or false
Ex: ‘children’ vs ‘children love candy’
101
What are local representations
Each node represents a concept/idea in a propositional network
102
True or false: propositional networks of episodes include time and place
Trye
103
What are distributed networks
Each idea is presented by a pattern of activation across network in a connectionist network
Parallel processing = more powerful + allows identification of patterns despite the variability in pattern implementation
104
What is aphasia
A langage disorder that affects a person’s ability to communicate
105
What are the characteristics of Broca’s Aphasia
Nonfluent, labored, hesitant speech
106
What are the characterics of Wenicke’s Aphasia
More fluent speech but not very meaningful
Difficulties repeating speech heard/from memory
107
What is the organization of language?
SWMP:
Sentence -> word -> morpheme (smallest language unit) -> phoneme (smallest unit of sound)
108
Categorization of speech sounds are based on
1) voicing = sounds that are (not) voiced
2) manner of production = airflow restrictions that produce different speech sounds
3) place of articulation = point of airflow restrictions
109
What is speech segmentation
The “slicing” of a continuous speech stream into appropriate segments
Ex: dog-> d/o/g
Ex: she/walks/to/the/park
110
How does the perception of language rely on prior knowledge and expectations to supplement input
- daily speech is limited in range
- phonetic restoration effect: we hear phonemes that ar snot actually present but fit the context
111
What did they find from an experiment in which they spliced out individual words from recordings of natural conversations and presented them to participants
- easily identified words in the context of the conversation
- hard to identify words when isolated from context
112
What is generativity
The capacity to create an endless series of new combinations from a small set of fundamental units
- ex: “selfie”, “brain rot”
113
What is syntax
Rules that govern the structure of a phase or sentence
114
True or false: synaptic rules depend on meaning
False
115
What is difference between prescriptive rules and descriptive rules
Prescriptive: rules describing how something is “supposed to be” in language
Descriptive: rules describing the language as it is ordinarily used by fluent speakers and listeners
116
What is parsing
The process of determining each word’s synaptic role in a sentence
-> usually effective, can lead to misinterpretations
117
What is a garden-path sentence
Initially suggests an interpretation that turns out to be incorrect
Ex: “the horse raced past the barn fell”
118
At what age can most children reasonably converse
3-4 years
119
What did the “wolf children” show us about language learning
May depend on both a human genome and a human environment
- needs to occur during a critical period
- needs a communicative partner to turn linguistic potential into ability
120
What is the evidence for linguistic relativity
Hypothesis that ppl who speak diff languages think differently:
1) affects how speakers perceive/remember color
2) spatial terminology (ex: left/right vs east/west) affects how ppl remember location
3) affects description of events (ex: mistakes were made vs i made a mistake) -> affects memory for agents in accidents
Because affects ATTENTION
121
Many judgements involve a frequency estimate.. what si it
An assent of how often various events have occurred in the past
122
What is an availability heuristic
The ease with which examples come to mind as a proxy for frequency/likelihood
123
True or false: ppl regularly overestimate the frequency of rare events
True
Because rare events are more likely to be well-recorded in memory, thus, more available than common events
124
In a study in which students were asked to give 6 or 12 examples of when they had been assertive showed what
those who only gave 6 examples judged themselves as more assertive than those who gave 12
… because easier to come up with 6 examples than 12, leading group to overestimate frequency of assertiveness
125
What is the assumption of homogeneity
An expectation that each individual is representative of the category overall
126
What is base-rate information
Information about how frequently something generally occurs
127
What is the difference between when only base-rate info is provided vs when base-rate and diagnostic info are provided
Base-rate only:
- no neglect of base rate
Base-rate + diagnostic info:
- judgements based on diagnostic info -> base-rate neglect
128
What are the two types of thinking in the dual process model
1) type 1: fast + automatic thinking: reliance on heuristics
2) type 2: slower, effortful thinking: more likely to be correct
129
What is induction/inductive reasoning vs deductive reasoning
Inductive: process through which you forecast abt new cases based on observed cases
Deductive: process through which you start with “givens” and ask what follows from these premises
130
What does the endowment effect show about decision making
Maybe: reason-based choice > utility maximization
- our goal is to simply to make decisions that we feel good about because we feel they are reasonable + justified
131
What is consciousness
A state of awareness of sensations/ideas
132
What is the point of consciousness
1) reflect on those sensations/ideas
2) know what it “feels like” to experience them
3) report to other that we are aware of them
133
In one study, participants witnessed a crime and were later asked if they could identify the culprit from a group of pics.They were then given positive/negative feedback or nothing… then asked to asses confidence in their memory and other aspects
Positive feedback: more willing to agree it was easy/they saw his face well
Opposite for negative
134
A study involving an electric shock involved a group taking a placebo pill to “diminish the pain” but with several side effects showed what
Withstood 4x the shock the controls did
- attributed physical symptoms of fear of shock to side effects of the placebo pill
- reasoning was unconscious
135
What are the main aspects needed for consciousness
1) overall alertness or sensitivity
2) content of conscious
136
What is the neuronal workspace hypothesis
“Workspace neurons” link the activity of various specialized brain areas
-> possible to selectively integrate + compare different types of info
-> linking stimuli into a dynamic, coherent representation via correlated activity of workspace neurons = consciousness
137
What is the function of the neuronal workspace
- enables mental representations in active state for extended periods
- provides neural basis for executive functioning
- supports goal-directed behavior
138
What are examples of qualita
Qualia = subjective experiences that cannot be conveyed as a first-person experience to someone else
Ex: pain of a headache, the exact flavor of chocolate
