Module 6 - Memory Part 1

Question 1

Information remains in sensory memory for ______________.
A. A second or a fraction of a second
B. 15-30 seconds
C. 1-3 minutes
D. as long as it is rehearsed

Answer 1

A. A second or a fraction of a second

Question 2

Compared to sensory memory, short-term memory has ______________.

A. Low capacity; long duration
B. high capacity; short duration
C. High capacity; long duration
D. low capacity; short duration

Answer 2

A. Low capacity; long duration

Question 3

The conclusion from the experiment in which a chess master and a chess novice were asked to remember the positions of chess pieces on a chess board was that _________________.

A. Chess masters outperform novices in all conditions.
B. Chess masters have developed better memory skills than novices
C. Novices do better because they are not distracted by irrelevant knowledge about previous chess games.
D. Chess masters did better only when possible real game arrangements were used

Answer 3

D. Chess masters did better only when possible real game arrangements were used

Question 4

Sarah is studying for her chemistry test. She decides to create mnemonic devices to better facilitate her ______________ of the material.

A. Encoding
B. Attention
C. Interference
D. Retrieval

Answer 4

A. Encoding

Question 5

Which of the following cognitive functions use the processes of encoding, storage and retrieval?

A. Motion perception
B. Learning names
C. Applying previously learned math formulas on a test
D. Remembering a friend’s phone number

Answer 5

All of them

Question 6

Order the following stores of memory in order of the duration they store information (longest to shortest).

• sensory memory
• short-term memory
• long-term memory

Answer 6

1. Long term memory
2. Short term memory
3. Sensory memory

Question 7

Joe and Margo are headed to the grocery store but need to write their grocery list first. Margo is reading off items to Joe to write down. As she is rattling off items, Joe exclaims, “Slow down! I can’t keep all of these items in my mind long enough to get them written. I keep forgetting items.” Margo has listed too many items and has exceeded his ______ for number of items he can store into his short-term memory.

A. Duration
B. Capacity
C. Ability
D. Durability

Answer 7

B. Capacity

Question 8

Why were phone numbers originally designed to have seven digits?

A. Even numbers seemed too weird to the average phone user
B. It needed to be long enough to give everyone unique numbers
C. It is the average capacity of our short-term memory.
D. Longer than 7 digits caused attentional capacities to decrease, hindering memory

Answer 8

C. It is the average capacity of our short-term memory

Question 9

A brief store of auditory information will be held for a few seconds in _____________________, a form of sensory memory.

Answer 9

Echoic memory

Question 10

Mary is trying to commit the names of her new co-workers to her long-term memory by associating each name with a rhyme or an object. During a company meeting a week later, she happily discovers that she is able to successfully ________________ each name from her long-term memory.

Answer 10

Recall

Question 11

Chase and simon tested short-term memory capacity between novice and expert chess players. What was the significance of their findings?

A. They found that experts are experts because they have better memory for most things

B. Expert chess players were more likely to remember only meaningful chunks of information that related to the game.

C. Novice players excelled at remembering random arrangements of chess pieces because they had no interference from past games.

D. Novice players excelled at remembering organized chunks of information because they had no proactive interference from previous games.

Answer 11

B. Expert chess players were more likely to remember only meaningful chunks of information that related to the game

Question 12

Dustin has started dating Jolene and discovers that he is so infatuated with her that he struggles to even remember his old girlfriend’s names. His inability to remember the older names is an example of _________________.

A. Retroactive interference
B. Proactive interference
C. Memory recall
D. Recall blockade

Answer 12

A. Retroactive interference

Question 13

Which part of Baddeley’s working memory model is posited to control the flow of information?

A. Phonological loop

B. Visuo-spatial sketchpad

C. Central executive

D. None of the above

Answer 13

C. Central executive

Question 14

According to Baddeley, trying to “replay” a phone number in your mind in order to remember it uses which part of your working memory?

Answer 14

Phonological loop

Question 15

What does memory refer to?

Answer 15

It refers to the process of using information that was obtained in the past in order to generate some cognitive function in the present.

Question 16

What kinds of cognitive processes require storing information for later processing?

Answer 16

Everything

Question 17

Name the three fundamental components of memory.

Answer 17

Encoding

Storage

Retrieval

Question 18

What does encoding refer to?

Answer 18

The initial processing of information so that it is represented in the nervous system.

It may be in the form of a short-term transduction of a physical stimulus into a neural code or a structural change in the brain that encodes a fact or event about the world.

If something is NOT encoded, it cannot be remembered.

Question 19

What does storage refer to?

Answer 19

The retention of encoded information.

Encoded information by the nervous system remains encoded in some form for a longer duration than immediate processing.

Question 20

What does retrieval refer to?

Answer 20

Ability to access the stored information for some cognitive purpose.

Question 21

Which dimension of memory measure how much information a memory system can hold?

Answer 21

Capacity

Ex: short-term memory has a capacity of 7 digits or informations.

Question 22

What is the second dimension of the memory that can measure how long information remains in memory?

Answer 22

Duration

Question 23

Imagine that you’re running a memory study and want to see how your participants’ memory capacity varies when they are in different moods. After inducing participants to feel different moods (happy, sad, or excited), you show them a series of words to recall later.Which of the following would be an appropriate measure of their memory capacity?

A. How happy, sad or excited the participants feel on a 1-10 scale

B. The amount of time it took for participants to recite the shown words

C. The amount of time it took for participants to utter the first recalled word.

D. A count of how many of the shown words they can recite

Answer 23

D. A count of how many of the shown words they can recite

Question 24

Who was the first to articulate the idea the there may be two kinds of memory stores?

Answer 24

William James

Question 25

What were the two kinds of memory stores william james proposed?

Answer 25

1. One for information related to the current task or environment
2. Longer-term storage

Question 26

The first substantial theoretical model of memory that attempted to account for experimental data was Atkinson and Shiffrin’s multi store or ______________.

Answer 26

Modal model

Question 27

WHat are the three basic kinds of memory proposed by Atkinson and Shiffrin?

Answer 27

1. Sensory memory
2. Short-term memory
3. Long-term memory

Question 28

What is sensory memory?

Answer 28

Briefly stores the information just encoded by the sensory organs.

Purpose: simply hold the information in place before it can be selected, via attention, for further processing.

Question 29

What is the short-term memory?

Answer 29

Memory that has a smaller capacity than sensory memory, but a considerably longer duration.

Duration: 15-30 seconds

Capable of producing behavioural output, such as repeating a phone number someone has just told you.

ALSO, capacity to reactivate information stored through a process called Maintenance rehearsal.

Question 30

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 30

The mental repetition of information in the short-term memory, which prolongs its duration.

Once it is rehearsed, it restarts the clock on the duration of the memory (15-30 secs again).

Question 31

What is long-term memory?

Answer 31

Cold storage for information that may be retrieved back into short-term memory as needed for task or behaviour.

Some of the rehearsed information can be encoded in long-term memory.

Capacity: some memories can last a lifetime while some decay over time.

Question 32

How long is the sensory information retained within our nervous system after the initial transduction of sensory information?

Answer 32

250 milliseconds

Question 33

What is the phenomenon called persistence of vision?

Answer 33

It is part of the sensory memory.

It is the retention of an image of an object or event for a brief period after it is no longer present.

Question 34

What were the findings of the Sperling experiment to find out how much information is retained in sensory memory?

Answer 34

Found that participants typically reported the letters from one of the rows, suggesting that whichever row they happened to be paying attention to was available to report.

Partial report condition:
- heard a tone that told them which row to report.
By the time the participants were told which row to report, the stimulus was already gone. Participants had to rely on their memory of the grid in order to report a specific row.
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If sound —> ver close after showing letter, could report 75-80%.

Sperling concluded that much more than 25% of the letter grid was still present in sensory memory and that, during that time, the participants could decide which of the rows to pay attention to in order to bring them into short-term memory and report them.

+

The more the sound was after the letters, the less they could recall. + found that sensory memory lasts about 1 second.

Question 35

Which memory is also called iconic memory by Sperling and why?

Answer 35

Sensory memory

Because it is high capacity; short duration.

Question 36

What is called the auditory form of sensory memory?

Answer 36

Echoic memory

Question 37

What kind of information does the short-term memory hold?

Answer 37

Only holds information that has been selected by attention for processing.

Question 38

What is the function of short-term memory?

Answer 38

It’s to hold information in place until it can be used for some behavioural task, transferring information into the long-term memory, or maintaining the information through rehearsal.

Question 39

How much information can the short-term memory hold?

Answer 39

7 items

Question 40

What experiment did Miller conduct regarding short-term memory and what were the findings?

Answer 40

Presented ps with lists of letters, numbers, or words. Asked them to repeat the items in order.

He found that the average capacity to repeat the items without any errors was 7.

Also found that some people had capacities as few as 5 items or a high as 9 items. Recalling a list longer than 10 items, is not possible.

Question 41

What does miller call the capacity limit of the short-term memory?

Answer 41

The magical number seven plus or minus two

Question 42

Which technique can we use to better remember a sequential item, according to Miller?

Ex: 1776149220013333

Answer 42

Meaningful groups-of information, called chunks

EX: 177 6149 2200 13333

Thus the capacity for the short-term memory is not 7 items but 7 chunks

Question 43

What is the capacity for visual short-term memory?

Answer 43

3 to five items

Question 44

What are professional mnemonists?

Answer 44

People who can memorize long strings of letters or numbers.

They are able to do so because of a skilled ability to form large chunks.

Question 45

What experiment did Chase and Simon do and what were the findings?

Answer 45

Comparing chess experts and novices ability to memorize configurations of chess pieces on a chess board.

Found that chess experts —> able to remember around 16 pieces

Novices —> remembered around four pieces.

Effect of expertise only found to apply when the chess pieces consisted of real configurations that could occur in a chess game.

Question 46

What can disrupt maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 46

Distractions

Question 47

Theoretically, how long can information in the short-term memory persist with no distraction?

Answer 47

Technically, if you have absolutely nothing else to do, information can persist for as long as you can keep rehearsing.

Question 48

What is the Brown-Peterson task and what were the findings?

Answer 48

STM task. Participants told to memorize 3 letters. Immediately after presentation of letters, they were presented with 2 digit number and told to count backwards by threes out loud —> task intended to prevent rehearsal.

FINDINGS
- memory of three letter began to fade after a few seconds, and by 15-18 seconds, participants showed little to no memory of the three letters.
- Led them to believe the duration of the short term memory is 15 seconds, without rehearsal.

Question 49

How do we forget, according to decay models?

Answer 49

Forgetting simply occurs because of the passage of time.

Memory may be thought of like a leaky bucket in which information trickles out.

Question 50

What is the second possible cause of forgetting?

Answer 50

Interference
- In which new information that comes into memory serves to displace older information.

2 types of interference
- proactive and retroactive

Question 51

What are the two types of interference in memory that causes forgetting?

Answer 51

Proactive interference

Retroactive interference

Question 52

What is the difference between proactive and retroactive interference?

Answer 52

Proactive
- cases in which learned information causes you to forget something that you learn in the future
- preexisting memory causes you to forget some new things

Retroactive
- cases in which newer info causes you to forget something in the past.

Question 53

How could interference be responsible in the Brown-Peterson task experiment?

Answer 53

First, the counting task itself requires a participant to remember each previous number, which could generate retroactive interference of the original trigram

there might be interference from long-term memory; specifically, as participants performed multiple trials over the course of the experiment, it is possible that some of the letters from previous trials could interfere (proactively) with the current trial.

This suggests that both interference and decay are at work in the loss of memory in short-term memory.

Question 54

Name the technique:

A technique used in verbal memory experiments, designed to block rehearsal, in which the participant repeats a task-irrelevant utterance out loud while trying to maintain other verbal items in memory.

Answer 54

Articulatory suppression

Question 55

Based on the evidence discussed in the two studies above (brown-peterson and another one lol), which of these is the most supported explanation for why forgetting occurs in STM?

A. Interference

B. Decay

C. Combination of both

D. Neither of them

Answer 55

C. Combination of decay and interference

Question 56

Stewart is a senior in high school and has had to change his school email account each year. As he is entering his new password, he keeps getting an error message because the password is wrong. It turns out that he keeps entering his freshman year password. His inability to remember his newest password in this example is due to ______.

A. Proactive interference

B. Retroactive interference

C. Combination of both

D. None of the above (it depends on whether the new password has been rehearsed).

Answer 56

A. Proactive interference

Question 57

What is Baddeley’s working memory model?

Answer 57

STM is considered an active workspace where information could be mentally manipulated based on the current task.

Proposed that STM is not a single unitary store, but has three connected sub-units.

• visuo-spatial sketchpad
• phonological loop
• central executive

Question 58

What are the three subunits of the short-term memory in the working memory model?

Answer 58

Visuo-spatial sketchpad

Phonological loop

Central executive

Question 59

What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 59

Visual component of the working memory model.

Can be used to analyze and manipulate visual info such as mentally rotating a remembered object.

Question 60

What is the phonoogical loop?

Answer 60

The auditory component of the working memory model.

Allows auditory information to be repeated so that it may be used or analyzed.

Question 61

What is the central executive?

Answer 61

Component completely novel to the working memory model.

Gatekeeper that determines what info makes it into working memory.

Toggles between visual + auditory memory stores.

Question 62

What were the findings of conrad regarding auditory memory in short-term memory?

Answer 62

Found that when people had to memorize a list of letters, they had more difficulty doing so when the letters sounded more similar to one another than when they didn’t.
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Referred to this as acoustic confusions

Question 63

What are acoustic confusions?

Answer 63

Difficulty memorizing letters when they sound similar than when they don’t.

Question 64

What is an important property of the WM model regarding the visual and auditory?

Answer 64

The visual and auditory buffers are separate from each other and therefore do not interfere with one another.

Question 65

What was the experiment conducted by Brooks and what were the findings?

Answer 65

Ps had to do either an auditory-memory task or a visual-memory task. Verbally say yes or no depending on the task.

FINDINGS
- people did better on the task when they had to respond in a different modality than what they had to remember. Ex: pointing the right answer in the auditory-memory task.
- Suggests that visual and auditory memory are processed separately form one another.

Question 66

What are the two roles of the central executive in working memory model?

Answer 66

1. Coordinating between the phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad.
2. Determining what info makes it into STM in the first place.

Question 67

What were the findings of the experiment conducted by Vogel on the central executive?

Answer 67

Ps had to remember the slides. Then Vogel used an electoencephalogram to measure an electrical, event-related potential response known to be active during STM activation.

FINDINGS
- The event-related potential response was similar for the two groups of participants when only the red rectangles were present. However, when the blue distractors were present, low-capacity individuals showed a stronger ERP response than high-capacity individuals.

Low-capacity individuals couldn’t successfully filter out the blue rectangles. Suggests that the central executive may not be as effective as those with higher capacity.
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suggests that a critical role of the central executive is to make sure irrelevant and unwanted information does not enter into memory because it could interfere with the information the system actually wants to retain.

Question 68

What is the episodic buffer in the updated version of the working memory model?

Answer 68

A separate, time-limited, memory store that combines info across different sources, including the visuo-spatial sketchpad, phonological loop and long-term memory.

Controlled by the central executive.

Assumed to lead to conscious awareness of time-based, multi-sensory memories.

Question 69

Why are the differences in working memory capacity important?

Answer 69

Evidence shows that this capacity may be predictive and causally related to, other measures of cognition, including general intelligence.

Question 70

Where does working memory happen?

Answer 70

All over the brain

• occipital lobe, visual working memory
• temporal lobe, auditory working memory

Etc.

Question 71

What part of the brain seems particularly important for the working memory?

Answer 71

Frontal lobe

Question 72

What was the experiment by Funahashi and what were the findings?

Answer 72

They found a neuron in pre-frontal cortex. Presented square to monkey and then made it disappear, followed by delay period. After delay, cue to monkey to ,move eyes where the object was. Found that neuron went in overdrive during the delay period when the monkey had to remember its location.

Question 73

What was the experiment by Schon and al. And what were the findings.

Answer 73

Used a delayed-match-to-sample-task with humans to see if similar effect to monkeys in Funahashi experiment.

FINDINGS
- using fmri, found an increased activity in prefrontal cortex during the delay phase, suggesting an important role of the frontal cortex in short-term/working memory.

Question 74

What did MOORe and al. Find concerning the working memory?

Answer 74

When regions of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex are damaged, patients show impairments on tasks similar to the delayed matching tasks, adding more direct evidence for the role of this brain region in short-term/working memory.