PSYC 3330 - 1 (intro history)

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

an organism’s ability to store, retain, and retrieve information

Question 2

Learning

Answer 2

any change in the potential of an organism to alter its behaviour as a consequence of experience

Question 3

Acquisition

Answer 3

recorder of experience (wax tablet, tape recorder, video camera)

Question 4

Store information

Answer 4

organized storage (storehouse, library, dictionary)

Question 5

Associations

Answer 5

interconnections (switchboard, network)

Question 6

Need to search

Answer 6

jumbled storage (purse, junk drawer, garbage can)

Question 7

Fades with time

Answer 7

Temporal availability (conveyor belt)

Question 8

Access a memory

Answer 8

Content addressability (lock and key, tuning fork)

Question 9

Retain gist

Answer 9

forgetting of details (leaky bucket)

Question 10

Use what is available of memory

Answer 10

reconstruction (rebuilding dinosaur)

Question 11

Not a passive memory

Answer 11

active processing (workbench, computer program)

Question 12

Attention

Answer 12

select some info for further processing, avoid distraction by other info

Question 13

Plato

Answer 13

wax tablet metaphor (wax quality, strength of impression)

Question 14

Aristotle

Answer 14

laws of association (similarity, contrast, contiguity)

Question 15

Darwin

Answer 15

memory is adaptive, natural selection

Question 16

Ebbinghaus

Answer 16

nonsense syllables, learning/forgetting curves

Question 17

Bartlett

Answer 17

-memory is fragmentary

-meaning is critical (schemas)

-prior knowledge influences memory

Question 18

Gestalt movement

Answer 18

-whole is different than the sum of its parts

-memory influenced by configuration and context

-anti-reductionistic

Question 19

Pavlov

Answer 19

classical conditioning

Question 20

Watson

Answer 20

operant conditioning

Question 21

Verbal learning

Answer 21

-a behaviourist approach to learning of verbal materials (Ebbinghaus)

-memorization is the “attachment of responses to stimuli”

-forgetting is the “loss of response availability”

Question 22

Lashley

Answer 22

-search for the engram

-rats learned a maze

-memory is affected more my amount of tissue removed, not loaction

Question 23

Hebb

Answer 23

signal reverberation within collections of cell assemblies followed by a change in neural interconnections (neurons that fire together wire together)

Question 24

Information processing models

Answer 24

model of cognition made without reference to the brain

Question 25

Encoding

Answer 25

entering information into system

Question 26

Retrieval

Answer 26

finding and recovering stored memories

Question 27

Storage

Answer 27

retaining memories over time

Question 28

George Miller

Answer 28

-limited capacity of memory -working memory capacity: magic number seven, +/- two -organization aids memory (how you think about something affects ability to remember)

Question 29

Atkinson and Shiffrin's Modal Model

Answer 29

assumes multiple memory structures

Question 30

Information from external environment

Answer 30

sensory memory (perceptual) -> short-term memory store -> long-term store

Question 31

Short-term memory

Answer 31

limited-capacity

Question 32

long-term memory

Answer 32

permanently encoded in unlimited storage

Question 33

Modal model of memory steps

Answer 33

sensation -> perception -> short-term (working) memory -> long-term (storage) memory

Question 34

Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)

Answer 34

-measures white matter organization -based on limited diffusion of water molecules in axons

Question 35

Early models were one way flow (input -> output)

Answer 35

today, evidence suggests information is bidirectional

Question 36

Declarative memory (explicit)

Answer 36

semantic memory, episodic memory

Question 37

Nondeclarative memory (implicit)

Answer 37

procedural memory, classical conditioning, priming

Question 38

Lab pros

Answer 38

-more experimental control -easier to develop and test theories in rapid succession

Question 39

Lab cons

Answer 39

-overrepresentation of populations -reduced generalizability of findings -less ecological validity

Question 40

Real world pros

Answer 40

-test theories across populations -advance therapeutic treatments -highlights gaps in current understanding, advances future development

Question 41

Real world cons

Answer 41

-less experimental control -more confounding variables

Question 42

Disease-related studies

Answer 42

characterize deficits vs preserved abilities in specific diseases

Question 43

Lesion studies

Answer 43

characterize deficits vs preserved abilities due to focal brain

Question 44

Disease-related studies pros

Answer 44

provides a direct route to advancing diagnosis and treatment

Question 45

Disease-related studies cons

Answer 45

-often difficult to separate memory impairments from other deficits related to the disease

Question 46

Lesion studies pros

Answer 46

helps identify casual links between brain and behaviour

Question 47

Lesion studies cons

Answer 47

-cases are rare -lesions almost never confined to specific region of interest -patients' deficits rarely entirely pure