5. Memory Structures Flashcards
What type of memory has the briefest storage
Sensory memory
What are the two sub-types of long-term memory
Semantic and episodic
What assumptions do modal models of memory make
Assumes that information is received, processed, and stored differently for each kind of memory
modular
What are the 3 parts of a modal memory model
Sensory memory
STM
LTM
What is the partial report technique
For testing sensory memory, subset of the total material is tested
How many items did Sperling show that the sensory memory could hold
about 9
What experiment is used to investigate sensory memory
Sperling’s partial report test
- show 9 letters + play a pitch to indicate which row to report
What is an icon in memory
brief visual memory stored by the sensory memory
- not auditory
What is masking?
the fact that you can “erase” icons by presenting a display immediately after an icon
what are differences in iconic vs echoic memory
sensory memory
visual vs auditory
iconic capacities appear larger, but auditory can store for longer
How long does iconic memory last
1 second
after that the partial report advantage is irrelevant
How long does echoic memory last
up to 20 seconds
What is the suffix effect
similar to masking in iconic memory, the recall of the last few items on a list is hindered
What are 3 properties of sensory memory
- modality specific (visual, auditory, etc. are split)
- more capacities for visual sensory memory but longer storage time for auditory sensory memory
- Relatively unprocessed
What is the serial position effect
position of a word in a list effects how well you are able to remember it
What is the recency effect
words at the end of the list are more likely to be remembered
likely due to STM and sensory memory
What is the primacy effect
words at the beginning of the list are more likely to be remembered
likely due to rehearsal
what is rehearsal
repetition of items to remember it
What is the size of the STM and how can it be improved
7 chunks
by chunking
What does the term coding refer to in memory
the way in which information is mentally represented
Are we more likely to code auditory or visual characteristics of a letter in STM
Conrad
auditory
but technically STM has both encodings
What is the retention duration of STM found by Brown-Peterson
20 seconds
They were given a trigram + number and asked to count backwards by 3.
most ppl forgot the trigram
What is a memory trace
mental representation of to-be remembered information that is not rehearsed
what is trace decay vs interference explanations for STM
decay: information fades from STM
interference: new information displaces old information in STM
what is proactive interference and how did Keppel and Underwood show this
material learned first can disrupt attention of subsequently learned material
Keppel and Underwood showed that recalling a 3 letter trigram from one trial hurts another trial
what is release from proactive interference and how did Wickens and his colleagues test this
proactive interference occurs when the new information is similar to the old one
Wickens recreated the trigram test but used letter trials -> number trials and found that after switching, participants did better
Sternberg’s experiment argues that STM takes the form of a _____, _______ search
serial, exhaustive
Experiment:
- participant memorized a set a letters, and then presented with a probe. they needed to decode as quick as possible if the probe was a part of the set
Possible reasoning for why so inefficient
- maybe search has a lot of moment so its hard to stop once it starts
What is the memory capacity of LTM and who tried to provide a quantitative answer
Thomas Landauer: ~ 1 billion
unlimited
What kind of similarity affects the coding in LTM
semantic similarity
What is the retention duration of LTM as found by Bahrick
up to 20 years
measured spanish retention
first 3-6 years: declines
next 3 decades: stays the same
30-35 years: final decline
What shape does the forgetting curve take, as found by Ebbinghaus
rapid at first, then levels off
Experiment:
Ebbinghuas himself memorized a bunch of nonsense syllable lists
What is paired associates learning and what is it used to test
it is used to test interference
participants hear lists of words in pairs
afterwards, they are given the first word and asked to recall the second one
What technique is often used in studies of interference
paired associates learning
What is proactive vs retroactive interference
Proactive: the things you learn first (pro) interfere with your retention of something new
Retroactive: the things you learn after (retro) interfere with what you had learned before
What explanations did Anderson and Neely come up with to explain interference
- competition among multiple targets of a single retrieval cue
What is the fan effect by John Anderson
Studying more about a particular concept causes you to take more time to recall any single fact about it
Why might forgetting be important
When we do “directed” forgetting, we experience much less proactive interference
What are mnemonics
Techniques to improve memory
What are 2 principles of retrieval that can be used to aid recall
Categorization
Encoding Specificity
What is the encoding specificity principle and two effects that it makes use of
Memory is improved when information available at the time of encoding is also available at the time of retrieval
context effect
state-dependent learning
T/F
State dependent memory effect + context effect is found with recall and recognition tasks
F
Only with recall
What part of Baddeley and Hitch’s study implied the existence of Working Memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Model says that STM is just storage and stores about 6-7 items
Experiment had participants hold 6 digits in memory and reason with them logically. This exceeds previous assumptions for memory storage limit. Hence WM
What are the parts of Baddeley and Hitch’s Working Memory model
central executive
- visuospatial sketchpad
- episodic buffer (linker)
- phonological loop (rehearsal loop and phonological buffer)
What are differences in semantic vs episodic memory according to Tulving
episodic: specific events that you participated in
- organized temporally
semantic: general knowledge base
- organized based on meaning + relationships
T/F semantic and episodic memory may operate independently
T
Schacter: mirror cases of people who lost semantic and episodic memory
….but there is opposition to this distinction
What is anterograde vs retrograde amnesia
Anterograde: amnesia for new events
Retrograde: amnesia for old events
What is long term protentiation
Neural circuits in the hippocampus that are subjected to repeated electrical stimulus develop hippocampal cells that are more sensitive to the stimuli
In lieu of memory formation
Where did Gene receive brain damage an to lose episodic memory?
Frontal lobes (hippocampus) + temporal lobe
Where is one place where you might injure and see impairment in semantic memory?
temporal lobes
