5. Memory Structures Flashcards by Anny W

What type of memory has the briefest storage

Sensory memory

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What are the two sub-types of long-term memory

Semantic and episodic

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What assumptions do modal models of memory make

Assumes that information is received, processed, and stored differently for each kind of memory

modular

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What are the 3 parts of a modal memory model

Sensory memory
STM
LTM

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What is the partial report technique

For testing sensory memory, subset of the total material is tested

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How many items did Sperling show that the sensory memory could hold

about 9

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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

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What is an icon in memory

brief visual memory stored by the sensory memory
- not auditory

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What is masking?

the fact that you can “erase” icons by presenting a display immediately after an icon

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what are differences in iconic vs echoic memory

sensory memory
visual vs auditory

iconic capacities appear larger, but auditory can store for longer

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How long does iconic memory last

1 second
after that the partial report advantage is irrelevant

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How long does echoic memory last

up to 20 seconds

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What is the suffix effect

similar to masking in iconic memory, the recall of the last few items on a list is hindered

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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

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What is the serial position effect

position of a word in a list effects how well you are able to remember it

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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

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What is the primacy effect

words at the beginning of the list are more likely to be remembered

likely due to rehearsal

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what is rehearsal

repetition of items to remember it

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What is the size of the STM and how can it be improved

7 chunks
by chunking

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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