5.4 Memory

Question 1

serial position effect

Answer 1

primacy and recency

Question 2

processes that aid memory

Answer 2

1. mnemonic
2. rehearsal
3. chunking (limit of working memory is 7 digits)
4. hierarchies (birds, cats)
5. depth of processing - meaning can be grasped
6. acryonym
7. dual coding hypothesis (Words + images)
8. method of loci
9. self-reference effect (relevance is helpful)

Question 3

sensory memory

Answer 3

iconic - brief photographic memory
echoic - sound, 3-4 seconds

decays unless it passes through Broadbent’s filter into short-term memory (20 seconds)

Question 4

implicit versus explicit memory

Answer 4

implicit = procedural - conditioned associations, knowledge of how to do something, a practiced memory

explicit = declarative - voice what is known

explicit -> Semantic/Episodic -> semantic = capital of England, episodic = autobiographic memory for information of personal importance, like situation surrounding a first kiss; semantic memory deteriorates before episodic memory

Question 5

brain structures with memory

Answer 5

1. hippocampus -> necessary for encoding explicit memories
2. cerebellum -> learning skills and conditioned associations (implicit memory)
3. amygdala -> associating emotion with memories

Question 6

infantile amnesia

Answer 6

EXPLICIT memories are not retained before the age of 4

Question 7

spreading activation, response threshold, summation

Answer 7

spreading activation - a node fires and send a stimulus to all of its neighbors when a response threshold is met

response threshold - a node is not activated until the summation of input signals from multiple nodes; more dendrites = summate more quickly and powerfully to threshold

Question 8

cued versus free recall

Answer 8

cued - provide student with list of all countries

recognition -> multiple choice questions

Question 9

priming

Answer 9

shown several red items -> asked to name a fruit -> the brain is “primed” to name a red fruit

a predisposition to a certain memory

Question 10

mood-dependent memory

Answer 10

depressed mood brings back bad memories

angry at a friend, always thinking the relationship was rotten

Question 11

prospective memory

Answer 11

one type of recall: remembering to do things in the future

older adults show MINIMAL decline in recognition, but greater decline in recall

Question 12

3 types of interference

Answer 12

1. proactive - information previously learned interferes with your ability to recall new things (parking after having parked somewhere else before)
2. retroactive interference - newly learned information interferes with information learned earlier (moving to a new place interferes with knowledge of old address)
3. positive transfer - the opposite of interference (tennis - squash)

Question 13

schema

Answer 13

“filling in the blanks” - we assume things that may not have existed

the word “smash” makes people assume a higher speed

reports seeing broken glass - when there was none

the tendency to misremember (misinformation effect)

Question 14

false memories

Answer 14

implanting of idea, inaccurate recollection of an event upon repeated imagining

repeated imagination gives false memories a real feeling, so feeling and confidence are not good indications of how valid a memory actually is

Question 15

source monitoring

Answer 15

forgetting where information came from

an action may have occurred in a DREAM