Ch. 8 Flashcards
_ memory encompasses episodic memories of events we’ve experienced as well as semantic memories of basic facts about ourselves
autobiographical memory (AM)
Autobiographical memory is studied using _ _ of events that have already passed outside of experimental control, including personal interviews
retrospective reporting
The biggest limitation of retrospective report is…
it is often difficult to verify that what someone remembers is accurate
Memory for events from your life is _ memory, and memory for general knowledge is _ memory
episodic;
semantic
Autobiographical memory serves three functions:
- directive - guide current actions
- social - allow people with shared experiences to increase their social bonds
- _…
self-representation - determines what kind of behaviours and relationships you engage is in so you can maintain a stable identity in the future
One study conducted by Baron and Bluck (2008) found that participants enjoyed autobiographical stories about romantic encounters most when… These stories served to confirm the function of social bonding from autobiographical memory
the stores were true
Grace te al. (2016) found that people who reflect LESS/MORE on the past are less likely to share those memories with others, and are more likely to experience depression
MORE
Individuals with HIGHER/LOWER rates of depression appear to experience salient physiological arousal when recalling negative past events; conversely, they are less affected by NEGATIVE/POSITIVE. This pattern can strongly impact our self-representation
higher; positive
OR
lower; negative
Match the functions of memory to their definition:
DIRECTIVE/SELF-REPRESENTATIONS/SOCIAL
- guiding future directions
- increase social bonds
- internal reflections that aid identity cohesion
DIRECTIVE - guiding future directions
SELF-REPRESENTATIONS - increase social bonds
SOCIAL- internal reflections that aid identity cohesion
Grace et al. (2016) found a correlation between self-representation and depression. What were their results?
a. Lower rates of internal reflection are correlated with higher rates of depression
b. Higher rates of internal reflection without expressing them are correlated to higher rates of depression
c. Discussing internal reflections often is associated with higher rates of depression
d. Higher rates of internal reflection are correlated with higher rates of depression
b. Higher rates of internal reflection without expressing them are correlated to higher rates of depression
expressing them is helpful, but when you don’t it is shown to be less so
Individuals with Highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM) also known as _ report experiencing event-specific memories as if viewing the memories through a video recording (LePort et al., 2012; Parker, Cahill & McGaugh, 2006)
hyperthymesia
T or F: highly superior autobiographical memory (HSAM)/hyperthymesia is associated with higher general cognitive and memory function
false
Which type of memory do individuals with HSAM show increased performance for?
a. basic facts
b. episodes from their lives
c. lists of numbers and letters
d. motor behaviours
b. episodes from their lives
According to the video on HSAM, how are individuals tested?
a. Potential HSAM individuals are given a task and need to solve it as quickly as possible
b. They use mnemonic devices to remember large amounts of info and are tested by how much they can remember
c. They are given dates and asked to identify public events that occurred on that day
d. They are tested based on their digit span
c. They are given dates and asked to identify public events that occurred on that day
How long does our memory for autobiographical information last?
a. theoretically, a lifetime
b. five years
c. typically 20 years, but it is difficult to test past that point
d. anywhere from 10 to 15 years
a. theoretically, a lifetime
Yes! We store memories across our lifespan. Although we may not remember all events from our lifetime (as with HSAM), we still hold our memories across our lifespan and it is difficult to verify that we have completely forgotten information.
Childhood amnesia (or ‘infantile amnesia’) is not having episodic memories…
from before age 2 - 4 years old
Bauer and Larkina (2015) conducted a longitudinal study to track changes which occur across early childhood. They found that between children and adults there were more rapid increases in forgetting for … compared to older children
4 - 6 ages
Bauer and Larkina (2015) conducted a longitudinal study to track changes which occur across early childhood. They found that between children and adults there were more rapid increases in forgetting for 4 and 6 year-olds (4 year-olds being the most likely to forget) compared to older children. Bauer and Larkina found that the difference in recall can be reduced if children are…
provided cues to aid their memory
Childhood amnesia refers to _ memories, not other forms such as semantic or implicit memories (i.e., how to walk or crawl, likes or dislikes…)
episodic
Children age 5.5 are NOT/ABLE to recall events from before the age of two
able, although at roughly 50%…and reducing to almost nothing by adulthood
In childhood, the brain produces a lot of new neurons, called _
neurogenesis
Neurogenesis happens in the _, where it is possible that this building of the brain causes memories to be overwritten, explaining infantile amnesia
hippocampus
According to Video 8.3 above, which area of the brain is most likely to experience neurogenesis across your lifespan?
a. frontal lobes
b. occipital lobes
c. hippocampus
d. parietal lobes
c. hippocampus
Yes! The hippocampus is extremely plastic and changes because it has to constantly encode new information.
Based on information discussed in Video 8.3, what is evidence that shows that children under four are learning? (Select all that apply.)
a. The brain is most plastic at this age and new neural connections are forming
b. Children can learn two languages easily at this stage
c. Pruning of connections occurs as the brain learns what is needed
d. There is less evidence that children learn at this stage and more converging evidence to support the idea that we experience amnesia because we learn so little
all of the above
There is a correlation between a child’s linguistic abilities and their ability to remember both verbal and nonverbal info, providing support for the hypothesis that _ _ has to do with young children’s underdeveloped language abilities
infantile amnesia
Because highly emotional events often tend to be what is remembered, the mismatch of memories for children and adult may lead to an inability to _ memories (West & Baer, 1999)
retrieve
We generally cannot remember life events that occur before which age?
a. 6
b. 4
c. 11
d. 8
b. 4
What is the process of growing new neurons called?
a. neural growth
b. neurogenesis
c. none of the above (it is not possible to grow new neurons)
d. dendritic generation
b. neurogenesis
Neurogenesis is the generation of new neurons after birth. Remember that “neuro” refers to neurons and “genesis” to “new.”
Remembering autobiographical memories is shown on a line graph as childhood anesia from 4 to 11, the _ bump occurs between age 15 - 25, whereas the period of recency is 47+
reminiscence
Cognitive abilities are at theiri peak during the same approximate age as the _ _
reminiscence bump (15 - 25)
T or F: a reminiscence bump occurs strictly from 15 - 25
false, does not seem to be based on biological age; rather, due to richer memories of times when one undergoes a lot of changes in their lives
People remember _ _ words and pictures better than more neutral stimuli (Buchanan & Adolphs, 2012)
emotionally charged
Emotionally-charged responses can lead to increased encoding by drawing a person’s _ processing(Oschner, 2000)
attentional processing
A phenomenon in which people often miss a repeated stimulus when it is presented quickly in a sequence is know as _ _
attentional blink
this occurs when people are shown a series of stimuli (such as words or letters), one at a time in very rapid succession. If people are asked to detect two targets embedded within the sequence, they often miss the second one if it follows right after the first one
Emotionally charged stimuli leads to greater/lesser attention and encoding
greater
Once the info is encoded, emotional content is stores MORE/LESS effectively
more
showing resistance to forgetting with the passage of time
Encoding and storage of emotional content appear to involve the amygdala, a structure which is a nucleus embedded deep within the _ lobes
temporal
What area of the brain is considered important specifically for processing and encoding emotional memories?
a. cerebellum
b. hippocampus
c. cortex
d. amygdala
d. amygdala
Which group of individuals did not experience different perceptual processing of emotional words while completing an emotional attentional blink task?
a. patients with right amygdala damage
b. patients with left amygdala damage
c. patients with frontal lobe damage
d. healthy controls
b. patients with left amygdala damage
_ memories, coined by Brown and Kulik (1977), were found to not decay over time
flashbulb
Neisser and Harsch (1992) interviewed people the day after a disaster and then a few years after that. They found that people were highly confident in their memories, and unaware that their responses…
changed dramatically over time
Note: the study did not report what happened when participants were told about these discrepancies
Talarico and Rubin (2003) had shown people’s accuracy in remembering the details of a flashbulb event and an everyday event as shown decline in accuracy over time, but the decline is much more pronounced in the EVERYDAY/FLASHBULB event
everyday
Talarico and Rubin (2003) had shown people’s accuracy in remembering the details of a flashbulb event and an everyday event as shown decline in accuracy over time, but the decline is much more pronounced in the everyday event.
People’s confidence in their memories remained almost unchanged for EVERYDAY/FLASHBULB events while they dropped precipitously for EVERYDAY/FLASHBULB events. These results suggest that flashbulbs memories really ARE/NOT more durable, but ARE/NOT quite as permanent as people think they are
flashbulb;
everyday;
are;
are not
Davidson et al. (2006) demonstrated that flashbulb memories are consistently recalled amount OLDER/YOUNGER adults with varying frontal lobe function, despite not many of OLDER/YOUNGER subjects being able to recall everyday control events
older;
older
Davidson et al. (2005) had shown that patients with damage to their amygdala remembered significantly LESS/MORE than those with damage to the frontal lobe for flashbulb memories
LESS
What appears to distinguish the flashbulb memory duration for individuals with frontal or amygdala damage is being able to remember emotionally salient events. Davidson et al. (2005) found that emotionally salient events were better recalled by adults with AMYGDALA/FRONTAL LOBE damage than AMYGDALA/FRONTAL LOBE damage. This also relates to temporal lobe damage, in which those with that damage have less memory than frontal lobe (the temporal lobe encompasses the amygdala structure, so it too would be damaged)
frontal lobe;
amygdala
Talarico and Rubin (2003) found that which one of these was true about people’s memories about 9/11?
a. both memory for details as well as confidence in memories declined significantly
b. neither memory for details nor confidence in memories declined
c. memory for details declined but not confidence in the memories
d. memory for details did not decline but confidence in the memories did
c. memory for details declined but not confidence in the memories
What is the pattern of memory retention of flashbulb events for older adults?
a. The emotional content of the memory does not appear to help older adults retain the information any more than neutral daily events.
b. The emotional content appears to provide a protective factor for the memory compared to neutral daily events.
c. Both older and younger adults have so many errors that the retention is not relevant.
b. The emotional content appears to provide a protective factor for the memory compared to neutral daily events.
Compared to neutral events older adults perform comparably to younger adults for emotional information.
The Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) is an experimental paradigm in which words that are likely to…during encoding with the goal of determining whether people falsely remember their inclusion
belong to a list are actually not included in the list
A _ _ is a word item in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm that is likely to be falsely remembered
critical lure
Results from the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm (DRM) provide support that our memory is organized within _ or categorical representations and is subject to suggestibility
semantic
Misremembering words is an example of an error with out _ memory system
declarative (which includes episodic memory)
What does the critical lure refer to in the DRM paradigm?
a. it is the most common error subjects make
b. it is the trick the researchers play on the subjects
c. it is the categorical gist of the list subjects are exposed to
d. it is the most important, or critical, aspect of any study
c. it is the categorical gist of the list subjects are exposed to
the lure item is the item which the list is tempting our memories to construct.
Loftus had found that people’s memories could be altered after the fact through the introduction - without the person’s awareness - of incorrect information that ends up being falsely remembered, coined the _ effect
misinformation
Guesses of speed appeared to vary depending on the _ used during an interrogation of an accident (Loftus & Palmer, 1974)
phrasing
contacted vs hit vs collided vs smashed car
Participants were more likely to falsely remember seeing glass if they were asked about cars… than if they were not asked about the speed estimates of cars in a video
after an accident
glass would be more consistent with one’s idea of a car crash, despite never having seen it occur
Based on Video 8.7 above, which form of questions should an interviewer use while questioning a witness?
a. the interviewer should use detailed information in their questions
b. interviewers should reward good answers with praise and verbal feedback
c. the interviewer should use open-ended questions
d. the interviewer should describe their personal impressions before beginning
c. the interviewer should use open-ended questions
this form of question reduces the likelihood of influencing the person’s memory.
The “Lost in the Mall” study has been used to show that the suggestion of an event and out imagination can lead to not only alterations of memories, but…
the creation of memories (Lindsay et al., 2004; Wade et al., 2002)
A victim experienced a drastic case of memory distortion by misremembering the face of her attacker due to seeing Donald Thomson’s face on television, a phenomenon called _ _ing
source monitoring
An example of stimuli used in Ross et al. (1994) had shown that subjects observed a teacher reading with an innocent observer, or only the class, and that subjects that had seen the innocent observer in the classroom video were LESS/MORE likely to report that he was the [later showed] thief
MORE
source monitoring phenomenon - people can convince themselves that they remember something if no true memory is available
Recognizing a person but not knowing where you’ve seen them before is an example of an error in which kind of memory mechanism?
a. false memories
b. memory reconstruction
c. reminiscence bump
d. source monitoring
d. source monitoring
in the study with the innocent male bystander present during a video of a woman being robbed, he was falsely picked out of a lineup due to his proximity to the subjects.
Chan, Thomas and Bulevich (2009) had subjects watch an episode of a popular television program. After a delay period, they gave half the subjects a recall task where they had to describe, from memory, parts of the show. The other half didn’t have this task. Then, all subjects were asked specific questions into which they subtly introduced false info, then they gave the subjects a test to see whether they falsely remembered the misinformation.
the results showed that those who had performed the recall task were LESS/MORE prone to remembering the misinformation than those who did not.
more
Chan, Thomas and Bulevich (2009) had subjects watch an episode of a popular television program. After a delay period, they gave half the subjects a recall task where they had to describe, from memory, parts of the show. The other half didn’t have this task. Then, all subjects were asked specific questions into which they subtly introduced false info, then they gave the subjects a test to see whether they falsely remembered the misinformation.
the results showed that those who had performed the recall task were more prone to remembering the misinformation than those who did not. This phenomenon is thought to be because of _
reconsolidation
A mechanism in which info that has previously been stored in LTM is actively recalled, leading it to be stored again in memory: _
reconsolidation
Schiller et al. (2010) showed people a visual stimulus of a blue circle accompanied by a mild (but unpleasant) electrical shock. People’s conditioned fear response (measured using a test of their skin conduction) suggests that _ can present problems when we want to remember things accurately, but can also create an opportunity to erase some aspects of memories we don’t want to remember, even being a tool for PTSD. Reminder stimuli can act as a primer and even a tool to create a new connection, impacting the likelihood of the original event being remembered in the same way
reconsolidation
Each time you rethink of an old memory it is susceptible to change. What is the name of the process the memory undergoes that makes it susceptible?
a. consolidation
b. reconsideration
c. reconsolidation
d. source monitoring
c. reconsolidation
Jamey was in a car accident when she was 10. She vividly remembers hearing a horn honking right before the cars collided. Now, whenever she hears a horn honk while she is driving, she immediately braces for an impact, becomes terrified, and relives that original accident. Jamey is most likely experiencing which of the following?
a. postpartum depression
b. post-traumatic stress disorder
c. negative emotionality
d. specific phobia
b. post-traumatic stress disorder
Correct, the stress and trauma are reactivating this memory and physiological response for her, a hallmark symptom of PTSD.
Officers conducting a deposition m ust be careful during questioning to allow the individual to do free recall, without active questioning. If questioning i s necessary, then language is to remain neutral and without any investigator present to bias the individual. Also, lineups shouldn’t be a full one but individuals presented one at a time, and that the criminal may not be present. These methods help to discourage errors from _ _
eyewitness testimony
Reinforcement learning or Deep-Q-Learning are methods for artificial neural networks to be trained in a matter similar to long-term memory (although currently such networks cannot ‘reminisce’ about the past, but learn from other algorithms, etc). This is reminiscent of a type of episodic memory called _ memory
replay
Atari’s Breakout game was one of the first video games successfully mastered by _ _ algorithms. In _ _, the agent learns based on “replay memory” of previous actions it has taken and the resulting rewards which are used to update its predictive model.
reinforcement learning (RL)
_ _ serves as a directive guide for our purposeful actions, can increase social cohesion through shared experience, and can create a stable self-representation
autobiographical memory
Autobiographical memory (AM) can be organized in tiers, and memories for these tiers can be mixed and can be utilized _
simultaneously - it doesn’t require a buffer of time between certain ideas (doesn’t need to think of pet-canine-dog-large dog-mean dog-Rottweiller, it can just go straight to the type of dog)
Behavioural results from the attentional _ _ and patients with unilateral amygdala damage demonstrate the importance of _ _ in memory
emotional salience
Flashbulb memories help us encode and store memories, and our confidence in them is …
not absolutel
The DRM paradigm and other studies demonstrate the misinformation effect in which participants are more likely to falsely recall a critical lure, demonstrating the memory’s tendency to…
make decisions based on what can make sense, rather than how something may have actually happened - causing problems with post-encoding
Loftus and Palmer (1974) showed how questions were phrased for an eyewitness event altered subjects’ recollection of the event based on _
the impact of a verb change (e.g., ‘crashed’ rather than reference to a potential accident)
Errors in _ _, the attribution of when or where some remembered information was first encountered, contributes to the formation of memory errors
source monitoring
The left _ _ integrates info to form a multi-sensory memory, much like episodic recall
prefrontal cortex
The medial _ _, including the hippocampus, is active during episodic memory recall
temporal lobe
Which of these is NOT a viable possible explanation for infantile amnesia?
a. Young children’s hippocampi are underdeveloped.
b. Young children have underdeveloped language.
c. Young children have different emotional responses to events than adults.
d. Young children never encode the information in memory in the first place.
c. Young children have different emotional responses to events than adults. ?
The “reminiscence bump” refers to ______.
a. increased episodic memories for memories from mid-adolescence to early adulthood
b. increased semantic memories for memories from mid-adolescence to early adulthood
c. increased episodic memories for memories from mid-adulthood to late adulthood
d. increased semantic memories for memories from mid-adulthood to late adulthood
a. increased episodic memories for memories from mid-adolescence to early adulthood ?
Based on the available evidence, which of these is true of “flashbulb memories”?
a. They are completely resistant to forgetting.
b. People often feel as if they are resistant to forgetting.
c. They are more vulnerable to forgetting than regular memories.
d. They are exactly like regular memories in terms of forgetting.
b. People often feel as if they are resistant to forgetting. ?
Elizabeth Loftus found ______.
a. that memories can be altered by information after the original encoding
b. that completely novel false memories can be created
c. both A and B
d. neither A nor B
c. both A and B ?
One function of autobiographical memory is theorized to be allowing us to reminisce about the past or imagine future events. This is referred to as which of the following?
a. reconsolidation
b. encoding
c. mental time traveling
d. chronomemorization
a. reconsolidation ?
Research shows which of the following is true regarding autobiographical memories and depression?
a. Individuals with higher rates of depression feel increased physiological arousal to positive memories.
b. Negative memories are associated with increased levels of physiological arousal in individuals with higher rates of depression.
c. Levels of depression do not impact autobiographical memories.
d. All of the above are true.
b. Negative memories are associated with increased levels of physiological arousal in individuals with higher rates of depression. ?
Sheri is 65 and finds that she struggles to remember information from her early 30s, but is surprised that she can still remember her high school years quite well. Sheri is experiencing the ______.
a. reminiscence bump
b. general life event memory
c. HSAM
d. lifetime event
a. reminiscence bump ?
Damage to which of the following areas would be most likely to impair processing and encoding of emotional memories?
a. hippocampus
b. amygdala
c. parietal lobe
d. basal ganglia
b. amygdala ?
Researchers presented a list of words such as “glove,” “finger,” “shake,” and “thumb” to participants without ever showing them the word “hand.” Nonetheless, many subjects reported seeing the word “hand.” This paradigm used to demonstrate the suggestibility of memory is referred to as the ______.
a. DRM paradigm
b. lost in the mall paradigm
c. stop-sign paradigm
d. RM memory study
a. DRM paradigm ?
Loftus and Palmer (1974) used different verbs when interviewing subjects about a car accident. Which best describes their results?
a. The emotions the participants felt were influential in changing their memories.
b. Words used in the questioning influenced participants’ speed estimates.
c. Participants’ memories were usually correct and stable.
d. None of the above are true.
d. None of the above are true. ?
Judy is at a party and she sees a woman she swears she knows, but she cannot think of where they would have met. This is an example of ______.
a. misinformation effect
b. false memory
c. reconsolidation
d. source monitoring
d. source monitoring ?
Define autobiographical memory and the problems (and solutions) with measuring it
?
Define infantile amnesia and 2 theories to explain it
?
Define the reminiscence bump and explain the 4 theories to explain it
?
Define flashbulb memories and discuss evidence of their existence
?
Describe and provide an example of the repeated reproduction technique
?
Describe the DRM procedure and it’s link to source monitoring errors
?
Describe source monitoring errors, misinformation effect and implanted memories; provide experimental evidence of each
?
Describe how false memory can be a real problem for eye-witness testimony and what can be done to prevent those problems
?
Autobiographical memory is memory about ourselves that consists of episodic and _ memories
semantic
Researchers are concerned with _ not _ in autobiographical memory research
quality not quantity
Autobiographical memory is particularly difficult to study because it’s hard to _
verify
Verifying AM has a few methods, each of which has its problems:
1. measuring memory for _ _
public events
Verifying AM has a few methods, each of which has its problems:
1. measuring memory for public events
2. confirm with _ _
family members
Verifying AM has a few methods, each of which has its problems:
1. measuring memory for public events
2. confirm with family members
3. use _ _
diary studies
Verifying memory based on public events is problematic because…
unusual occurrences are likely to be more notable
Verifying memory based on confirmations from family members is problematic because…
there is no way to determine whether their info is accurate
Verifying memory based on diary studies is problematic because…
although verifiable, events may be remembered because they are notable
Experiments that have participants log whatever they’re doing when they get notifications are verifiable but writing an event is a form of _, meaning they are engaging with it which increases the likelihood of remembering it, therefore may not be representative of AM
elaboration
Wearing a GoPro for a study could work for studying AM, but requires very motivated/special participants, such as _ patients
Alzheimer’s
Adults can’t recall any memories before that age of 2. This is due to infantile _
amnesia
Our earliest memories are usually disjointed memory fragments between the ages of 2 and 4 memories on the earlier end tend to be related to …
major life events or transitions
Infantile amnesia is difficult to investigate:
- Early memories are difficult, if not impossible, to _
verify
Infantile amnesia is difficult to investigate:
- Early memories are difficult, if not impossible, to verify
- Memories may be from a secondary source, making it …
not reliable
Infantile amnesia is difficult to investigate:
- Early memories are difficult, if not impossible, to verify
- Memories may be from a secondary source
- Participants may have difficulty …
dating the memory
Researchers typically ask participants to _ early events or provide target events or probe words to cue early memories
free-recall
The view that neurological maturation causes infantile amnesia was a leading theory IS/NOT now being renewed
is
Logic for theories against neurological maturation for development of AM is: early memories occur before the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex fully mature, but the _ is fully-formed at birth
hippocampus
Josselyn and Frankland propose that rapid _ development leads to forgetting of early memories (2012)
hippocampal
Animal studies (but not yet human) have shown that neurogenesis in the _ continues into adulthood, suggesting that rapid development in infancy (too steep a rate) meaning that early memories are forgotten
hippocampus
