Chapter #4 / Session #4

Question 1

What is working memory?

Answer 1

The memory system supporting one’s ability to store information while simultaneously processing other incoming information

Question 2

Are short-term memory the same or different cognitive processes? Short-term memory and working memory refer to the same cognitive process.

Answer 2

Short-term memory and working memory refer to the same cognitive process.The term “working memory” represents an updated view of the more traditional “short-term memory.”

Question 3

Research confirms that your memory is limited in both its ___ and its ___ when you must remember new information.

Answer 3

duration // capacity

Question 4

Your memory is limited, even when the delay is less than ___.

Answer 4

1 minute

Question 5

What is Short-term memory?

Answer 5

Short-term memory refers to the memory system that is responsible for holding onto a small amount of information that has been recently taken in from the environment.

Question 6

What method provided much of the original information about short-term memory?

Answer 6

the Brown/Peterson & Peterson technique

Question 7

Material held in memory for less than ___ is frequently forgotten.

Answer 7

one minute

Question 8

What is Serial-Position Effect?

Answer 8

The term serial-position effect refers to the U-shaped relationship between a word’s position in a list and its probability of accurate recall.

Question 9

When researchers use the serial–position curve method, the size of short-term memory is estimated to be about ___ items.

Answer 9

3-7

Question 10

In a Serial-Position curve, when do participants have better recall?

Answer 10

At the beginning and end

Question 11

What are Semantics?

Answer 11

The meaning of words and sentences.

Question 12

What is Proactive interference (PI)?

Answer 12

Proactive interference (PI) means that people have trouble learning new material because previously learned material keeps interfering with their new learning.

Question 13

The number of items stored in short-term memory depends on ___.

Answer 13

both chunking strategies and word meaning

Question 14

What is the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model?

Answer 14

The Atkinson–Shiffrin model proposed that memory involves a sequence of separate steps. In each step, information is transferred from one storage area to another.

Question 15

What is Sensory memory?

Answer 15

According to the model, external stimuli from the environment first enter sensory memory. Sensory memory is a storage system that records information from each of the senses with reasonable accuracy.

Question 16

According to the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model, how long does information last in the sensory memory for?

Answer 16

For 2 seconds or less, and then most of it is forgotten.

Question 17

According to the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model, how long does information last in the short-term memory for?

Answer 17

Atkinson and Shiffrin noted that information in short-term memory can be lost within about 30 seconds, unless it is somehow repeated (through rehearsal, for example).

Question 18

How do cognitive psychologists now view the Atkinson–Shiffrin model/information-processing model?

Answer 18

They now consider it to not be accurate, and most cognitive psychologists now consider sensory memory to be the very brief storage process that is part of perception, rather than an actual memory.

Question 19

What did Baddeley and Hitch determine to be the goal of short-term memory for our cognitive processes?

Answer 19

its major function is to hold several interrelated bits of information in our mind, all at the same time, so that a person can work with this information and then use it appropriately

Question 20

What is Working Memory?

Answer 20

Working memory is the brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that you are currently processing; part of working memory also actively coordinates your ongoing mental activities.
-In other words, working memory lets you keep a handful of items active and accessible, so that you can use them for a wide variety of cognitive tasks, and so that they can be integrated with additional incoming information.

Question 21

Working memory is an ___.

Answer 21

active process

Question 22

Working memory is a more popular reconceptualization of short-term memory that places an emphasis on ___ and ___.

Answer 22

simultaneous processing // storage of information

Question 23

Information typically lasts in working memory for no more than ___.

Answer 23

30 seconds

Question 24

Most memory theorists believe that working memory seems to have ___, which can operate ___ of each other

Answer 24

several components // somewhat independently

Question 25

What is the Phonological Loop?

Answer 25

The phonological loop can process a limited number of sounds for a short period of time.
The phonological loop processes language and other sounds that you hear, as well as the sounds that you make. It is also active during subvocalization, for example, when you silently pronounce the words that you are reading.

Question 26

Phonological-loop tasks activate part of the ___ and part of the ___ in the ___ hemisphere of the brain

Answer 26

frontal lobe // temporal lobe // left

Question 27

Compared to the right hemisphere of the brain, the left hemisphere is more likely to process information related to ___.

Answer 27

language

Question 28

The ___ lobe is engaged while processing long but simple sentences.

Answer 28

left parietal