Chapter 6- Acquisition of Memories and the Working Memory System

Question 1

Acquisition:

Answer 1

Process of gaining information and placing it into memory

Question 2

Storage:

Answer 2

Hold acquired information in memory until it is needed again

Question 3

Retrieval:

Answer 3

Locate information from memory and bring it into active use

Question 4

Modal Model: Sensory Memory

Answer 4

○ Incoming info comes here first
		○ Held in sensory form 
			§ Iconic memory
				□ Visual inputs
			§ Echoic memory
Auditory inputs

Question 5

Modal Memory: STM/ Working Memory

Answer 5

○ Sensory memory moved into short term memory for storage while you’re still accessing the information
Ideas currently activated and being worked on

Question 6

Modal Memory: LTM

Answer 6

○ Larger and more permanent storage place

○ Short term memory transferred here

Question 7

Working Memory

Answer 7

• Limited in size
  
  • Easy to get info into working memory (every time you are thinking about something, it is in your working memory)
  • Easy to access
  • Contents are fragile (easy to push out/ replace contents out of working memory)
  • Stores materials for later use while simultaneously working with other materials (i.e. remembering what you just read while still reading)

Question 8

LTM

Answer 8

• Enormous in size
• Harder to get info into LTM
• Harder to access
Not linked to current focus of thoughts, less fragile

Question 9

Free Recall Procedure:

Answer 9

• Participants shown list of 30 words presented at one word per minute
• Participants asked to repeat back as many words as possible, in whatever order they want
Usually remember 12-15 words

Question 10

Primacy Effect:

Answer 10

• Participants likely to remember first few words in list

Words later in list less rehearsed than words early in list, greater chance of being transferred into LTM

Question 11

Recency Effect:

Answer 11

• Participants likely to remember last few words in list

Working memory is limited in size, so first words in list are bumped out for last words in list

Question 12

Serial Position Curve:

Answer 12

• U shaped curve that relates position within the series (first in list vs. last in list) and likelihood of recall

Question 13

Testing Claims About Recency:

Answer 13

• Ask participants to do a task that requires working memory (i.e. counting backwards by 3) before they report list items
• Task will displace working memory’s contents (recency effect will be disrupted)
Items in long term memory not affected

Question 14

Testing Claims About Primacy:

Answer 14

• Presentation of list slowed down so participants have more time to spend on all list items
  
  • Likelihood of transfer into LTM increased
  • No impact on recency effect
  • Pre-recency items recall improved

Question 15

Digit Span Task:

Answer 15

• Participants asked to read series of digits and must immediately repeat them back
If successfully, they are given a longer list until they start making errors (usually around 7-8)

Question 16

7 Plus or Minus 2 Principle:

Answer 16

• Working memory holds around 7 plus or minus 2 chunks
• Each chunk’s contents varies from person to person
i.e. letter span test, participants reorganizes sequence into chunks (HOP, TRA, SLU), can remember 7 chunks

Question 17

Operation Span:

Answer 17

• Way of measuring working memory’s capacity when it is working
• Reading Span
○ Ask participant to read a series of sentences
○ After reading, participant asked to recall last word of each sentence
○ Number of sentences increased until errors occur
Limit on performance defines working memory capacity (WMC)

Question 18

Working Memory Capacity:

Answer 18

People with greater WMC do better in tasks that require coordination of different pieces of information (i.e. reading comprehension, standardized tests, reasoning tests)

Question 19

Working Memory System

Answer 19

Central Executive
Articulatory Rehearsal Loop
Visual spatial Buffer

Question 20

Central Executive

Answer 20

○ Governs selection and sequence of thoughts

Needed to plan a response or make a decision

Question 21

Articulatory Rehearsal Loop

Answer 21

Stores verbal material

Question 22

Visual spatial Buffer

Answer 22

Stores visual material

Question 23

Maintenance Rehearsal:

Answer 23

• Focus on to be remembered items, with little thought about what they mean or how they are related to each other
Not moved into LTM

Question 24

Relational/Elaborative Rehearsal:

Answer 24

Thinking about what the to be remembered items mean and how they’re related to each other

Question 25

Intentional Learning:

Answer 25

• Learning that is deliberate, with the expectation that memory will be tested later
Doesn’t make learning more effective

Question 26

Incidental Learning:

Answer 26

• Learning without the intention to learn

Question 27

Shallow Processing:

Answer 27

Processing material in superficial fashion (i.e. capital or lower case letters, colour written in…etc)

Question 28

Deep Processing:

Answer 28

• Processing that requires thought about meaning of material
• Leads to better memory
i.e. does the word fit into a particular sentence?

Question 29

Connections:

Answer 29

• Allow one memory to trigger another until you reach the information you are trying to remember

Question 30

Elaborate Encoding:

Answer 30

Words in more complex sentences are more likely to be remembered

Question 31

Retrieval Paths:

Answer 31

• Paths that can guide thoughts toward content to be remembered
More likely with complex sentences, because they trigger more connections and evoke more retrieval paths

Question 32

Mnemonics:

Answer 32

• Techniques to improve memory
• Organize to be remembered material
• Involve trade off, if you focus on one or two memory connections, you’ll spend less time thinking about other possible connections
i.e. ROYGBIV, mental images

Question 33

Peg-Word Systems:

Answer 33

• Hang “peg words” on “pegs”
• One is a bun, two is a shoe
Associate memory with peg words, then when you think of the rhyme you’ll think of the material you wanted to remember

Question 34

Understanding and Memorization:

Answer 34

• Remembering complex materials dependent on understanding

Better understanding= better memory