Chapter 6: Memory

Question 1

What is storage?

Answer 1

The maintenance of material saved in memory. (hard drive)

Question 2

What is retrieval?

Answer 2

Ability to retrieve/recover information that you learned earlier. (software access to info)

Question 3

What is memory?

Answer 3

The process in which we encode, store, and retrieve information.

Question 4

What is encoding?

Answer 4

The initial recording of information. (Keyboard)

Question 5

What is the three-stage model of memory?

Answer 5

Information initially recorded by someones sensory memory, moves to short-term memory, and finally moved to long-term memory.

Question 6

What is sensory memory?

Answer 6

The initial, momentary storage of information that lasts only an instant,

Question 7

What is short term memory?

Answer 7

Second step that holds information for 15-20 secs and stores it accordingly to its meaning rather than mere sensory stimulation.

Question 8

What is long-term memory?

Answer 8

The third step where information is stored on a relatively permanent basis.

Question 9

How many sensory memories are there?

Answer 9

5! One per sense (ie: iconic memory (visual) and echoic memory (auditory))

Question 10

What is a chunk?

Answer 10

A meaningful grouping of stimuli that can be stored as a unit in short-term memory.

Question 11

What is rehearsal?

Answer 11

The repetition of information that has entered short-term memory

Question 12

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 12

When information is considered organized in some fashion.

Question 13

What are mnemonics?

Answer 13

Organizational strategies that can vastly improve our retention of information (Never, Eat, Shredded, Wheat)

Question 14

What is working memory?

Answer 14

A short-term memory that is defined as a set of active, temporary memory stores that actively manipulate and rehearse information.

Question 15

What is the central executive?

Answer 15

A process that is involved in reasoning and decision making which coordinates three distinct storage-and-rehersal systems: the visual store, the verbal stored and the episodic buffer.

Question 16

What is the visual store?

Answer 16

Area in central executive that specializes in visual and spatial information

Question 17

What is the verbal store?

Answer 17

Area in central executive that specializes in holding and manipulating material related to speech, words, and numbers.

Question 18

What is the episodic buffer?

Answer 18

Area in the central executive that contains information that represents episodes or events.

Question 19

What is declarative memory?

Answer 19

Memory for factual information: names, faces, dates, facts.

Question 20

What is procedural memory?

Answer 20

Memory for skills and habits: how to ride a bike or hit a baseball.

Question 21

What is the effect of sleep on memory; procedural and declarative.

Answer 21

Procedural: quality of stage 2 sleep.
Declarative: length of NREM-REM sleep cycle.

Question 22

What is semantic memory?

Answer 22

A part of declarative memory: Memory for general knowledge and facts about the world/rules of logic

Question 23

What is episodic memory?

Answer 23

A part of declarative memory: Memory for events that occur in a particular time, place, or context. Personal experiences.

Question 24

Declarative memory is made of what?

Answer 24

Semantic (general memory) and episodic (personal knowledge) memory

Question 25

What is tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon?

Answer 25

How difficult it can be to retrieve information stored in long-term memory

Question 26

What is a retrieval cue?

Answer 26

A stimulation that allows us to recall more easily information that is in long-term memory. (a word, emotion, sound)

Question 27

What is recall?

Answer 27

When a specific piece of information must be retrieved.

Question 28

What is recognition?

Answer 28

When people are presented with a stimulus and asked whether they have been exposed to it previously, or are asked to identify it from a list of alternatives.

Question 29

What is flashbulb memories?

Answer 29

Memories related to a specific, imprint, or surprising even that are so vivid they represent a virtual snapshot of the event.

Question 30

What is source amnesia?

Answer 30

When an individual has a memory for some material but cannot recall where they encountered it before.

Question 31

What is constructive processes?

Answer 31

Processes in which memories are influenced by the meaning we give to events.

Question 32

What is schemas?

Answer 32

Organized bodies of information stored in memory that bias the way new information is interpreted, stored, and recalled.

Question 33

Why do we forget?

Answer 33

• Not paid attention in the first place (failure to encode)
• Decay
• Interference
• Cue-dependant forgetting

Question 34

What is decay?

Answer 34

Loss of memory through nonuse - assumes that memory traces, the physical change that takes place in the brain when new material is learned, simply fades away over time.

Question 35

What is interference?

Answer 35

Information in memory distupts the recall of other information.

Question 36

What is cue-dependent forgetting?

Answer 36

Forgetting that occurs when there are insufficient retrieval cues to rekindle information that is in memory.

Question 37

What is proactive interference?

Answer 37

Information learned earlier disrupts the recall of newer material. Past interferes with present.

Question 38

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 38

The difficulty in the recall of information because of later exposure to different materials. Present interferes with past.