Chapter 6 - Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

An active system that receives information from the senses, puts that information into a usable form, and organizes it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.

Question 2

Encoding

Answer 2

The set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage systems

Question 3

Information processing model

Answer 3

Model of memory that assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages.

• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval

Question 4

Parallel distributed processing (PDP) model

Answer 4

A model of memory in which memory processes are proposed to take place at the same time over a large network of neural connections

Question 5

Levels of processing model

Answer 5

Model of memory that assumes information that is more “deeply processed,” or processed according to its meaning rather than just the sound or physical characteristics of the word or words, will be remembered more efficiently and for a longer period of time.

Question 6

Sensory Information

Answer 6

The very first system in memory, in which raw information from the senses is held for a very brief period of time.

Question 7

Iconic memory

Answer 7

Visual sensory memory, lasting only a fraction of a second.

Question 8

Eidetic imagery

Answer 8

The ability to access a visual memory for 30 seconds or more

Question 9

Echoic memory

Answer 9

Auditory sensory memory, lasting only 2 to 4 seconds

Question 10

Working memory

Answer 10

An active system that processes the information in short-term memory

Question 11

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 11

Practice of saying some information to be remembered over and over in one’s head in order to maintain it in short-term memory

Question 12

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 12

A way of increasing the number of retrieval cues for information by connecting new information with something that is already well known

Question 13

Nondeclarative (implicit) memory

Answer 13

Type of long term memory including memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses. These memories are not conscious but are implied to exist because they affect conscious behavior.

Question 14

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 14

New long term memories cannot be formed

Question 15

Declarative (explicit) memory

Answer 15

Type of long term memory containing information that is conscious and known

Question 16

Semantic memory

Answer 16

Type of declarative memory containing general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education

Question 17

Episodic memory

Answer 17

Type of declarative memory containing personal information not readily available to others, such as daily activities and events.

Question 18

Semantic network model

Answer 18

Model of memory organization that assumes information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion, with concepts that are related stored physically closer to each other than concepts that are not highly related.

Question 19

Encoding specificity

Answer 19

The tendency for memory of information to be improved if related information that is available when the memory is first formed is also available when the memory is being retrieved

Question 20

Serial position effect

Answer 20

Tendency of information at the beginning and end of a body of information to be remembered more accurately than information in the middle of the body of information

Question 21

Primary effect

Answer 21

Tendency to remember information at the beginning of a body of information better than the information that follows

Question 22

Regency effect

Answer 22

Tendency to remember information at the end of a body of information better than the information that precedes it

Question 23

Automatic encoding

Answer 23

Tendency of certain kinds of information to enter long term memory with little or no effortful encoding

Question 24

Flashbulb

Answer 24

Type of automatic encoding that occurs because an unexpected event has strong emotional associations for the person remembering it

Question 25

Constructive processing

Answer 25

Referring to the retrieval of memories in which those memories are altered, revised, or influenced by newer information.

Question 26

Hindsight bias

Answer 26

The tendency to falsely believe, through revision of older memories to include newer information, that one could have correctly predicted the outcome of an event.

Question 27

Curve of forgetting

Answer 27

A graph showing a distinct pattern in which forgetting is very fast within the first hour after learning a list and then tapers off gradually

Question 28

Memory trace

Answer 28

A physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed

Question 29

Consolidation

Answer 29

Changes that take place in the structure and functioning of neurons when a memory is formed

Question 30

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 30

Loss of memory from the point of injury backward

Question 31

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 31

Loss of memory from point of injury forward