Chapter 6: Process of memory

Question 1

What is memory and what does it involve?

Answer 1

Often defined as an active info processing system that encodes, manipulates, stores and recovers info.
-Involves processing, storage, and retrieval of info acquired through learning

Question 2

List the 3 core processes of memory:

Answer 2

• Encoding
• Storage
• Retrieval

Question 3

What is encoding?

Answer 3

The process of converting info into a useable form so that it can be represented and stored in memory.

Question 4

What is storage?

Answer 4

The retention of info of memory over time

Question 5

What is retrieval?

Answer 5

The process of locating and recovering the stored info from memory so that we are consciously aware of it.

Question 6

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store model

Answer 6

Suggest that memory consists of 3 separate components that store, encode, and process info in different ways but operate simultaneously and interact.

Question 7

Describe the function, capacity, and duration of sensory memory:

Answer 7

• Info from all 5 senses are temporarily retained within a sensory register for each sense
• Capacity is unlimited and info is held for a brief amount of time in its original sensory form
• Sensory impressions are held long enough for one to slightly overlap the next so the world is perceived as continuous
• If we pay attention to info, then sensory memory is transferred to short-term memory

Question 8

What is short-term memory?

Answer 8

• Has a limited storage capacity in which info is stored for a relatively short time, unless renewed in some way
• Info is no longer an exact replica of the sensory stimulus, but an encoded version
• Is the place where all conscious perceiving, feeling, thinking, reasoning, and other mental processes take place
• When we pay attention to info in sensory memory (or info retrieved from LTM), the info enters STM

Question 9

Describe the capacity and duration of short-term memory:

Answer 9

Duration: 12-20 secs (sometimes up to 30 secs)
-If distracted info is lost almost immediately
-Can increase duration through maintenance rehearsal
Capacity: 7+ bits or -2 bits (5-9 pieces of info)
-When STM is ‘full’, new items are added by pushing old items out

Question 10

Describe short-term memory as working memory:

Answer 10

• Term is used instead of STM to emphasise the active processing and use of info that occurs there
• As our ‘working memory’, STM enables us to actively ‘work on’ or manipulate info while we undertake our everyday tasks.
• Info from sensory memory is processed in working memory and info is retrieved from LTM to be used and manipulated in working memory

Question 11

What are structural features and what do they include?

Answer 11

Are the permanent, built-in fixed features of memory that do not vary from one situation to another.
-Includes: Encoding, storage, retrieval, capacity, and duration

Question 12

What are control processes and what do they include?

Answer 12

Are selected an used by each individual and may vary in different situations.

• Are under the conscious control of the individual
• Includes: Attention, rehearsal, and retrieval

Question 13

List the 2 types of sensory memory:

Answer 13

• Iconic memory

- Echoic memory

Question 14

What is iconic memory? Give an example:

Answer 14

Is the sensory register for visual info where visual images are stored, which has a duration of approx. 0.2-0.4 secs.
Eg.A movie is actually a series of still images. We are still storing the image of one shot when it is replaced by the next frame which is why we see a ‘moving’ picture.

Question 15

What is echoic memory? Give an example:

Answer 15

Is the sensory register for auditory info where sounds are stored, which has a duration of approx. 3-4 secs.
Eg. We need to register each sound and remember them in order to process an entire word or sentence.

Question 16

What are sensory registers?

Answer 16

Sensory systems which store incoming sensory info for different periods depending on the type of register.

Question 17

What is explicit memory? Give an example:

Answer 17

Memory that occurs when info can be consciously or intentionally retrieved and stated.
-‘Memory with awareness’
-Is ‘declarative’ where we are able to openly express or state the info when required
Eg. Remembering someone’s name.

Question 18

What is episodic memory? Give an example:

Answer 18

The memory of personally experienced events.

Eg. What you ate for breakfast this morning and how it tasted.

Question 19

What is semantic memory? Give an example:

Answer 19

The memory of facts and knowledge about the world.

Eg. The rules of chess

Question 20

What is implicit memory? Give an example:

Answer 20

Memory that does not require conscious or intentional retrieval.
-Memory without awareness
-Is ‘non-declarative’ where often people find it difficult to describe what is being remembered but can be expressed through behaviour
Eg. How to tie your shoelaces

Question 21

What is procedural memory? Give an example:

Answer 21

The memory of motor skills and actions that have been previously learned.
Eg. How to brush your teeth

Question 22

Describe the capacity and duration of long-term memory:

Answer 22

Stores a potentially unlimited amount of info for a very long time, possibly permanently.

Question 23

List the 2 types of long-term memory, as well as their sub-types:

Answer 23

1. Explicit memory
   - Episodic memory
   - Semantic memory
2. Implicit memory
   - Procedural memory
   - Classically conditioned memory

Question 24

What is classically conditioned memory and what type of memory is it? Give an example:

Answer 24

Conditioned responses to conditioned stimuli acquired through classical conditioning are considered to be a type of implicit memory, particularly those involving fear or anxiety.
Eg. Immediately feeling afraid at the sight of a spider

Question 25

List the 4 regions of the brain involved in LTM:

Answer 25

• Cerebral cortex
• Hippocampus
• Amygdala
• Cerebellum

Question 26

What is the cerebral cortex and how is it involved in the storage of LTM? Give an example:

Answer 26

-The thin, outer layer of the brain which is divided into lobes and is connected to virtually all the areas of the brain
-Long-term explicit-semantic and episodic memories are widely distributed throughout the cortex
-When required, the separate parts of a memory are gathered and reconstructed as a single, integrated memory
Eg. storage of the memory of a Shawn Mendes concert

Question 27

What is the hippocampus and how is it involved in the storage of LTM?

Answer 27

• Located just above the ear, deep within the medial temporal lobe, and is connected to the amygdala and the cortex
• Involved in the formation, consolidation, and retrieval of declarative (semantic and episodic-explicit memories), where it turns short-term memories into long-term memories (consolidation)
• Not involved in permanent storage of explicit memories (transfers to cerebral cortex), which means that it is really just a processing site
• Play a role in the formation of emotional memories particularly the explicit memory of an emotional event
• Involved in spatial-explicit memory for the physical location of objects in space (assists us to navigate and remember locations)

Question 28

What is the amygdala and how is it involved in the storage of LTM?

Answer 28

• Is a small structure interconnected with the hippocampus and connected to other brain regions
• Links emotion with memory, and processes and regulates emotional reactions (fear and anger)
• Contributes to the formation of explicit memories by influencing the activity of the hippocampus
• The presence of adrenaline and noradrenaline in the amygdala stimulates the amygdala to attach emotional significance to experiences and signal the hippocampus to encode memory, however, the amygdala does not store emotional memories

Question 29

What is the cerebellum and how is it involved in the storage of LTM?

Answer 29

• Located at the rear of the base of the brain and contains more neurons than the rest of the brain combined
• Involved in storing, processing, and encoding procedural-implicit memories, classically conditioned responses and memory of motor skills
• Involved in the tempory storage of implicit-procedural memories, and the permanent storage of conditioned reflexes