Chapter 6 Terms

Question 1

Acquisition

Answer 1

The process of placing new information into long-term memory.

Question 2

Storage

Answer 2

The state in which a memory, once acquired, remains until it is retrieved. Many people understand storage to be a “dormant” process, so that memory remains unchanged while it is in storage. Modern theories, however, describe a more dynamic form of storage in which older memories are integrated with (and sometimes replaced by) newer knowledge.

Question 3

Retrieval

Answer 3

The process of locating information in memory and activating that information for use.

Question 4

Modal Model

Answer 4

A nickname for a specific conception of the “architecture” of memory. In this model, working memory serves both as a storage site for material now being contemplated and as the “loading dock” for long-term memory. Information can reach working memory through the process of perception, or it can be drawn from long-term memory. Once in memory, material can be further processed or can simply be recycled for subsequent use. This model prompted a large quantity of valuable research, but it has now largely been set aside, with modern theorizing offering a very different conception of working memory.

Question 5

Sensory Memory

Answer 5

A form of memory that holds to just-seen to just-heard input in a “raw” sensory form; includes iconic and echoic memory.

Question 6

Short-Term Memory

Answer 6

An older term for what is now called working memory.

Question 7

Working Memory

Answer 7

The storage system in which information is held while that information is being worked on. All indications are that working memory is a system, not a single entity, and that information is held here via active processes, not via some sort of passive storage. Formerly called short-term memory.

Question 8

Long-Term Memory (LTM)

Answer 8

The storage system in which we hold all of our knowledge and all of our memories. Long-term memory contains memories that are not currently activated; those that activated are represented in working memory.

Question 9

Free-Recall Procedure

Answer 9

A method used for testing what research participants remember; participants are given a broad que (“What happened yesterday” or “What words were on the list?”) and then try to name the relevant items, in any order they choose. It is the flexibility in order that makes this recall “free”.

Question 10

Primacy Effect

Answer 10

An often-observed advantage in remembering the early-presented materials within a sequence of materials. This advantage is generally attributed to the fact that research participants can focus their full attention on these items because, at the beginning of a sequence, the participants are not trying to divide attention between these items and other items in the series. Often contrasted with the recency effect.

Question 11

Recency Effect

Answer 11

The tendency to remember materials that occur late in a series. If the series was just presented, the recency effect can be attributed to the fact that the late-arriving items are still in working memory (because nothing else has arrived after these items to bump them out of working memory). Often contrasted with the primacy effect.

Question 12

Memory Rehearsal

Answer 12

Any activity that has the effect of maintaining information in working memory. Two types of rehearsal are often distinguished; maintenance rehearsal and relational (elaborative) rehearsal.

Question 13

Digit-Span Task

Answer 13

A task often used for measuring working memory’s storage capacity. Research participants are read a series of digits (e.g., “8 3 4”) and must immediately repeat them back. If they do this successfully, they are given a slightly longer list (e.g., “9 2 4 0”), and so forth. The length of the longest list a person can remember in this fashion is that person’s digit span. Also see operation span.

Question 14

“7 plus-or-minus 2”

Answer 14

A range often offered as an estimate of the number of items or units able to be contained in working memory.

Question 15

Chunks

Answer 15

The hypothetical storage units in working memory; it is estimated that working memory can hold 7 plus-or-minus 2 chunks. However, an unspecified quantity of information can be contained within each chunk, because the content of each chunk depends on how the memorizer has organized the materials to be remembered.

Question 16

Operation Span

Answer 16

A measure of working memory’s capacity. This measure turns out to be predictive of performance in many other tasks, presumably because these tasks all rely on working memory. This measure is also the modern replacement for the (less useful) measure obtained from the digit-span task.

Question 17

Working-Memory Capacity (WMC)

Answer 17

A measure of working memory derived from operation span tasks. Although termed a “memory capacity”, this measure can perhaps best be understood as a measure of a person’s ability to store some materials while simultaneously working with other materials.

Question 18

Working-Memory System

Answer 18

A system of mental resources used for holding information in an easily accessible form. The central executive is at the heart of the system, and the executive then relies on a number of low-level assistants, including the visuospatial buffer and the articulatory rehearsal loop.

Question 19

Articulatory Rehearsal Loop

Answer 19

One of the low-level assistants hypothesized as being part of the working memory system. This loop draws on subvocalized (covert) speech, which serves to create a record in the phonological buffer. Materials in this buffer then fade, but they can be refreshed by another cycle of covert speech.

Question 20

Subvocalization

Answer 20

Covert speech in which one goes through the motions of speaking, or perhaps forms a detailed motor plan for speech movements, but without making any sound.

Question 20

Phonological Buffer

Answer 20

A passive storage system used for holding a representation (essentially an “internal echo”) of recently heard of self-produced sounds.

Question 21

Concurrent Articulation Task

Answer 21

The speaking or miming of speech while doing some other task. In many cases, the person is required to say “tah-tah-tah” over and over, or “one, two, three, one, two, three,” these procedures occupy the muscles and control mechanisms needed for speech, so they prevent the person from using these resources for subvocalization.

Question 22

Maintenance Rehearsal

Answer 22

A rote, mechanical process in which items are continually cycled through working memory, merely by being repeated over and over. Often contrasted with relational (or elaborative) rehearsal.

Question 23

Relational or Elaborative Rehearsal

Answer 23

A form of mental processing in which one thinks about the relations, or connections, among ideas. The connections created (or strengthened) in this way will later guide memory search.

Question 24

Intentional Learning

Answer 24

The acquisition of memories in a setting in which people know that their memory for the information will be tested later. Contrasted with incidental learning.

Question 25

Incidental Learning

Answer 25

Learning that takes place in the absence of any intention to learn and correspondingly, in the absence of any expectation of a subsequent memory test. Contrasted with intentional learning.

Question 26

Level of Processing

Answer 26

An assessment of how “deeply” newly learned materials are engaged; shallow processing involves thinking only about the material’s superficial traits, whereas deep processing involves thinking about what the material means. Deep processing is typically associated with a greater probability of remembering the now-processed information.

Question 27

Retrieval Paths

Answer 27

A connection (or series of connections) that can lead to a sought-after memory in long-term storage.

Question 28

Mnemonic Strategies

Answer 28

Techniques designed to improve memory accuracy and to make learning easier; in general, mnemonic strategies seek to help memory by imposing an organization of the materials to be learned.

Question 29

Peg-Word Strategies

Answer 29

A type of mnemonic strategy using words or locations as “pegs” on which to “hang” the materials to be remembered.