Chapter 7 Flashcards
1
Q
memory occurs through 3 important processes
A
1) encoding
2) storage
3) retrieval
2
Q
memory
A
the retention and retrieval of information or experience over time
3
Q
your friend gives you their number and asks you to text them later, you say the number over and over again in your head several times until you input it, what memory technique is this
A
rehearsal
4
Q
encoding
A
the process by which information gets into memory storage
- some is automatic
- others take time
5
Q
selective attention
A
involves focusing on a specific aspect of experience while ignoring others
6
Q
why is attention selective
A
- the brain’s resources are limited, they cannot attend to everything
7
Q
processing capacity of the brain
A
120 bits per second
8
Q
divided attention
A
- involves concentrating on more than one activity at the same time
- can be deadly: texting while driving
9
Q
sustained attention
A
- also called vigilance
- ability to maintain attention to a selected stimulus for a prolonged period of time
10
Q
multitasking
A
involves dividing attention between 2 or more activities
- serious negative consequences for learning and memory
11
Q
handwriting vs computer
A
writing:
- active engagement
- better for memory because you have to DECIDE what you write
typing:
- you just type verbatim what is being said
12
Q
levels of processing
A
continuum from shallow to intermediate to deep
i.e. MOM
shallow processing: shapes of letters in the word
intermediate processing: reading the word
deepest level: meaning of a stimulus, the meaning of the word mom, your moms face and qualities
13
Q
types of processing levels
A
shallow: noting the physical features of a stimulus
intermediate: giving the stimulus a label
deepest: meaning of a symbolism and/or the word
14
Q
the more deeply we process
A
the better we can recall the memory
15
Q
deep processing
A
taking something we already know and can easily retrieve from our memory, then attaching new information to it in a meaningful way
- thus, when we need to remember the information, we can simply recall the old easily remembered material that now brings the new information with it as well
16
Q
elaboration
A
refers to the formation of a number of different connections around a stimulus at any given level of memory encoding
17
Q
self-reference
A
relating material to your own experience
18
Q
elaboration during encoding and brain activity experiment
A
- researchers placed individuals in MRI and flashed one word every 2 seconds on a screen inside
- the individuals, at first, just noted whether the words in uppercase or lowercase
- they were asked to then determine if the word is concrete or abstract
– the participants showed more neural activity in the left frontal lobe during the concrete/abstract task then when they were asked to say it it was uppercase/lowercase - they also had better memory with the concrete/abstract task
19
Q
what parts of the brain are activated when individuals use elaboration during encoding
A
- left frontal lobes
- hippocampus
20
Q
mental imagery
A
- person conjures up pictures that are associated with each thing that needs to be remembered
21
Q
the two ways Paivio said information was stored
A
1) verbal code (word or label)
2) image code
- highly detailed and distinctive, produces better memory than verbal code
22
Q
a meta-analysis of handwriting versus laptop note taking that looked at test performance found
A
small non-significant effects for handwriting
23
Q
dual code hypothesis
A
suggests that the human mind processes information through both verbal and nonverbal (imagery) channels, enhancing memory and learning when both are used.
24
Q
you ask your friend to remember the licence plate number you read out to them from a picture you’re looking at. Your friend tells you to show them the picture. When you ask why, your friend says they can remember better when they see a picture
A
dual code hypothesis
25
Atkinson-Shiffrin theory
- sensory memory: time frames of a fraction of a second to several seconds
- short-term memory: time frames up to 30 seconds
- long-term memory: time frames up to a lifetime
26
Sensory memory
- holds information from the world in its original sensory form for only an instant, not much longer than the brief time it is exposed to the visual, auditory, and other senses
27
con with sensory memory
- very detailed however, we lose the information fast unless we transfer it into short or long-term memory
28
Echoic memory
- auditory sensory memory, which is retained for up to several seconds
i.e. "what was that song when it just ended
29
iconic memory
- refers to visual sensory memory, retained for about 1/4 of the second
30
George Sperling Experiment
- spelling flashed letters in a box on a screen for a very brief time (1/20th of a second)
31
problem with Sperling experiment
with such a short exposure, reporting all nine letters was impossible
32
How did some participants in Sterling's study feel
- they could see all nine letters within a briefly flashed pattern
- ran into trouble when they tried to name all the letters they had initially seen THIS CAN BE BECAUSE
- all 9 letters were initially processed at the iconic sensory memory level
33
How did Sperling test his hypothesis that if all nine letters are actually processed in sensory memory, they should be available in a brief time
To test this possibility:
- Sperling sounded a low, medium, or high tone just after a pattern of letters was shown.
- participants had to only report a subset of letters they were shown, but didn't know what row to report until after the letters were no longer displayed
34
Short-term memory
is a limited capacity memory system in which information is usually retained for only as long as 30 seconds unless we use strategies to retain in longer
35
compare short-term memory to sensory memory
- short term is limited in capacity
- short term stores information longer than sensory does
36
Memory span
- refers to the number of digits an individual can report back
- the longer the list the more likely it is to exceed short-term memory capacity
37
Chunking
- grouping or packing information into higher-order units that can be remembered as single units
- making large info more manageable
38
rehearsal
- the conscious repetition of information
- simply means repeating the information in your head to keep it in memory
39
why doesn't rehearsal work well
1) often involves technically repeating information without imparting meaning to it
- we remember information best when we give it meaning
= elaborate processing
40
working memory
- combination of components
including: short-term memory and attention
- allow us to hold information temporarily as we perform cognitive tasks
41
T/F: working memory is the same as short-term memory
F
- short-term memory is a PASSIVE storehouse
- working memory is an ACTIVE storehouse
42
What has been used as a key aspect to explain the difference between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens
Working memory
- also been used for Alzheimer
- also been used to address practical problems
43
T/F: specific brain training can produce clinically significant improvements in working memory with several months of practice
T
44
Alan Baddeley's 3 part model of working memory
1) phonological loop
- specialized to briefly store speech-based information
2) visuospatial sketchpad
- stores visual and spatial information
3) central executive
- plays important roles in attention, planning, and organizing
45
T/F: there is a specific place of structure in the brain that helps with working memory
F
46
_______ is highly selective and attention drives memory to function
Perception
47
Long-term memory
- relatively permanent type of memory that stores huge amounts of information for a long time
- John von Neumann put the size at 2.8 x 10^20 (280 quintillion) bits
- means that the storage capacity is virtually unlimited
- Von Neumann assumes that we never forget anything, but even if we can we can hold several billions times more information than a large computer
48
H.M
- got into a bike accident that gave him schizophrenia
- he got surgery where they removed his hippocampus which cured his schizophrenia but left him unable to form memories
- his explicit memory was affected more than implicit memory
49
implicit memory
memory of how to do things
50
explicit memory
can't remember learning new events and can't remember past events
- also called declarative memory
- conscious recollection of information, such as specific facts and events, and at least in humans, information that can be verbally communicated
examples: including recounting the events in a movie you have seen and recalling the names of PM's in Canada
51
permastore
information that has been retained for a long time
- represents portion of original learning that appears destined to stay with the person virtually forever, even without rehearsal
52
episodic memory
retention of information about the where, when, and what's of life's happenings
53
Semantic memory
- type of explicit memory pertaining to a persons knowledge about the world
54
amnesia
memory loss
55
procedural memory
implicit memory process that involves memory for skills
- assuming you're an expert typist, as you type a paper you aren't conscious of where the keys are for the various letters
56
priming
- activation of information that people already have in storage to help them remember new information better and faster
i.e. seeing ho____ and thinking hope
57
John Bargh experiment
- study by social cognitive psychologist that has students perform a word-search puzzle
- embedded in the puzzle were either neutral words or achievement related words
| being exposed to non-neutral words primed their behaviour
58
how are memories "organized"
- memories are carefully sorted
59
schemas
- pre-existing mental concept or framework that helps people to organize and interpret information
- schemas from prior encounters with the environment influence the way we handle information -- how we encode it, the inferences we make about it, and how we retrieve it
60
script
schema for an event
- contains information about physical features, people, and typical occurrences
61
connectionism
parallel distributed processing
- theory that memory is stored throughout the brain in connections among neurons, several of which may work together to process 1 memory
62
locations of neural activity
- called nodes and they are interconnected
63
Lashley experiment
- timed rats to learn the correct pathway in a maze and cut out various portions of the animals' brains and retested their memory of the maze pathway
64
what does the neuroscience of memory suggest
- memories are processes rather than being stored in one place in the brain
- they are CONNECTIONS throughout the brain
65
the collections of connected neurons that make up a memory may involve as many as _____ neurons
1000 neurons
66
long-term potentiation
explains how memory functions at the neuronal level
- states that if 2 neurons are activated at the same time, the connection between them and the memory may be strengthened
67
permastore memory
- represents portion of OG learning that appears destined to stay with the person virtually forever, even without rehearsal
68
what parts of the brain are involved in explicit memory
- hippocampus
- temporal lobes in cerebral cortex
- limbic system
= info is transmitted from hippocampus to the frontal lobes
69
what are the frontal lobes involved in
retrospective memory (remembering things from the past) and prospective memory (remembering things that you need to do in the future)
70
left vs right frontal lobe vs amygdala
left: active when we encode new information into memory
right: more active when we subsequently retrieve it
amygdala: part of limbic system, involved in emotional memories
71
what parts of the brain are involved in implicit memory
- cerebellum (at back and toward bottom of brain)
72
memory retrieval
- takes place when information that was retained in memory comes out of storage
73
serial position effect
- tendency to recall the items at the beginning and end of a list more readily than those in the middle
primacy+recency=serial positon
RECALLED BECAUSE:
1) when these items are recalled, they might still be in working memory
2) they were recently encountered, which makes them easier to recall
74
primacy effect
- refers to better recall of items at the beginning of a list
*rehearsed more or receive more elaborate processing
75
recency effect
- refers to better recall of items at the end
*rehearsed more or receive more elaborate processing
76
recall vs recognition
recall
- memory task in which the individual has to retrieve previously learned information
[poor retrieval cues]
recognition
- memory task where the individual only has to identify learned items
[MC tests, you have to find which one the right answer is]
77
encoding specificity principle
- information present at the time of encoding or learning tends to be effective as a retrieval cue
78
context-dependent memory
- better recollection is believed to occur because they have encoded features of the context in which they learned the information along with actual information
- these features can act as retrieval cues
79
false memories
people remembering an event that never happened
80
autobiographical memory
special form of episodic memory, is a persons recollections of their life experiences
81
reminiscence bump
- the effect that adults remember more events from the second and third decades of life than from other decades
82
three levels of autobiographical memory
1) life time periods: long segments of time measured in years and decades
2) extended composite episodes measured in days, weeks, or months
3) individual episodes measured in seconds, minutes, or hours
83
Flashbulb memory
- memory of emotional significant events that people often recall with more accuracy and vivid imagery than everyday events
i..e you would be more likely to remember where you were during 9/11
84
William James approach on memory and trauma
- hypothesizes that experiences that are so emotionally arousing can leave a scar on the brain
there is evidence both ways
1) traumatic events are usually more accurate than memory for ordinary events, due to stress-related hormones signalled by the amygdala
2) distortions may cause differences in details of the traumatic episode which can lead to incorrect recollections of the incident
85
repression
defence mechanism in which someone is so traumatized that they forget it and then forget that they forgot it
- function if to protect the individual from threatening information
*can be considered motivated forgetting
= occurs when people forget something because its so painful that remembering it is intolerable
86
Jonathon Schoolers approach on memories
recovered memories are better termed discovered memories because individuals experience them as real regardless of their accuracy
87
when individuals (victims of a traumatic event) give their reports years later, there is a higher chance of
distortion which can lead to some details being incorrectly recalled
88
what is the best type of lineup to minimize eyewitness misidentification
there is no type of lineup that is the clear best
89
____ is a memory task where the individual has to retrieve previously learned information
recall
90
what effect is resistant to a distractor task at the end of the word list before trying to remember the list
primacy effect
91
someone in their 80s is reflecting on their life and noticing most memories are from the 20s and 30s
reminiscence bump
92
Hermann Ebbinghaus
- first person to conduct research on forgetting
- memorized a list of 13 nonsense syllables [meaningless combos of letters] and then assessed how many of them he could remember as time passed
- an hour later, he could only recall a few nonsense syllables
93
encoding failure
- when the information was never entered into long-term memory
94
studying material, knowing it, but blanking on the exam
retrieval failure
95
interference theory
- people forget not because memories are lost from storage but because other information gets in the way of what they want to remember
- memory for one thing fails because memory for something else gets in the way
96
two types of interference
1) proactive
- when material that was learned before disrupts the recall of material learned later
2) retroactive
- when material learned later disrupts the retrieval of information learned earlier
97
decay theory
- when we learn something new a neurochemical memory trace forms, but over time this trace disintegrates
- suggest that the passage of time always increase forgetting
CRITIQUE: new cues can recover memories that were thought to be forgotten
98
tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
- when we know something but can't pull it out of memory
- we can successfully determined characteristics such as the first letter of a word and the number of syllables but not the word itself
*we have SOME desired information but not all*
99
what did HM suffer from post-surgery
anterograde amnesia
- memory disorder that affect the retention of new information and events
- what he learned BEFORE surgery was not affected
100
retrograde amnesia
- memory loss for a segment of past events
101
encoding failure
when information is never entered into long-term memory
102
when it comes to autobiographical memory
redemptive stories are more generative
103
cognitive store
mental capacity allowing avoidance of harm to the brain
104
a cognitively active person will compensate for the declines in functioning due to what disease
Alzheimers
