Chapter 7 // Human Memory

Question 1

Watching something and paying attention to it /Identifying t he details to begin preparing for memorization.

Answer 1

Four Memory Steps: Perception

Question 2

Getting the memory ready for storage / Usually a verbal code.

Answer 2

Four Memory Steps: Encoding

Question 3

Getting the memory into the brain / Groups of neurons that fire together.

Answer 3

Four Memory Steps: Storage

Question 4

Getting the memory back when you need to use it. Can be frustrating during a test when you know the item but cant retrieve it from your brain

Answer 4

Four Memory Steps: Retrieval

Question 5

Uses structural encoding (weakest form, remembering physical characteristics such as size/shape).

Answer 5

Shallow Processing

Question 6

Uses phonemic encoding (middle form, remembering sounds of words such as rhymes).

Answer 6

Intermediate Processing

Question 7

Uses semantic encoding (strongest form, remembering the word by its meaning).

Answer 7

Deep Processing

Question 8

Know how encoding may be enriched.

Answer 8

1) Elaboration
2) Visual Imagery
3) Self Referent Encoding

Question 9

Linking a stimulus to other information at the time of encoding. Phobias are caused by classical conditioning + your fear of spiders.

Answer 9

Elaboration

Question 10

Forming a visual image in your head to remember a word. Picturing someone juggling to remember the word juggle.

Answer 10

Visual Imagery

Question 11

Deciding how or whether information is personally relevant. The word love is important if you are in love.

Answer 11

Self- Retreating Encoding

Question 12

o Takes in info that is passed from the sensory memory
o Very limited, can only take in about 5-9 unrelated items
o Can stay for 20 seconds if unused
o Relating information can be grouped together to fill only one STM slot
o Rehearsal can increase time in the STM or pass on to the LTM

Answer 12

Atkinson and Shiffrin Model: Short Term Memory

Question 13

o Almost unlimited capacity

o Duration is almost unlimited

Answer 13

Atkinson and Shiffrin Model: Long Term Memory

Question 14

o Takes in hundreds/thousands of pieces of memory every day
o Goes in as the way that they were formed
o Held for less than 1 second and then tossed back out
o Paying attention moves the memory forward

Answer 14

Atkinson and Shiffrin Model: Sensory Memory

Question 15

Clear memories are kept from an important event that does not die away.

Answer 15

Flashbulb Memory

Question 16

Featured Studies Relating to Flashbulb memory.

Answer 16

Methods: Students at Duke were split into three randomly assigned groups, each were tested on Sept 12 about 9/11 but group 1 was retested one week after 9/11; group 2 was retested six weeks after 9/11; group 3 was retested 32 weeks after 9/11
Procedure: asked to describe their memory about 9/11 and when retested the two tests were compared
Results: there was no appreciable difference in consistency between participants’ flashbulb memories of 9/11 and their everyday memories over time but consistency declined over time at about the same rate for both types of memories
Discussion: the authors concluded that flashbulb memories fade gradually over time, even though people subjectively feel that these memories are especially vivid and accurate.

Question 17

The tendency to remember similar or related items in groups (even if the items were not presented that way)—conceptual hierarchy is a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items (example: minerals, metals/stones, etc.)

Answer 17

Clustering and Conceptual Hierarchies

Question 18

An organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or event abstracted from previous experience with the object or event. Example: college students have schemas for what professors’ offices are like—people would put desk, chairs, books, filling cabinet when in the picture there was only one chair, a wine bottle, etc.

Answer 18

Schemas

Question 19

Consists of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts.

Answer 19

Semantic Networks

Question 20

Assume that cognitive processes depend on patterns of activation in highly interconnected computational networks that resemble neural networks. Consists of a large network of interconnected computing units, or nodes, that operate much like neurons.

Answer 20

Connectionist Network and Parallel Processing Models

Question 21

The Importance of Cues

Answer 21

Memories can be jogged with information (first letter of the word)

Question 22

The Importance of Context

Answer 22

Putting yourself back in the situation to try to remember what happened or what you need.

Question 23

When one recalls an event that they witnessed but enter misleading post-event information.

Answer 23

The Misinformation Effect

Question 24

Making attributions about the origins of memories. Remembering that you read an article in the New York Times rather than Rolling Stone.

Answer 24

Source Monitoring

Question 25

The process of deciding whether memories are based on external or internal sources. If something happened or you only think it happened.

Answer 25

Reality Monitoring

Question 26

Having to retrieve the memory on your own (used in tests during fill in the blank/essays where there is no additional help)

Answer 26

Recall

Question 27

Present the information in any order that you wish.

Answer 27

Free Recall

Question 28

Having to recall the information in a correct order (history).

Answer 28

Serial Recall

Question 29

Choices are in front of us (multiple choice test)

Answer 29

Recognition

Question 30

Know Herman Ebbinghaus and his forgetting curve.

Answer 30

- Ebbinghaus learned lists of paired syllables and then would try to recall #2 while only seeing #1 - Human forgetting is curved over time - Very rapid in the beginning and then slowly declines - Sleep shows the same pattern, but the forgetting is less severe - Ebbinghaus’ information is exaggerated because the syllables have nothing to be compared to.

Question 31

If the information is not encoded properly it is more likely to be forgotten (if a student simply skims over the textbook while paying more attention to the TV).

Answer 31

Human Forgetting: Ineffective Encoding

Question 32

Something happens to the memory trace (like an old color photo it fades and blurs)

Answer 32

Human Forgetting: Decay Theory

Question 33

Forgetting things because we confuse one memory with another.

Answer 33

Human Forgetting: Interference Theory

Question 34

When the previously learned information interferes with the retention of new information.

Answer 34

Proactive Interference

Question 35

When new information impairs the retention of previously learned information/ Learning the test material and then learning something new.

Answer 35

Retroactive Interference

Question 36

Not being able to recall a memory at a certain time.

Answer 36

Human Forgetting: Retrieval Failure

Question 37

The value of a retrieval cue depends on how well it corresponds to a memory code.

Answer 37

Encoding Specificity Principle

Question 38

When the initial processing of information is similar to the type of processing required by the subsequent measure of retention. Semantic processing is better than phonemic for certain words.

Answer 38

Transfer Appropriate Processing

Question 39

Forgetting things that we don’t want to think about.

Answer 39

Human Forgetting: Motivated Forgetting

Question 40

Keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious. Actually proven that it is harder to remember these things.

Answer 40

Repression (Recovered Memories)

Question 41

Pro of Recovered Memories

Answer 41

Many people who have been raped will deny that it happened years later.

Question 42

Con of Recovered Memories

Answer 42

People are told that their problems are the result of other things.

Question 43

Know the role of Neural Circuitry in Memory.

Answer 43

Alterations in synaptic transmission.

Question 44

"Memories may create unique, reusable pathways in the brain along which signals flow."

Answer 44

Richard Thompson

Question 45

Synapses become closer together and strong.

Answer 45

Eric Kandel

Question 46

Affect memory store by modulating activity in the amygdala.

Answer 46

Adrenal Hormones

Question 47

A long-lasting increase in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway.

Answer 47

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP):

Question 48

A long-lasting decrease in neural excitability at synapses along a specific neural pathway.

Answer 48

Long-Term Depression (LTD)-

Question 49

Involves the loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia.

Answer 49

Retrograde Amnesia

Question 50

The loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia.

Answer 50

Anterograde Amnesia

Question 51

Accounts for much long-term memory through consolidation.

Answer 51

Hippocampus

Question 52

A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long-term memory.

Answer 52

Consolidation

Question 53

Seems to be critical for formation of learned fears.

Answer 53

Amygdala

Question 54

Stores memories.

Answer 54

Cerebral Cortex

Question 55

Important in working memory.

Answer 55

Prefrontal Cortex

Question 56

Involves the loss of memories for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia.

Answer 56

Retrograde Amnesia

Question 57

The loss of memories for events that occur after the onset of amnesia.

Answer 57

Anterograde Amnesia

Question 58

Handles factual information.

Answer 58

Declarative Memory

Question 59

Memory of how to do things.

Answer 59

Procedural Memory

Question 60

Chronological recollections of personal experiences.

Answer 60

Episodic Memory

Question 61

General knowledge that is not tied to the time when the information was learned.

Answer 61

Semantic Memory

Question 62

Remembering to perform actions in the future.

Answer 62

Prospective Memory

Question 63

Remembering events from the past or previously learned information.

Answer 63

Retrospective Memory

Question 64

Know the Personal Application “Improving Everyday Memory.”.

Answer 64

- Mnemonic devices: strategies for enhancing memory - Overlearning: refers to continued rehearsal of material after you first appear to have mastered it. - Serial-position effect: occurs when subjects show better recall for items at the beginning and end of a list than for items in the middle - Link method: involves forming a mental image of items to be remembered in a way that links them together - Method of loci: involves taking an imaginary walk along a familiar path where images of items to be remembered are associated with certain locations