Chapter 7: Memory

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The nervous’s systems capacity to acquire and retain usable skills and knowledge

Question 2

What are the 3 phases of memory?

Answer 2

1. Encoding (processing information)
2. Storage (retenting of encoding representations over time)
3. Retrieval (recalling information)

Question 3

What brain regions are involved in learning and memory?

Answer 3

Prefrontal cortex (working memory); hippocampus (spatial memory); temporal love (declarative memory); amygdala (fear-learning); cerebellum (motor action learning/memory)

Question 4

Define: engram, consolidation, reconsolidation

Answer 4

Engram - physical site of memories (where they “live”)
Consolidation - immediate memories become lasting (long-term) memories
Reconsolidating - pull a memory out, and it gets restored (slightly damaged each time)

Question 5

How does attention determine what we remember?

Answer 5

You can only pay attention to one thing at a time; tiredness, boredom, impulsive control disorders (ADD, ADHD), multitasking - all affect attention

Question 6

Define: selective attention, change blindness

Answer 6

Selective attention - focusing on one thing while a series of others happen simultaneously
Change blindness - a failure to notice large changes in one’s environment

Question 7

What happens when you multitask while studying?

Answer 7

You really can’t - attention is limited (especially difficult if they rely on the same sensory or mental mechanism); leads to shallow learning, incomplete work, mental fatigue

Question 8

How are memories maintained over time?

Answer 8

Memories are kept in LTM (assuming they make it there)

Question 9

What’s the difference: sensory memory, short-term (working) memory, long-term memory?

Answer 9

Sensory memory - about 1/3 of a second; based on sensory info
Working memory - about 20-30 seconds; briefly holds a limited amount of information
LTM - relatively permanent and virtually limitless (the amount of information we can hold)

Question 10

What’s Miller’s magic number? Define: chunking

Answer 10

7 +/- 2 (aka 5-9)

Chunking: organizing information into meaningful units to make them easier to remember

Question 11

What evidence supports the difference between working and LTM?

Answer 11

Primacy - better memory for items at beginning of the list (part of serial position effect; reflects LTM)
Recency effect - better memory of items at end of the list (reflect working memory)

Question 12

How is information organized in LTM?

Answer 12

Perceptual xperiences are transformed into representations and stored in networks of neurons; mental representations stored by meaning

Question 13

What is the levels of processing model? Define: schemas

Answer 13

Levels of processing model - the more deeply something it is encoded, the more meaning/better it will be remembered
Schemas - mental maps/shortcuts; help organize, process, and use information

Question 14

What is the spreading activation model of memory?

Answer 14

Stimuli in working memory activate specific notes in LTM

Question 15

What are retrieval cues?

Answer 15

Anything that helps to access the right information in LTM

Question 16

Define: episodic, semantic, implicit, explicit, and prospective memory. How do they differ?

Answer 16

Episodic - events
Semantic - facts (“saber”)
Implicit - things that have become habitual; not consciously aware (ie. skills/habits, emotional responses)
Explicit - things you can tell others (semantic/episodic)

Question 17

What is the methods of saving model?

Answer 17

Forgetting occurs rapidly over the first few days and then levels off

Question 18

Define: transience, persistence, and memory bias

Answer 18

Transience (forgetting) - caused by interference (proactive = old information blocks new; retroactive = new blocks old, retro - can’t remember the good ol’ days)
Persistence (unwanted remembering)
Memory bias - changing of memories so they’re constant with current beliefs/attitudes (collective memories distort the past; we remember things as better than they were)

Question 19

Who is HM? What were his memory deficits?

Answer 19

HM - had anterograde amnesia, could not form new memories after he had his surgery

Question 20

Define: retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia

Answer 20

Retrograde: lose past memories
Anterograde: no new memories (50 first dates)

Question 21

What are flashbulb memories?

Answer 21

Vivid memories of things that people first found surprising or emotional; can be biased/inaccurate

Question 22

What are source misattribution and suggestibility?

Answer 22

SM - memory distortion when people misremember the time, place, person, or circumstances involved with a memory
Suggestibility - different wordings/questions alter someones memories of an event; bias information

Question 23

Are people good or bad eyewitnesses? Why?

Answer 23

Bad - often fail to pay attention to the incidents and people they observe; suggestible to misleading information

Question 24

What are false memories? Confabulation?

Answer 24

False memories - distorted memories (children very susceptible)
Confabulation - “honest lying” - unintended false recollection of episodic memories