Chapter 7 part 2

Question 1

what is the last step in memory?

Answer 1

retrieval

Question 2

what are retrieval cues?

Answer 2

means by which people retrieve information from long term memory.

Question 3

the more cues that are associated with the memory ____________

Answer 3

the easier it will be to retrieve

Question 4

what is context-specific memory?

Answer 4

people will recall information better if the context in which the information is learned is the same as when it is being recalled

Question 5

what is an example of context-specific memory?

Answer 5

it is easier to recall information on the exam if you take it in the same seat you learned the information in class

Question 6

what is the serial position effects?

Answer 6

the order you learn things in makes a difference in ability to recall the information

Question 7

what is the primacy effect?

Answer 7

a type of serial position effect where you remember the first few items in the list very well because you rehearsed them long enough to put them in long-term memory

Question 8

what is the recency effect?

Answer 8

you just heard/saw the last few items in the list, so they are still in short-term memory

Question 9

what happens to the items in the middle of the list (serial position effect)

Answer 9

you forget them because they weren’t rehearsed enough to be stored in long-term memory and weren’t said recently enough to still be in short-term memory

Question 10

why do people remember the words at the beginning and end of the list, but not the middle?

Answer 10

the beginning items are in long-term memory and the ending items are in short-term memory

Question 11

what would happen if you were distracted for about 30 seconds just after I finished reading the list, and then you tried to recall the list items?

Answer 11

it would eliminate the recency effect (the last items are no longer stored in short-term memory and you have forgotten them)

Question 12

what are flashbulb memories?

Answer 12

vivid memories for highly significant, traumatic, or emotional experiences or events

Question 13

what is an easy way to remember flashbulb memories?

Answer 13

it is like someone took a picture of that event in your brain

Question 14

why are flashbulb memories so easy to encode and seem so vivid?

Answer 14

the amygdala is working with the hippocampus

Question 15

how does the amygdala work with the hippocampus to produce flashbulb memories?

Answer 15

the amygdala is activated when there is a lot of emotions, and it senses the event is meaningful and tells the hippocampus to record the event, and the hippocampus records better and more vividly when the amygdala is turned on

Question 16

what two things did Ebbinghaus do with forgetting?

Answer 16

1) he created the forgetting curve. he memorized 100 unmeaningful words and tested himself to see how much of the words he forgot.
2) he studied the same 100 words each day, and tested himself each day. determined that, the more repetitively you study, the more resistant you become to forgetting the information you studied

Question 17

what did Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve show?

Answer 17

without studying, you forget much of what you learned, but not all. you always can remember some of the information

Question 18

most forgetting occurs _________

Answer 18

in the first hour after learning

Question 19

why can’t we always retrieve everything that is stored in long-term memory, especially older memories?

Answer 19

interference

Question 20

what is retroactive interference?

Answer 20

new information interferes with our ability to remember old information

Question 21

what is an example of retroactive interference?

Answer 21

your new phone number interferes with your ability to remember your old one

Question 22

what is proactive interference?

Answer 22

old information interferes with our ability to remember new information?

Question 23

what is an example of proactive interference?

Answer 23

all of the times you took your daily thyroid pill in the past interfere with your ability to remember if you took it today

Question 24

are any of the episodes and events that we experience recalled with complete accuracy?

Answer 24

no, memories are reconstructions based solely on sensory input that was successfully encoded and successfully retrieved

Question 25

what are reconstructions?

Answer 25

your brain “fills in” gaps in memory by making up things that may have happened – basically making an educated guess

Question 26

are reconstructions accurate?

Answer 26

most of the time they are pretty accurate, but sometimes your brain makes mistakes called inaccuracies

Question 27

why are our memories very faulty?

Answer 27

we can only fully attend / pay attention to one thing at a time, so the only information that gets encoded is what you are paying attention to at that moment, and as time passes, it gets harder to access that memory

Question 28

what are false memories?

Answer 28

inaccuracies and distortions of our reconstructed memories that occur over time

Question 29

when we retrieve a memory, it is susceptible to ________

Answer 29

contamination

Question 30

what is contamination?

Answer 30

our brain takes what is happening when we retrieve the memory and puts it with the memory we retrieved, causing inaccuracies

Question 31

the more times a memory is retrieved, _________

Answer 31

the more contaminated it can become

Question 32

can we tell the difference between a real and a fake memory?

Answer 32

no, because the real and fake memories both feel the same (both feel like real memories)

Question 33

can you implant a completely fake memory into someone else’s brain?

Answer 33

yes, by using the power of suggestion

Question 34

are flashbulb memories more accurate and resistant to contamination?

Answer 34

no, sometimes they are even more susceptible to contamination because we retrieve them so often

Question 35

what are the three types of amnesia?

Answer 35

infantile amnesia, retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia

Question 36

what is infantile amnesia?

Answer 36

everyone has this. we don’t remember most things from early years (0-4) because the memories are too old and we can no longer access them, or because, as we grow up, the way we record memories changes so much that we can no longer play back the old ones (trying to play a vhs tape on a dvd player)

Question 37

what is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 37

loss of past memories. an event happens and we loose a chunk of our memory from before the event

Question 38

do we gain the memories back that we lost due to retrograde amnesia?

Answer 38

we can regain most of them back, but usually the events in the hour or so before the event are never gained back

Question 39

what is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 39

no new memory formation. you remember everything up until an event, but after that event, you can’t form new memories, like you skipped ahead in time

Question 40

what is amnesia?

Answer 40

when we forget large chunks of memory that, under normal circumstances, we would be able to remember

Question 41

is amnesia the same as normal forgetting?

Answer 41

no, it is extremely different