Chapter 7: The many types of memory

Question 1

Context-dependent learning

Answer 1

Pattern of data in which materials learned in one setting are well remembered when the person returns to that setting but are less well remembered in other settings

Pg. 230

Question 2

Context reinstatement

Answer 2

A procedure in which a person is led to the same mental and emotional state they were in during a previous event

Can often promote accurate recollection of that event

Pg. 231

Question 3

Encoding specificity

Answer 3

Tendency, when memorizing, to place in memory both the materials to be learned and some amount of their context

As a result, these materials will be recognized as familiar later on only if they appear again in a similar context

Pg. 232

Question 4

Nodes

Answer 4

An individual unit within an associative network

In a scheme using local representations, nodes represent single ideas or concepts

In a scheme using distributed representations, ideas or concepts are represented by a pattern of activation across a wide number of ndes

The same nodes may also participate in other patterns and therefore in other representations

Pg. 234

Question 5

Associations

(Or associative links)

Answer 5

Functional connections hypothesized to link nodes within a mental network or detectors within a detector network

often hypothesized as the “carriers” of activation from one node/detector to the next

Pg. 234

Question 6

Subthreshold activation

Answer 6

Activation levels below response threshold

Will not trigger a response

Can accumulate to anactivation level that reaches response threshold

Pg. 234

Question 7

Summation

Answer 7

Addition of 2+ separate inputs so that the effect of the combined inputs is greater tha the effect of any one input alone

Pg. 234

Question 8

Spreading activation

Answer 8

Process through which activation travels from one node to another, via associative links

As each node becomes activated, it serves as a source for further activation, spreading on through the network

Pg. 234

Question 9

Lexical-deision task

Answer 9

Test in which participants are shown strings of letters and must indicate, as quickly as possible whether or not each string of letters is a word in their language

People may “look up” these strings of words in their “mental dictionary”

Pg. 235

Question 10

Semantic priming

Answer 10

Process in which activation of an idea in memory causes activation to spread to other ideas related to the first in meaning

Pg. 237

Question 11

Recall

Answer 11

Task of memory retrieval in which the rememberer must come up with the desired materials, sometimes in response to a cue that names the context in which these materials were earlier encountered

Question 12

Recognition

Answer 12

Task of memory retrieval in which the items to be remembered are presented and the person must decide whether or not th item was encountered in some earlier circumstance

“Have you ever seen X before?”

Pg. 238

Question 13

Familiarity

Answer 13

The subjective feeling that one has encountered a stimulus before

OR

The objective fact that one has indeed encountered a stimulus before, and is now in some way influenced by that encounter, whether or not one recalls that encounter or feels that the stimulus is familiar

Pg. 239

Question 14

Source memory

Answer 14

Form of memory that enables a person to recollect the episode in which learning took place or the time and place in which a particular stimulus was encountered

Pg. 239

Question 15

Attribution

Answer 15

Step of explaining a feeling/event, usually by identifying the factors that caused the current feeling/event

Often elaborated with the term “causal attribution”

Pg. 239

Question 16

“Remember/Know” distinction

Answer 16

If you remember encountering a stimulus, you can usually offer information about the encounter (when, where, why, how)

If you know that you encountered a stimulus before, you likely have a sense of familiarity but may have no idea when or where the encounter was

Pg. 239

Question 17

Explicit memory

Answer 17

Memory revealed by direct memory testing and usually accompanied by the conviction that one is, in fact, remembering (drawing on some sort of knowledge)

Contrast with implicit memory

Pg. 242

Question 17

Word-stem completion

Answer 17

Task in which research participants are given the beginning of a word and must provide a word that starts with the letters provided

In some versions, only one solution is possible and others have multiple

Pg. 242

Question 18

Direct memory testing

Answer 18

Form of memory testing in which people are asked explicityly to remember some previous event

Recall and standardrecognition testing are both forms of direct memory testing

Contrast with indirect memory testing

Pg. 242

Question 19

Implicit memory

Answer 19

Revealed by indirect memory testing and often manifested as a priming effect in which current performance is guided or facilitated by prevous experiences

Implicit memories are often accompanied by no conscious realization that one is being influenced by past experiences

Contrast with explicit memory

Pg. 242

Question 20

Indirect memory testing

Answer 20

Form of memory testing in which participants are not told that their memories are being tested

Contrast with direct memory testing

Pg. 242

Question 21

Illusion of truth

Answer 21

Effect of implicit memory in which claims that are familiar end up seeming more plausible

Pg. 244

Question 22

Source confusion

Answer 22

Memory error in which one misremembers wherre a bit of info was learned/where a stimulus was last encountered

Pg. 246

Question 23

Processing pathway

Answer 23

The sequence of nodes and connections between them through which activation flows when rcognizing or thinking about a stimulus/idea

Pg. 246

Question 24

Processing fluency

Answer 24

Speed/ease of activation flow

Pg. 248

Question 25

Amnesia

Answer 25

Disruption of memory

Often due to brain damage

Pg. 253

Question 26

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 26

Inability to remember experiences that occured before the event that triggered memory disruption

Contrast with anterograde amnesia

Pg. 253

Question 27

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 27

Inability to remember experiences that occur after the event that triggered the memory disruption

Contrast with retrograde amnesia

Pg. 253

Question 28

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 28

Clincial syndrome characterized by dense anterograde amnesia

Caused by damage to specific brain regions, often precipitated by a form of malnutrition that is common among long-term alcoholics