Chapter 8 (final)

Question 1

Most of the way we talk about memory in day-to-day life uses what is called what

Answer 1

a search metaphor

Question 2

give examples of search metaphors

Answer 2

“bring it to the front of your mind” “finding a solution”

Question 3

we might describe the inability to remember something as what

Answer 3

failure of search

Question 4

Because memory is more about the present than the past, a much better metaphor for memory is not search, but what

Answer 4

reconstruction

Question 5

why is Reconstruction a better metaphor

Answer 5

is a better metaphor because rather than specifically searching for information, you create a useful response given the situation at hand and what you’ve stored

Question 6

what is encoding

Answer 6

The process for how our brains commit an event to memory

Question 7

the problem our brains have to solve in order to encode information is called the what

Answer 7

encoding problem

Question 8

The first step of the encoding process is simple, what is it

Answer 8

The information out in the world simply needs to be translated into the electrochemical language of the brain

Question 9

what is Sensory memory

Answer 9

is a system that keeps information translated by the senses briefly active in a relatively unaltered, unexamined form
Further, researchers believe that sensory memory is what allows us to perceive the world as a unified whole rather than a series of staggered images and sounds. Sensory memory holds on to information in our nervous systems long enough for us to stitch one moment of our experience to the next. Additionally, sensory memory is thought to feed into the more general immediate memory, a system that actively holds on to a limited amount of information so that we can manipulate and process it`

Question 10

what is iconic memory

Answer 10

close your eyes briefly. In each of these cases, we see afterimages on our retina—the “stream” that a sparkler leaves behind when moved, the fleeting image of your shoes in the dark, and the outline of your computer screen that you still see when your eyes are closed are all evidence of a swiftly-fading signal of neuronal activity

Question 11

the auditory system, the lingering neuronal activity is called

Answer 11

an echo, while the process in general is called echoic memory

Question 12

While sensory memory performs the job of bridging the gap from perception to memory, immediate memory is the system that does what

Answer 12

actively holds information at the front of your mind

Question 13

Immediate memory is a more general term for what researchers often call what

Answer 13

“short-term” or “working” memory

Question 14

Many students ask whether immediate memory is really “memory” if you’re only holding on to information rather than actively remembering it, what is the answer

Answer 14

Researchers who favor computer-driven metaphors for memory often compare immediate memory to the RAM (“random access memory”) in a computer; RAM is a place where currently active programs are operating, much like immediate memory is where currently active information is being manipulated

Question 15

Immediate memory has three main properties, what are thy

Answer 15

representation, duration, and capacity

Question 16

To address immediate memory’s representation, we ask what

Answer 16

“What kind of information can immediate memory contain?” This question is answered most powerfully through experience. Count to ten silently

What did you do when counting silently? Most people report saying the words “ONE, TWO, THREE,” et cetera to themselves in their heads. Psychologists call this phenomenon the inner voice. Note that counting to ten silently can be done in any number of ways—perhaps your native language is something other than English, and you counted to ten in that language. You can count faster or slower as well, or drag out individual numbers if you like. Critically, the inner voice is evidence that information in immediate memory can be represented verbally

we also have an “inner eye”

Question 17

what is Duration

Answer 17

best talked about in terms of forgetting: How long can information stay in immediate memory before it is forgotten? The answer is surprising—forever. However, there’s a caveat. In order for information to remain in immediate memory, you have to engage in rehearsal

Question 18

what is Rehearsal

Answer 18

a process of repeating information to yourself, helping you “re-hear” the information over and over. You can probably think of a time when you used rehearsal to help you remember something: Often, we use rehearsal to remember something for a brief period of time, such as a phone number or access code. In theory, you could continue to rehearse information indefinitely, or at least until you became distracted.

Question 19

what is memory span

Answer 19

how many items can be kept actively in mind at a time

general answer is 7 plus or minus 2

Question 20

what is a method to help increase memory capacity

Answer 20

chunking (like chunking information into groups)

Question 21

what is The working memory model

Answer 21

is popular largely because it argues that immediate memory is not simply a place for the storage of information, but primarily a place for the manipulation of information (thus why they call it working memory rather than short-term or immediate memory). In Baddeley’s model, information that exists in working memory is managed in one of two places: the phonological loop or the visuospatial sketchpad. These names are metaphors for the kinds of information that are manipulated in each portion of the model

Question 22

what is the phonological loop

Answer 22

where auditory and verbal information is temporarily stored and manipulated. Essentially, it is the manifestation of the inner voice in the working memory model

Question 23

what is the visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 23

the representation of the inner eye in the model, and represents a place where visual and spatial information is stored and manipulated

Question 24

what is central executive

Answer 24

To oversee these different functions, Baddeley & Hitch proposed that a mechanism called the central executive exists. It is the job of the central executive to direct the flow of information not only to and from the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad, but also to and from long-term memory. If you imagine yourself sitting in your bedroom at home, any sights you might imagine are processed by the sketchpad, any sounds you might imagine are processed by the loop, and the central executive is what calls up the memory of your room from long-term memory and allows you to manipulate the information

Question 25

For roughly how many seconds does information persist in immediate memory without rehearsal

Answer 25

2

Question 26

what is episodic memories

Answer 26

form of long term memory

The key feature is that they are based on a specific event that you experienced and encoded.

Question 27

what are semantic memories

Answer 27

form of long term memory
Semantic memories relate to meaning devoid of a specific context, whereas episodic memories are all about specific context

Question 28

wha are the forms of long term memory

Answer 28

episodic
semantic
procedural

Question 29

what is procedural memory

Answer 29

Procedural memory is about process. While episodic memory recalls what happened and semantic memory recalls what something is, procedural memory recalls the process of how a task is completed

Question 30

what is elaborative rehearsal

Answer 30

Generally, the best way to ensure that new information is incorporated effectively into what we already know is by meaningfully relating the new information to what is already stored

As we know, rehearsal is a process used to keep information active in immediate memory. Elaborative rehearsal refers to a process of actively manipulating information in immediate memory so that we can meaningfully connect it to other information that we’ve already stored in long-term memory—elaborating on the new information with connections to old information. In many ways, elaborative rehearsal is an answer to the encoding problem, although researchers disagree about the finer points of this process

Question 31

what is Deep processing

Answer 31

involves making meaningful connections to existing knowledge—such as making the decision about whether or not the word “CHIPMUNK” is a living thing. Another way of phrasing this is that deep processing encodes information semantically, based on meaning

Question 32

what is shallow processing

Answer 32

which is encoding information based on only its surface characteristics—like simply asking whether “CHIPMUNK” is written in capital letters. When we compare the effectiveness of these two different encoding strategies, people who encode information meaningfully tend to remember more information than people who encode information based on only its surface characteristics

Question 33

Which two types of elaboration are often seen as the most complementary to one another?

Answer 33

organization and distinctiveness

Question 34

what is Massed practice

Answer 34

cramming

Question 35

what are the 4 ways of encoding memories

Answer 35

massed practice
spacing effect
mnemonics
adaptive memory

retrieval practice

Question 36

what is spacing effect

Answer 36

spacing out your studying over multiple hours, days, weeks, or months is the key to long-term learning
The spacing effect works not only for improving episodic and semantic memory, but also for procedural memory.

Question 37

what is Mnemonics

Answer 37

For example, the peg-word technique is a mnemonic that provides both order and imagery to a list of items, like a grocery list. In this technique, you relate the items in your list to a pre-determined rhyme: “One is a bun, two is a shoe, three is a tree,” et cetera. If the first three items on your grocery list are socks, wine, and steak, you might imagine each of these items interacting with the phrases in succession: A sock inside a hotdog bun, wine pouring over your favorite pair of shoes, and a steak hanging from a tree branch. When you try to remember the list later, you have a built-in structure for doing so—“One is a bun” triggers the vivid memory of socks inside a hotdog bun, and so on

phrases, acronyms and initializations can also be mnemonics by providing us with cues to the to-be-remembered information’s organizational structure

Question 38

what is adaptive memory

Answer 38

to engage processes that are believed to fit naturally with the way our brains are structured

While it may seem difficult to integrate these ideas into strategies, many of the “memory experts” described earlier incorporate some of these ideas into their memory strategies, consciously or not. For example, one common strategy for remembering ordered information (like decks of cards) is called the Person-Action-Object (PAO) strategy (Foer, 2011). In this strategy, memory experts assign to each card in a deck a person, an action, and an object. For one person, for example, the queen of hearts might be “Taylor Swift – Shaking – CD,” the seven of clubs might be “Michael Jordan – Dunking – Basketball,” and the ace of spades might be “Brad Pitt – Running – Bowtie,” and so on. To remember three playing cards in sequence, the expert would then just remember the person, action, or object associated with that card in the proper order. Thus, to remember “Queen of Hearts – Seven of Clubs – Ace of Spades,” they would remember “Taylor Swift – Dunking – Bowtie,” and create a single, unique image out of these three objects: Taylor Swift dunking a bowtie into a basketball net

Question 39

what is retrieval practice

Answer 39

Retrieving information is actually beneficial for trying to remember the same information later. While seemingly paradoxical, the phenomenon (known as retrieval practice or the “testing effect”) is thought to occur because when we retrieve information, the relationship between the memory and the cues that help us retrieve it is enhanced. In other words, we have improved the distinctiveness of the information by improving how effectively certain cues help us retrieve it

Question 40

Which effective encoding strategy is an attempt to help us encode information in ways that our brains are designed to use

Answer 40

Adaptive memory strategies

Question 41

what are Cues

Answer 41

pieces of information in the present that help us remember events from the past, and they are central to remembering

Question 42

what is free recall

Answer 42

asking participants to recall studied information without help

Question 43

what is encoding specificity principle

Answer 43

A natural consequence of the importance of cues is that how we encode information affects how we are able to retrieve it

Put another way, a retrieval cue is only useful as long as it matches how a piece of information was originally encoded

you will remember things better when you are in the place you learned them

Question 44

what is Transfer-Appropriate Processing

Answer 44

Related to the encoding specificity principle is the idea that not only should we attempt to match the context that occurs at both encoding and retrieval, but we should also attempt to match the physical and mental processes that are occurring. In essence, you should try to engage in the same processes when encoding that you will be expected to engage in when testing in order to ensure that the appropriate cues are available to you

Question 45

what is explicit memory

Answer 45

intentionally trying to recall information

Question 46

what is implicit memory

Answer 46

remember information without consciously realizing or intending it. In these cases, we say that the information was recalled implicitly, and that the information recalled is an implicit memory.

Question 47

what are the two types of seven sins of memory

Answer 47

Errors of omission and errors of commission

Question 48

what are Errors of omission

Answer 48

are memory errors where information cannot be brought to mind

Question 49

what are Errors of commission,

Answer 49

in contrast, are memory errors where wrong or unwanted information is brought to mind.

Question 50

what is The first error of omission

Answer 50

transience

Question 51

what is transience (sin of omission)

Answer 51

describes how the memory for any particular event or piece of information tends to degrade over time, often simply called forgetting. When we commit an error of transience, we simply can’t remember the information we’re trying to recall. Memory theorists believe that most forgetting is caused by lacking appropriate cues to aid recall, as we’ve discussed throughout this chapter. In theory, providing the correct cue would trigger the information to be remembered

Question 52

what is decay

(sin of omission)

Answer 52

You might think that memories simply fade away due to the passage of time, which a memory researcher would call memory decay. A wealth of evidence suggests that decay can’t explain the vast majority of forgetting, however—much like how time alone isn’t what causes a mountain to erode (water, temperature, and other factors are what actually cause erosion, not the passage of time itself), time alone isn’t what causes memories to degrade

Question 53

what is Retroactive interference

(sin of omission)

Answer 53

when newly learned information makes it more difficult to recall older information, and happens all day, every day. It isn’t time that causes forgetting, but instead the constant flow of new information that bombards us every minute

Question 54

what is Proactive interference

(sin of omission)

Answer 54

happens when old information interferes with new information

Question 55

what if interference isn’t to blame for the inability to recall information

Answer 55

In many cases, the problem lies not at retrieval (trying to figure which memory to recall), but at encoding (elaborating on the information in the first place).
(sin of omission)

Question 56

what is absent-mindedness. (sin of omission)

Answer 56

Quite simply, absent-mindedness is when information is not encoded to begin with, whether due to attention or a failure to elaborately rehearse the information

Question 57

what is blocking (sin of omission)

Answer 57

Blocking relates to whether the cues we have available are enough to help us remember a piece of information.

Question 58

what are Errors of Commission

Answer 58

While errors of omission simply cause information to go unremembered, errors of commission are more insidious. Errors of commission allow for information to be remembered, but with pieces altered or missing

Question 59

what is The first error of commission

Answer 59

misattribution

Question 60

what is Misattribution

Answer 60

occurs when we incorrectly recall the source of the information we are trying to remember. These source errors range from the innocuous to the egregious. While many of us have experienced a friend, parent, or grandparent calling us by the name of another friend, sibling, or cousin instead of our own (a simple source error—the name doesn’t belong to us, the source), few of us have experienced misremembering big, important events in our lives…or have we

Question 61

what is Déjà vu

Answer 61

French for “already seen”) is likely an example of a relatively simple source error. In the case of déjà vu, we simply can’t remember the source of the information, rather than misattribute it

Question 62

what are flashbulb memories

Answer 62

A more impressive example of misattribution in action can occur in what are called flashbulb memories (named after the flashbulb on a camera). Flashbulb memories are memories for events that are both surprising and particularly significant. Examples of flashbulb memories throughout American history include events like the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Question 63

are flashbulb memories accurate

Answer 63

not really

Question 64

what is the second error of commission

Answer 64

suggestibility

Question 65

what is suggestibility

Answer 65

requires the information that is misremembered to have been suggested by an outside source.

Question 66

what are the errors of commission

Answer 66

misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence

Question 67

what is bias

Answer 67

Bias in remembering can take many forms, but one of the most common biases in remembering is caused by what are called memory schemas

Question 68

what is Memory schemas

Answer 68

highly organized sets of facts and knowledge about specific kinds of information. Generally, schemas are actually highly useful for remembering, as they allow us to remember new information by fitting it into a set of knowledge that is already highly organized

example where they asked how fast the car was going when it “hit” or the it “smashed” and go different answers depending on which was used

Question 69

what is persistence

Answer 69

Less common than the previous three sins of commission, sins of persistence occur when the memory system fails to prevent the recall of a memory that is unwanted (and typically negative or traumatic). In post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), for example, people who have a traumatic experience (such as sexual assault, living through a wartime experience, or other threats on one’s life) often experience intrusive and disturbing thoughts and feelings that force them to think back to the original event(s). Stated differently, people who have PTSD often have memories that are difficult to suppress, despite conscious effort to do so

Question 70

Fill in the blanks:

_______ are complex knowledge structures that help us put information in context. However, they often lead to __________

Answer 70

Schemas; over-generalization

Question 71

Why does forgetting occur?

Answer 71

Forgetting not only helps us smooth over unpleasant events in our lives, but also helps us to keep in mind only information relevant to our present circumstances. Remembering too much can make it difficult to function in daily life, if the memories interfere with our activities. According to a woman with a condition known as hyperthymesia—an exceptionally rare medical condition that leads to near perfect autobiographical recall—this is exactly the case. For her, remembering everything is more of a curse than a blessing. The woman, “AJ” (real name Jill Price), says that she remembers every time her mother criticized her for her weight, every regret over the course of her life, and the day her husband died as clearly as if they had happened moments ago. Of course, she remembers happy moments too, but she describes her memory as being a “nonstop, uncontrollable, and automatic” force in her life

Question 72

what is amnesia

Answer 72

Memory researchers refer to any memory loss due to physical damage or problems in the brain as amnesia

Question 73

what two primary forms can amnesia come in

Answer 73

Retrograde and anterograde

Question 74

what is Retrograde amnesia

Answer 74

the kind often portrayed in films and popular culture, when someone hits their head and forgets everything about themselves. With amnesia, the direction of forgetting is particularly important. In retrograde amnesia, some portion of the events prior to the incident which caused the amnesia to develop are lost, typically only temporarily (Cermak, 2014). In many cases, the only events that are lost are those leading directly up the event that caused the amnesia, which could be an accident or a blow to the head. However, sometimes the memory loss can be more severe, with patients losing access to months or even years of time. Luckily, most people who experience amnesia eventually recover

Question 75

what is anterograde amnesia

Answer 75

is an inability to make new memories—information that occurs after the injury is lost and never encoded or stored. Unlike retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia only develops as a result of specific brain damage to the hippocampus. This kind of brain damage can occur in multiple ways, such as from a particularly nasty viral infection, the chronic abuse of alcohol over many years (Korsokoff syndrome), or as an unintended consequence of brain surgery, as was the case for a patient known as H.M. Often, patients who have anterograde amnesia have some degree of retrograde amnesia as well

Question 76

What forms of amnesia did H. M. have?

Answer 76

both

Question 77

Milner demonstrated that H.M. could remember a number for up to fifteen minutes by repeating it to himself constantly. This best demonstrates what

Answer 77

The ability of rehearsal to maintain information

Question 78

According to the reading, what one-word response is NOT responsible for the sin of transience

Answer 78

time or decay

Question 79

What physical attributes appear to explain hyperthymesia?

Answer 79

Additional connections between the amygdala and hippocampus

Question 80

Frank is a former alcoholic who seems to have some kind of amnesia. What kind is he more likely to have

Answer 80

Anterograde amnesia

Question 81

Hyperthymesia is primarily ____________

Answer 81

Near perfect autobiographical memory