Chapter 8: Memory Flashcards
Memory can be though of as an _________ process, meaning that we remember what is appropriate to remember by combining what we have already stored about the past and our current perception of the situation at hand.
interpretive
A memory for the circumstances and events surrounding emotionally significant and surprising events is a _________.
flashbulb memory
In terms of memory, what is reconstruction?
a change in our memory of something that we may think we remember as verbatim
Define the following memory terms: memory, encoding, storage, and retrieval.
memory-capacity to preserve and recover information
encoding-process that controls how memories are formed
storage-process that controls how memories are stored over time
retrieval-process that controls how memories are recovered and translated into performance
What is the flow of events in a basic memory forming process?
encoding –> storage –> retrieval
An exact replica of an environmental message, usually lasting only 750 ms.
sensory memory
How did George Sperling test sensory memory?
by flashing a group of letters for a brief time to individuals, but only asking them to remember one row instead of all of them
There are two terms used to describe two kinds of sensory memories. What are they, and how are they different?
icon: storage of a visual sensory memory
echo: storage of an auditory sensory memory
Rehearsal can be used to maintain something in our _______ ______ _________.
short term memory
Describe Peterson and Peterson’s experiment that showed evidence for rehearsal in STM.
Had subjects remember three letters for 10 seconds, and another group remember three letters for 10 seconds while counting to ten. It was harder for those that had to remember with interference from counting.
Rapid decay and interference get in the way of STM. Define them.
rapid decay-information quickly fades without rehearsal
interference-something else gets in the way of us remembering by blocking our ability to rehearse
The time limit on what our STM can hold is approximately what we can rehearse in _____ seconds.
2.5
Define these mechanisms of the working memory model: phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, and central executive
phonological loop-stores word sounds like the inner voice
visuospatial sketchpad-stores visual and spatial information
central executive-determines which mechanism to use, coordinates among them
What three kinds of memory are stored long term?
episodic, semantic, and procedural
Define episodic memory.
memory of a particular event that happened to you personally
What type of long term memory describes memory of how to do certain things, like athletic skills, everyday skills, etc.?
procedural memory
What type of long term memory relates to knowledge about the world, or facts that in no way relate to personal experiences?
semantic memory
When encoding for long-term memory, it is helpful to use _____ that help us remember certain information, called the ________.
cues, target
Matching cues closely to the target information is know as the _______ _______ ____.
encoding-retrieval match
Encoding-retrieval match can be taken a step further with transfer-appropriate processing. What is that?
selecting an appropriate encoding process based on your knowledge of how the information will have to be recalled
eg. studying for an essay test by practicing essays, vocabulary test by flashcards, etc.
Describe reconstructive remembering.
We tend to fill in gaps in our memories with personal experiences, cues we have available, our expectations of what we think should have happened, etc.
What is a memory schema?
organized knowledge structure in long-term memory
we remember certain things based on a logical flow of how we think they should happen based on several past, similar experiences.
What did Loftus and Palmer’s experiment illustrate?
how the wording of a question can affect our memory of an event, aka that memory reconstruction is adaptive and can lead to memory errors
What is elaboration?
a process by which someone adds specific cues to to-be-remembered info, helping distinguish it from already remembered information or connect to already remembered information, to make retrieval easier
What are some ways to improve elaboration?
(1) meaning
(2) relationships
(3) differences
(4) mental pictures
(5) spacing
(6) sequence position
What are the primacy and recency effects in regards to sequence position?
primacy: tendency to remember things from the beginning of a list
recency: tendency to remember things towards the end of a list that we heard most recently
When we remember something without a conscious awareness of it, it is termed _______ ________.
implicit memory
What was Ebbinghaus’ contribution to the study of forgetting?
demonstrated that forgetting is rapid at first, followed by a gradual decline (forgetting curve is downward exponential)
Why is forgetting adaptive?
we must update our memory and be able to discriminate one occurrence from another
e.g.: if we could never forget where we parked, we would not be able to discriminatively remember where we parked our car one day
Why is the idea of decay a limited explanation of why we forget information?
It does not explain why forgotten information can sometimes be retrieved if given the right cue.
Because of the limitations of the decay theory, what has replaced it as a more plausible theory of forgetting?
interference
Name and describe the two kinds of interference.
retroactive: formation of new memories hurts retention of old memories
proactive: old memories interfere with the formation of new memories
The type of interference is named according to which kind memory formation it interferes with.
Illustrate the two kinds of interference with the password example used in class.
At first, proactive interference occurs when the old password hinders your ability to remember the new one. Then, retroactive interference prevents you from remembering the old one.
Name and describe the two kinds of amnesia.
anterograde: loss of ability to form new memories after accident
retrograde: loss of ability to remember things before accident
