Chapter 8 - Memory: Structures, processes and skills

Question 1

Encoding processes

Answer 1

Used to code the information acquired through the senses and to enter it into the memory system.

Question 2

Storage processes

Answer 2

Used to retain coded information in the memory system as internal representations.

Question 3

Retrieval processes

Answer 3

Used to recover or get access to the information stored in the memory system.

Question 4

Recognition

Answer 4

The type of retrieval process that involves finding a match in memory for something that is in the external world.

Question 5

Recall

Answer 5

The type of retrieval process that involves searching for something stored in memory and bringing it into consciousness.

Question 6

Retrieval cues

Answer 6

Cues or prompts available at retrieval that may help us find the information we are searching for in memory.

Question 7

Memory span

Answer 7

The number of items that can be repeated back in the correct order just after a list of items has been presented in a memory experiment.

Question 8

Primacy effect

Answer 8

The finding, in memory experiments, that participants are more likely to remember
the first few items from a list of items.

Question 9

Recency effect

Answer 9

The finding, in memory experiments, that participants are more likely to remember the last few items from a list of items.

Question 10

Working memory

Answer 10

An alternative conception of short- term memory which reflects its active role in cognitive processing.

Question 11

Levels of processing theory

Answer 11

The theory that the retention of material in memory is dependent on how deeply it is processed at encoding.

Question 12

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 12

The process of thinking about information to be remembered in terms of its meaning and associations to other stored material.

Question 13

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 13

The process of memorising by simply repeating information without any further processing.

Question 14

Orienting tasks

Answer 14

Task instructions designed to influence the processing performed on material to be remembered, such as words.

Question 15

Incidental learning

Answer 15

Learning that occurs in the absence of explicit instructions to learn when an experimenter presents a set of items for later memory testing.

Question 16

Intentional learning

Answer 16

Learning that occurs when an experimenter has specifically told participants that their memory for presented items will be tested.

Question 17

Generation effect

Answer 17

An effect in which participants are more likely to remember

the items that they generated in a word association test, rather than items they simply read.

Question 18

Spacing effect

Answer 18

An effect in which memory is enhanced because learning is spread out across several sessions, rather than confined to a single session.

Question 19

Nonsense syllables

Answer 19

Pronounceable, but meaningless material, such as the consonant- vowel-consonant trigrams VOX and BUC, used in memory experiments.

Question 20

Free recall

Answer 20

A memory recall task in which participants can recall the items in any order they wish.

Question 21

Clustering

Answer 21

Seen in memory recall when participants recall the items in clusters according to category or some other dimension.

Question 22

Mnemonic

Answer 22

A technique or strategy that will increase the memorability of material to be remembered, such as adding meaningful associations or bizarre images.

Question 23

Encoding specificity principle

Answer 23

The notion that retrieval of information from memory depends on an overlap or matching of the cues that are available at retrieval with those registered at encoding.

Question 24

Tip of the tongue phenomenon

Answer 24

The feeling that although you cannot remember something it is there stored in memory just out of reach.

Question 25

Indirect access

Answer 25

A type of retrieval that involves deliberate and conscious searching in memory.

Question 26

Direct access

Answer 26

A type of retrieval that is effortless and occurs automatically without searching in memory.

Question 27

Misinformation effect

Answer 27

An effect in which later information influences the accuracy of memory for earlier information

Question 28

Reminiscence bump

Answer 28

The disproportionately higher number of memories recalled from the adolescent and early adult period compared to other life periods

Question 29

Case study

Answer 29

An in-depth study of a single participant often focusing on atypical psychological functioning

Question 30

Localization of function

Answer 30

The theoretical approach that assumes that particular areas of the brain play a key role in functions such as motor control, perception, memory, emotion, etc.

Question 31

Double dissociation

Answer 31

Different patients display converse patterns of deficit within memory function or other cognitive domains. This can yield important insights when linked to damage in different areas of the brain.

Question 32

Plasticity

Answer 32

The capacity for organised alteration or development in the structure and/or function of the nervous system, typically with beneficial outcomes.

Question 33

Anomically

Answer 33

Describes the inability to generate names for people or objects, typically as a result of a brain injury

Question 34

Episodic memory

Answer 34

A subsystem of long- term memory concerned with personal episodes or events which include information about the place and the time in which they were acquired.

Question 35

Semantic memory

Answer 35

A subsystem of long- term memory concerned with general facts or knowledge about the world, and lacking reference to the specific contextual episodes involved in their
original acquisition.

Question 36

Procedural memory

Answer 36

A subsystem of memory concerned with knowing how to do something, e.g. riding a bike, this knowledge being difficult to describe using words.

Question 37

Declarative memory

Answer 37

A subsystem of memory concerned with knowing that, this being either episodic or semantic memory.

Question 38

Mnemonists

Answer 38

Individuals with exceptional memory skills, typically exploited for performance

Question 39

Synaesthesia

Answer 39

The capacity for stimuli presented in one sensory modality to evoke spontaneously experiences in another modality. For example to ‘hear’ colours