Chpt 6: LTM structure PSY311 Flashcards
Def: interaction
refers to the fact that the diff types of memory can interact & share mechanisms.
______ provides both an archive that we can refer to when we want to remember events from the past & a wealth of ___________ info that we are constantly consulting as we use working memory to make contact with what is happening at a particular moment.
LTM, background
What did Murdock Jr. do?
Murdock. Jr (‘62) studied the distinction between the 2 by measuring a function that is referred to as the serial position curve.
Def: serial position curve
Serial Position curve: rated by presenting a list of words to a participant, one after another.
Explain the Rundus experiment
Rundus tested the primacy effect that occurs bc participants have more time to rehearse words at the beginning of the list.
Presented a list of 20 words at a rate of 1 word every 5secs, after the last word was presented, he asked the participants to write down all the words they could remember.
Asked his participants to repeat the words out loud during the 5sec intervals between words. But, not which words tho.
The dashed blue curve indicates how many times each word was repeated, and bears a striking resemblance to the 1st half of the serial position curve.
The words in the beginning of the list were rehearsal mario and were also more likely to be remembered later.
Explain the Glanzer & Cunitz experiment
Glanzer & Cunitz created a serial position curve in the usual way.
Participants had to recall the words after they had counted (to prevent rehearsal & allowed time for info to be lost in STM) backwards for 30secs right after hearing the last word of the list.
Concluded that the recency effect is due to storage of recently presented items in STM.
Def: coding
Coding refers to the form in which stimuli are represented.
Explain the Wickens & co experiment
Wickens & co experimented on the semantic coding in STM
Participants were presented with words related to either fruits or professions.
Participants in each group listened to 3 words, counted backwards for 13secs, and then attempted to recall the 3 words.
4 trials were done along with 3 diff words each
Note that they were using their STM to recall these words
Performance is high on trial 1 and then drops on trials 2 & 3 bc all of the words are names of professions.
But on trial 4, the names of fruits are presented bc these words are from a diff category, the proactive interference that built up as the professions were benign presented is absent, and performance increases on trial 4 which is the release from proactive interference.
Visual coding for both STM and LTM:
Visual Coding: STM - being asked to remember a visual pattern you were just shown.
LTM - being asked to recall a visual image from your past.
Auditory coding for both STM and LTM
Auditory coding : STM - being asked to remember a pattern of tones you heard
LTM - listening to a song in your head
Def: Proactive interference
Proactive interference: the decrease in memory that occurs when prev learned info interferes with learning new info - by presenting words from the same category on a series of trials.
Explain Sachs’ demonstration on semantic coding in our LTM
Sachs demonstrated semantic coding in LTM
Had participants listen to a tape recording oa passage & then measured their recognition memory to determine whether they remembered the exact working of sentence in the passage or just the general meaning of the passage
Def: recognition memory
Recognition memory: the identification of a stimulus that was encountered at an earlier time.
The combo of _________________ evidence & the result of behavioral experiments like those measuring the serial position curve, as well as the proposal of the ___________________ in which STM & LTM are represented by separate boxes, supports the idea of the separation between the 2.
neuropsychological, modal model
Explain the Randanath & D’Esposito experiment on the hippocampus
Randanath & D’Esposito conducted an experiment on the hippocampus.
Participants were presented with stimuli as they were having their brains scanned.
Presented a face for 1 sec followed by a 7sec delay.
The test face was presented, and the participants task was to decide whether it matched the sample face.
They were presented with faces that they saw for the first time and familiar faces that they might’ve seen before.
The result indicated that the activity in the hippocampus increases as participants are holding novel faces in memory during the 7sec delay, but activity changes only a little bit for the familiar ones.
Concluded that the hippocampus is involved in maintaining novel info in memory during short delays.
Who was the first to describe how how both episodic & semantic memories handle diff types of info, suggestd that episodic & semantic memory can be distinguished based on the type of experience associated with each?
Tulving
Def: mental time travel
Mental time travel: the experience of traveling back in time to reconnect with events that occurred in the past.
Car accidents can cause a loss of one’s __________ memory but still would know what happened and events in the past bc that’s more associated with _________ memories.
episodic, semantic
Explain the Levine & Co experiment
Levine & Co did a brain imaging experiment in which they had participants keep diaries on audiotape describing everyday personal events.
When the participants later listened to these recordings while in an fMRI scanner, the recording of everyday events elicited detailed episodic autobiographical memories, while the other recordings simply reminded ppl of semantic facts.
Indicate that tho there can be overlap between activation caused by episodic & semantic memories, there are also major diffs
Def: autobiographical memory
Autobiographical memory: memory for specific experiences from our life, which can include both episodic & semantic components.