Exam 3 Flashcards
What are the 3 stages of memory?
encoding, retrieval, and storage
What is encoding?
encoding is when you are putting info from the external world into your memory.
What are the three encoding points?
- quality matters more than how much time you spend
- We can use our LTM to help better encode new long term memories.
- Active encoding leads to better memory than passive encoding.
Regarding encoding point #1, what two processes are associated with rehearsal? Explain them.
Maintenance: repeating information without considering the meaning or making connections.
Elaborative Rehearsal: thinking of the meaning and/or making connections.
Which process associated with rehearsal are we more likely to use with real life experiences? Why?
Our memory evolved to learn and remember our daily experiences…not learning out of a textbook. For example, remembering a party that happened once better than your exam material is easy because at the party there was an entire experience involved. Real life experiences are more like elaborative rehearsal, not maintenance rehearsal.
What is the levels of processing theory?
What is the basic experimental design and results supporting this theory?
Levels of processing theory says that there’s an obligatory series of stages visual –> phonemic –> semantic and moving through the 3 stages is how you remember something. The deeper it’s processed, the better it’s remembered.
- Participants which didn’t know they were taking a memory test were asked to analyze words in terms of it’s physical characteristics (how many capital letters), how the word sounds (if it rhymes or not) , or what it means. (fill in the blank).
- Fill in the blank questions were remembered more than the capital letter questions.
What are the limitations of the levels of processing theory?
- circular reasoning: the definition of “deep” here is subjective. Why do you remember something well? because it was processed deeply. How do you know something was processed deeply? because you remember it well.
How does your current long-term memory affect encoding of new memories?
- The self-reference effect: relating something to yourself (or something relevant to yourself) will help you remember it better.
- The imagery effect: pictures (viewed or imagined) are remembered better than words. ex- to remember the pair “boat…tree” better you would picture a tree with a boat in it.
How does organization affect encoding?
Encoding information in an organized manner helps your memory.
Ex: participants were presented with a list of words which were either listed randomly or by category. during free recall, participants presented with the list in a categorical organization they recalled more words.
What is a schema?
What is a script?
Why are you better able to remember if you can use schemas and/or scripts?
A schema is the knowledge a person already has about some aspect of the environment.
A script is a type of schema. It’s our knowledge of the sequence of actions that usually occur during a particular event.
Schemas and scripts are one way humans organize information and improves retrieval.
What is survival processing?
What was the survival processing experiment and results?
Survival processing is a way of encoding information in terms of surviving.
-“thinking with a stone age brain” : participants were presented with a list of words and asked to rate them in terms of “survival” or “moving”. People who rated words based on survival, resulted in better memory.
Why does processing information in terms of survival enhance encoding?
Encoding is simply an evolutionary process that helps us survive. Our memory evolved to support us living in unknown circumstances & to better predict the outcome of situations. Therefore, if we are trying to determine what would help us survive…we will remember it better.
What does active encoding mean and why is it better than passive encoding?
Give some examples of active encoding.
Active encoding helps encode material deeper so you’ll know it better and remember it better over time.
- generation effect: you remember information better when you generate it yourself rather than just reading it.
- retrieval practice effect: practicing retrieving the information, rather than not practicing it at all before the big retrieval, will help you better remember it.
What are the effects and experimental results that support the effects of active encoding?
Generation effect: in condition 1 the participant was given a word pair with the 2nd word partially filled out. (bread-bu____) in condition 2, the participant was just presented with word pairs.
-condition 1 did better with recalling the 2nd part of word pair than condition 2.
Retrieval practice: Condition 1- “study study”, participants reread the passage for 7 min. Condition 2- “study test”, participants read the passage and then given a free recall test for 7 min. then, everyone took a delayed test:
- 5 min delayed test: condition 1 did better
- 2 day delayed test: condition 2 did better
- 1 week delayed test: condition 2 did better
What is the common phrase that describes a moment where you encoded something well, but still can’t retrieve it well?
a “tip of the tongue” moment.
Why is levels of processing theory still useful?
It does a good job at showing us how the different ways of encoding impact how well we will know it letter.
What are retrieval cues? Why are they important?
Some “cue” that helps you better retrieve information encoded into LTM. They’re important because retrieval is most likely to fail without a good retrieval cue.
What factors will make something an effective retrieval cue?
A retrieval cue is more effective if you’ve generated the cue yourself.
Describe the Mantyla (1986) experiment (the methods and results) that involved self-generated vs. other generated cues. What are the implications of this experiment?
- participants were given a list of 504 random nouns & asked to generate 3 words associated with each noun. during the test you may either be given your 3 words, somebody else’s 3 words. Another condition never saw the original nouns prior to the 3 words.
- the first condition (your own 3 words) was the highest scoring group, learning 91% of the nouns compared to the others 55% & 17%
- looking at your cues takes you back to how you originally processed the words & makes it easier to retrieve it.
What is the encoding specificity theory?
Describe the methods and results of experiments that illustrate this theory.
- when we encode information we also encode the surrounding context.
- water vs. land experiment: participants were given words to study & would later be tested. 1/2 the group studied under water & tested under water, the other 1/2 studied on land & tested on land.
- retrieving the words in the same place they were encoded helped improve memory.
What is State-Dependent Learning?
Describe the methods and results of experiments that illustrate this theory.
- when we encode info we also encode our internal state.
- happy vs sad music experiment: participants listened to either happy or sad music and studied a list of words. then were asked to recall the words while listening to either happy or sad music.
- participants who recalled the words while listening to the same type of music during the encoding recalled more words.
What is transfer appropriate processing theory?
describe the methods and results of experiments that illustrate this theory.
how we encode something depends on the processing we do during encoding. matching the processing during retrieval enhances recall of the memory.
-participants were asked 1 of 2 questions about the target word: if it “rhymed” or “fit” properly with the rest.
ex:
t.w.(legal) rhyming: does ___ rhyme with eagle? yes or no
t.w.(train) meaning: ___ had a silver engine. Yes or no?
-test: participants were shown a word & asked if it rhymes w/ any of the previous target words.
results: the group that originally had to rhyme, tested better when asked about rhyming.
How does transfer appropriate processing theory contrast with the levels of processing theory?
the levels of processing theory says that information encoded deeper will be retrieved better, but with the experiment regarding rhyming and meaning the participants who rhymed during encoding did better on the test.
How are memories stored?
How did Karl Lashley “search for the engram”? What did he conclude?
Memories are stored (distributed) throughout the brain.
-Karl studied rats by teaching them mazes & removing parts of their brain to determine where the “memory” of the maze lives. He found that it matter much more how MUCH of the brain he removed than WHERE he removed. He concluded that memories are stored everywhere, on neural circuits.
What is consolidation?
consolidation makes memories more permanent than they were before. ( less fragile, more resistant to disruption/change )
Why are older memories more resistant to interference?
because of proactive interference (new information interferes with the consolidation of old memories).
