Human Memory

Question 1

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 1

The inability to form long-term memories. Depicted in the movie “Memento” from the year 2000.

Question 2

Neural plasticity

Answer 2

Capability of neurons and neural networks in the brain to change their connections and behavior in response to new experiences. Fundamental for memory.

Question 3

Auditory sensory store

Answer 3

A Memory system that briefly stores auditory information for up to 10 seconds (echoic memory)

Question 4

Visual sensory store

Answer 4

A memory system, that briefly stores visual information, that is discarded if not quickly attended to.
Also called Iconic memory.

Question 5

Laterality

Answer 5

The development of specialized functioning in each hemisphere of the brain or in the side of the body which each controls a functionality (e.g. handedness).

Question 6

Partial-report procedure

Answer 6

Participants are prompted to remember only certain rows of letters out of a whole array right after the visual stimulus has been switched off. The participant gets a cue, in form of a tone. First pioneered by Sperling (1960).
Methodological variation of whole-report procedure.

Question 7

Whole-report procedure

Answer 7

Participants are asked to recite all items in the array after the visual stimulus has been switched off.

Question 8

ERP

Answer 8

An acronym for Event Related Potential. It is a precise moment in the measurement of brain activity.

Question 9

Mismatch-negativity (MMN)

Answer 9

An Event Related Potential (ERP) measure, which happens after a person hears a very different sound from recently heard sounds. (E.g. There is an increase in their ERP negativity about 150-200 ms after the very different sound is played; Näätänen 1992).

Question 10

Memory span

Answer 10

Describes short-term Memory-capacity. Defined as: The number of elements one can immediately repeat back in correct order after hearing a list. Theorized to be at capacity around 7 elements.

Question 11

Adaptive Control of thought (ACT)

Answer 11

A theory that provides an explanation for why some words and not others are retrieved from long-term memory into working memory is because the words have different activations / associations in the brain. Proposed by Anderson in 2009.

Question 12

Long Term Potentiation (LTP)

Answer 12

Increased sensitivity of neural pathways that have been recently stimulated by a high frequency electrical current

Question 13

PET

Answer 13

Positron Emission Tomography (Procedure to scan radioactive traces in the body)

Question 14

Flashbulb Memory

Answer 14

Very good memory about really impactful events. “Burns themselves permanently into our minds”

Question 15

Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory

Answer 15

Working Memory contains: Visuospatial sketchpad and Phonological loop (“slave systems”) controlled by the Central executive. Proposed in 1986.

Question 16

Visuospatial Sketch

Answer 16

A part of “Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory” that holds our visual part of working through a problem. E.g. You may visualize a written multiplication problem like 32x8. This image is held in the Visuospatial sketchpad.

Question 17

Phonological Loop

Answer 17

Part of “Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory”. Holds information, e.g. partial products of a multiplication like 24, when trying to multiply 4x6x2. (4x6 = 24).
Subdivision: Articulatory loop and Phonological store

Question 18

Articulatory Loop

Answer 18

Part of the Phonological Loop (Baddeley). Helps you hold and work with verbal and auditory information by repeating words or sounds mentally over and over to remember them for a short time. (Here the articulatory process happens)

Question 19

Phonological Store

Answer 19

Part of the Phonological Loop. “Inner ear” that listens to your “inner voice”.

Question 20

Delayed match-to-sample task

Answer 20

A task used in studies of monkeys to study their Working Memory in coordination with their Frontal Lobe.

(E.g. Food is placed in one of two containers with lids. Monkeys look away for more than 10 seconds. Need to remember which container the food was in. Human infants aren’t able to do this task until they are about 1 year old).

Question 21

Brodmann area 46 / Dorsolateral prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)

Answer 21

An area of the Frontal Lobe that is involved in the delayed match-to-sample tasks, when remembering where an item is placed. Keeps the information active while there is a delay, but not in the execution of a task.

Question 22

Spreading Activation

Answer 22

A term used to refer to the process by which currently attended items can make associated memories more readily available. E.g: Like seeing the pythagoras theorem written on a toilet wall will make it more readily available as a solution in your next math problem.

Question 23

Strength / Baseline Activation

Answer 23

A term for how easily we can retrieve a concept from our memory. The strength of a memory increases gradually every time it is recalled.

Question 24

The Power law of Learning

Answer 24

All learning/memory is increased by practice. This can generally be formulated:T = a*P^-b
T = response time.
P = amount of practice.
a & b = coefficients from study.

Question 25

Lag

Answer 25

Amount of intervening items in a list between repeated items you try to retrieve in the short-term- working- memory (e.g. Shepard &Teghtsoonian 1961).

(E.g. in list: 1, 2, 3, 5, 1. Lag = 3 items)

Question 26

Brodmann area 47 / ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC)

Answer 26

Adjacent to Brodmann area 46
Area in the prefrontal Cortex that is involved in the “What”-pathway.

Question 27

Articulatory process

Answer 27

“Inner Voice” that rehearses verbal information e.g retrieving a phone number. Process happening in articulatory loop.

Question 28

Elaborative Processing

Answer 28

Thinking of information that is related to and expands the information provided. Elaborating further on information to make deeper connections and retain them better (For further research on this topic, see Pressley, McDaniel, Turnure, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987)

Question 29

Method of Loci

Answer 29

Memory Technique: Attaching things to remember to a spatial loci (location) on a known route. Also known as “Memory Palace”.

Question 30

Depth of processing Theory

Answer 30

Rehearsal only improves memory if the material is processed in a deep way (e.g. assigning meaning to it). A theory proposed by Craik and Lockhart in 1972.

Question 31

Encoding-specifity principle

Answer 31

The probability of recalling an item at test depends on the similarity of the context during decoding at test to the context during encoding at study

Question 32

False-memory syndrome

Answer 32

A kind of memory confusion where people remember things that did not happen to them, but instead where suggested to them (it produced a great deal of controversy in cases where individuals claim to have recovered previously suppressed memories of childhood sexual assault)

Question 33

Explicit memory

Answer 33

What we can consciously recall

Question 34

Fan effect

Answer 34

The increase in reaction time related to an increase in the number of memory structures associated with a concept

Question 35

Implicit memory

Answer 35

What our actions imply we remember in the absence of conscious memory

Question 36

Amnesia

Answer 36

Loss of memory

Question 37

Korsakoff syndrome

Answer 37

An amnesia resulting from chronic alcoholism and nutritional deficit.

Question 38

Interference theory

Answer 38

The theory that forgetting is caused by interference among memories.

Question 39

Decay theory

Answer 39

A theory that forgetting is caused by spontaneous decay of memories over time.

Question 40

Power law of forgetting

Answer 40

The concept that describes how memory performance declines over time in a manner consistent with a power function of the duration of the delay interval.

Question 41

Declarative memory

Answer 41

Knowledge we can consciously recall, for example, which year the French revolution started. Synonymous to explicit memory.

Question 42

Priming

Answer 42

Priming refers to the improvement in the way a stimulus is processed, which occurs due to previous exposure to that stimulus.

Question 43

Procedural knowledge

Answer 43

The understanding of how to execute a specific task or skill, often acquired through practical experience and practice.

It stands in contrast to explicit memory, which involves consciously recalling facts or information.

Question 44

Mood congruence

Answer 44

A match between the mood associated with the content of a memory and the person’s mood when recalling the memory. Such a match is associated with better memory

Question 45

Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm

Answer 45

A paradigm for creating false memories of words. This is done by presenting new words that are closely associated with the original words.

Question 46

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 46

Loss of memory for things that occurred before an injury. Contrast with anterograde amnesia.

Question 47

State-dependent learning

Answer 47

The principle that it is easier to recall information when one is in the same emotional and physical state as when one learned the information.

Question 48

Dissociations

Answer 48

A demonstration that a manipulation in an experiment has an effect on the performance of one task, but not on another.

Question 49

Nonassociative memory

Answer 49

A type of nondeclarative memory (implicit memory), nonassociative memory is split into two categories: Habituation and sensitization. This type of memory has been demonstrated in a variety of species, ranging from sea slugs to humans.

Question 50

Nondeclarative memory

Answer 50

Synonymous to implicit memory, knowledge implied by our actions but inaccessible to consciously recall.