Human Memory

Question 1

What are the main brain areas involved in human memory?

Answer 1

Temporal lobe: long term memory storage and retrieval

Hippocampus = forming new memories and retrieving old ones

Prefrontal regions are associated with working memory, and also in organizing and prioritizing memories

Parietal areas involved in maintaining information in working memory (attention-based memory)

Amygdala: process emotional memories

Basal ganglia and Cerebellum are important for procedural memory like riding a bike and habits

Occipital Cortex: Involved in visual memory, particularly for recognizing images and faces

Question 2

What is partial-report procedure?

Answer 2

Shows visual sensory memory by asking people to recall part of what they briefly see, revealing they remember more than they can say

Question 3

What is whole-report procedure?

Answer 3

Shows visual sensory memory by asking people to recall everything they saw after briefly viewing a set of items, showing limits in how much can be remembered at once.

Question 4

What is Sperlings Method?

Answer 4

Both partial-report procedure and whole-report procedure experiment. Showing a grid of letters briefly, then using cues (like tones) to test recall, showing people remember more than they can report.

(Existence of a visual sensory store (=iconic memory) and that iconic memory has a large capacity but fades quickly (1s))

Question 5

What is iconic memory (visual sensory memory)?

Answer 5

The brief, visual part of sensory memory, lasting about 1 second, holding a snapshot of what you see

Question 6

What is echoic memory (auditory sensory store)?

Answer 6

The brief, auditory part of sensory memory, lasting 3–4 seconds (but can up to 10 seconds), holding sounds you hear

Question 7

What is short-term memory?

Answer 7

Between sensory memory and long-term memory: Stores a small amount of information for a short time, usually 20–30 seconds. It helps you keep things in mind for immediate tasks.

Information fades quickly unless you rehearse or transfer it to long-term memory

Question 8

What is memory span?

Answer 8

The capacity of short-term memory

Question 9

What is depth of processing theory?

Answer 9

Suggests that the more deeply you process information, the better you will remember it

Question 10

What is Atkinson and Shiffrin’s theory of short-term memory?

Answer 10

Suggests information moves from sensory memory to short-term memory, then either forgotten or transferred to long-term memory through rehearsal (instead of depth of processing)

Question 11

What is Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory?

Answer 11

Proposes that working memory is a system with multiple components: two slave systems that interact with a central executive

Question 12

What is working memory?

Answer 12

A system for holding the information needed to perform a task

Question 13

What is the central executive?

Answer 13

Controls attention and coordinates information in working memory through the two slave systems

Question 14

What are the two slave systems?

Answer 14

Visuospatial sketchpad and Phonological loop

Question 15

What is Visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 15

Responsible for handling visual and spatial information in the mind

Question 16

What is Phonological loop?

Answer 16

Responsible for processing and maintaining verbal and auditory information.

Has two components:

Articulatory process: “inner voice” that rehearses verbal information
(Activity in Broca’s area)

Phonological store: “inner ear” that hears the inner voice and stores the information
(Activity in the parietal-temporal region of the brain)

Question 17

What is dealyed-matching to sample task?

Answer 17

A working-memory task where a participant is shown a sample (like a shape or object), then after a delay, must identify a matching item from a set of options (activity in Brodmann area)

Question 18

What is long term working memory?

Answer 18

When information stays active in your mind for a long time, helping you solve problems or complete tasks.

Question 19

What is long term memory?

Answer 19

Where information is stored for a long time, like facts, experiences, or skills, and can be retrieved later

Question 20

What is activation?

Answer 20

Refers to the process of bringing information from long-term memory into awareness or active use in the mind

Question 21

What is ACT-theory?

Answer 21

A model of human cognition that explains how people store and use knowledge. It divides memory into three parts:

Declarative memory (facts and information)
Procedural memory (skills and actions)
Working memory (information actively being processed)

Suggests that learning happens when knowledge is stored in declarative memory and then becomes procedural through practice.

Question 22

What is spreading activation?

Answer 22

A theory that explains how ideas or concepts in memory are linked. When you think of one idea, it activates related ideas, causing them to “spread”

Question 23

What is strength in human memory?

Answer 23

How well a memory is retained and how easily it can be recalled. Stronger memories are more easily activated and remembered

Question 24

What is a Power function?

Answer 24

A mathematical function that is based on the idea that something is slowing down the learning process

Question 25

What is the power law of learning?

Answer 25

Suggests that the more you practice something, the faster you learn at first, but as you keep practicing, the rate of improvement slows down

Question 26

What is Long-term potentiation(LTP)

Answer 26

A process in the brain that strengthens the connections between neurons, making it easier for them to communicate (remembering something over and over makes it stronger, and easier to remember next time)

Question 27

What is spacing effects?

Answer 27

Learning is more effective when study sessions are spread out over time, rather than crammed into a short period

Question 28

What is elaborative processing?

Answer 28

A way of remembering things by connecting new information to what you already know

Question 29

What is incidental vs intentional learning?

Answer 29

Incidental learning happens without trying to learn something, like picking up information naturally while doing something else.

Intentional learning is when you purposely focus on learning something, like studying for a test.

Question 30

What is Flashbulb memories?

Answer 30

Vivid, detailed, long-lasting memories of major, important and emotionally charged events

Question 31

What is the Penfield experiment?

Answer 31

Involved stimulating parts of the brain during surgery, which triggered memories or sensations, helping to map brain functions. (Forgotten memories are still there even though we cant retrieve them)

Nelson later found and supported that forgotten memories actually exist

Question 32

What is the power law of forgetting?

Answer 32

Suggests that we forget information quickly at first, but the rate of forgetting slows down over time. The more you try to remember something, the slower you forget it

Question 33

What is the think/no-think paradigm? (memory suppression/motivated forgetting)

Answer 33

An experiment that studies memory control. Participants are shown pairs of words and asked to either think about one word when prompted or not think about it. This helps researchers understand how we can intentionally suppress memories or actively bring them to mind

Question 34

What is retention?

Answer 34

The ability to keep information in memory over time

Question 35

What is the Decay Theory?

Answer 35

Suggests that memories fade or weaken over time if they are not used or rehearsed

Question 36

What is Interference Theory?

Answer 36

Suggests that forgetting happens because other information gets in the way. There are two types:

Proactive interference: Older memories interfere with new ones.
Retroactive interference: New memories interfere with older ones.

Question 37

What is the fan effect?

Answer 37

When the more facts or associations you have linked to a particular concept, the slower it becomes to recall any one of them

Question 38

What is exact retrieval vs. plausible retrieval?

Answer 38

Exact retrieval is when you remember something exactly as it was, like recalling a specific fact or event with no mistakes.

Plausible retrieval is when you remember something that seems likely or reasonable, but it might not be completely accurate

Question 39

What is eyewitness testimony in relation to human memory?

Answer 39

When someone describes what they saw during an event, like a crime or accident, to help investigators.

However, it can be unreliable because memories can be influenced by factors like stress, time, or leading questions

Question 40

What is false-memory syndrome?

Answer 40

When a person believes they remember something that didn’t actually happen

Question 41

What is the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm?

Answer 41

An experiment that shows how false memories can be created. Participants are shown a list of words related to a central theme (like “bed,” “rest,” “sleep”). Afterward, many participants mistakenly remember a word that wasn’t on the list but fits the theme (like “dream”), demonstrating how false memories can form.

(Activation in the hippocampus is about the same for false memories and true memories)

Question 42

What is mood congruence?

Answer 42

Refers to the tendency to remember information that matches your current mood. For example, when you’re happy, you’re more likely to recall happy memories

Question 43

What is state-dependent learning?

Answer 43

The idea that you remember things better when you’re in the same physical or emotional state as when you learned them

Question 44

What is the encoding-specifity principle?

Answer 44

Suggests that memory is improved when the context during encoding (learning) matches the context during retrieval (remembering)

Question 45

What is Amnesia?

Answer 45

Memory loss, often due to brain injury, trauma, or illness.

Question 46

Who was patient H.M?

Answer 46

He had a brain surgery to treat epilepsy, where part of his hippocampus was removed, which caused him to develop anterograde amnesia, unable to form new long-term memories.
His case helped scientists understand the hippocampus’s role in memory

Question 47

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 47

The inability to form new long-term memories, but can still remember old memories

Question 48

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 48

Cannot remember past memories

A type of memory loss where a person cannot remember events that occurred before a specific point in time, however they can form new memories

Question 49

Who was Clive Wearing?

Answer 49

A man with severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia due to a brain infection. He can’t form new memories or recall much from the past but can still play music and recognize his wife

Question 50

What is Explicit memory (declarative memory)?

Answer 50

The type of memory you can consciously recall and describe, like facts, events, or experiences. It includes two subtypes:

Episodic memory (personal experiences)

Semantic memory (general knowledge or facts)

Question 51

What is Implicit memory (non-declarative memory)?

Answer 51

The type of memory that influences your behavior without conscious awareness. It includes skills, habits, and conditioned responses, like riding a bike

Question 52

What are the 4 subcategories of non-declarative memory?

Answer 52

Procedural memory: Memory for skills and tasks, like riding a bike or playing an instrument.

Priming: Being influenced by prior experiences without conscious awareness, like recognizing a word faster if you’ve seen it before.

Classical conditioning: Learning through associations, like feeling nervous when you hear a certain sound because it’s linked to something scary.

Non-associative learning: Changes in behavior due to repeated exposure to a stimulus, like getting used to a loud noise over time

Question 53

What is Procedural knowledge?

Answer 53

The understanding of how to perform specific tasks or actions, but it can be difficult to explain to others

Question 54

What is the retention function?

Answer 54

Shows how memory changes over time. It describes how much information we can remember after different amounts of time have passed

Question 55

What did Craik and Lockhart find?

Answer 55

Words that were deeply processed (focusing on the word’s meaning) were remembered better than those that were shallowly processed (focusing on the words font)

Question 56

What did Shepard and Teghtsoonian demonstrate and how did Baddeley and Vallar contribute?

Answer 56

They found that people can remember fewer long words than short words.

Baddeley and Vallar explained it in terms of working memory processes, linking the word length effect to the capacity limitations of the phonological loop

Question 57

What did Meyer and Schvaneveldt find?

Answer 57

Studied semantic priming, finding that people recognize related words faster (e.g., “bread” and “butter”) than unrelated ones. This supports the idea that related concepts are linked in memory, contributing to the spreading activation model

Question 58

What did Barnes find?

Answer 58

That Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) strengthens the connections between neurons, especially in the hippocampus, which is important for memory

Question 59

How can memory relate to other topics?