Learning and Memory

Question 1

Long-term memory of motor skills and procedures. “Implicit memory”. Contents are not easily verbalized; can be used without “thinking.”

Answer 1

Procedural memory

Question 2

Stores facts and events. Contains knowledge that can be consciously discussed or declared. Contains textbook learning and knowledge as well as memories of events in one’s life. Storage of sights, smells,, etc., also in a verbal format.

Answer 2

Declarative memory

Question 3

Type of declarative memory that is the recollections of events an individual has personally experienced. Includes features of time, emotions, and place that are not components in semantic or procedural memory.

Answer 3

Episodic memory

Question 4

Type of declarative memory that concerns generic or categorical knowledge, such as the meaning of words. Generally, we know the meaning of items stored in this type of memory, but we retain no knowledge of when or how we gained that knowledge.

Answer 4

Semantic memory

Question 5

The first stage in the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. The immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system. Endure for only a very brief time.

Answer 5

Sensory information store (SIS)

Question 6

The sensory information store in the visual system. Sperling demonstrated that it allows large amounts of information to be stored for a very brief duration (half of a second). Errors in this type of memory are visual, rather than verbal, reflection the modality-specific nature of this stage of information storage

Answer 6

Iconic memory

Question 7

The sensory information store for sounds. Provides a 3-4 second, modality-specific, sensory memory of the auditory stimulus. If attention is elsewhere when a sound occurs, the sound can still be recalled within three or four seconds.

Answer 7

Echoic memory

Question 8

Center stage for the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. It is active memory (associated with conscious thought) that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten. Involves the intensive, serial processing of limited material that can yield permanent storage. 7+-2. Duration is indefinite with rehearsal. Information is gone in 18 seconds without rehearsal

Answer 8

Short-term memory (STM)

Question 9

The conscious repetition of information, either to maintain it in consciousness or to help encode it for storage. Involves re-entering information into STM so the information continues to receive active processing. The more of this action, the more likely you can retain the material.

Answer 9

Rehearsal

Question 10

Reflects the probability of recalling an item as a function of that item’s position in a list. Shows that there is a tendency to recall best the first and last items in a list

Answer 10

Serial position curve

Question 11

The superior recall of initial items; attributed to those items receiving extra rehearsal, without competition, and thus entering LTM

Answer 11

Primacy effect

Question 12

The superior recall pf the last items; attributed to recalling items from STM

Answer 12

Recency effect

Question 13

When words that sound alike, they are similar in how we manipulate our vocal tracts to create the sounds (how we articulate the sounds). Errors in STM and LTM experiments often take the form of this term which indicates that material is encoded in a verbal, rather than visual, format in these memory areas.

Answer 13

Articulatory confusion

Question 14

The organization of items into familiar, manageable units and often occurs automatically. We can more easily recall information if we can organize it into meaningful units. Aids our recall of unfamiliar material, such as the recall of words or digits, through the use of segmentation or grouping into other forms. the processing capacity of STM is not in bits of information measured in terms of numbers or letters or digits, but is a limit in chunks.

Answer 14

Chunking

Question 15

The transfer of information from STM into LTM. Happens automatically for the contents of episodic memory, but can require considerable effort for semantic memory. Entering material into LTM is aided by rehearsal, which appears to help establish an entry into the association network in the proper format and location

Answer 15

Consolidation

Question 16

Occurs when items are processed consecutively. Associated with STM and active analysis.

Answer 16

Serial processing

Question 17

Occurs when many items are processed simultaneously. Associated with the processing of sensory input and entry of material into the various sensory information stores. Associated with passive analysis

Answer 17

Parallel processing

Question 18

Relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of memory in the Atkinson and Schiffrin model of memory. Organized in an association network based on similarities of format (syntax), similarity of meaning (semantics), and hierarchy of meaning. Made up of separate sensory memories, such as images, flavors, and sounds that help recover memories.

Answer 18

Long-term memory (LTM)

Question 19

Occurs when you cannot retrieve an item from memory that you know you know. Although you can’t get the word, you can describe certain characteristics of the word. These characteristics reveal aspects of the verbal representation or thought in LTM.

Answer 19

Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon

Question 20

Refers to the organization of information in LTM. Allows information to be retrieved through one thing leading to another once information is acquired. Information can be retrieved through similarity of meaning (semantics), similarity of format (syntax), and through hierarchy of meaning.

Answer 20

Association network

Question 21

Examined by Ebbinghaus; the continued study of material even after the material is learned. Increases retention, presumably by increasing the strength of the association pathways.

Answer 21

Overlearning

Question 22

The reduction in study needed to relearn a list; a saving of work needed as a consequence ofprior exposure

Answer 22

Savings

Question 23

Memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational strategies. Were developed by the ancient Greeks as aids to remember lengthy passages and speeches. Imagery and the method of loci are twp examples.

Answer 23

Mnemonics

Question 24

A mnemonic technique. A way of remembering a series of things in order,

Answer 24

Method of loci

Question 25

The process of using images to remember things

Answer 25

Imagery

Question 26

A process for retrieving information from LTM by providing a starting point (the cue) in the association network. Better than simple recall of the same material.

Answer 26

Cued recall

Question 27

The process for retrieving information from LTM when the item itself gives the path to target. Includes memory of images as well as words. Better than either recall or cued recall, presumably because the target is provided.

Answer 27

Recognition

Question 28

A way of describing how confident a person is in their judgement of whether a word is the word they seek. Hypothesized as the basis for making a recognition judgement;

Answer 28

Recognition strength

Question 29

A process for creating a probable memory based on information from LTM. Involves retrieving associated items from the memory pathway and fabricating a memory consistent with those retrieved. The fabricated item is treated as ‘remembered.’ This creation of a ‘reasonable guess’ based upon ‘hints’ retrieved from memory is the same as our normal perceptual process of making a ‘reasonable guess’ about the world based on the hints provided by our sensory systems.

Answer 29

Reconstruction

Question 30

A state or condition that is assumed to be true in a sentence may be taken as a true state when a person considers that sentence.

Answer 30

Presupposition

Question 31

Occurs when we attribute a memory to the wrong source, which lead to false memories being created and stored.

Answer 31

Source amnesia

Question 32

This process determines what material enters conscious thought and thereby what material is able to be retained in LTM. Studies of this term concern the factors that influence how the vast array of sensory stimulation and information in LTM that potentially could enter conscious thought are filtered to yield the small amount of material we can have in awareness at any one moment.

Answer 32

Attention

Question 33

The unconscious activation of association pathways in memory that influence how one remembers (reconstructive recall) or perceives (interpretive perception).

Answer 33

Priming

Question 34

The disruptive effect of learning on the recall of old information. Occurs when newly learned material makes it harder to recall something learned earlier, presumably because the previously established association pathways have been disrupted and now lead to the new material.

Answer 34

Retroactive interference

Question 35

The disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information. Occurs when something learned earlier disrupts recall of some more recently learned material, presumably because one gets ‘stuck’ on the association pathway to the old material instead of following a new path.

Answer 35

Proactive interference

Question 36

The inability to remember, often caused by a traumatic event

Answer 36

Amnesia

Question 37

The inability to recall memories prior to the trauma. This demonstrates the distinction between episodic and semantic memories.

Answer 37

Retrograde amnesia

Question 38

The inability to form memories of events since the trauma. Although there is no acquisition of declarative memory, there is an ability to acquire procedural memory, indication that these have different physiological bases. One can form implicit memories, not explicit memories.

Answer 38

Anterograde amnesia

Question 39

Seen as an increase in a synapse’s ability to stimulate another cell that occurs after brief, rapid stimulation May be a neural basis for learning and memory. The formation of a pathway of cells through this term at each cell in the chain provides a basis for the association of learning (forming the chain) and remembering (the tendency for the entire chain to become active be stimulating the first cell). Part of this term is that the neuron’s firing is prolonged and the release of neurotransmitters is increased and made more efficient.

Answer 39

Long-term potentiation

Question 40

A collection of cells in which long-term potentiation and pre- and post-synaptic responses are synchronized. The firing of one neuron results in the firing of others in the assembly. the efficiency of one neuron firing another is increased. Can be spatially diffused and allows an ‘engram’ to be a pattern of activity, rather than a particular structure.

Answer 40

Hebbian assembly

Question 41

The inferior half of the temporal lobe and the regions of the brain that it encloses (particularly the hippocampus and the amygdala). The cortical portion of this structure contains cells that respond to complex visual object features, such as geometric contours and faces. This region is indicated in declarative memory.

Answer 41

Inferotemporal area (IT)