Lectures Flashcards
What are the 3 main memory systems (lecture 1)?
sensory memory, WM, and LTM
Which are the 2 subcomponents of sensory memory?
iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory
what is working memory?
the active part of memory involved in rehearsing information (~30s)
name the 3 parts of WM and their functions
- central executive: control unit
- visuo-spatial sketchpad: maintains visuospatial information (inner eye)
- phonological loop: maintains verbal information (inner ear)
the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop work ____ and interference in one ____ performance the other
independently, doesn’t influence
what are the 3 subcomponents of LTM?
procedural, episodic, and semantic memory
what processess enable rehearsal in the visuospatial sketchpad and the phonological loop?
VSS: eye movements
PhL: subvocal processes
what is dual task methodology and why is it used in WM research?
a participant must perform 2 tasks simultaneously that engage separate modalities. This allows us to assess the various components of WM
what are the phases of a simple span task?
encoding, delay, and retrieval
what is the phonological similarity effect?
lists of similarly sounding words are harder to remember compared to dissimilar words
what are irrelevant speech effects?
irrelevant verbal interference negatively impacts recall
what is articulatory suppression?
nonsensical speech articulation worsens immediate recall
Subvocal rehearsal occurs in ____ and verbal information is stored in ____
Broca’s area
the supramarginal gyrus (SMG)
what information does the visual cache store and where?
visual info in the ventral “what” pathway (colour, form, orientation)
what information does the inner scribe store and where?
spatial info in the dorsal “where and how” pathway
fill in the gaps and describe what is depicted
the ventral (what) and dorsal (where+how) pathways
the ventral corresponds to the visual cache & stores visual info
the dorsal corresponds to the inner scribe & stores spatial info
describe the delayed match-to-sample task & what it tests
it assesses visual matching ability and short-term visual recognition memory for nonverbal patterns
what do pre-cues test in the delayed match-to-sample task?
one’s concept of perceptual space
what do retro-cues test in the delayed match-to-sample task?
one’s mental space
What do we expect to find when testing participants using valid and invalid pre-cues and retro-cues?
Hit rate and RT differences between valid and invalid cues are similar for pre-cues and retro-cues
which factors influence performance in delayed match-to-sample tasks?
longer delay times, larger set sizes, and larger distractor distance
what evidence was found indicating a common neural substrate for attention?
neural studies demonstrating that shifting attention to one direction shifts neural activity to the opposite side
Westerners are faster to respond with left hand to beginning items, meanwhile Arabic speakers are faster with their right hand. No preference for illiterate individuals
what do position marker models of memory posit?
Each item in a sequence is bound to a certain position marker instilled through visuospatial mechanisms involved in verbal WM:
Verbal memoranda is spatially mapped in WM, and spatial attention is involved in search & selection
wht does the cortical recycling hypothesis posit?
we recycle more concrete systems to be used for more abstract systems
Thoughts can be predicted/tracked based on ____ & ____ activity. This is modulated by ____ and ____
neural, oculomotor
literacy, reading direction
what is a conceptual/semantic space?
a 2D space that includes all words we know. The closer words are to each other in space, the more semantically related they are
How do recall and forgetting manifest in SM?
recall doesn’t involve reliving memories, and SM is resistant to forgetting
How do recall and forgetting manifest in EM?
recall involves reliving memories, and EM is vulnerable to forgetting
what is multidimensional scaling (MDS)?
a statistical method to measure (dis)similarity among pairs of objects as distances between points of a multidimensional space (i.e., a method to define the semantic space)
which transformations can you apply to your MDS representation?
reflection and rotation
what are the 3 functions in MDS?
distance, representation, and loss
what does the function of distance represent in MDS?
how we will define distances in space
what does the function of representation represent in MDS?
how we relate proximities to distances (shape)
what does the function of loss represent in MDS?
how closely proximities and distances are related (fit)
how can we calculate distance in MDS?
using the Minkowsky distance function
what is the representation function that is used in MDS?
f(pij) = dij
p = input proximities
d = output proximities
Empirical proximities always contain noise. How does the loss function address this issue?
by relaxing the proximity to capture the input proximities as closely as possible
f(pij) = dij => f(pij) ≈ dij
what influences the squared error of representation and what does it mean?
if radiuses from steps don’t overlap, you have a poor representation of the semantic space’s shape
what is raw stress in MDS?
a measure of how poorly our data fits for all pairs of objects in a space
A perfect fit will have a raw stress of 0
what is the category fluency task and what cognitive function does it inform us about?
the participant must name as many exemplars of a category as possible within 1 min.
this task informs us about semantic memory and an individual’s semantic spaces
how can the category fluency task be used to study patients with semantic deficits?
Responses to the task can be reverse engineered to create a conceptual space by taking the distance between exemplars and mapping them
Chan (1993) first proposed the category fluency task to measure semantic deficits. 20 years later, Voorspels et al. (2013) did a study finding semantic deficits in an experimental group that consumed alcohol. What was odd about this finding?
Participants were only given alcohol AFTER completing the task, and were not aware that they would be given the alcohol as a reward
Voorspoels et al. (2014) showed that the category fluency task has low ____. This indicates that the category fluency task isn’t purely a ____ measure, and is in fact a better measure of ____
test-retest reliability
semantic
executive functioning
Voorspoels et al. (2014) showed that the category fluency task has low ____. This indicates that the category fluency task isn’t purely a ____ measure, and is in fact a better measure of ____
test-retest reliability
semantic
executive functioning
A conclusion from Steven Verheyen’s lecture on semantic memory was that averaging data is useful only when ____
you can safely presume you have inter-individual consistency, i.e., your entire sample is affected in the same way
What are the features of autobiographical memory?
Reconstructive nature
Features a personally lived experience
Serves social and directive functions
Has semantic components
What is the cue word technique (Galton-Crovitz test)?
Given a word, participants must name the first word related to a memory of theirs that comes to their mind
Name the 3 signature phases of ABM retrieval
childhood amnesia: no memories from before 3-5yrs
reminiscence bump: most memories remembered around 10-30yrs
recency effect: better memory for recently occured events
how can we explain the existence of a reminiscence bump?
our cognitive functioning peaks between 10-30yrs and we experience the majority of life changing events that will occur
how can we explain childhood amnesia?
young children are generally unable to determine the beginning and end of events, and often can’t distinguish themselves from others
Childhood amnesia is dependent on cultural differences (individualist cultures have earlier memories) and can be manipulated
The most prevalent reminiscence bump is found for ____ memories. For ____ and ____ experiences there is no pattern
happier, traumatic, sad
What are the explanations behind the impact of emotion on our ABMs?
- ABM is organised by culturally shared life scripts
- Life scripts contain many positive events in young adulthood
- Life scripts do not contain emotionally negative events
- Negative events fade over time
Recent ABMs tend to be forgotten. Which 2 methods prevent this from happening?
if they become integrated with other LTM representations, or if they are associated with long-term goals
What did Conway state through his ABM Organisation Theory?
Memories are organised by degree of abstraction:
Lifetime periods: highly abstracted (e.g. college life)
General events: lower degree of abstraction (e.g., daily recurring events)
Event-specific knowledge: most specific (e.g. first kiss)
how does context influence ABM retrieval?
individuals can answer faster with context
What are the major differences in ABM retrieval between young and older adults?
- young adults have shorter RTs
- older adults have higher ratings of relevance and intensity
emotion contributes (earlier/later) than other memory processes like WM, and this was demonstrated in (behavioural/neuroimaging) studies
earlier, neuroimaging
What are the characteristics of ABMs in individualistic cultures?
people remember earlier memories
Memories are detailed
Main character is oneself
What are the characteristics of ABMs in collectivistic cultures?
people remember later memories
Memories are less detailed
Strong focus on significant others
“creating a false memory depending on how plausible the information is”
what is described above?
implanted memories
Describe the DRM paradigm for false memories
False memories are guided by how many associations there are between seen words, because they will be primed, or unconsciously activated
Describe imagination inflation
imagining an event increases the likelihood that a false memory is created, and increases confidence in the truthfulness of the event occurring
Define reproductive memory
an accurate verbatim recollection of an event
define reconstructive memory
remembering is influenced by other factors and can result in the combination of elements of experience with existing knowledge
Which factors influence the likelihood of the misinformation effect?
young children and the elderly are most vulnerable, and misinformation effects become likelier with longer passages of time
What does the memory replacement theory (Loftus) state?
Original memory trace is permanently lost/altered when misleading info is encountered → new info overwrites old info
What does the memory coexistence theory (Bekerian & Bowers) state?
More recent misleading info obscures original memory trace. With warning, people are able to disregard some of the misleading information
What does the source monitoring framework (Johnson) state?
Memory trace is formed based on the source of the information. Source monitoring occurs when we evaluate info about the event. When we cannot monitor the source, misinformation is likelier to be accepted as truth
What are source monitoring errors and what influences their likelihood?
they are the inability to remember source of info.
It is likelier to occur of the misleading info is thematically similar to the true events, and is less likely to occur if the info comes from a biassed source
Which individual factors make people more susceptible to misinformation?
Poor general memory
Higher imagery vividness
Higher empathy
Age (older = more susceptible)
Stress/Time pressure (young adults under pressure = old adults)
