Long-term Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What is long term memory?

A

Any information that is stored longer than 20 seconds

-Representations of personal experiences, facts, skills, emotions, and rules

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2
Q

Does long term memory have a duration or capacity?

A

Nope, no limits, and stores it for entire lifetime

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3
Q

How do we know that Short Term Memory and Long Term Memory aren’t the same thing?

A

The Serial Position Curve.

  • different parts of the brain are activated when thinking of things that happened a long time ago than vs. now
  • We find double dissociations in brain damage. Someone can lack short term memory functioning while still retaining long term, and vice versa
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4
Q

What is the Serial Position Curve?

A

Long list of words to remember, we see primacy and recency effect. If we wait 5 mins, recency effect will drop but you will still remember the first words

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5
Q

What is Consolidation?

A

Process of transforming fragile memories into more permanent memories

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6
Q

Muller and Pilzeckers test to show consolidation

A

gave two groups list of nonsyllables to remember. Group 1 learned List one and list two right after. Group two learned the lists with a gap in between.
Second group did better because the gap allowed time for consolidation

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7
Q

What is synaptic consolidation and who studied it?

A

Consolidation that happens at the level of the synapse, through this the connection between two neurons gets stronger. Activity at synapse causes chemical reactions
-Donald Hebb

Long term potentiation: enhanced firing of neurons that happens with repeated stimulation. When they fire at same time, strengthens connections between neurons, enhances responding

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8
Q

What is systems consolidation?

A

Consolidation at the level of networks of neurons. Takes longer than synaptic consolidation

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9
Q

What type of models fall under systems consolidation?

A

Standard model- remembering something involves multiple brain areas- depends on the hippocampus

Multiple trace model- hippocampus is involved in retrieving episodic memories specifically

Reactivation: in order to recall a memory, need to reactivate these brain areas. Hippocampus oversees this and is the director

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10
Q

Are synaptic and systems consolidation two separate things?

A

No, they are two things happening simultaneously at different levels

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11
Q

What is reconsolidation?

A

Process in which act of retrieving a memory makes it fragile again, weakens the memory, so then you have to do process of consolidation all over again

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12
Q

Is reconsolidation bad or good?

A

Good because events change and we learn new things, so we may need to alter our memory of things to adapt to our knew knowledge

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13
Q

Who coined the terms explicit and implicit memory and what are they?

A

Endel Tulving

Explicit: conscious recollection (declarative)
Implicit: unconscious recollection (non-declarative)

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14
Q

Within explicit memory, what two types of memory are there?

A

Semantic: facts, general information, meaning

Episodic: any event that you yourself have personally experienced

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15
Q

What is involved in implicit memory?

A

Procedural memory: memory for any action or cognitive skill

Classical Conditioning: change in behaviour as result of pairing neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus

Priming

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16
Q

What is Priming?

A
  • Happens in implicit memory (without awareness)

- change in performance with a stimulus as a result of recent experience with the same or related stimuli

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17
Q

Priming Examples

A

“He it hides finds instantly” -told to make a sentence with this

One group is given rude words to make sentence
Other group is given polite words

Measure time it took for participant to interrupt researcher –> those who saw rude words, interrupted faster

One group is given words associated with being old
Other group young.
Group with old words took longer to walk to elevator after

More hostile and racist after seeing faces of African Americans

More likely to hire someone after holding a hot beverage rather than a cold one

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18
Q

What is the “levels of processing theory”?

A

Memory depends on the depth of processing, how information is encoded, not on the structure of memory-no distinction between short and long term in this theory of memory
-Deeper processing results in better encoding and retrieval than shallow processing

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19
Q

Levels of processing test by Craik and Tulving

A

Give someone a word, push key if:

1) All uppercase letters
2) Rhymes with ____
3) Fits into a given sentence

  • -> Fitting the word into a sentence is deeper processing because have to know meaning of the word,
  • deep processing takes longer
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20
Q

Two characteristics of levels processing theory?

A

1) Elaboration
- Maintenance rehearsal: simple repetition without consideration of meaning, helps to maintain info but is not effective in transferring to LTM
- Elaborative rehearsal: meaning based, make connections between item and something you know. This transfers to LTM better
2) Distinctiveness- making something more unique helps you remember it

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21
Q

Real life examples of levels of processing

A

1) Academically successful students more likely to pick a word to fill in blank that is related to rest of sentence
2) As we age, we forget people’s names but we remember the significance of that person (because that was deeper processing)
3) As we age we repeat stories a lot, but the significance of the story remains

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22
Q

Three ways you can use Levels of Processing

A

1) Reworking: put info into your own words
2) Method of loci: remember visual places then put information in those specific places (house map studying)
3) Imagery: create image of something you want to remember

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23
Q

Problems with Levels of Processing theory

A
  • Confounding variable: when you process something deeply, you are working harder and putting more time into it.. maybe this is why you remember it better
  • No definition of depth
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24
Q

What is autobiographical memory?

A

memory for the events of one’s life

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25
Q

What types of autobiographical memories are there?

A

Episodic and Semantic
-Recent memories usually episodic, further back you go, more memories are semantic

Multidimensional- contains facts, emotions, sensory info

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26
Q

What are usually autobiographical memories?

A
  • Personal milestones
  • Transitional points in life
  • Emotional events
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27
Q

What is the reminiscence bump?

A

Memory bump: most of our memories come out of when we were between age 10-30

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28
Q

Why do most of our memories fall between age 10-30

A

Because this is when our sense of identity is formed, our life scripts occur in this time, and many of events during this time are unique

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29
Q

What are the functions of autobiographical memory?

A

Solve problems, social bonds, and affects mood, guides future actions

30
Q

What is a flashbulb memory?

A

A vivid and detailed memory of a personally significant event. Refers mainly to circumstances around the event and how a person heard about it and not the event itself

  • Brown and Kulik
  • Special because they are highly emotional, long-lasting, does not mean they are accurate
31
Q

What are the properties of flashbulb memories?

A
  • No more accurate than other memories, peoples memories for how they heard about flashbulb events change over time
  • Only occur with personally emotional events
  • People are much more confident in the accuracy of their flashbulb memories than other memories
  • When you retrieve these, retrieve some emotions as well
32
Q

Memory is constructive

A
  • 47% thought memories don’t change

- Each time we recall a memory, we are essentially reconstructing it

33
Q

Bartlett’s “War of Ghosts” experiment

A

How people remember things as a function of familiarity or schemas

  • Method of repeated reproduction: got them to recall the War of Ghosts story
  • We begin rationalizing the story. As people recalled it, certain important details were being left out and changed to ones that corresponded to culture of participant
34
Q

What is source monitoring?

A

Determining the origins of memory.

Source monitoring error= when you get sources confused or mixed up

35
Q

What are some examples of source monitoring errors?

A

1) Cryptoamnesia: unconscious plagiarism, forget source and remember it as your own
2) Role of Familiarity: having seen something before, it sticks into your memory, may make error
3) Gender Roles: if it is more of a woman’s task, might mistakenly remember act being done by a woman even if it were done by a man

36
Q

What is Misinformation Effect

A

Presenting information contrary to what really happened after an experience can change memory
-Misleading post event information

37
Q

Example of the misinformation effect

A

Witnessed car accident

  • Then were asked to estimate speed
  • If words “smashed into eachother” were used, predicted faster speed than if “bumped into eachother” was used
  • falsely report broken glass being present if “smashed” was used
38
Q

What happens with eye witness testimony?

A
  • Actually least reliable evidence, but is most used to convince jury
  • If weapon, attention goes to that
  • If look familiar, might make error and think they are criminal
  • Sometimes wording by police is suggestive “Which guy is the criminal” even though he may not be in line up at all
39
Q

What are the pros of constructive memory?

A

Helps us to perceive, understand language, solve problems and make decisions

40
Q

What are the cons of constructive memory?

A

False memories

41
Q

What are the 2 selves that Daniel Kahneman said existed?

A

1) Remembering Self

2) Experiencing Self

42
Q

Below income of $60,000 per year, people are unhappy. Above that it makes no difference how much you make, you are same level of happy.

A

TRUE

43
Q

What is the difference between coding and encoding

A

Coding- refers to the form in which information is represented
Encoding- refer to the process used to get information into LTM

44
Q

What is retrieval?

A

Transferring info from the LTM to working memory so you can remember it again

45
Q

What is the difference between shallow and deep processing?

A

Shallow- involves little attention to meaning (occurs during maintenance rehearsal)
Deep- involves close attention to meaning and relating it to something else (occurs during elaborative rehearsal)

46
Q

Is memory for a word better when it is in a complex sentence or a simple sentence?

A

Complex sentence

47
Q

4 things that help us remember better

A

1) Paired-associate learning: create images in head that help you remember
2) Self-reference effect: memory is better if you are asked to relate a word to yourself
3) Generation Effect- generating material yourself, rather than passively receiving it, enhances learning and retention
4) Organizing info, categories serve as a retrieval cue
5) Testing effect: being tested on material helps you remember

48
Q

Most of our failures of _____ are failures of _____

A

memories; retrieval

49
Q

What are retrieval cues?

A

words or other stimuli that help us remember information stored in our memory

50
Q

What are the two types of recall?

A

Free recall: a participant is simply asked to recall a stimuli
Cued recall: participant is presented with retrieval cues to aid in recall of experienced stimuli

51
Q

Three situations that make retrieval easier

A

1) Encoding specificity- match context in which you encoding and retrieval occur
2) State-dependent learning- matching the internal mood present during encoding and retrieval
3) Transfer-appropriate processing- matching task involved in encoding and retrieval

52
Q

Matching the encoding and retrieval tasks results in better retrieval than deeper processing

A

TRUE

53
Q

What is the spacing effect?

A

Idea that taking breaks and studying in a number of short sessions is better

54
Q

Hippocampus is part of the _____

A

medial temporal lobe

-crucial for forming LTM

55
Q

Anterograde amnesia

A

inability to form new memories

56
Q

Retrograde amnesia

A

inability to remember events that occurred prior to the injury

57
Q

Remote memories

A

Occurred a long time ago

58
Q

Graded amnesia

A

memory for recent events is more fragile than memory for remote events

59
Q

What is the major mechanism of consolidation?

A

Reactivation- process during which the hippocampus replays the neural activity associated with a memory
-occurs during sleep

60
Q

Are memories ever permanent?

A

Memory is initially fragile, so a disrupting event that occurs shortly after a memory is formed can disrupt formation
-Once consolidation occurs, then the same disrupting event cannot affect the memory

61
Q

“Mental time travel” is what type of memory?

A

Episodic

62
Q

What is the cognitive hypothesis?

A

Proposes that periods of rapid change that are followed by stability cause stronger encoding of memories

63
Q

Cultural life script and cultural life script hypothesis

A

Cultural life script is culturally expected events that occur at a particular time in the life span.
Events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture

64
Q

Are emotionally charged events easier to remember?

A

Yes

65
Q

Amygdala

A

Amygdala activity is higher for emotional words

66
Q

What is repeated recall?

A

Technique of comparing later memories to memories collected immediately after the event

67
Q

Narrative rehearsal hypothesis

A

We may remember special events like 9/11 because we rehearse these events after they occur. See TV reports about it, etc.

68
Q

What is pragmatic inference?

A

Occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the sentence –> based on knowledge gained through experience

69
Q

What is a script?

A

Our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occur during a particular experience
Ex) at doctors office you first check in, then sit and wait, then get weighed, then meet with doctor
-May cause us to add info when remembering a story, because it fits the script

70
Q

What is retroactive interference?

A

occurs when more recent learning interferes with memory for something that happened in the past

71
Q

What is the post-identification feedback effect?

A

increase in confidence due to confirming feedback after making an identification

72
Q

Reverse Testing Effect

A

taking a recall test right after seeing the program increased the participants’ sensitivity to the misinformation effect