Long Term Memory?

Question 1

What is encoding?

Answer 1

Learning

Question 2

What component of memory is responsible for consciousness?

Answer 2

WORKING MEMORY

Question 3

What is consolidation?

Answer 3

The process whereby the neural trace of a memory is built until it reaches a stable state

Question 4

What are factors for consolidation

Answer 4

Exposure
Intention
depth of processing
Structure of information

Question 5

What is exposure and is it sufficient enough to ensure encoding?

Answer 5

Number of contacts with the object

No, We often cannot remember thing we have been exposed to frequently such as the details of a coin.

Question 6

Outline Murdock a research into exposure

Answer 6

Tested rate of of presentation and of the number items in a list

Methods:

• list of words
• list varies in length (10,20,30,40 items)
• The presentation rate varied from 1s to 2s per item

-free recall

Findings:
Primacy and recency effect occurred but words in middle not accurate

Question 7

Outline what research into intention and learning have displayed?

Answer 7

Only a very small effect of intention on learning but differences depending on level of processing

Question 8

What does skill acquisition follow?

Answer 8

Power law of practice (or learning curve)

Question 9

What is the equation for power law of practice?

Answer 9

RT = B.n(-r) + a

• a is the asymptotic RT, basically the maximum performance
• b is the ‘training gain’ : the difference between performance prior to training and after training
• r is the learning rate, how quickly the learning takes place
• n is the number of trials

Question 10

What does memory highly depend on for it to be encoded into LTM?

Answer 10

Depth of processing (HOW DEEP IT IS PROCESSED)

Question 11

What distinctions did Craik and Lockhart find with levels of processing?

Answer 11

Shallow processing (superficial) vs Deep processing (activates related knowledge)

Question 12

What is a important factor about skill acquisition?

Answer 12

You need more and more training to keep learning at the same rate

RT as the indicator of performance

Question 13

What type of learning does the lawn of practice account for well?

Answer 13

Perceptual and motor learning.

Question 14

What two types of interference do we have?

Answer 14

Retroactive interference: When a new memory interferes with old information

Proactive interference: When an old memory interferes with new information

Question 15

What other type of interference can occur?

Answer 15

Interference due to the format of the information: Acoustic confusion

-interference due to the semantic content of the information: closely-related concepts

Question 16

Describe experiments that determine whether acoustic and semantic interferences impair recognition of recently learned items

Answer 16

Participants were exposed to lists of eight words

Three conditions:

• No distractors
• phonetic distractors
• semantic distractors
• Interpolated task designed to control for rehearsal
• delays varied from 0 to 100s between study and test
• both phonetic distractors and semantic distractors generates interferences
• phonetic distractors more efficient in these short periods.

Question 17

Summarise the factors to encode/learn

Answer 17

Exposure is not enough

Intention is not enough

Processing is required

Structuring information facilitates learning

Do not get distracted

Motivation matters

Question 18

What is retrieval?

Answer 18

The process whereby information in working memory accesses LTM

(Commonly conceived of as transfer of information from one entity (a database of knowledge) to another (a psychological space)

-Neural evidence indicates that it is more about the activation of knowledge above a given threshold

Question 19

What is recognition?

Answer 19

Means two know again. Much of perceptual performance depends upon recognition; the ability to match perceptual input with knowledge (mostly unconscious)

Working memory
-request of information (conscious process)

Question 20

Describe a recognition experiment

Answer 20

Identification of a present item as known or unknown

• list of items is presented, participants are asked to memorise the list
• the presentation of old and new test items. participants have to decide whether the item is old or new
• measurement of the RT and correctness for each decision.

Question 21

What is better recognition tasks or recall tasks?

Answer 21

Performance is better in recognition tasks.

Question 22

After long retention intervals are recognition tasks still well performed on?

Answer 22

Yes

Question 23

What problem occurs in recognition tasks?

Answer 23

Distractors,

new stimuli are often considered as known stimuli if they are similar to the old stimuli

Events following the critical event can falsify recognition

Recognition performance is high but can easily be deceived

Question 24

What does retrieval of information from memory depend on?

Answer 24

Cues

Question 25

What is the encoding specificity principle developed by tilting and Thomson?

Answer 25

-Cues present at the time of encoding/learning that are also present during the time of retrieval make forgetting less likely.

Question 26

Tow forms of cues?

Answer 26

Context/environment Sate/ internal

Question 27

Why does our brain reconstruct events?

Answer 27

During recall when there are gaps of information stored knowledge will fill in the gaps from schemas.

Question 28

What is the problem with retrieval and reconstruction?

Answer 28

-difficulty distinguishing between wether information was retrieved or reconstructed.

Question 29

Describe the procedure of McDermott’s recognition experiment?

Answer 29

- presented word list to participants Which included words involved with sleep (without the word sleep) - Recognition test with old words given to them with a new word sleep - recognition test given two days later

Question 30

Describe the results of McDermott’s recognition test ?

Answer 30

Participants said sleep was on the list. -activation of the concepts during encoding make it impossible to differentiate it for other concepts activated by the external stimulation

Question 31

What other study supports the idea of reconstruction?

Answer 31

Loftus and palmers study on whether verbs in a question can influence answers provided and wether reconstruction occurs.

Question 32

Describe loftus and palmers study

Answer 32

A question was provided to participants (did you see broken glass) which is a leading question -The experimenters describe the car crash in the video with a different verbs. They found that different percentages of participants who received different verbs reported wether there was broken glass Conclusion: Misleading information leads to false memories, but participant are confident in their ‘memories’ Same thing was done with speed

Question 33

What is forgetting?

Answer 33

Refers to Loss of information or impossibility to access information

Question 34

What is thorndikes law of disuse?

Answer 34

Memories fade away or decay gradually if unused.

Question 35

What factors cause decay to occur according to throrndikes law of disuse?

Answer 35

Time plays a critical role. Ability to retrieve information decliners with time after original encoding Example: forgetting curve Possible explanation: Normal brain metabolic processes erode memory trace.

Question 36

What are limitations of the decay theory and law of disuse?

Answer 36

Time alone does not cause anything It is processes in time that make things occur

Question 37

What did Jenkins find about memory decay?

Answer 37

Time doesn’t influence forgetting Participants who slept during retention interval retained more information and could retrieve it compared to those who didn’t

Question 38

What is memory retrieval used for?

Answer 38

Structure the world It is how we make sense of what we see (perception) It is the basis of understanding

Question 39

What two mental processes depend upon knowledge?

Answer 39

Perception and understanding