Memory 1 Flashcards
Clive Wearing said he was “dead until 5 minutes ago”- Why?
He couldn’t access a lot of his memory .
_____ ______ could recognise wife, remember his school and special music events but nothing else.
Clive Wearing.
Clive Wearing could still conduct an orchestra, what does this mean?
Means that he still had Procedural Memory/Skill memory eg. walking.
The ____ man had no memory of who he was or communicate but could play the piano very well.
Piano.
Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon increases with ______.
Age.
There are many different types of _______.
Memory.
What is the memory of who you are called?
Autobiographical Memory.
The memory of what a person knows is known as ______ memory.
Semantic.
What is memory about events called?
Episodic Memory.
The memory of skills is known as ______ memory.
Procedural.
What is prospective memory?
Our future intentions.
What is the Crovitz Technique?
Reporting memories elicited by a word probe. eg. “Think of memory elicited by a word probe”.
Studying memory was first proposed by ___________ in 1879.
Galton.
At what ages do we commonly remember events from?
At age 5/6 and ages in 20’s.
We often remember events from when we were 5/6 and when we were 20, what are these referred to as?
Reminiscence Bumps.
What are some problems with studying memory- using Crovitz Technique?
- Are the memory reports valid?
- Are they partial memories that have been reconstructed?
- Are these only rehearsed memories?
- Have these memories been self-censored?
Memories are often _______.
Constructed.
Name the 4 common ways to assess memory in experiments.
Free Recall (I saw…)
Cued Recall (recall with help of semantic recall)
Yes/No recognition (did you see tractor? …yes/no)
2-AFC (did you see tractor or submarine)
In a memory experiment we eliminate bias by having distractors and targets, what does this cause?
This causes hits and false alarms (person says they remember it when it never appeared.)
Describe the “saving effect” in terms of memory.
Previously remembered (or saved) items are easier to re-learn than brand new items.
In memory we have ______ superiority.
Picture.
What is meant by Picture Superiority?
We remember pictures better then words.
Why do we remember pictures better than words?
Because the stimuli tends to be more meaningful.
Emotional memories are often better ______ and more ______.
Remembered, Vivid.
What is the Polyanna Principle?
The tendency for people to remember pleasant items more than unpleasant ones.
High frequency words are better for ______ but low frequency words are better for _________.
Recall, Recognition.
What is this effect?
“Better memory by attending to the survival value of the information”. (eg. how to survive a zombie apocalypse).
The survival effect
What is a flashbulb memory?
A memory so vivid that we feel as though we are reliving it :)
Who did Ebbinghaus use as his sole subject?
Himself!
Ebbinghaus taught himself _____ nonsense syllables and examined recall at various _________.
CVC, Delays.
Ebbinghaus’ _____ method gave rise to what curve?
Savings
The forgetting curve.
The longer the delay, the _____ it is to retain the words.
Harder.
A pro of Ebbinghaus’ savings methid was that there were many stimulus items, all f which were _____, _____ and non-_________.
Simple, Similar, non-associative.
Another pro of Ebbinhaus’ experiment was that he used a ______ learning procedure and a ______ method for collecting results.
Standardised, Standardised.
What was another pro of Ebbinghaus’ savings method?
He performed the test at the same time of day in the same room.
Name the 2 cons of Ebbinghaus’ savings method.
- Artificial eg. in real life don’t memorise nonsense CVCs
- Only used himself as subject- he was very intelligent, so not really accurate.
What was Ebbinghaus’ finding regarding saving information?
Once info initially learned, it takes only a fraction of the time to re-learn it :)
What guy was highly critical of Ebbinghaus?
Bartlett.
What did Bartlett argue?
That “Effort after Meaning” was central to learning, so Ebbinghaus’ stimuli gave little insight into everyday memory.
Bartlett emphasised the effect of ______ ________.
Prior Knowledge.
Bartlett did an experiment to make people learn material that induced a conflict between the _____ and stored _____.
Stimulus, Knowledge.
Bartlett made Brits read a North American Indian folk tale then ____ the story over a number of occasions.
Recall.
Bartlett found that the participants over time recalls became _____ and more ______.
Shorter, Coherent.
Upon recall (Bartlett) what did participants omit?
Participants omit details and puzzling features.
In Bartlett’s experiment, participants changed material to make sense of unusual parts of the story, what can this be known as?
Rationalisation.
In Bartlett’s experiment, participants changed some details to more ______ terms. Give an example.
Familiar.
They changed canoe to boat :)
In Bartlett’s experiment why did participants change canoe to boat?
To make sense of the story within their own schema (memories).
What are memories organised via?
Schemas
Memory is organised via ______- a term borrowed from ______ Sir Henry _____.
Schemas, Neurologist, Head.
New experiences are fitted into what?
Existing schemas.
New experiences that fit with ____ ______ in an existing schema are better remembered than information that ______ prior knowledge.
Prior Knowledge, Conflicts.
A key point from Bartlett is that:
Learning and remembering are ______ Processes.
Active.
Bartlett believed in “______ after _______”.
Effort, Meaning.
What did Bartlett believe regarding past experiences?
Past experiences affect what’s learned and remembered.
What is another key point from Bartlett about memory?
That memory recall is reconstructive.
What is “Engram”?
A neural trace of a memory.
Lashley trained ____ in a maze to study engrams.
Rats
Lahsley:
-trained rats in maze and different parts of brain were ablated
-then compared this to the performance of control rats with no training
Did the control rats perform better than the trained rats with part of their brain wiped out?
No, the trained rats performed better than the control rats no matter what part of brain was removed.
In the rats, it seemed to be the amount of ______ removed that affected memory rather than ________.
Tissue, Location.
Some types of memory show localisation but evidence points to _____ storage of other types.
Distributed.
Different parts of the brain can be responsible for different __________.
Memories.
What is the limbic system involved in?
Emotions.
Name the 3 Types (components) of memory.
- Sensory Memory
- Short-term Memory/Working Memory
- Long-term memory.
What are the 3 main processes in memory?
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval.
Sperling tested _____ memory by flashing up letters on a screen.
Sensory.
In Sperling 1960, after the 12 letters appeared for 50 m/sec, how many could participants remember?
3 to 5 letters.
It was concluded in Sperling 1960 that people _____ all 12 letters but they just _____ most very quickly.
Encode, forget.
Sigmund Exner came up with the concept of what memory?
Primary Exner.
James (1890) further elaborates on the distinction between _____ and _______ memory.
Primary, Secondary.
Name the type of memory described by James here:
“An object which is recollected is one which has been absent from consciousness altogether and now arrives anew”.
Long Term.
James;
“______ memory is not brought back; it was never lost, it comes to us as belonging to the reward portion of the present space of time and not to the genuine past”
Primary.
What did Miller’s Magic Number have to do with?
(short-term) Memory Capacity.
In order to help us remember a long list of letters what do we often do?
We chunk the letters :)
What is Miller’s Magic Number?
7 +/- 2
Atkinson and Shiffrin came up with the _____ model.
Modal.
Name the 3 stages that the Modal model is comprised.
1 Sensory Registers
2 Short-term store
3 Long-term store
The sensory registers respond to an _______ ________.
External Input.
After the sensory registers stage, what is the next stage in the modal model?
Short-term Store.
Give some more information about the short-term store.
- Limited Capacity
- Short Duration.
After Short-term store, there is _______ store.
Long term store.
Memories in long-term storage are _______ and they have an ______ capacity store.
Permanent, Unlimited.
If short-term memory is rehearsed for long enough, what can it turn into?
Long-term memory.
Information in STM disappears after about ____ seconds unless you _____ it.
20, Rehearse.
We have auditory and verbal info in the _____ eg. you can see/read the words in your head.
STM
Describe the Serial Position Effect. (Summarise)
We tend to remember the things at the start and end of a list.
What is the primary effect?
We remember the first few items well as its stored in LTM as we have had a longer time to rehearse it.
The last few items in a list are remembered well, this is the _____ effect within the Serial Position Effect . These items are still stored in the ______ store.
Recency
STM
Recency effect is abolished by ___________ at end of list.
Distraction.
Rundus (1971) concluded that best remembered items were those that were ______ most often.
Rehearsed.
Rehearsal could be the reason for Serial Position Effect, but what is another possible explanation?
That items are distinct because they are at the beginning and the end.
Pxs with impaired _____ show greatly reduced or absent ________ effect.
STM, Recency.
Shallice and Warrington (1970) provided _______ evidence against the ____ model. How?
Neurophysiological, Modal.
-Pxs had severely impaired STM but still had normal LTM, therefore STM can’t be the “gateway” to LTM.
The modal model suggests that STM is the _____ to LTM.
Gateway.
Braddeley and Hitch came up with the idea of ______ memory, where memories could be actively used for tasks.
Working.
What memory is often compared to as a work bench?
Working Memory.
What is the concept behind working memory?
That we can take stuff from long term memory and use it/ do stuff with it.
What controls the whole process of working memory (control the 2 slave systems)?
Central Executive.
Name the 2 slave systems.
Phonological Loop and Visuo-spatial sketchpad.
What does the phonological loop do?
It acts like a piece of audio tape and holds about 2 seconds of auditory info.
What does the Visuo-spatial sketchpad hold?
It holds visual and spatial information.
The phonological loop is the ____ you hear inside your _____.
Voice, head.
What does the episodic buffer do?
It integrates info in the 2 slave systems with the LTM.
Digit Span is phonological.
- Would a phonological test interfere with digit span?
- Would a visuo-spatial task interfere with digit span?
Yes.
No.
Miller’s magic Number experiment was on _____ ______.
Digit Span.
“Frontal tasks” interfere overall with the ______ _______.
Central Executive.
The 2 slave systems are _____.
Separate.
What part of working memory is used for reading?
Phonological Part.
Name this:
The process of inhibiting memory performance by speaking while being presented with an item to remember.
Articulatory Suppression.
What is Secondary Memory more properly called?
Long Term memory.
Long Term Memory is often compared to a vast _____ of information.
Library.
Tip of the Tongue state is to do with what type of memory?
Long-term Memory.
More _____ reversal gives better learning therefore is more likely to be stored in ______.
Meaningful, LTM.
What does maintenance rehearsal do?
It keeps info in the STM.
What rehearsal transfers information to the LTM.
Elaborative (More Meaning)
We use ______ to try and learn information and convert it into long term memory.
Strategies.
What did Paivio suggest the best way to learn information was?
Dual Coding in the LTM eg. write it down (Visual) and rehearse it aloud (verbal/auditory).
What is using visualizations to enhance memories called?
Method of Loci (memory palace)
What can we do with a list of words in order to make them easier to remember?
Make them into a story.
Encoding is best if done ______.
Semantically.
Where do we encode memories into?
Into existing schemas.
In memory, there are levels of _______.
Processing.
Meaningful material can also be referred to as what?
Deeply Processed material.
Meaningful/ deeply processed material is ______ remembered.
Better.
What does deeper processing give you that makes it brilliant for recall?
Deeper processing gives you more retrieval cues.
Repetition is useful for recognition tests and for ______ in saying jargon as you are used to saying it.
Fluency.
Repetition can also lead to semantic satiation. What does this mean?
When you say something over and over again that it loses its meaning.
Storage is an ______ _______ like a spider web.
Associative Network.
The associative network means that when one word is said, the _______ can be ______, this is known as _____ ________.
Activation, Spread, Semantic Priming.
A ___________ network has the same spider web configuration except concepts are represented not by a single node but by the pattern of activation over several nodes.
Neural.
What does retrieval rely on?
Retrieval cues.
What are retrieval cues?
Items which are related to the memory.
The more ____, the better chance the memory will be retrieved.
Cues.
____________ memories are better remembered than others. Why?
Distinctive.
Less interference/ confusion between them.
How can we forget?
Problems with each of the 3 processes- Encoding, storage and retrieval.
When does encoding failure happen?
When we experience vast amounts of information, we cant process all of it.
Experiencing stimuli doesn’t mean we necessarily _____ it, for example what way does the queen face on a coin?
Encode.
Changes in _____ structure have been shown to occur with the formation of memories.
Brain.
Does memory decay? give an example.
No, actors can perfectly retain their lines from years ago.
When we first say a phrase we can remember, more may come to us the second time around that we say it, what is this called?
Reminiscence.
What is proactive interference?
Previously learned material interferes with things you are trying to learn now, eg. old phone no. affecting ability to learn new one.
What is the opposite to proactive interference?
Retroactive.
New information can disrupt the formation of a LTM or in the case of already formed memories, it can cause mistakes and competition amongst retrieval cues. Name this interference.
Retroactive interference.
What is persistence?
When unwanted memories come to mind eg. PTSD.
Persistence is often caused by an _____ or ______ event, associated with amygdala activation.
Emotional, Traumatic.
Once memories are activated, they need to be ______ before storage back in memory.
Consolidated.
Once a memory is active, our current experience can _____ the memory, before it is ___________.
Alter, Reconsolidated.
Effectively you can take a memory out of _____ and ____ it before putting it back, what could this be a cure for?
Storage, alter, PTSD.
Memory is _________.
Reconstructive.
Loftus and Palmer did the eyewitness testimony experiment, measuring the ___________ effect on memory.
Misinformation.
In Loftus and Palmer- the word choice they used affected the participants recall of what _____ the car was gong at.
Speed.
Loftus and Palmer showed that memory is ________ using the eyewitness testimony (car crash).
Reconstructive.
Source Information is another type of _________________.
Misinformation.
An Eyewitness to a crime may confuse a bystander that they saw at the scene as the criminal as they recognise their face, what is this called?
Source Information. -showing reconstructive nature of memory.
People may think an infamous person is famous just from recognising the name on a previously read list, this is called _____ _____.
False Fame.
What happens to memories that are often too traumatic to be remembered?
They are repressed.
Schater 1966 found that despite thousands of _____ memories being remembered, not one investigation has found them to be true.
Repressed.
How can false memories accidentally be implanted?
- Via Therapeutic Techniques
- Style of police interrogation questions.
