Memory

Question 1

Define encoding

Answer 1

Getting information into your brain

Question 2

Define:
A) Semantic encoding
B) Visual encoding
C) Acoustic encoding

Answer 2

A) Most successful, relating info to knowledge that is already in memory.
Looks at meaning of stimuli (e.g. letters in order of word), as info is easier to remember when it’s meaningful
B) Encoding info as images.
Relates to visual incorporated with word, high imagery words encoded semantically and visually
C) Encoding sounds the words make.

Question 3

Define:
A) Automatic processing
B) Effortful processing

Answer 3

A) Happens subconsciously (time, place, semantics)
B) Conscious efforts to process (studying for an exam)

Question 4

What is sensory memory?

Answer 4

The senses (sights, sounds, tastes, textures). Holds memory for 0.5-sec. Moves to semantic encoding if important

Question 5

What is short-term memory?

Answer 5

Temporary storage. Takes info from sensory and connects to long term. Holds memory for up to 20 seconds. Will remain in short term as long as its rehearsed (20 second resets).
Can hold 5-9 pieces of information.

Question 6

What is long-term memory?

Answer 6

Infinite, continuous storage

Question 7

What is consolidation?

Answer 7

When a memory moves from short term to long term

Question 8

Define:
A) Explicit (declarative) memories
B) Implicit (non-declarative, automatic) memories

Answer 8

A) Actively recall these memories, episodic (event) and semantic (info) memories
B) More automatic, procedural (brushing teeth) and emotional conditioning (emotional reactions)

Question 9

Define:
A) Retrieval
B) Recall
C) Recognition
D) Relearning

Answer 9

A) Bringing information from long-term memory to short-term
B) Retrieving info without retrieval cues
C) Identify info you have previously learned (environment, inner states: would recall better if in same state during encoding)
Retrieval cue: external info associated with stored info
D) Relearning info previously learned

Question 10

A) What was Karl Lashley’s experiment?
B) What was the Equipotentiality Hypothesis?

Answer 10

A) Put rats into a maze until they learnt it then damage lesions in rat’s brains. After brain damage, rats still remembered how to go through maze.
B) If the part of the brain involved with memory is damaged, another part will take over the memory function.

Question 11

A) What is the amygdala in charge of?
B) What does the lateral amygdala do?

Answer 11

A) Emotional regulation; pairing emotion with memory; classical conditioning; involved in consolidation for emotionally arousing events
B) Especially important in emotion regulation, and pairing emotion with memory

Question 12

What does the hippocampus do?

Answer 12

Responsible for episodic memories; recognition; consolidation; declarative/episodic memories

Question 13

What does the cerebellum do?

Answer 13

Non-declarative; procedural memories; motor learning; classical conditioning

Question 14

What 3 parts of the prefrontal cortex contribute to memory and how?

Answer 14

1) Left hemisphere: semantic memory
2) Right hemisphere: retrieving information
3) Inferior frontal gyrus: semantic learning

Question 15

A) What is arousal theory?
B) Three facts

Answer 15

A) Strong emotions create strong memories
B) Times of stress evoke glutamate neurotransmitter
Highly visceral stimuli cause more glutamate to be released
Flashbulb memory: very clear recollection of an important event

Question 16

A) What is amnesia?
b) How can it be caused?

Answer 16

A) Loss of long-term memory, affects declarative memory (episodic and semantic)
B) physical or psychological trauma or disease

Question 17

What is Anterograde Amnesia?

Answer 17

Inability to make new memories. Still have old memories, problem with consolidation.

Question 18

What is Retrograde Amnesia?

Answer 18

Lost memories of the past, but can make new memories. Loss of memories prior to trauma, partial/full loss of memories. Can make new memories.

Question 19

Define:
A) Construction
B) Reconstruction

Answer 19

A) Making new memory
B) Bringing up old memories

Question 20

What are the 7 sins of memory?

Answer 20

Transience, absentmindedness, blocking, misattribution, suggestibility, bias, persistence

Question 21

What are the 3 classes of the 7 sins of memory and which sins do they include?

Answer 21

1) Forgetting: transience, absentmindedness, blocking
2) Distortion: misattribution, suggestibility, bias
3) Intrusion: persistence

Question 22

A) What is transience?
B) 4 facts about transience?

Answer 22

A) Forgetting that occurs within the passage of time
B) Rapid forgetting happens in the sensory and short-term memory stage.
Transience also happens for long-term memory
Learned material that is not attended to over time is subject to transience
When cramming for a test, most information is quickly forgotten

Question 23

In reference to transience, what are the two type of ways other memories can interfere with new memories? And examples?

Answer 23

1) Retroactive Interference: new information inhibits our ability to remember old information (e.g. hearing song lyrics one way then finding out what they actually are and hearing them that way)
2) Proactive Interference: old information inhibits the ability to remember new information (e.g. trying to remember password, but you can only remember old passwords)

Question 24

A) What is absentmindedness?
B) What are 3 facts about it?

Answer 24

A) Split attention: a lapse in attention that results in a memory failure (e.g. leaving purse in taxi)
B) Incorporates encoding failures (e.g. studying and you are listening to your friend’s speak but you are not absorbing information)
Semantic tasks show lower activity in the LEFT lower frontal lobe
Episodic memories show lower activity in the hippocampus

Question 25

A) What is blocking?
B) 4 facts about blocking?

Answer 25

A) Failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it
B) “Tip-of-tongue” phenomenon
The information has been encoded and stored- failure of retrieval
Can be frustrating
Blocking most often occurs for names, or information that is not strongly association with related concepts

Question 26

A) What is misattribution?
B) 1 facts about misattribution?

Answer 26

A) Assigning a recollection or idea to the wrong source
B) Most common mistake in eyewitness identifications for crimes

Question 27

A) What is suggestibility?
B) 2 facts?

Answer 27

A) The tendency to incorporate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections
B) Suggestibility can often affect misattribution
In 1992, a cargo plane crashed into a building, and ten months later there was a survey asking people if they saw the video footage. 55% said yes but there was no footage of the accident.

Question 28

What is bias?

Answer 28

The distorting influence of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences

Question 29

What are the three types of bias?

Answer 29

1) Stereotype bias: racial and gender biases that affect recall in stereotype-consistent ways
2) Egocentric bias: recalling information that makes yourself look better
3) Hindsight bias: thinking that an outcome was inevitable after the outcome occurred

Question 30

What is persistence?

Answer 30

Intrusive recollection of events you want to forget. Common in PTSD, Amygdala plays a role