Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

An active system that receives information from the senses, organizes and alters it as it stores it away, and then retrieves the information from storage.

Question 2

Encoding

Answer 2

The set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in the brain’s storage system.

Question 3

Storage

Answer 3

Holding onto information for some period of time

Question 4

Retrieval

Answer 4

Getting information that is in storage into a form that can be used.

Question 5

Information processing model

Answer 5

Model of memory that assumes the processing of information for memory storage is similar to the way a computer processes memory in a series of three stages.

Question 6

Sensory memory

Answer 6

The point at which information enters the nervous system through the sensory system.
Information from the senses is held very briefly, for a second or less.
Information is encoded as neural messages, and last as long as the message is traveling through the system.
Perception occurs if the information is attended to, analyzed, and encoded as a meaningful pattern.

Question 7

Short-term memory

Answer 7

The memory system in which information is held for brief periods of time while being used.
Stores limited amounts of information for about 18 seconds.

Question 8

Working memory

Answer 8

The system that allows the manipulation and consideration of the information being held in STM.
Maintenance: holding information in STM
Manipulation: working on that information.

Question 9

Storage Capacity of STM

Answer 9

Seven plus or minus two items.
This amount refers to the meaningful groupings of information, or chunks.
Learning to group items into bigger chunks of information can noticeably improve STM.

Question 10

Duration of STM

Answer 10

About eighteen seconds.

Information will persist as long as you keep mentally repeating the information.

Question 11

Long-term memory

Answer 11

The system of memory into which all the information in placed to be kept more or less permanently.
Storage capacity of LTM
Unknown, may be unlimited.

Question 12

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 12

The transferring of information from STM to LTM by making the information meaningful in some way.

Question 13

Procedural memory

Answer 13

Memory for skills, procedures, habits, and conditioned responses.
Type of long term memory

Question 14

Declarative memory

Answer 14

The things that people know; facts and information that make up knowledge.

Question 15

Semantic memory

Answer 15

general knowledge, such as knowledge of language and information learned in formal education.
Memory of generalized knowledge of the world, not necessarily tied to memory of a specific event.

Question 16

Episodic memory

Answer 16

memories of specific events.

Personal information, such as daily activities and events.

Question 17

Encoding specificity

Answer 17

The tendency for memory of information to be improved, if related information available when the memory is first formed, is also available when the memory is being retrieved.
Example: Surroundings or physiological state.

Question 18

State-dependent Learning

Answer 18

Memories formed during a particular physiological or psychological state will be easier to recall while in a similar state.

Question 19

Recall

Answer 19

The type of memory retrieval in which the information to be retrieved must be “pulled” from memory with very few external cues.

Question 20

Recognition

Answer 20

The ability to match a piece of information or a stimulus to a stored image or fact.

Question 21

Curve of forgetting

Answer 21

Illustrates that forgetting happens quickly within the first hour after learning and tapers off gradually.

Question 22

Encoding failure

Answer 22

The failure to process information into memory.

Question 23

Decay

Answer 23

Loss of memory due to the passage of time, during which the memory trace is not used.

Question 24

Interference theory

Answer 24

One piece of information impairs either the encoding or retrieval of another piece of information.

Question 25

Proactive interference

Answer 25

Occurs when older information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of newer information.
Example: car shifts, bank account numbers, phone numbers.

Question 26

Retroactive interference

Answer 26

Occurs when newer information prevents or interferes with the retrieval of older information.
Example: car shifts, driving in other countries and returning home.

Question 27

Amnesia

Answer 27

Severe loss of memory caused by problems in the functioning in the memory areas of the brain.

Question 28

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 28

Loss of memory from the point of some injury or trauma backwards, or loss of memory for the past.
Memories lost in retrograde amnesia are often gradually recovered.
The oldest memories are recovered first, followed by memories closer to the injury.
The events of the last seconds before an injury are probably encoded into STM.

Question 29

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 29

Loss of memories from the point of injury or illness forward.
Patients cannot form new episodic memories, but they can develop and use implicit procedural memories.
Example: Such a person would be able to get better at playing tennis after practicing on a daily basis, despite never being able to recall if he/she had played the game before.