Memory

Question 1

Memory

Answer 1

The ability to store and retrieve information over time

Question 2

Sematic Encoding

Answer 2

The process of relating new information in a meaningful way to knowledge that is already stored in memory

Question 3

Visual Memory Encoding

Answer 3

The process of storing new information by converting it into mental pictures

Question 4

Organizational Encoding

Answer 4

The process of categorizing information according to the relationships amounf a series of items

Question 5

Mnemonics

Answer 5

Encoding strategies that improve subsequent recall

Question 6

Sensory Memory

Answer 6

Type of memory that holds sensory information for a few seconds or less
* Iconic Store (lasts ~1 second)
* Echoic Store (lasts 5-10 seconds)

Question 7

Iconic vs Echoic Memory

Answer 7

Iconic - A fast decaying store of visual information

Echoic - A fast decaying store of auditory information

Question 8

Short-term (working) Memory

Answer 8

A type of storage that holds nonsensory information for more than a few seconds, but less than a minute (10-15 seconds)

Question 9

Rehersal

Memory

Answer 9

The processs of keeping information in short term memory by mentallly repeating it

Maintenance Rehearsal
* Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory

Elaborative Rehearsal
* Linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retention of information in short term memory

Question 10

Serial Position Effect

Psychology

Answer 10

The observation that the first few and last few items in a series are more likely to be recalled than the items in the middle

Question 11

Chunking

Memory

Answer 11

Conbining small peices of information into larger clusters or chunks that are more easily helf in short-term memory

Ie. “1243987098” vs “124-398-7098”

Question 12

Working memory

Answer 12

Active maintenace of information in short-term storage

Includes:
* Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad - visual images

• Phonological Loop - Verbal information

The eposiodic buffer integrates both visual and verbal imformation into a multidimensional code.
* Central executive coordinates all these functions

Question 13

Long-term Memory

Answer 13

A type of storage that holds information for hours, days, weeks, or years
* Has large capacity (unlike STM)
* Lasts hours to years

Permastore - a type of long term memory that appears to be permanent
* Can last at almost the same level indefinitely

Question 14

Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 14

The inability to transfer new information from the short-term store into the long-term store

Question 15

Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 15

The inability to retreive information that was acquired before a particular date, usually the sats of an injury or surgery

Question 16

Consolidation

Memory

Answer 16

The hypothtical process by whice memories become stable in the brain

Amygdala - Responsible for associating emotions to memory
* Damage to this makes it can’t remember the emotions associated with a memory

Hippocampus - Responsible for remembering the facts of a memory
* Damage to this makes it so you can remember the emotions but not the facts

Question 17

Reconsolidation

Answer 17

The process where memories can become vulnerable to disruption when they are recalled, thus requiring them to be consolidated again

Question 18

Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)

Answer 18

A process whereby repeated communication across the synapse between neurons strengthens the connection, making further communication easier.

“Cells that fire together wire together”

Question 19

Retrieval Cue

Memory

Answer 19

External information that is associated with stored information and helps bring it to mind

Question 20

Encoding specificity principle

Answer 20

A retreival cue can serve as an effetive reminder when it helps re-create the specific way in which information was initially encoded

Question 21

State-dependant retrieval

Answer 21

The process whereby information tends to be better recalled when the person is in the amde state suring encoding and retrival.

Question 22

Transfer-appropiate processing

Answer 22

Th idea that memory is likely to transfer from one situation to another when the encoding and retrieval contexts of the situations match

Question 23

Retrieval-induced forgetting

Answer 23

a process by whic retriving an item from long-term memory impairs subsequent recall of related items

Question 24

Explicit vs Implicit Memory

Answer 24

Explicit Memory - When people conciously or intentionally retrieve past experiences

Implicit Memory - When past experiences influence later behaivour aand performance, even without an effort to remember them or an awareness fo recollection

Question 25

Procedural Memory

Answer 25

The gradual acquisition o skills as a result of practive, or “knowing how” to do things
* A type of implicit memory

Question 26

Priming

Memory

Answer 26

The activation of one concept by another

An enhanced ability to thik of a stimulus, such as a word or object, as a result of a recent exposure to te stimulus during an earlier study task
* A type of implicit memory

Question 27

Sematic vs Episodic Memory

Answer 27

Both are Explicit Memory

Sematic Memory - A network of associated concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world

Episodic Memory - The collection of past personal experiences that occured at a particular time and place

Question 28

What are the 7 “sins” of memory?

Answer 28

1. Transience - Forgetting what occurs over the passage of time
2. Absentmindedness - A lapse inattention that results in memory failure
3. Blocking - A failure to retrieve information that is available in memory even though you are trying to produce it
4. Memory Misattribution - assigning a recollection or an idea to the wrong source
5. Suggestibility - The tendancy to incorperate misleading information from external sources into personal recollections
6. Bias - The distorting influences of present knowledge, beliefs, and feelings on recollection of previous experiences
7. Persistence - The intrusive recollection of eents. that we wish to forget

Question 29

Retroactive vs Proactive interference

Memory

Answer 29

Retroactive - situations in which later learning imparis memory for information acquired earlier

Proactive - Situations in which earlier learning impairs memory for information acquired later

Question 30

Prospective Memory

Answer 30

Remembering to do things in the future

Question 31

Egocentric Bias

Answer 31

The tendancy to exaggerate the change between present and past in order to make ourselves look good in retrospect

Question 32

Memory Illusion

Answer 32

False, but subjectively compelling memory

Memories are more recreating events in your head
It’s like rewriting a book, rather than checking one out

Question 33

Forgetting

Answer 33

Deterioration in learned behaviour following a retention interval

Question 34

Retention Interval

Answer 34

a period during which the learning or practice of a behaviour does not occur

Traditional “forgetting” is an artifact of learning

Question 35

Why is Short-Term Memory so Short?

Answer 35

Decay - loss of information from memory over time

Interference - Loss of information from memory because of competition from additional incoming information
* Retroactive Interference - Interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information
* Old information is competed by new information
* Proactive Interference - Interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information

Limited capacity
* Most people can only store 7 things at a time (give or take 2)
* “Magic number”
* Digit span task

Question 36

Primacy Effect vs Recency Effect

Answer 36

Primacy Effect - Tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
Traditionally thought to reflect LTM processes

Recency Effect - Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
Traditionally thought to reflect STM processes
Both of these effects are Serial Position effects

Question 37

Explain the theory

Memory: a network of Associations

Answer 37

Theory that memory can be represented as a network of associated concepts
* Concepts are represented by “nodes”
* Lines between concepts represent “associations”
* Shorter lines = stronger associations
* Often conceptualized as a neural network with each node being equivalent to a neuron

The problem here is that it is unfalsifiable
* No constraints
* Not empirically provable

Question 38

Engram

Answer 38

A hypothesized, physical trace of a memory within the brain

Karl Lashly tried to find this
* Trained rats on a maze, then lesioned their brains to find the place the memory is stored
* Cemented the idea that memories are not stored in a single place in the brain, rather its all over the place

The engram is considered non-existent

Question 39

Hebbian Learning

Answer 39

Donald Habb (1949)
* Neurons train as they are used more often (they become more robust and efficient)
* Long-Term Potentiation
* Neurons that fire together, wire together

Question 40

Patient HM

Answer 40

Cracked his skull in an accident and turned to a risky doctor for surgery
* Got part of his brain removed
* His seizures went away
* But his memory was shot
* He couldn’t form new memories
* But he could remember things for a short period of time
* “Unconscious” motor receptors were able to form memory still

Question 41

Flashbulb Memories

Answer 41

Details people think they remember down to the last detail
* Caused in association with strong negative memories (traumatic events)

Not necessarily as well remembered as you think
* Brain fills in gaps
* Led to the phase “phantom flashbulb memories”

Question 42

Cryptomnesia

Answer 42

Failure to recognize that our ideas originated with someone else
* May be a result of source monitoring confusion (a lack of clarity about the origin of a memory)

Question 43

Misinformation Effect

Answer 43

Creation of fictitious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place
* The car crash “smash” vs “bump” experiment

Question 44

Implanted Memories

Answer 44

This is actually something you can do
* Has real world consequences

Canadian psychiatrist makes a book with his patient, Michelle Smith, “Michelle Remembers”
* It was a book about supposed repressed memories of her traumatic childhood
* This book has been completely discredited
* This book was based on psychoanalytics, RED FLAG
* Two religiously like-minded individuals came to false conclusions about her past, and created false memories
* Kickstarted the “Satanic Panic”

Other cases have been documented
* Commonly therapists accidentally creating false memories in their patients

Question 45

Alzheimer’s Disease

Answer 45

Degenerative brain disease that results in dementia
* Language ability deteriorates along with other bodily processes
* Risk increases with age
* Strong genetic component
* Associated with many neurological abnormalities
* Deterioration of Acetylcholine neurons in the cortex
* Early lifestyle may play a large part in its progression

Question 46

Infantile Amnesia

Answer 46

Inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age
* Occurs for events before the age of 2-3 years olf

Might be due to…
* Underdeveloped hippocampus
* No sense of self

Question 47

Permastore

Answer 47

type of long term memory that appears to be permanent
* Can last at almost the same level indefinitely