Memory

Question 1

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Answer 1

Famous experiment using nonsense syllables (ex. QAS or CEG) to study memory; used himself as subject

Question 2

Method of savings

Answer 2

Ebbinghaus compared the number of times he had to read the list of nonsense syllables in order to REmemorize it (after distracting himself with memorizing other lists).
Able to rememorize faster than originally memorizing, concluded he’d remembered something

Question 3

Amount of savings

Answer 3

quantified savings by subtracting the number of trials it took to rememorize the list from the number of times it took to originally memorize the list, divided this number by the original number of trials and multiplied by 100 to find percent remembered (“amount of savings”)

Question 4

Forgetting curve

Answer 4

Ebbinghaus used method of savings over various time intervals; X-axis portrayed days between original learning and relearning and Y-axis portrayed percent savings
Decreases very quickly over first 5 days, then forgetting occurs at a much lesser rate

Question 5

Mental Processes of Memory

Answer 5

Encoding: putting information into memory
Storage: retaining information in memory
Retrieval: recovering the information in memory

Question 6

Methods of Retrieval

Answer 6

Recall: reproducing information you have previously been exposed to (ex. short-answer/fill-in-the-blank)
Recognition: realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you’ve seen/heard before (ex. multiple-choice)

Question 7

Generation-recognition Model

Answer 7

An attempt to explain why you can usually recognize more than you can recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental process involved in recognition, plus an additional process (generating information, in addition to then recognizing correct information)

Question 8

Order effects

Answer 8

Affect effectiveness of memory
Recency effect: words presented at the end of a list are remembered best
Primacy effect: words presented at the beginning of a list are remembered second-best
Clustering: tend to recall words belonging to same category (when asked to recall a list of words)

Question 9

Stage Theory of Memory (WILL LIKELY APPEAR ON EXAM)

Answer 9

Very influential theory in cog psych; holds that there are three different memory systems and that each system has a different function: sensory memory, STM (working memory), LTM

Question 10

Sensory memory

Answer 10

fleeting impressions of sensory stimuli; lasts a few seconds at most

Question 11

Visual memory

Answer 11

Also called “iconic memory”

Question 12

Auditory memory

Answer 12

“echoic memory”

Question 13

Whole-report procedure

Answer 13

Early method used to study sensory memory retention; subjects looked for a fraction of a second at a visual display of nine items, then asked to recall as many of the items as possible; on average, subjects could recall 4 out of the 9 items; concluded that 4 items was the limit of sensory memory (has been disputed by George Sperling)

Question 14

George Sperling

Answer 14

Suspected whole-report procedure might not be accurate indication of sensory memory capacity; devised partial-report procedure

Question 15

Partial-report procedure

Answer 15

Used same 3x3 matrix of letters and flashed the array for a fraction of a second like earlier researchers; however, asked subjects to report only one row of the array
Regardless of which row was asked to recall, subjects’ recall was nearly perfect (without knowing beforehand which row they’d have to recall); concluded sensory memory capacity was about 9 items
Suggests that the issue with the whole-report procedure was memory decay over time

Question 16

Working Memory (STM)

Answer 16

items that you retain from sensory memory; if not retained by transferring to LTM or maintaining in STM through maintenance rehearsal, lasts about 20 seconds

Question 17

George Miller

Answer 17

Found that STM capacity is about 7 +/-2 chunks of information
(chunks: “meaningful units” of information)

Question 18

LTM

Answer 18

can be considered “permanent” storage of experiences, knowledge, and skills

Question 19

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 19

One way to get information into LTM

Involves organizing material and associating with with information you already have in LTM

Question 20

Types of Rehearsal

Answer 20

Maintenance: repeating information (STM)
Elaborative: organizing the info and associating it with info already in LTM (LTM)

Question 21

Two types of LTM

Answer 21

Procedural: remembering how to do things
Declarative: remembering explicit information

Question 22

Two Types of Declarative Memory

Answer 22

Semantic: general knowledge (word meanings, concepts)
Episodic: particular events you personally experienced

Question 23

Encoding for verbal material

Answer 23

STM: phonological (acoustic; remember based on how they sound)
LTM: items tend to be encoded on basis of meaning (supported by semantic priming)

Question 24

Semantic Priming

Answer 24

subject has to decide whether a stimulus is a word or nonword, words are presented in pairs either semantically related (nurse, doctor) or not semantically related (nurse, butter).
Subject asked to press “yes” or “no” button if both words were real or not real
Response was quicker if two were semantically related

Question 25

Semantic memory

Answer 25

LTM: General knowledge (word meanings, concepts)

Question 26

Semantic Verification Task

Answer 26

Used to investigate how semantic memory is organized
Subjects asked to indicate whether or not a simple statement is true or false; measure response latency (time it takes for S to respond)

Question 27

Collins and Loftus, 1975, Spreading Activation Model

Answer 27

The shorter the distance between to words (in the model), the closer the words are related in the semantic memory; subjects will respond to questions about related words more quickly than questions about words that are more separated (by meaning and distance in model)

Question 28

Semantic feature-comparison model (Smith, Shoben, & Rips), early 1970s

Answer 28

Suggests that concepts are represented by sets of features, some of which are required for that concept, and some of which are typical of that concept; the amount of overlap affects time it takes to reach a decision (when using semantic verification task)

Question 29

Levels-of-processing theory (Craik & Lockart)

Answer 29

most influential competing theory (challenging stage theory of memory); suggests that what determinds how long you remember material is not what system it gets into but the way in which you process the material
Memory is analyzed in stages but not organized into memory “systems”; only one system

Question 30

Three levels in which information can be processed (according to levels-of-processing theory)

Answer 30

Physical (visual; focus on appearance, size, shape of information)
Acoustical (sound combinations of words)
Semantic (meaning of the word)
Each way demands increasing level of effort (little for physical, most for semantic); the deeper the processing & greater the effort –> better your memory is of the material
Deeper processing includes connecting the information with other information in memory

Question 31

Paivio’s Dual-Code Hypothesis

Answer 31

Information can be stored (encoded) in two ways:
visually & verbally
Abstract information: verbally (“virtue”)
Concrete information: visually and verbally (“elephant”)

Question 32

Schema (plural: schemata)

Answer 32

conceptual frameworks used to organize knowledge
Encoding new information/experiences into existing schemata can distort memory
Difficulty matching new info/experience into a schema –> difficulty remembering it

Question 33

Decay theory

Answer 33

holds that if information in LTM is not used or rehearsed, it will eventually be forgotten
Problem: assumes that what you’ve learned in the time that elapses between memory and attempted retrieval makes no difference, however, it’s been shown that it doesmatter

Question 34

Inhibition theory

Answer 34

suggests that forgetting is directly due to the activities that have taken place between learning and later attempted retrieval

Question 35

Two types of inhibition (according to inhibition theory)

Answer 35

Retroactive: occurs when you forget what you learned earlier as you learn something new (ex. learning lines to new play; forget lines from previous play)
Proactive: what you learned earlier interferes with what you learn later (ex. learning a third language)

Question 36

Encoding specificity

Answer 36

the assumption that recall will be best if the context at recall approximates the context during which original encoding took place

Question 37

State-dependent learning

Answer 37

recall is better if your physiological and psychological state at the time of recall is the same as when learning/encoding the material

Question 38

Mnemonic devices

Answer 38

any technique that we use to improve the likelihood of remembering something

Question 39

Chunking

Answer 39

mnemonic device

Question 40

Method of Loci

Answer 40

System of associating information with some sequence of places with which you are familiar

Question 41

Sir Frederick Bartlett, Reconstructive Memory

Answer 41

Conducted classic study using “War of the Ghosts” (a Native American folk tale); subjects reconstructed the story in line with their own expectations and schema for a ghost story
Concluded that prior knowledge and expectations influence recall

Question 42

Elizabeth Loftus

Answer 42

Studied eyewitness memories & tendency for them to be influenced or confused by misleading information
Found eyewitness memory (and testimony) can be erroneous for a myriad of reasons

Question 43

Zeigarnik Effect

Answer 43

Tendency to remember incomplete tasks better than completed tasks (easier to remember the chores that you have not completed than the chores you HAVE completed)