Memory

Question 1

Method of Savings

Answer 1

Ebbinghaus
A method of studying retention in which the number of trials required to relearn a particular bit of material is subtracted from the number of trials required to learn the same material originally. The difference between the number of trials in both cases is known as the savings.

equation: (#trials to learn - # trials to rememorize)/#trials to learn x100

Question 2

Forgetting curve

Answer 2

Without practice, we forget rapidly then at a certain point, forgetting occurs at a much lesser rate. With practice, the forgetting curve looks different

Question 3

Encoding

Answer 3

Putting info into memory

Question 4

Storage

Answer 4

retaining information into memory

Question 5

retrieval

Answer 5

recovering the information in memory

Question 6

recall

Answer 6

reproducing information you have previously been exposed to

Question 7

recognition

Answer 7

realizing that a certain stimulus event is one you’ve seen or heard before

Question 8

generation-recognition

Answer 8

an attempt to explain why you can usually recognize more than you recall; model suggests that recall involves the same mental process involved in recognition plus another process not required for recognition

Question 9

recency effect

Answer 9

words presents at the end of the list are remembered best

Due to working memory

Question 10

primacy effect

Answer 10

words presented at the beginning of the list are remembered second-best
Due to long-term memory

Question 11

clustering

Answer 11

when asked to recall a list of words, people tend to recall words belonging in the same category

Question 12

stage theory of memory

Answer 12

there are several different memory systems and each system has a different function and memories enter in a specific order: sensory, short-term/working, long-term

Question 13

Duration of working memory

Answer 13

If nothing is done with the information: ~20 seconds, can be kept for much longer if the information is rehearsed

Question 14

Chunks

Answer 14

Meaningful units of information
Miller
Limit is 7 (plus or minus 2)
Stored in short-term memory

Question 15

Types of Long-term memory

Answer 15

Procedural: how to do things
Declarative: explicit info
- Semantic: general info
- Episodic: events you have experienced

Question 16

Encoding memory

Answer 16

WM: phonetic
LTM: meaning/semantic

Question 17

semantic verification task

Answer 17

subjects are asked to indicate whether or not a simple statement presented is true or false. Measure response latency
Used to investigate the organization of semantic memory

Question 18

Spreading activation model

Answer 18

Collins and Loftus

semantic memory organized into map of interconnected concepts; the key is the distance between the concepts

Question 19

Semantic feature-comparison model

Answer 19

Smith, Shoben, and Rips

Semantic memory feature lists of concepts, the key is the amount of overlap in the feature lists of the concepts

Question 20

Levels-of-processing theory

depth-of-processing theory

Answer 20

Craik and Lockheart
what determines how long you will remember material is the way in which you process that material
1. physical (visual): little effort
2. acoustical (sound)
3. semantic (meaning): most effort - better memory

Question 21

Dual-code Hypothesis

Answer 21

Paivio
information can be stored in 2 ways: visually and verbally.
- Abstract info: verbally
- Concrete info: visually and verbally

Question 22

Schema

Answer 22

conceptual frameworks we use to organize our knowledge. we interpret experiences in terms of existing schemata

Question 23

encoding specificity

Answer 23

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

Question 24

state-dependent learning

Answer 24

recall will be better if your psychological or physical state at the time of recall is the same as your state when you memorized the material

Question 25

Method of loci

Answer 25

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

Question 26

Frederick Barltlett

Answer 26

Used ghost stories and memory to show that prior knowledge and expectations influence recall, showing the importance of schema

Question 27

Eyewitness testimony

Answer 27

Loftus | completely unreliable

Question 28

Zeigarnik effect

Answer 28

tendency to remember incomplete tasks better than complete tasks

Question 29

filter theory

Answer 29

people have a limited capacity for sensory information and therefore screening incoming information, letting in the most important

Question 30

change blindness

Answer 30

the common failure to notice large changes in environments

Question 31

modal memory model

Answer 31

three-stage memory system: sensory, short-term/working, long-term

Question 32

Parts of working memory

Answer 32

central executive phonological loop visuospatial sketchpad episodic buffer

Question 33

Central executive

Answer 33

controls the interactions between the others and long-term memory to be encoded

Question 34

Phonological loop

Answer 34

encodes auditory information and is active whenever a person tries to remember words by reading, speaking or repeating them

Question 35

Visuospatial sketchpad

Answer 35

processes visual information: object features, locations

Question 36

Episodic Buffer

Answer 36

holds temporary information about oneself, drawing heavily on long-term episodic memory

Question 37

Overlearning

Answer 37

rehearsing material you already know pretty well leads to improved memory, especially over longer periods of time

Question 38

Distributed practice

Answer 38

studying material in multiple sessions over time

Question 39

Massed practice

Answer 39

cramming. inferior to distributed practice

Question 40

Repetition priming

Answer 40

improvement in identifying or processing a stimulus that has been experienced previously. implicit memory is involved

Question 41

Prospective memory

Answer 41

remembering to do something at some future time

Question 42

Retrieval cue

Answer 42

anything that helps a person recall information from memory

Question 43

Consolidation

Answer 43

a hypothetical process involving the transfer of contents from immediate memory into LTM

Question 44

reconsolidation

Answer 44

neural processes involved when memories are recalled and then stored again for later retrieval

Question 45

spatial memory

Answer 45

memory for the physical environment; location, direction and cognitive maps

Question 46

Transience

Answer 46

reduced memory over time

Question 47

Absentmindedness

Answer 47

reduced memory due to failing to pay attention

Question 48

Blocking

Answer 48

Inability to remember needed information (tip of the tongue phenomenon)

Question 49

Misattribution

Answer 49

assigning a memory to the wrong source

Question 50

Suggestibility

Answer 50

Altering a memory because of misleading information

Question 51

Bias

Answer 51

influence of current knowledge on our memory for past events

Question 52

Persistence

Answer 52

the resurgence of unwanted or disturbing memories that we would like to forget

Question 53

Flashbulb memory

Answer 53

vivid memories for the circumstances in which one first learned of a surprising and consequential or emotionally arousing event

Question 54

von Restorff effect

Answer 54

a distinctive event might be recalled more easier than trivial events, however inaccurate the result

Question 55

cryptomnesia

Answer 55

a type of misattribution that occurs when a person thinks he or she has come up with a new idea, yet has only retrieved a stored idea and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source

Question 56

suggestibility

Answer 56

the development of biased memories when people are provided with misleading information

Question 57

confabulation

Answer 57

the false recollection of episodic memory

Question 58

memory bias

Answer 58

the changing of memories over time in ways consistent with prior beliefs