Memory I

Question 1

What are the different classifications of memory, their duration and types?

Answer 1

Sensory memory <1s
Iconic (visual) memory
Echoic (auditory) memory

Short-term or working memory 1 - 10s
- Central executive
- Visuospatial sketchpad
- Phonological loop
- Episodic Buffer

Long-term memory >10s
- Declarative (explicit) memory
- Non-declarative (implicit) memory

Question 2

What did the findings of the sensory memory letter task reveal about memory?

Answer 2

Many items are stored in memory initially, while they are still in memory, observers can attend to some of the items and report them. They fade away quickly.

Question 3

Sensory memory and the ability to recall items is modality-specific, what does this mean?

Answer 3

The amount of items an individual will be able to perceive on a task will depend on how that information is presented. Visual and auditory memory have different levels of processing, therefore modal specificity.

Question 4

What is the masking effect, and how does it effect visual and auditory memory?

Answer 4

Displaying a mask in a visual memory task will overwrite your sensory memory and recall will be almost 0.

In auditory memory, a mask will not impact performance.

Question 5

What are the two modalities of sensory-memory called?

Answer 5

Iconic memory (Visual memory)

Echoic memory (auditory memory)

Question 6

In Short-term memory, we have a limited capacity to hold information. What is this called and what is the finding?

Answer 6

This is the memory span, i.e. the number of elements one can hold in short-term memory store.

The number is 7 +/- 2

Question 7

What is the primacy and recency effect of STM capacity, why is this the case?

Answer 7

Items that are shown at the beginning of the sequence tend to be remembered better (primacy)

Items that are shown at the end of the sequence tend to be remember better (recency)

This is due to the rehearsal of the items from the beginning of the sequence being remembered in our minds.

Question 8

How is short-term distinct from long-term memory, what evidence is there from lesions in the brain?

Answer 8

The 7 +/- 2 capacity limit does not apply in LTM.

Damage to the medial temporal lobe can cause severe impairment of long-term memory but it does not affect short-term memory.

Question 9

What is Atkinson and Shiffrin;s (1968) theory of memory?

Answer 9

Proposes that as information is rehearsed in a limited-capacity short-term memory, it is deposited in long-term memory.

Question 10

Alan Baddeley found a theory of working memory as a different way of characterising short-term memory, why was this model introduced?

Answer 10

It allows us to go beyond the limitations of short-term memory’s vague explanation of information processing and introduces more specificity in how information is processing in STM.

Question 11

What is working memory?

Answer 11

A multicomponent system that manipulates information storage for greater and more complex cognitive utility.

Question 12

What is the central executive component of STM, how does it work?

Answer 12

It is responsible for monitoring and coordinating the operation of the slave systems (i.e., visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop and episodic buffer). Which then consolidates into LTM.

Question 13

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 13

Our ability to temporarily hold visual and spatial information.

Question 14

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 14

A phonological store that serves to temporarily hold verbal information.

Question 15

What is the episodic buffer in working memory?

Answer 15

A limited capacity storage system responsible for integrating information from several sources to create a unified memory.

Question 16

What are the two types of LTM?

Answer 16

Declarative and non-declarative

Question 17

What is declarative memory?

Answer 17

Memories for facts and events
You can explicitly remember these memories
Also called explicit memory

Question 18

What is non-declarative memory?

Answer 18

Memories that you cannot explicitly retrieve (e.g., motor skills)
Also called implicit memory

Question 19

In memory research and analogy there are many terms that refer to the same concept, what is an example of this?

Answer 19

Declarative memory and explicit memory are almost an identical concept. Within declarative memory there are sub-types of memory, such as episodic and semantic memory.

Question 20

How is memory encoded?

Answer 20

The way information is processed affects how well it is encoded in long-term memory. There are levels to information processing. Information that is processed in a deeper and more meaningful manner will be better encoded.

Sensory memory -> Attention -> Short-term memory -> Information processing -> Long-term memory

Question 21

How have experiments shown the effect of deeper processing leading to better encoding?

Answer 21

Participants who had to generate their own responses to synonym pairs were able to remember those pairs more than those who viewed them side-by-side.

Question 22

What factor determines the amount of material remembered in experiments?

Answer 22

It is not whether one intends to learn, but the depth of processing will generate greater memory.

Question 23

In memory processing, there is debate around incidental or intentional learning will generate a greater performance on memory tasks, what are they are what are the findings?

Answer 23

Incidental - unintentional learning that results from other activities

Intentional - Learning that is motivated by intentions and is goal orientated

In memory tasks, participants who had to rate the quality of a word in both the incidental and intentional conditions performed better than individuals who applied no meaning to the words at all. Meaning, how participants processed the material was more important than the intent.

Question 24

What is a memory trace?

Answer 24

A hypothetical permanent change in the nervous system brought about by memorising something: an engram (the neural substrate for storing memories).

Question 25

What is a semantic network?

Answer 25

When similar semantic properties of words are linked together in a memory map stored in LTM. Meaning, there must be some sort of organisation in LTM for meaning networks.

Question 26

How are semantic networks tested?

Answer 26

When two words in a pair were semantically related, participants made a judgment faster. When participants read the first word in a related pair, the second word was also activated. Information about the second word is more accessible, and judged faster.

e.g. nurse and butter 940ms, bread and butter 855ms