Memory (U3 AOS 2)

Question 1

What are the 3 sequential processes that memory depends on with a brief explanation of each.

Answer 1

Encoding: converting information into a useable code

Storage: retention of information over time

Retrieval: process of locating and recovering stored
information to conscious awareness

Question 2

What is sensory memory?

Answer 2

The first stage of the multi-store model of memory.

It receives and stores an unlimited amount of sensory information for up to a few seconds. This information can be transferred to STM if attention is paid to it.

Question 3

What are the two main sensory registers for memory? Include a explanation of each with reference to their duration and capacity of information that can be stored.

Answer 3

Iconic memory: the sensory register for visual information

• Duration: 1/3 to 1/2 a second
• Capacity: unlimited

Echoic memory: sensory register for auditory information

• Duration: 3-4 seconds. (long enough for sound to be
  encoded and selected for attention
• Capacity: unlimited

Question 4

What is short term memory? Include reference to its duration and capacity.

Answer 4

STM is the second stage and most active system of the multi-store model of memory. It stores a limited amount of information entering from the sensory memory or retrieved from the LTM for 18-20 seconds unless the information is rehearsed.

Question 5

What is chunking?

Answer 5

When we group separate items of information so they form a larger single item, we can effectively increase STM storage capacity.

Question 6

What is long-term memory and the two types of it?

Answer 6

LTM is the relatively permanent memory system that holds a lot of information for a long period of time.

2 types are:

Procedural memory: knowledge of skills, habits or actions

Declarative memory: memories of personal experiences
and facts

Question 7

What is implicit memory? What is a type of implicit memory?

Answer 7

Unconscious recall of memories of how to do something which is stored in the LTM.

Type of implicit memory is procedural memory.

Question 8

What is explicit memory? What is a type of explicit memory?

Answer 8

Consciously recalled memories of facts or personally significant events stored in the LTM.

Type of explicit memory is declarative memory.

Question 9

What is semantic memory?

Answer 9

A type of declarative memory for impersonal factual knowledge about the world.

E.g, names of objects, days of the week and months of the year, chemical concepts, etc…

Question 10

What is the role of the cerebral cortex?

Answer 10

Involved in the formation and storage of implicit and explicit memories.

Question 11

What is the role of the cerebellum?

Answer 11

Stores procedural memories of learnt motor skills that require muscle coordination.

Question 12

What is the role of the amygdala?

Answer 12

Adds the emotional content to declarative memories.

Question 13

What is the role of the hippocampus?

Answer 13

Integrates information from a number of brain areas to form a single declarative memory that it transfers to LTM.

Question 14

What are the different methods of memory retrieval in order of least effective to most effective.

Answer 14

1. Recall
2. Recognition
3. Relearning
4. Reconstruction

Question 15

What is recall and the three different methods of it?

Answer 15

To supply or reproduce information that is stored in the LTM, using few cues or no assistance.

There is:
1. Free recall
2. Serial recall
3. Cued recall

Question 16

What is free recall?

Answer 16

Involves retrieving as much information as possible in any order.

Question 17

What is serial recall?

Answer 17

Involves retrieving information in the order it was presented

Question 18

What is cued recall?

Answer 18

Involves retrieving information with the help of cues.

Question 19

What is recognition?

Answer 19

Involves identifying the correct answers from a list of possible alternatives (distractors)

Question 20

Why is recognition better than recall?

Answer 20

Because recognition accesses memories or information that recall cannot access

Question 21

What is relearning?

Answer 21

To learn something again that has previously been stored in LTM.

Question 22

How can relearning be measured?? Include the relevant formula.

Answer 22

Can be measured through savings score. Calculates the percentage of how much information is retained from the original learning.

Saving score = (time/trials for original learning - time/trials
for relearning) / time/trials for original
learning x 100

Question 23

What is reconstruction and what role does it play in memory?

Answer 23

The way we can change a memory based on the way we recall it.
E.g, if a memory is not recalled often, we might add or remove details next time we recall it

Plays an important role in consolidation of memory.

Question 24

What is amnesia?

Answer 24

A temporary or permanent, partial or complete loss of memory.
If brain injury results in amnesia, then the amnesia is said to have an organic cause.

Question 25

What is anterograde amnesia? Can people with this amnesia retrieve memories from their LTM or form new LTM?

Answer 25

It is the inability to form new LTM.

People can retrieve memories from their LTM but cannot form new ones following brain damage / trauma.
But their STM still functions.

Question 26

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 26

the inability to retrieve existing LTM.

People can still form new LTM but cannot retrieve existing LTM preceding the brain damage / trauma.

Question 27

How can brain surgery lead to amnesia?

Answer 27

Sometimes during brain surgery, the patient may incur more damage, particularly to the hippocampus and amygdala.

This may affect their ability to form new memories or remember past memories.

Question 28

What is a neurodegenerative disease that causes memory loss? What is a common form of it?

Answer 28

Dementia.
It is a disorder that affects higher mental functions such as:
memory, intellectual ability, judgement, social skills, emotional reactions

Develops over years and may be caused by brain damage, disease, reduced blood supply to the brain and toxins such as alcohol

Most common form is Alzheimer’s

Question 29

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 29

An irreversible, progressive neurodegenerative disease that attacks the brain and kills brain cells, causing severe cognitive and behavioural decline

Question 30

How is one able to make a conclusive diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease?

Answer 30

Via an autospy.

Question 31

What neurotoxin is present in a person’s brain who has Alzheimer’s?

Answer 31

Amyloid.
It poisons brain cells causing cell death.
Development of amyloid plaques leads to disruption in communication between neurons.
Development of neurofibrillary tangles lead to death of neurons

Question 32

What areas of the midbrain tend to be most effected by Alzheimer’s?

Answer 32

Hippocampus.

Question 33

What neurotransmitters does Alzheimer’s destroy? Include a brief explanation of its role.

Answer 33

Acetycholine.
A neurotransmitter responsible for carrying information between the synapses of cells

Question 34

What physical characteristics are affected from Alzheimer’s in the brain?

Answer 34

• Increased ventricle size
• Reduced volume of brain due to cell degeneration

Question 35

What are retrieval cues? What 2 categories can they be divided into?

Answer 35

Any stimuli that help in retrieving memory stored in the LTM.

1. Context-Dependent cues
2. State-Dependent cues

Question 36

What are context-dependent cues?

Answer 36

The external physical surroundings, sounds, and smells act as cues to retrieve information.

Question 37

What are state-dependent cues?

Answer 37

Retrieval cues associated with the internal physiological and/or psychological state at the time the memory was formed.

Question 38

What does rehearsing do?

Answer 38

Increase the duration of the information held in STM, increasing the likelihood of it being transferred to LTM.

Question 39

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 39

Repeating the information a number of times so it can be held in STM longer than the usual 18-20 seconds.

Has nothing to do with understanding information. When we stop it, information will be lost in 18-30 sec

Question 40

What is elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 40

The process of linking new information in a meaningful way with information already stored in memory or with other new information to aid its storage and retrieval from LTM.

Question 41

What is the serial position effect? Include brief description of primary effect and recency effect.

Answer 41

A pattern of recall for list items, where recall is better for items at the start (primary effect) or end (recency) of the list than for the items in the middle.

Primary effect:
Recall from the beginning of the list
- is believed to have occurred because info has had time
to transfer to LTM

Recency effect:
Recall at end of a list
- believed to occur as info is still in STM
- only occurs when asked to immediately recall. if there
is a delay, it will not occur

Question 42

How accurate is memory?

Answer 42

Memory is not recorded but actively constructed.
Retrieval of it involves reconstructing the memory.

This makes memory fallible

Question 43

Why are eyewitness memories susceptible to reconstruction?

Answer 43

1. They happen too quickly
2. Poor viewing conditions
3. Seen from a distance

Question 44

What is a leading question?

Answer 44

A question posed to a witness of an event that is phrased in a way that prompts the desired answer.

Question 45

How is reconstruction as a method to retrieve information used? (Loftus)

Answer 45

Involves the reproduction of learned materials by rearranging the parts of an original stimulus, presented randomly.