Module 06: Memory Processes

Question 1

what is the levels of processing view

Answer 1

memory depends on initial encoding of info to be remembered

does not suggest that there are different memory stores (like STM, LTM, etc)

retention and coding of info depend on kind of perceptual analysis done on material at encoding

improvement of retention from a greater depth of analysis of material

Question 2

incidental learning

Answer 2

surprise memory test words processed semantically were remembered best, then acoustically

depth of processing with degree of semantic processing

Question 3

what aids recall according to the levels of processing view

Answer 3

elaboration (richer ideas)

Question 4

schemata

Answer 4

frameworks for organizing info

at retrieval time, knowledge and organizational info used to reconstruct the material

francis bartlett – participants unintentionally introduced distortions to make material more rational from own pov of schema

Question 5

autobiographical memory

Answer 5

memories of events that occured in personal past

Question 6

what did brewer find in his study where he made participants fill out an event that occurred, how pleasant and how trivial/significant

Answer 6

very good retention from participants

memory better for actions than for thoughts and for memorable events than events prompted by a beeper

events infrequent locations remembered better

the more distinct the mental event => the more likely to be recalled

Question 7

flashbulb memories

Answer 7

vivid memories that are often incorrect

parts of the brain involved in emotional responses (like the amygdala) become more activated and cognitive effects of activation result in storage of lots of info

Question 8

eye witness memory

Answer 8

likely to be believed by jurors, especially when said with a high level of confidence, even when witness is inaccurate

people’s memories can be altered by presenting misleading questions

Question 9

what is the recovered vs false memory debate

Answer 9

repressed memories recovered later in therapy vs memories of things that never really occured

Question 10

what did an fMRI study show on memories

Answer 10

different areas of the brain become activated in a word recognition task for true than for false words, so true memories have neural significance that implanted memories do not

Question 11

who is kent cochrane

Answer 11

head injury from motorcycle accident

widespread damage, almost complete hippocampas loss bilaterally

had anterograde and retrograde amnesia

semantic memory was still intact but episodic memory was not

Question 12

what are the 5 principle features of anterograde amnesia

Answer 12

affects LTM but not WM

affects memory regardless of modality

spares memory for general knowledge (acquired before onset of amnesia)

spares skilled performance

shows hyperspecific memory (can express learning only in context extremely similar to conditions of encoding)

Question 13

what are the 4 basic features of retrograde amnesia

Answer 13

temporal extent can very enormously

episodic memories are compromised

spares info that was ‘overlearned’

does not affect skill learning

Question 14

what is the standard model of memory consolidation

Answer 14

storage of info requires hippocampus to link different aspects of an event and to retreive these later, blows to the head disrupt this process

Question 15

multiple memory trace theory

Answer 15

hippocampus always involved in storage and retrieval of episodic memory

following multiple reactivations of same event factual info from episodes extracted and integrated with semantic memory stores

amygdala involved in memory consolidation

Question 16

cognitive economy

Answer 16

properties and facts stored at highest level possible

to recover info, use inference

Question 17

describe the hierarchical semantic network model

Answer 17

semantic memory is analogous to a network of connected nodes

node connected to related nodes by pointers or links

node that corresponds to given word or concept with pointers to nodes 1st node is connected to constitutes semantic memory for taht word/concept

closer a fact is stored to particular node the less time it should take to verify that fact

more general => stored in higher level in hierarchy

Question 18

what is spreading activation

Answer 18

excitation spreads along connections of nodes in a semantic network

Question 19

what is the connectionist model of memory

Answer 19

one unit becomes active, some other units become active too

must be taught to develop patterns of activation through many trials with training examples

involves back propogation:
connections between units have random weights
activation weights result in units they connect becoming active or not
training: input pattern produces particular output

Question 20

explicit memory

Answer 20

things consciously recalled

Question 21

implicit memory

Answer 21

not deliberate or conscious but shows evidence of prior learning

Question 22

semantic priming

Answer 22

exposure to one word facilitates the recognition or other cognitive processing of a semantically related word

Question 23

repitition priming

Answer 23

facilitation of the cognitive processing of info after a recent exposure to that same info

Question 24

what was found in the word stem completion task

Answer 24

non words share no to little repeatition priming relative to real words

priming greater for words that share the same roots of meaning

Question 25

T/F: amnesic patients perform more poorly than non-amnesic patients on explicit memory tasks but comparably to no amnesic on implicit memory tasks

Answer 25

true

Question 26

describe the two distinct possibilities on how disassociation phenomena is explained

Answer 26

1) two memory systems: declarative (explicit) and procedural (implicit) memories

2) two kinds of memory tasks require different cognitive procedures:

perceptual processing (implicit, interpret sensory info in meaningful way)

conceptual processing (explicit, drawing on info in memory and knowledge base)

Question 27

describe the process dissociation framework

Answer 27

issue with the fact that there are two distinct memory systems

memory tasks calling on intentional (controlled) and automatic processes

false fame experiment