Points for discussion Flashcards
Points for discussion from all chapters
CHAPTER 1
1) What are the strengths and weaknesses of the approach to memory taken by Ebbinghaus and Bartlett?
2) How did the cognitive approach to memory build on these foundations?
3) Do we need to assume more than one kind of memory? If so, why?
1) Ebbinghaus:
E fokuserade speciellt på faktorerna och förhållandena kring frågar hur ny inlärning interagerar med vad man redan vet. Man fokuserade på associationer som antogs formas mellan stimuli och respons, bl.a. genom memorerande av listor med nonsense stavelser/ord.
Fördelar med detta var en mycket kontrollerad metod, där förhållanden hölls konstanta. Frågan är dock hur representativa sådana studier är för det vi de facto minns i verkliga livet.
Bartlett:
B menade att inlärning av meningslöst material inte var en passande metod för att studera minne utan fokuserade istället på väldigt komplext material såsom t.ex. folksägner från olika kulturer vilket visar på hans socialpsykologiska perspektiv och fokus på individens sökande efter mening. B beskrev scheman som grund för förståelse av omvärlden. Fördelar med B’s metod är användande av komplext material, dock stötte han på problem vad gäller studiet av de svårfångade inre representationerna av världen.
2)
3)
CHAPTER 3
1) The concept of a phonological loop attempts to explain a range of major findings in verbal STM. What are they and what are the weaknesses of the basic model.
2) How can a parallel system like the brain remember serial order?
3) What is the evidence for separate storage of visual and spatial information?
1) Loop-modellen förklarar flera egenskaper/funktioner STM, däribland:
- Fonologiska likhetseffekten (seriell återkallning av verbalt material försämras för enheter(ord) som låter lika)
- Ordlängdseffekten (dvs att glömma bort material under subvocal repetition pga längd på materialet(orden) - tendens finns också till att glömma pga ordlängd vid återkallning pga att längre ord tar längre tid att återkalla)
- Vocal/subvocal articulation (process där du säger enheterna(orden) för dig själv, högt eller “inne i huvudet”, vilket gör att visuellt presenterat material kan lagras i vår fonologiska lagringsplats om de är är nameable objekt - t.ex. siffror, bokstäver)
Loop-modellen har 2 centrala svagheter:
1) den saknar tillräcklig förklaring över hur seriell ordning lagras (vilket modellen är bygger på)
2) modellen specificerar inte tydligt de avgörande processerna involverade i återkallning från en fonologisk lagrinsplats.
2) Flera olika modeller har vidareutvecklats baserat på fonologiska loop-modellen, som alla hanterar frågan kring seriell ordning på lite olika sätt. De tycks dock alla anta både en fonologisk lagring och en separat mekanism för seriell order, där likhet påverkar hämtningen från lagringen.
De flesta fonologiska loop-relaterade modellerna avvisar en kedjebaserad tolkning av seriell ordning, och föreslår istället att orderinformation utförs antingen genom:
- någon form av pågående kontext
- genom länkar till första objektet (t.ex. Primacy-modellen)
- eller länkar till både de första och sista föremålen (Henson, 1998).
3) Distinktion mellan Spatial STM (where) och Object STM (vad) kan tydligt visas genom olika test/uppgifter som fokuserar på det ena av dessa två typer av visuo-spatialt minne. Dessa två minnessystem arbetar tillsammans i praktiken, men en klassisk spatial uppgift är t.ex. block tapping test (experimentledare taps a number of blocks i en viss ordning och så ska deltagaren härma) som får fram s.k. Corsi span.
Visual span kan istället mätas genom matrix mönster (tomma och ifyllda celler). Deltagaren presenteras ett mönster och har till uppgift att reproducera det genom att “fylla i” rätt celler i ett tomt matrix.
BEVIS för denna distinktion har visats via studier där en potentiell störande aktivitet adderas mellan presentation och testet. När detta involverar spatial processande, t.ex. sekventiell tryckande på en serie knappar/tangenter, ser man en negativ påverkan på Corsi span. Om man istället inkluderar presentation av olika geometriska former som störningsmoment ser man istället en minskad kapacitet vad gäller “mönster-span”.
CHAPTER 4
1) Why do we need models of working memory? Will models of attention and LTM not suffice?
2) What has neuroscience contributed to our knowledge of working memory?
3) What might be the practical applications of a good model of working memory?
1)
2)
3)
CHAPTE 5
1) A student just starting college believes that learning time and repetition should be the basis of study. How would you advise him to improve on this?
2) What are the major differences between implicit and explicit learning?
3) What has the study of sleep told us about the nature of learning?
1)
2)
3)
CHAPTER 6
1) What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of the Ebbinghaus and Bartlett approaches to the study of memory?
2) To what extent does the impact of organization on memory reflect the concept of levels of processing?
3) What role do difference parts of the brain play in episodic memory?
1)
2)
3)
CHAPTER 7
1) Discuss the similarities and differences between semantic and episodic
memory.
2) Describe the spreading activation model and evaluate its contribution to our understanding of semantic memory.
3) What are basic-level categories? To what extent are they really basic?
4) Does concept processing generally involve the perceptual and motor
systems?
5) Describe the hub-and-spoke model. To what extent has research on brain- damaged patients supported this model?
6) Do schema theories provide a satisfactory explanation of memory errors and distortions?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
CHAPTER 8
1) Pick three real examples of something that you recently recalled from memory. Drawing on what you learned about the retrieval process, analyze your examples. What were the cues? What type of retrieval situation was it? What type of context cue was present? Try to be thorough in describing the steps and processes involved, using concepts learned throughout the chapter.
2) Describe what context is, including its different types. Describe when it
does and does not come into play in retrieving information from memory.
3) While walking across campus, you see your Memory professor and approach her to say hello. She nervously admits knowing that you are familiar, but cannot place you. Seeing your golden opportunity, you explain to the professor what type of test they just did, what aspects of memory they just failed at, and what parts of the brain were involved. What would you say to them to ensure that they were impressed?
4) How is human memory retrieval similar to and different from doing a search in Google? What parallels can you find?
1)
2)
3)
4)
CHAPTER 9
1) Sometimes one’s forgetting can be very costly in terms of time, money, embarrassment, or inconvenience to others. Pick the top three most significant examples of forgetting that you have experienced. Use the concepts described in this chapter to explain, in detail, why the forgetting happened to you.
2) You are trying to remember someone’s name, and a well-meaning friend tries to help by supplying guesses, all of them wrong. Using your knowledge of interference mechanisms, describe how you would explain to your friend why they should stop doing this.
3) Cuc and colleagues colorfully noted that “Silence is not always golden” in their article on socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting. Explain what this means, and why socially shared retrieval-induced forgetting is important.
4) What are the key findings that suggest that inhibition mechanisms contribute to retrieval-induced forgetting?
1)
2)
3)
4)
CHAPTER 10
1) With the advent of affordable life-recording devices such as Google GlassTM and MomentaTM, one could, theoretically record photos or video of every moment of our lives. If you could do this, would you? Would remembering everything in your life make you happier? Why or why not? Can you think of cases in your life which you wished you could forget?
2) What are the main factors that predict when motivated forgetting will occur? Have you ever used any of the strategies or mechanisms described in this chapter to forget, or take your mind off something?
3) What has laboratory research shown about the conditions under which it might it be possible to recover a memory that you have tried to forget?
1)
2)
3)
CHAPTER 11
1) Would it matter if you lost access to your autobiographical memory? If so, in what way?
2) What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of diary studies and probe
methods for studying autobiographical memory?
3) How might Conway’s model account for PTSD and psychogenic amnesia?
1)
2)
3)
CHAPTER 12
1) Why is eyewitness memory often inaccurate and/or distorted?
2) What effects do anxiety and stress have on the accuracy of eyewitness
recall?
3) Why is it often difficult for eyewitnesses to remember faces? What can be done to enhance face recognition?
4) What are the characteristics of the most successful interviewing techniques used by the police with eyewitnesses?
5) How relevant is laboratory research on eyewitness testimony to the courtroom?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
CHAPTER 13
1) What are the main differences between retrospective memory and prospective memory?
2) What are the main types of prospective memory? How do they differ?
3) What role does monitoring play in prospective memory?
4) What can be done to enhance our prospective memory?
1)
2)
3)
4)
CHAPTER 14
1) What is the ecological model of memory development? To what extent is this model supported by the evidence?
2) Why is it difficult to study long-term memory in infants?
3) What are some of the main factors causing declarative or explicit
memory to increase with age?
4) Why are the effects of age typically smaller with implicit memory than with explicit or declarative memory?
5) Describe the phenomenon of infantile amnesia and discuss two theoretical explanations of it.
6) What can be done to maximize the accuracy with which child witnesses remember events?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
CHAPTER 15
1) What are the relative strengths and weaknesses of longitudinal and cross- sectional approaches to the study of aging? How can they be tackled?
2) What impact on everyday life would you expect from the effects on memory of aging?
3) What are the effects of cognitive and physical training on memory and aging? How might these be linked to brain function?
4) Why do we become more forgetful as we become older?
5) What advice would you give to someone just about to retire?
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
