Psych 100 - Memory - Final exam

Question 1

Eidetic memory - Mozart

Answer 1

Memory in which an individual can report details of an image over long periods of time.

Can be transferrable to hearing. Mozart may have possessed eidetic memory for music.

Question 2

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 2

The process of repeating information mentally or out loud with the goal of keeping it in memory long enough to write it down, use it, or potentially transfer to long-term memory.

Eg. phone numbers, addresses

Question 3

Central executive

Answer 3

Places more or less importance on any of these components and ultimately decides what you will do.

Question 4

Episodic buffer - plan future behaviour

Answer 4

Provides a means to allow multiple sources of info to be considered simultaneously, and creates a model of the environment that may be manipulated to solve problems and plan future behaviour.

Eg. The mental narrative that keeps track of when and where you will have to exit the current route, or which bus stop to get off at.

Question 5

Parallel distributed processing model

Answer 5

The method by which people use their senses to take in lots of different information at the same time and can understand it all within a single experience.

Units are distributed inside a vast network and all operate in parallel.

Units can switch on or turn off other units as information enters the network and becomes processed into memory.

Eg. when you see a bus coming towards you, you see it’s shape, colour, depth, and motion all at once.

Question 6

Explicit memory - aka declarative memory

Answer 6

A type of long-term memory that is concerned with recollection of facts and events.

Consists of information that is explicitly stored, and involves conscious effort to be retrieved.

Two types of explicit memory - episodic (graduation day) and semantic (knowledge)

Hippocampus is most important brain region for explicit memory. Serves as a preprocessor and elaborator of information.

Question 7

Recognition memory test

Answer 7

A measure of explicit memory that determines whether information has been seen or learned before.

Eg. multiple choice test

Question 8

Implicit memory - aka non-declarative memory

Answer 8

Information that you can recall unconsciously and without effort.

Second type of implicit memory is classical conditioning. We associate neutral stimulus (sound or light) with another stimulus (food), which creates a naturally occurring response, such as enjoyment or salivation.

Question 9

Recall memory

Answer 9

A measure of explicit memory that involves bringing memory information that has been previously remembered.

We rely on recall memory to generate previously remembered information.

Question 10

Spreading activation

Answer 10

Occurs when activating one element of a category activates other associated elements.

Eg. because tools are associated in a category, reminding people of the word “screwdriver” will help them remember the word “wrench.”

Question 11

Encoding

Answer 11

The process by which we place the things that we experience into memory. Unless info is encoded, it cannot be remembered.

Question 12

Elaborative encoding

Answer 12

When we process new info in ways that make it more relevant and meaningful.

Eg. Diagrams, mind maps, mneumonics, and analogies to help encode or remember info.

Question 13

Primacy effect

Answer 13

A tendency to better remember stimuli that are presented early in a list.

Question 14

Recency effect

Answer 14

The tendency to better remember stimuli that are presented later in a list.

Question 15

Long-term potentiation - LTP

My LTP takes a long time

Answer 15

A process by which synaptic connections between neurons become stronger with frequent activation.

LTP is thought to be a way in which the brain changes in response to experience, and thus may be an mechanism underlying learning and memory.

LTP happens gradually.

Question 16

Glutamate

Answer 16

Excitatory neurotransmitter that secretes glutamate when under stress.

Aids in learning and memory.

Question 17

Estrogen - memory

Answer 17

Also important for memory in all genders.

Women who experience menopause , along with a reduction in estrogen frequently report memory difficulties.

Question 18

Hippocampus and memory

Answer 18

Brain’s librarian - serves as switching point that holds the memory for a short time, and then directs to other parts of the brain such as the cortex, to do the rehearsing, elaboration, and long-term storage.

Without the hippocampus, our explicit memories would be inefficient and disorganized.

Question 19

Cerebellum - memory

Answer 19

Important in implicit memories

Question 20

Amygdala - memory

Answer 20

Important in emotional memories

Question 21

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 21

Memory disorder that produces an inability to retrieve events that occurred before a given time.

Occurs when people suffer a stroke or other trauma.

Amnesia works backwards.

Eg. I had a stroke in 2022, and can’t remember anything from my childhood until 2022 when the stroke happened.

Question 22

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 22

The inability to transfer information from short-term memory into long-term, making it impossible to form new memories.

Eg. 50 first dates

Question 23

Ebbinghaus’s forgetting curve

Answer 23

Ebbinghaus discovered that memory decays rapidly at first, but the degree of decay levels off with time.

Question 24

Retroactive interference (retro)

Answer 24

Occurs when learning something new impairs our ability to retrieve information that was learned earlier.

Eg. Once you’ve learned your new phone number, it’s hard to recall the old one.

Question 25

Proactive interference - UVic

Answer 25

Occurs when earlier learning impairs our ability to encode information that we try to learn later on.

Eg. UVic audition

Question 26

Mood-congruent memory

Answer 26

When we are in a good mood, we tend to forget or ignore memories of things that are incongruent with happiness.

When we are unhappy, we tend to forget happy memories.

Question 27

Source monitoring

Answer 27

The ability to accurately identify the source of a memory.

Studies suggest that people who are fantasy-prone are more likely to experience source monitoring errors.

Errors occur more often for children and elderly, than adolescents and younger adults.

Question 28

Misinformation effects

Answer 28

Errors in memory that occur when new information influences existing memories.

Misinformation can lead us to falsely remember info that never occurred.

Question 29

Overconfidence

Answer 29

The tendency for people to be too certain about their ability to accurately remember events and to make judgements.

Can lead us to falsely believe that what we remember is correct.

Question 30

Confabulation

Answer 30

The term that describes a memory that you have of something that is faulty because it actually happened to someone else, or because it never actually happened at all.

Family stores have been re-imagined and have created a confabulation. We are not aware that they have confabulated because their memory is very real.

Question 31

After multiple concussions, a former hockey athlete reports issues with memory and attention, well after recovery from the last concussion. According to research covered in lecture, what part of the brain and what cognitive deficit are most likely to account for these symptoms?

Answer 31

Answer: prefrontal cortex and inhibitory control

Question 32

At what age do humans develop self-recognition?

Answer 32

18 months

Question 33

10% of infants will show extreme distress to strangers when their parent leaves the room, with this attachment style.

Answer 33

Ambivalent