PSYCH 104 Final (Memory)

Question 1

Memory (The storage metaphor: issues?)

Answer 1

The flaw:
- If this was how it was done we would be able to recall memories perfectly as they happened

Question 2

Memory illusion (What is it?)

Answer 2

• Memory illusion
  ○ False but subjectively compelling memory

Question 3

Forgetting (What is it?)

Answer 3

Forgetting
- Deterioration in learned behavior following a retention interval

Question 4

Retention interval (What is it?)

Answer 4

○ Retention interval: a period during which the learning or practice of a behavior does not occur

Question 5

Memory (What are its three components?)

Answer 5

1. Sensory memory
2. Short term memory
3. Long term memory

Answer 6

• Sensory memory:
  A brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short term memory

Question 7

Sensory memory (Iconic store / memory)

Answer 7

§ Iconic store / memory:
□ Visual sensory memory that only lasts about a second
□ George sperling: Method of partial report

Question 8

Sensory memory (Echoic store / echoic memory)

Answer 8

§ Echoic store / echoic memory”
□ Auditory sensory memory that only lasts 5-10 seconds

Question 9

Short term / working memory (What is it?)

Answer 9

○ Memory system that retains information for limited durations.
Encompasses information currently being attended to, thought about or “processing” in some way

Question 10

Short term memory is short because of?

Answer 10

• Decay
• Interference

Question 11

Short term memory (Decay)

Answer 11

□ Decay: fading of information from memory because competition from additional incoming information

Question 12

Short term memory (interference)

Answer 12

□ Inference: loss of information from memory because of competition from additional incoming information
® Retroactive interference: interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information
® Proactive interference: interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information

Question 13

Short term memory (What is our capacity?)

Answer 13

○ Has limited capacity of 7+/- 2
§ Magic number: the assumed span of short term memory
□ Researchers are not unanimous on this point
□ Digit span task

Question 14

Short term memory (Chunking)

Answer 14

○ Chunking:
§ Organizing information into meaningful groupings, allow us to extend the span of short term memory.

Question 15

Short term memory (Rehearsal)

Answer 15

○ Rehearsal:
Repeating information to extend the duration of retention in short-term memory

Question 16

Short term memory (Rehearsal: Maintenance rehearsal)

Answer 16

□ Maintenance rehearsal:
® Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory

Question 17

Short term memory (Rehearsal: Elaborative rehearsal)

Answer 17

□ Elaborative rehearsal:
® Linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retentic information in short term memory

Question 18

REMEMBER THE PIGEON

Answer 18

Pigeon facing right
- brown coffee mug on head
- “coffee makes me poop”

Question 19

Short term memory (Levels of processing)

Answer 19

○ Levels of processing / depth of processing
A model of memory that posits the more “deeply” we process information, the better we are at remembering it

Question 20

Short term memory (Levels of processing: 3 levels?)

Answer 20

§ Has three levels:
□ Structural
□ Phonological
- Sematic

Question 21

Short term memory (Levels of processing: issues?)

Answer 21

§ Problem
□ Circulatory
□ Falsifiability

Question 22

Long term memory

Answer 22

• Long term memory (LTM)
  ○ Relatively enduring (from minutes to years) retention of information stored regarding our facts, experiences, and skills
  ○ Has large capacity (unlike STM)
  ○ Lasts for hours to years
  § Permastore: type of long term memory that appears to be permanent

Question 23

Memory (primacy effect)

Answer 23

○ Primacy effect: tendancy to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
§ Traditionally thought to reflect LTM processes

Question 24

Memory (Recency effect)

Answer 24

○ Recency effect: Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
§ Traditionally thought to reflect STM processes

Question 25

Serial position curve (What is it?)

Answer 25

(this curve is known as a serial position curve)
- U shaped curve
- Uses Primacy and recency effects

Question 26

Repeated retrieval (What is it?)

Answer 26

• Repeated retrieval:
  ○ Repeatedly trying to recall/use the material over time
  § Example: quizzing yourself

Question 27

Long term memory (Explicit: Semantic memory)

Answer 27

• Semantic memory (Conscious)
  ○ Our knowledge of facts about the world
  ○ Also known to as refered “declarative memory”

Question 28

Long term memory (Explicit memory)

Answer 28

• Explicit memory
  ○ Memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness of

Question 29

Long term memory (Explicit: episodic memory)

Answer 29

• Episodic memory
  ○ Recollection of events in our lives

Question 30

Long term memory (Implicit memory)

Answer 30

• Implicit memory (unconcious)
  ○ Memories we dont deliberately remember or reflect on consciously

Question 31

Long term memory (Implicit: Procedural memory)

Answer 31

• Procedural memory
  ○ Memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits

Question 32

Long term memory (Implicit: Priming memory)

Answer 32

• Priming
  ○ The activation of one concept by another

Question 33

Long term memory (Semantic priming)

Answer 33

(Semantic) priming
- Semantically related words will result in faster reaction times
(ESSENTIALLY WHEN WE HAVE WORDS TOGETHER THAT LOGICALLY MAKE SENSE WE RESPOND FASTER)

Question 34

Memory as a network (What are the parts?)

Answer 34

• Memory as a network of associations
  ○ Theory that memory can be represented as a network of associated concepts
  ○ Each concept is represented by a “node”
  ○ Lines between concepts represent “associations”
  ○ Shorter lines mean longer relationships
  ○ Often conceptualized as neural network with each node being equivalent to a neuron
  ○ Problem
  § Unfalsifiable

Question 35

Neural basis of memory storage (Engram)

Answer 35

• Engram
  ○ A, hypothesized, physical trance of a memory with the brain
  ○ Karl Lashley
  § Trained rats on a maze
  § Lesioned brain areas

Question 36

Hebbian learning (What did he hypothesize?)

Answer 36

• Hebbian learning
  ○ Donald Hebb, in 1949, hypothesized …
  § When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth processes or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased
  § Example: neurons that fire together wire together

Question 37

Neural basis of memory storage (Long term potentiation of synapses)

Answer 37

The neural basis of memory storage
- Long term potentiation of synapses (LTP)
○ A long lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously
§ Potentiation: an increased effect to evoke a post-synaptic potential

Question 38

Amnesia (Retrograde amnesia)

Answer 38

Amnesia
- Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory from our past

Question 39

Amnesia (Anterograde amnesia)

Answer 39

• Anterograde amnesia
  ○ Inability to form new memories from our experiences

Question 40

H. M. (Who was he and what was done to him?)

Answer 40

H. M.

- Child who had issues in school and life 
- Tried to remove his limbic system 
- Had someone sent to his house where he conducted studies 
- Even though he did not have memories anymore he could still retain information 
- He had no hippocampus  Procedural memory happens in the basal ganglia and the cerebellum

Question 41

Amnesia (consolidation)

Answer 41

Consolidation:
- A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long term memory

Question 42

Alzheimer’s Disease (What is it?)

Answer 42

Alzheimer’s disease
- A degenerative brain disease that results in dementia
○ Language deteriorates along with other bodily processes
○ Risks increase with age
○ Strong genetic component
○ Associated with a number of neurological abnormalities
§ Eg. Deterioration of acetylcholine neurons in the cortex
○ Early lifestyle may play a large part in its progression
§ Eg. Nun study

Question 43

The nun study (What was it?)

Answer 43

Essentially they were developing Alzheimer’s but their cognitive decline was not evident in their behaviors
- It is believed that this is because of the lifestyle they lived

Question 44

Amnesia (Infantile amnesia)

Answer 44

• Inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age
  ○ Occurs for events before the age of 2-3 years old
• May be due to…
  ○ Underdeveloped hippocampus
  ○ No sense of self

Question 45

False memories (Cryptomnesia)

Answer 45

• Cryptomnesia
  ○ Failiure to recignoise that our ideas originated with someone else
  § May be the result of source monitoring confusion, a lack of clarity about the origin of a memory

Question 46

False memories (Misinformation effect)

Answer 46

• Misinformation effect
  ○ Creation of fictious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place

Question 47

False memories (Implanted memories)

Answer 47

• Implanted memories
  ○ Fact or fiction?
• they can occur