Week 3 - Working memory

Question 1

What are the three components to memory? Are they completely distinct or related?

Answer 1

1)acquisition/encoding
2) storage
3) retrieval
Related - current memories (retrieval) influence new memories (acquisition) ie influence of schemas

Question 2

What are the four steps of the modal model of memory?

Answer 2

input –> sensory memory –>short-term (working) memory –> long term memory

Question 3

What are three key differences between short term & long term memory?

Answer 3

1) short term is smaller 2) easier to put input into short term memory than long term 3) easier to retrieve memories from short term

Question 4

What does the recency effect reveal about memory?

Answer 4

Items recalled due to recency effect are remembered because they are still in working memory which has limited capacity but from which items can be easily retrieved

Question 5

What does the primacy effect reveal about memory?

Answer 5

Items recalled due to the primacy effect are remembered because they were rehearsed enough to be stored into long term memory

Question 6

What is an example of evidence for the existence of two different memory structures: long term & short term (working)?

Answer 6

brain damage dissociation, primacy/recency effects,

Question 7

According to the spreading activation model how do you retrieve a memory?

Answer 7

You use retrieval paths (associative links of activated nodes) to facilitate memory retrieval

Question 8

Why does studying meaning enhance long term memory? What is an example?

Answer 8

Creates additional retrieval paths so that activation may spread from multiple paths and reach the specified memory earlier.

Question 9

How do mnemonics help one to remember? How are mnemonics flawed?

Answer 9

Organizes material for easier retrieval. You don’t gain deeper processing with mnemonics

Question 10

How can you making spreading activation more directed & fast?

Answer 10

retrieval cues

Question 11

What are two subdivisions of explicit memory?

Answer 11

1) episodic 2) semantic

Question 12

episodic memory

Answer 12

category of long-term memory that involves the recollection of specific events, situations, and experiences.

Question 13

semantic memory

Answer 13

a portion of long-term memory that processes ideas and concepts that are not drawn from personal experience. Semantic memory includes things that are common knowledge, such as the names of colors, the sounds of letters, the capitals of countries and other basic facts acquired over a lifetime.

Question 14

What are four subdivisions of implicit memory?

Answer 14

1) procedural
2) priming
3) perceptual learning
4) classical conditioning

Question 15

What is an example of evidence for the existence of distinct implicit and explicit memory?

Answer 15

There is double dissociation evidence.
Occipital lesion: patient did well on explicit but poorly on implicit memory tests.
Amnesiacs: worse at explicit than implicit

Question 16

implicit memory

Answer 16

which you use unconsciously, unconscious retrieval

Question 17

explicit memory

Answer 17

deals with remembering facts and events. Conscious retrieval

Question 18

What is an example of a “illusion of truth”? Why does this happen?

Answer 18

You hear a slogan that sounds familiar but cannot place where you heard it and thus assume it to be true even if it is not. Effect of implicit memory, failure of source memory

Question 19

Illusion of truth

Answer 19

We have a tendency to say that familiar things are true.

Question 20

What is a way to test explicit memory? Implicit?

Answer 20

Explicit: recall
Implicit: word-stem completion, lexical decision, tachistoscopic recognition

Question 21

What is the generation effect?

Answer 21

info you generate yourself is better remembered

Question 22

What is intrusion error & why does it happen?

Answer 22

When memories collide so that one memory intrudes into the recall of another. Caused by too many connections between the two

Question 23

What is the DRM procedure and what does it reveal about memory?

Answer 23

participants recall having seen the theme of a list of words when the theme word itself was not present. Reveals tendency to generalize & make sense of memory

Question 24

What are four possible causes of forgetting?

Answer 24

1) “ultra-rapid forgetting” never paid attention initially 2) decay as a result of time 3) interference theory (limited capacity of LTM) 4) retrieval failure, erosion of connections, retrieval paths

Question 25

What is the Baddeley working memory model? Evidence for this model?

Answer 25

Alternative to modal model, central executive allocates resources to phonological loop, episodic buffer & visual-spatial sketchpad. Limited capacity. Interference when you try to use one of these “slave systems” for two processes simultaneously.

Question 26

What is the Semantic Network Model?

Answer 26

Organization model for LTM. Activation spreads from one word to associated words. Think of Taboo

Question 27

flashbulb memory

Answer 27

highly detailed, exceptionally vivid “snapshot” of the moment and circumstances in which a piece of surprising and consequential (or emotionally arousing) news was learned about.

Question 28

Serial Position effect

Answer 28

is the tendency of a person to recall the first and last items in a series basis

• primacy effect
• recency effect

Question 29

Methods to measure working memory:

span tasks

Answer 29

• dIgit span:listen to a list of digits and repeat them back, with the amount of digit increasing each time (until you start making errors)
• Operation span: solve an equation (answering yes or no) and then remember the word paired with the equation

Question 30

Phonological loop

Answer 30

s a component of working memory model that deals with spoken and written material. It is subdivided into the phonological store (which holds information in a speech-based form) and the articulatory process (which allows us to repeat verbal information in a loop).

Question 31

Central executive

Answer 31

runs the control centre of the working memory, does not store information but coordinates it

Question 32

Entering long term memory:

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 32

repeated information that enter LTM, but not as effective as elaborative rehearsal

Question 33

Entering long term memory:

Elaborative rehearsal

Answer 33

Think and elaborate on the meaning of the information