week 4: forgetting

Question 1

seven sins of memory (Schacter) list

Answer 1

• misattribution
• suggestibility
• bias
• persistance
• transience
• absentmindedness
• blocking

Question 2

forgetting usefulness

Answer 2

• may not want to maintain all experiences
• forgetting can be adaptive
• makes room for newer, more accurate engrams
• help in emo regulation
• helps disengage in past and focus on present

Question 3

engram

Answer 3

physical trace of a memory in the brain

Question 4

seven sins of memory (Schacter): transience

Answer 4

• memories are forgotten w passage of time
• less reproductive and more reconstructive over time
• ie forgetting curve (rapid early on and more time passed=more forgotten)

Question 5

seven sins of memory (Schacter): absentmindedness

Answer 5

• min wandering, not fully paying attention
• perception does not have to have as many details as usual bc you arent encoding info
• divided attention: not paying attention as much as you would if doing only one task

Question 6

seven sins of memory (Schacter): blocking

Answer 6

• cant access memory bc other ones get in the way (block)
• cue overload, when too many things are associated w one cue, it becomes less effective
• can be adaptive bc more effort to remember specific items makes it easy to remember later on

Question 7

seven sins of memory (Schacter): misattribution

Answer 7

• forgetting abt nature of source of memory
• forget nature of memory but not content

Question 8

seven sins of memory (Schacter): suggestibility

Answer 8

• outside sources suggest/lead memories to change
• you can gain false memories
• memories are implanted from outside sources which can make correct info be forgotten
• can be intentional or not

Question 9

seven sins of memory (Schacter): bias

Answer 9

• memories can be distorted to what you already know
• can lead to forgetting true info

Question 10

seven sins of memory (Schacter): persistence

Answer 10

• instead of forgetting, false info is not forgotten
• info that should be forgotten is not forgotten
• memory is compromised by incorrect knowledge

Question 11

when taking a picture what do you pay more attention to: action of you taking the pic or the content of the pic?

Answer 11

action of taking the pic

Question 12

availability vs accessibility

Answer 12

• availability: whether trace is present in memory, may not have been encoded/may be lost
• accessibility: idea that the trace is somewhere in memory but issue with getting to it

Question 13

forgetting of ABMs is more ____

Answer 13

linear
- stable amount of info is lost, increase in proportion of info lost

Question 14

negatively accelerating vs linear pattern of forgetting difference

Answer 14

negatively accelerating: conveys consistent loss in proportion of memories overtime
linear: conveys consistent loss in amount of info loss overtime
- increase in proportion lost overtime

Question 15

why does liner forgetting occur

Answer 15

• memories have components or features
• features are forgotten, following standard pattern
• during retrieval, only partial info is available
• memories can be reconstructed from partial traces and give accurate response

Question 16

law of disuse

Answer 16

as time passes w out memory being used, it decays away and is forgotten

Question 17

storage vs retrieval strength

Answer 17

storage: how well a memory is encoded, more practice, better storage strength
retrieval: ease of retrieval from memory, strongest after learning

Question 18

constant vs varied context in retrieval

Answer 18

varied was harder to remember bc it does not allow for retrieval strength to develop

Question 19

proactive interference

Answer 19

• older memories impair retrieval of newer memories, especially when they are similar
• decreased similarity releases proactive interference
• reduced by sleep
• info that is interleaved rather than blocks of related knowledge have less interference

Question 20

associate interference

Answer 20

• interference based on amount of associated info
• complexity of newly learned info
• fan effect: assumes info is stored in prepositional memory network with nodes repping individual concepts and links that rep associations between them

Question 21

retroactive interference

Answer 21

• newer memories impair retrieval for older memories
• during sleep there is less retroactive interference
• more severe recall than recognition (ie what did you see vs did you see this)
• with good cues, it is limited

Question 22

paradox of the expert

Answer 22

• experts have more info than novices but dont have difficulty in associative interference and can remember easier
• chunking

Question 23

event boundries and forgetting

Answer 23

• doorways, scene changes and transitions
• encountering event boundary leads set up of new mental model of event and moves mental model of old event out of WM to make room

Question 24

why do people not remember the object carried when going room to room vs going across a long room

Answer 24

move across the room: the object is in just one mental model and there is no interference
room to room: the object is now is two mental models and the memories compete during retrieval which produces interference

Question 25

event boundaries in memory and brain structure

Answer 25

- Angular gyrus/retrosplenial: shift in activity patterns at the boundry between events - parahippocampal cortex: navigationally salient landmarks - hippocampus: 'prediction error' signal follows this change in cortical activity - entrohinal cortex: detects regularities in enviro based on context

Question 26

how to reduce interference

Answer 26

- inhibition to actively reduce activation of interfering memories - but inhibiting related but irrelevant memories can also bring about forgetting - inhibited associates are harder to retrieve right after

Question 27

part set cuing

Answer 27

- poorer memory when provided w partial info - memory is worse (and even worse effect when given items they were more likely to remember)

Question 28

why does part set cuing occur

Answer 28

- retrieval plan is disrupted - retrieval competition (blocks retrieval of other items) - inhibition (as they go further in the list, items get more inhibited)

Question 29

negative priming

Answer 29

- inhibited associates are harder to retrieve right after - if ppl are probed for interfering memories right after being inhibited, they are less available - opposite of normal priming (info becomes more available) - remembering one thing makes remembering other things harder (causes forgetting)

Question 30

retrieval induced forgetting

Answer 30

- when ppl repeatedly retrieve part of a set of items they are inhibited - repeated retrieval causes competing but unretrieted traces become inhibited - probability of recalling non practiced memories decreases and ppl forget faster - simply: when you practice, whatever you do not practice gets inhibited and therefore easily forgotten - weakened memory for info closely related but unretrieved - inhibition of competing memories

Question 31

where is retrieval induced forgetting seen most

Answer 31

- recall and recognition - prose - sentences that are conceptually similar - ABM - prospective memories

Question 32

in one sentence each, summarize negative priming, retrieval induced forgetting, and part set cuing

Answer 32

- negative priming: slowed response to previously seen stim - retrieval induced forgetting: retrieving a memory impairs later recall of related but un retrieved memories - part set cuing: being cued w subset of items can impair recall of items not shown

Question 33

directed forgetting

Answer 33

- tell ppl to forget something and remember others - to be forgotten info is remembered worse and to be remembered info is remembered better - can be bc they dont rehearse it

Question 34

three types of testing directed forgetting

Answer 34

- item method: told which are to be remember and forgotten prior to starting task - list method: given list, then told to remember or forget it, then given a second list (do not know they will be told to forget it) - selected: given info then told to forget part of it based on criterion

Question 35

memory and social influence

Answer 35

- social info is a determinant of memory performance - different reports depend on audience - social pressure increases memory - better memory for info heard from ppl rather than computer screens - we remember faces better w directed gaze

Question 36

retraction

Answer 36

- sometimes we learn things and then find out they are incorrect - errors persist in re-recalling

Question 37

continued influence effect

Answer 37

- retracted info continues to influence our thinking - it is robust (doesnt matter if retraction is immediate or after a delay - can be reduced if ppl are given an alt causal explanation

Question 38

Knowledge revision components framework

Answer 38

- assumes that there are 5 mental processes that affect memory change - info encoded into LTM is permanent regardless of later correction - memories are are passively activated when new (related info is encountered as a result of us trying to understand event we come across - to correct misunderstanding, ppl need to reactivate older incorrect memory along w newer correct one - new knowledge is integrated w older knowledge of incorrect info

Question 39

collaborative inhibition

Answer 39

- when ppl recall things together they remember less than when they were to recall separately

Question 40

collaborative facilitation

Answer 40

- recognition is better in groups - ppl pool resources

Question 41

consensus bias

Answer 41

we assume ppl know what we know