Week 5 Memory

Question 1

Define memory

Answer 1

Encoding, storing and retrieving connections.

Sensory memory
Working memory
Long term memory

Question 2

What is encoding?

Answer 2

Paying attention to specific stimuli.

Question 3

What is storage?

Answer 3

Maintaining coded information over time

Question 4

What is retrieval?

Answer 4

How is the information ‘brought back out’?
recovering information from memory stores

Question 5

What is sensory memory?

Answer 5

Happens over very short (about 1 second) period of time, to get your attention. If that is successful, the memory will then move into your working memory. Eg noise or seeing something.

Question 6

What is working memory?

Answer 6

Your conscious awareness - anything your are consciously aware of at any point in time is running through your working memory and when you cease to be aware of it (out of mind) it has gone from your working memory.

Question 7

What is long term memory?

Answer 7

Long-term memory refers to the storage of information over an extended period. If you can remember something that happened more than just a few moments ago whether it occurred just hours ago or decades earlier, then it is a long-term memory.

Question 8

What happens when attention is disrupted?

Answer 8

(either ‘early’ in processing with distraction, or ‘late’ in processing with overloading) almost always results in significant disruptions to memory encoding.

Question 9

Strategies for improving encoding

Answer 9

* Elaboration – linking the stimulus to other ideas or events
* Visual Imagery – holding a relevant image in the ‘mind’s eye’
* Self-Relevance – framing information as relevant to oneself
* Motivation to Remember – explicitly thinking about possible
future contexts when it may be useful

Question 10

How long does sensory memory last for?

Answer 10

About one second

Question 11

How long does working memory maintained?

Answer 11

About 10-20 seconds if rehearsed

Question 12

How many units of info can we keep in WM at any given time

Answer 12

About 5-7 in ideal settings (eg controlled lab)
About 4-5 in the real life with other distractions

Question 13

What are the different components of Baddely’s Working Memory Model?

Answer 13

* Phonological Loop
* Visuospatial sketchpad
* Central Executive
* Episodic Buffer

Question 14

What is the phonological loop in working memory?

Answer 14

– ‘silent speech’ apparatus used to repeat
words to oneself (used in rehearsal)

Question 15

What is the Visuospatial sketchpad in working memory?

Answer 15

Spatial reasoning system where we imagine and manipulate abstract images.

Question 16

What is the central executive in working memory?

Answer 16

parses motivations, directs effort/attention

Question 17

What is the central episodic buffer in working memory?

Answer 17

– the multimodal store that lasts 10-20 sec

Question 18

Name the two main types of long term memory

Answer 18

Declarative and Procedural

Question 19

What is declarative memory?

Answer 19

Information that is consciously summoned as verbally describable facts, events or beliefs.

Broken down further into:

* Semantic memories

* Episodic memories

Question 20

What are procedural memories

Answer 20

How we do things - All of the other, more subtle & unconscious ways we learn about and adapt to the world.

Eg

Knowing how to ride a bicycle / drive a car

The ‘second-nature’ skills from practicing sports or dances

The well-rehearsed and reliable pattern of your signature

Bad habits like absent-minded biting one’s nails

The bad feeling you get around people who once wronged you

Question 21

What are episodic memories

Answer 21

– considered events that occurred somewhere within the narrative of one’s life-history

Question 22

What are semantic memories?

Answer 22

– have no episodic encoding, just facts (ie like general knowdlege)

Question 23

What part of the brain is responsible for long term memories?

Answer 23

Hippocampus - therefore interfering with the functioning of the hippocampus will disrupt memory

Question 23

What part of the brain is responsible for long term memories?

Answer 23

Hippocampus - therefore interfering with the functioning of the hippocampus will disrupt memory

Question 24

What is Retrograde Amnesia?

Answer 24

the loss of past Long-Term Memories, which can affect either episodic or semantic memories, but rarely procedural

Question 25

What is Retrograde Amnesia?

Answer 25

the loss of past Long-Term Memories, which can affect either episodic or semantic memories, but rarely procedural

Question 26

What is Anterograde Amnesia?

Answer 26

inability to encode new LT Memories, affects primarily episodic memory, but also semantic memory, yet new procedural memories can still be encoded