Week 6 Flashcards
What is context-dependent learning?
Creating memory connections related to the context in which you are learning the material.
How does context dependent learning affect retrieval?
improved recall of specific episodes or information when the context present at encoding and retrieval are the same.
What is encoding specificity?
That what you encode (place into memory) is specific, not just the physical stimulus but the stimulus together with its context.
What are retrieval cues?
Stimuli that help us to retrieve certain memories.
Once the “node” passes an activation threshold the memory will be recalled.
What is semantic priming and how is that thought to influence performance?
Semantic priming = a specific prior event of a related word will produce a state of readiness later on.
= faster performance on lexical decision task
What is recall?
You’re presented with a retrieval cue that broadly identifies the information you seek, and you need to come up with the information on your own.
What is recognition?
Information is presented to you and you must decide whether it’s the sought after information.
What are the differences between implicit and explicit memory?
Implicit memory: unconscious and automatic
Explicit memory: Consciously recalled memories
How do you test implicit memory?
Indirect memory testing
What is the illusion of truth?
Repurcussions?
Familiarity increases credibility
Repercussions = political misinformation for example. People believe things that aren’t true because they are familiar
What is the hierarchy of memory?
Memory –> explicit –> episodic & semantic
Memory –> implicit –> procedural memory, priming, perceptual learning, classical conditioning
What is retrograde amnesia?
often caused by blows to the head; the person is unable to recall events that occurred just before the blow.
What is anterograde amnesia?
Causes disruption of memory for experiences after the onset of amnesia.
What is generic, episodic and source memory?
Generic (semantic) - general knowledge
Episodic - life events
Source - source of info
What are memory errors and distortions?
Different nodes are all connected by associations and thoughts that link events and details.
You can lose track of which bits of information were contained within which event
What are intrusion errors?
Why does this happen?
Errors in which other knowledge intrudes into the remembered event.
The connections that help you retrieve information can also make it difficult to see where one memory stops and starts.
Explain the DRM procedure?
Participants are shown a list of associated words (e.g. related to sleep) and eventually asked to recall the words. Participants often include other associated words such as the word sleep in a list of words that were all related to sleep but sleep wasn’t on the list.
what are schemas?
Schemas summarise the broad pattern of what’s normal in a situation e.g. what happens in a restaurant.
Why are misleading questions and misinformation problematic?
It is easy to influence people’s memories of an event.
Problematic in situations such as eyewitnesses.
How does confidence influence remembering?
People tend to trust memories that are expressed with confidence.
What are the primary causes of forgetting?
Retention interval - amount of time between learning & initial retrieval
Decay theory of forgetting - memories fade over time
Interference theory - new things learnt interrupt old memories
Retrieval failure - still there, cant access it
What are flashbulb memories? How reliable are they?
Memories of extraordinary clarity, typically for highly emotional events, retained despite the passage of many years.
Not very
What can be done to help forgetting be undone?
Cognitive interview - provides cues to try and trigger memories
How does emotion influence memory?
Emotion enhances consolidation.
Consolidation = the process through which memories are biologically cemented in place.
