Wk 12 - LTM 1

Question 1

What is the difference between episodic and semantic memories? (x2)
Plus eg test questions for each

Answer 1

Record of our experiences: context-sensitive, personal, autobiographical; ‘did you see a hippo last week?’, ‘did the word hippo appear in the list you saw earlier?’; vs
Contextual, abstract, non-autobiographical; ‘what is a hippo?’, ‘read/identify hippo’

Question 2

What is the recency effect? (x2)

Answer 2

Shown in the serial position curve
The fact that recall for items is higher for those presented last than the lowest point (at middle)
Items are still in WM

Question 3

What is the primacy effect? (x2)

Answer 3

Shown in the serial position curve
The fact that item recall is highest for those at the beginning of sequence
Reflects transfer into LTM

Question 4

What are the differences between STM and LTM? (x3)

Answer 4

STM is workspace for current actions, few seconds/minutes
Forgetting, unless rehearsed, which, if for long enough, also helps move it into the
LTM vast capacity for long-term retention; supports short-term store – ID words/objects etc; needs deliberate retrieval

Question 5

What are the issues of Atkinson/Shiffrin’s modal memory model? (x2)

Answer 5

Not rehearsal, but depth of processing that gets things into LTM
Not as simple as the box/arrow set-up

Question 6

How does Atkinson/Shiffrin’s modal memory model explain memory? (x4)

Answer 6

Environmental info goes into…
Sensory memory – iconic/visual/auditory etc, few hundred ms; modes for touch, vision etc; high capacity, fast decay unless moved with attention to the…
STM - use for actions, rehearsal gets stuff into the…
LTM

Question 7

Describe the components of typical episodic memory tasks? (x4)

Answer 7

Study phase – word, few seconds each; perform task on each, eg rate pleasantness
Retention interval – minutes, hrs, days; then either
Recall test – say/write words from study list; or
Recognition test – was the word X in the study list? yes/no, old/new

Question 8

What are the diffs between explicit and implicit memory tests? (x2)
Plus performance by brain injured?

Answer 8

Explicit/direct: Ps told they should retrieve items, do so deliberately/intentionally – brain injured often very poor on explicit tests
But may perform well on implicit: when asked to ID items or ‘give first thing that comes to mind’ – showing effects of study on memory

Question 9

What are the main causes of forgetting? (x2)

Answer 9

Decay may play role, researchers agree that

Interference and other effects located at retrieval are more important

Question 10

What have experiments shown about false memories? (x3)

Answer 10

Memory retrieval is super-malleable
A reconstructive process (through cue and context),
And reinforce difficult of accurately recovering source info

Question 11

What have experiments shown about memory inhibition? (x3)

Answer 11

Anderson showed that unpracticed target can be inhibited by practice of other items, and that
Inhibition during practice removes competition between blood and other words that belong with RED
But failures to replicate results

Question 12

What have experiments shown about forgetting? (x2)

Answer 12

Is more interference than decay

Time since stimulus is much lower effect than increasing the number of stim before testing

Question 13

What is memory? (x1)

Answer 13

Actionable preserved experience, inc sensation, emotions, thoughts, beliefs

Question 14

What are three possible recall tests in memory studies?

Answer 14

Free recall – any order Ps wishes
Serial recall – in order studied
Cued recall – cue provided

Question 15

What are three possible recognition tests in memory studies?

Answer 15

Single item recognition – each item presented one time for new/old decision
Choice test – which word is old? Eg house – cottage
Associated recognition – were pepper and elephant studies as a pair?

Question 16

The memory of a human is… (x7)

Answer 16

Slow, powerful parallel processor
Organised by experiences/significance
Access-cue less well specified – computer has particular cue for extracting particular memory, humans are less specific/more tangential
Part of experience is stored, dep on relevance
Info reinterpreted/distorted over time and during retrieval
Generalisation and composite memories, interference
Source info can be lost

Question 17

A computer memory is… (x7)

Answer 17

Rapid, accurate, serial
Organised by topic, date, place etc
Accessed from pre-defined cue
Complete/accurate representations
Info not altered during storage/retrieval
Memories remain separate
Details of context and source retained

Question 18

Our memory system needs… (x2)

All to be done while… (x1)

Answer 18

Access to past experience and relevant info that help with current situation, and
Forgetting of similar/irrelevant memories
Continuing other actions

Question 19

What is Loftus’ misinformation effect? (x1)

Answer 19

Leading question can = recalling something suggested during prior questioning, and not realising the source of this info

Question 20

What is the serial position curve? (x2)

Answer 20

Central finding on memory that dates back to Ebbinghaus/Murdock 1962
Showing highest recall for items at beginning of sequence (primacy effect), lowest in the middle, and rising again at the end (recency effect)

Question 21

Traditional tests of memory include variations of… (x4)

Answer 21

Item types, eg faces, pictures, abstract shapes
Number of items – single items vs pairs/groups; single items vs associations
One study trial/item vs several
Cues/not provided

Question 22

Interpretation of the results of memory tests must consider… (x2)

Answer 22

Response bias or good memory? 90% correct on old items just that Ps says old most of the time? Accuracy scores best interpreted when FA are low
Hits between groups can be compared if FA are low and similar

Question 23

How can we eliminate response bias in memory tests? (x5)

Answer 23

Need to separate signal from bias – take into account False Alarms, old responses to new items
Hit – correctly IDing on old item
Miss – incorrectly calling an item new
FA – incorrect detection of new stimulus (saying it is old)
CR – correct ID of new item

Question 24

What can increase bias in memory test responses? (x2)

Answer 24

Incentives/demand characteristics, eg being offered 50 cents for correct recog
Presentation in distinctive context/background: new face in old background = inc in recognition of new faces = inc bias

Question 25

What methodological steps (plus eg) can be taken to reduce bias in memory test responses? (x4)

Answer 25

Items in diff conditions must be similar as possible,
eg high or low frequency words – impairment or difficulty of words? Or diff might give clues as to what is old/new
Between groups – use same item sets
Within-groups – match item sets, or counterbalance

Question 26

Implicit/semantic memory can be tested by… (x4)

Which all show… (x1)

Answer 26

Lexical decision task (LDT): make quick word/no-word decision for each letter string;
Name a briefly presented word, eg kitchen
Complete the word stem, eg ki___
Free association: first word thought of when I say cook?
Implicit memory through influences on performance of previously seen words - priming

Question 27

Schacter/Tulving/Wang 1981 showed implicit memory in Korsakoff’s (vitamin B deficiency/impaired acquisition of new memories) by… (x2)
Showing that… (x1)

Answer 27

Asked multi-choice trivia, then put questions back in the pile;
Repeated questions were better answered, but Ps unable to say they’d seen them before
Explicit memory lost, but still semantic effects – unable to use contextual and source info

Question 28

What are issues around decay as the cause of forgetting? (x2)

Answer 28

Originally believed to fade through lack of use, but is circular hypothesis
Jenkins/Dallebach found greater memory loss in awake people - concluded interference as larger source

Question 29

What are the two types of interference effects in retrieval of memories?

Answer 29

Proactive: old info blocks new, eg recall of short words lists decreases as number of prior lists increases
Retroactive: new info blocks old, eg earlier list recall worse than that of current

Question 30

Baddely/Hitch showed interference in memory retrieval through which study…
Leading to the conclusion that… (x2)

Answer 30

Rugby players in the pub exhibited much more memory loss with increased number of games played since, than time elapsed
Forgetting is more interference than decay
Time since stimulus is much lower effect than increasing the number of stim before testing

Question 31

What are the conceptual and practical issues of memory suppression/inhibition? (x4)

Answer 31

Traumatic events often very well-remembered, due to effects of arousal on memory encoding
Difficult to establish historical facts
Event in childhood may not be well understood at the time – memories poorly retrieved because fragmented/difficult to interpret

Question 32

What experiments have shown the misinformation effect? (x2)

Answer 32

16% of Ps shown a Disney brochure with Bugs Bunny picture on it later had memory of meeting him there – impossible, as he’s a Warner Bros character
Deese, Roeidger, McDermott (DRM) paradigm: Ps shown related words (bed, dream, wake, tired), 50% will recall seeing sleep, and claim a clear memory of seeing it on list

Question 33

What are the three steps of an experiment to test memory inhibition, using 2 pairs of related words?

Answer 33

Ps presented with both pairs, fruit-banana, fruit-apple
Practice/repeat only one of the pairs
Test recall for pairs of practiced/unpracticed/unrelated items