Psych Ch. 7: Memory: Remembrance of Things Past--and Future

Retrieval cue

A clue or prompt that can be used to enable or trigger the recovery of a memory in storage.

Repression

A defense mechanism that protects the person from anxiety by ejecting anxiety-evoking ideas and impulses from awareness; in Freud's psychodynamic theory, the automatic (unconscious) ejection of anxiety-evoking ideas, impulses, or images from awareness.

Dissociative amnesia

A dissociative disorder marked by loss of memory or self-identity; skills and general knowledge are usually retained. Thought to stem from psychological conflict or trauma.

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin model of memory?

Atkinson and Shiffrin propose that there are three stages of memory--sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory--and that the progress of information through these stages determines whether it is remembered and for how long.

What is implicit memory?

Implicit or procedural memory means knowing how to do things like write with a pencil or ride a bicycle.

Recognition

In information processing, the easiest memory task, involving identification of objects or events encountered before.

Displace

In memory theory, to cause information to be lost from short-term memory by adding new information.

Infantile amnesia

Inability to recall events that occurred prior to the age of 3 or so; also termed childhood amnesia.

Context-dependent memory

Information that is better retrieved in the context in which it was encoded and stored, or learned.

State-dependent memory

Information that is better retrieved in the physiological or emotional state in which it was encoded and stored, or learned.

The Petersons showed that information can be displaced from short-term memory by means of _______.

Interference

What neural events are connected with memory?

Learning is apparently connected with the proliferation of dendrites and synapses in the brain. Learning and memory are also connected with the release of the neurotransmitters serotonin and acetylcholine and the hormones adrenaline and vasopressin.

Why do people frequently have trouble recalling being in accidents.

Physical trauma can interfere with memory formation. Two kinds of amnesia are caused by physical trauma. In anterograde amnesia, a traumatic event such as damage to the hippocampus prevents the formation of new memories. In retrograde amnesia, shock or other trauma prevents previously known information from being retrieved.

Can children remember events from the first couple years of life?

Probably not. This phenomenon is referred to as infantile amnesia. Freud believed that infantile amnesia is due to repression, but modern psychologists believe that it reflects factors such as immaturity of the hippocampus and failure to use acoustic and semantic codes to help remember information.

Loftus and other psychologists have shown that we _______ our memories according to our schemas.

Reconstruct

In _________ interference, new learning interferes with the retrieval of old learning.

Retroactive

In _________ amnesia, the source of trauma prevents people from remembering events that took place beforehand.

Retrograde

Working memory

Same as short-term memory.

Feeling-of-knowing experience

Same as tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon.

_________-dependent memory refers to information that is better retrieved under the circumstances in which it was encoded and stored.

Context

Detailed memories of surprising, important, and emotional events are termed _______ memories.

Flashbulb

Semantic memory

General knowledge, as opposed to episodic memory.

Infantile amnesia probably reflects lack of language and immaturity of the brain structure called the ____________.

Hippocampus

The mental representations of visual stimuli are referred to as _______.

Icons

One way of storing information is by _______ rehearsal, or by mentally repeating it.

Maintenance

Nonsense syllables

Meaningless sets of two consonants, with a vowel sandwiched between, that are used to study memory.

Rote

Mechanical associative learning that is based on repetition.

Episodic memory

Memories of events experienced by a person or that take place in the person's presence.

Explicit memory

Memory that clearly and distinctly expresses (explicates) specific information; also referred to as declarative memory.

Implicit memory

Memory that is suggested (implied) but not plainly expressed, as illustrated in the things that people do but do not state clearly; also referred to as nondeclarative memory.

Prospective memory

Memory to perform an act in the future, as at a certain time or when a certain event occurs.

Maintenance rehearsal

Mental repetition of information to keep it in memory.

Semantic code

Mental representation of information according to its meaning.

Visual code

Mental representation of information as a picture.

Acoustic code

Mental representation of information as a sequence of sounds.

Encoding

Modifying information so that it can be placed in memory; the first stage of information processing.

The hippocampus appears vital to the storage of _____ information.

New

Ebbinghaus originated the use of __________ syllables in the study of memory and forgetting.

Nonsense

Paired associates

Nonsense syllables presented in pairs in experiments that measure recall.

What types of memory tasks are used in measuring forgetting?

Nonsense syllables were developed by Ebbinghaus in the 19th century as a way of measuring the functions of memory. Retention is often tested through three types of memory tasks: recognition, recall, and relearning.

In ___________ interference, old learning interferes with the capacity to retrieve more recently learned material.

Proactive

What is the Freudian concept of repression?

Repression refers to Freud's concept of motivated forgetting. Freud suggested that we are motivated to forget painful memories or unacceptable ideas. Research on the recovery of repressed memories is quite controversial.

Why do we sometimes feel that the answer to a question is on the tip of our tongue?

Research suggests that the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon often reflects incomplete learning.

What is the role of retrieval in memory?

Retrieval means locating stored information and bringing it back into consciousness. Retrieval requires the use of the proper cues (just as we need to know the file name to retrieve information stored on a hard drive). Memory is defined as the processes by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Recall

Retrieval or reconstruction of learned material.

Metamemory

Self-awareness of the ways memory functions, allowing the person to encode, store, and retrieve information effectively.

_______ memories concern generalized knowledge.

Semantic

Memory

The processes by which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved.

Saccadic eye movement

The rapid jumps made by a person's eyes as they fixate on different points.

Echoic memory

The sensory register that briefly holds mental representations of auditory stimuli.

Iconic memory

The sensory register that briefly holds mental representations of visual stimuli.

Misinformation effect

The shaping of bogus or slanted memories by providing inaccurate information as, for example, in the form of "leading questions."

Serial-position effect

The tendency to recall more accurately the first and last items in a series.

How is knowledge organized in long-term memory?

We tend to organize information according to a hierarchical structure. That is, we classify or arrange chunks of information into groups or classes according to common features.

Primacy effect

(a) The tendency to recall the initial items in a series of items. (b) The tendency to evaluate others in terms of first impressions.

Recency effect

(a) The tendency to recall the last items in a series of items. (b) The tendency to evaluate others in terms of the most recent impression.

Hippocampus

A structure in the limbic system that plays an important role in the formation of new memories.

Sensory register

A system of memory that holds information briefly, but long enough so that it can be processed further. There may be a sensory register for every sense.

Schema

A way of mentally representing the world, such as a belief or an expectation, that can influence perception of persons, objects, and situations; according to Piaget, a hypothetical mental structure that permits the classification and organization of new information.

What is semantic memory?

Semantic memory is general knowledge, as in remembering that the United States has 50 states or that Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

The Atkinson-Shiffrin model hypothesizes three stages of memory: _______, _______, and ______.

Sensory, short-term, long-term

According to the _______-position effect, we are most likely to recall the first and last items in a series.

Serial

Conditioning of sea snails causes more of the neurotransmitter _________ to be released at certain synapses, making transmission at the synapses more efficient.

Serotonin

Is seven a magic number, or did the phone company get lucky?

Seven may not be a magic number, but it seems that the typical person can remember about seven chunks of information (juggle that many pieces of information in short-term memory).

According to Ebbinghaus' classic curve of forgetting, recollection drops _____ during the first hour after learning a list.

Sharply

Why can some events, like the attack of September 11, 2001, be etched in memory for a lifetime?

So-called flashbulb memories, as of the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, or the death of a public figure like Princess Diana of JFK Jr., tend to occur within a web of unusual and emotionally arousing circumstances. We may elaborate them extensively--that is, relate them to many things.

What is the role of storage in memory?

Storage means the maintenance of information over time. The main methods of storing information are maintenance rehearsal (rote repetition) and elaborative rehearsal (relating it to things we already know).

Experience enhances the avenues of communication among brain cells by development of dendrites and ________.

Synapses

The _______ seems to be involved in the formation of verbal memories.

Thalamus

Priming

The activation of specific associations in memory, often as a result of repetition and without making a conscious effort to access the memory.

Savings

The difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn a list and the number of repetitions required to relearn the list after a certain amount of time has elapsed.

Tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon

The feeling that information is stored in memory although it cannot be readily retrieved; also called the feeling-of-knowing experience.

What structures in the brain are connected with memory?

The hippocampus relays sensory information to the cortex and is therefore vital in the formation of new memories. Visual memories appear to be stored in the visual cortex, auditory memories in the auditory cortex, and so on. The thalamus is connected with the formation of visual memories.

Retroactive interference

The interference of new learning with the ability to retrieve material learned previously

Proactive interference

The interference of old learning with the ability to retrieve material learned recently.

Elaborative rehearsal

The kind of coding in which new information is related to information that is already known.

Retrieval

The location of stored information and its return to consciousness; the third stage of information processing.

Eidetic imagery

The maintenance of detailed visual memories over several minutes.

Storage

The maintenance of information over time; the second stage of information processing.

What is the levels-of-processing model of memory?

This model views memory in terms of a single dimension--not three stages. It is hypothesized that we encode, store, and retrieve information more efficiently when we have processed it more deeply.

Why are we most likely to remember the first and last items in a list?

This phenomenon is referred to as the serial-position effect. We tend to remember the initial items in a list because they are rehearsed most often (the primacy effect). We tend to remember the final items in a list because they are least likely to have been displaced by new information (the recency effect).

The _____-of-the-tongue phenomenon is most likely due to incomplete learning.

Tip

Method of savings

A measure of retention in which the difference between the number of repetitions originally required to learn a list and the number of repetitions required to relearn the list after a certain amount of time has elapsed is calculated.

Relearning

A measure of retention. Material is usually relearned more quickly than it is learned initially.

Flashbulb memory

A memory that is highly detailed and strongly emotionally elaborated because of its great and unusual significance.

Icon

A mental representation of a visual stimulus that is held briefly in sensory memory.

Echo

A mental representation of an auditory stimulus (sound) that is held briefly in sensory memory.

What is the difference between retrospective memory and prospective memory?

A retrospective memory concerns events in the past that can be explicit or implicit. A prospective memory involves remembering to do things in the future. Prospective memory is affected by factors such as distraction, mood, and age.

Chunk

A stimulus or group of stimuli that is perceived as a discrete piece of information.

Memory trace

An assumed change in the nervous system that reflects the impression made by a stimulus. Memory traces are said to be "held" in sensory registers.

Engram

An assumed electrical circuit in the brain that corresponded to a memory trace.

What is episodic memory?

An episodic memory is a memory of a specific event that one has observed or participated in.

What is explicit memory?

An explicit memory contains specific information--information that can be clearly stated or declared. The information can be autobiographical or general.

In _______ amnesia, there are memory lapses for the period following a traumatic event.

Anterograde

________ imagery is the ability to retain exact mental representations of visual stimuli over long amounts of time.

Eidetic

________ is the transforming of information so that we can remember it.

Encoding

Long-term memory

The type or stage of memory capable of relatively permanent storage.

Sensory memory

The type or stage of memory first encountered by a stimulus. Sensory memory holds impressions briefly, but long enough so that series of perceptions are psychologically continuous.

Short-term memory

The type or stage of memory that can hold information for up to a minute or so after the trace of the stimulus decays; also called working memory.

Interference theory

The view that we may forget stored material because other learning interferes with it.

How does long-term memory function?

There is no known limit to the amount of information that can be stored in long-term memory, and memories can be stored for a lifetime. However, long-term memories have not been shown to be perfectly accurate. They are frequently biased because they are reconstructed according to our schemas--that is, our ways of mentally organizing our experiences. The memories of eyewitnesses can also be distorted by leading questions. Information is usually transferred from short-term to long-term memory by maintenance rehearsal (rote repetition) and elaborative rehearsal (relating information to things that are already known).

Why can learning Spanish make it harder to remember French?

This is an example of retroactive interference, in which new learning interferes with old learning. In proactive interference, on the other hand, old learning interferes with new learning. According to interference theory, people can forget because learning can cause cues (such as English words) to be connected with the wrong information (perhaps a Spanish word when a French word is sought).

Why may it be useful to study in the room in which we will be tested?

This is because memories are frequently dependent on the context in which they were formed. That is, context dependence refers to the finding that we often retrieve information more efficiently when we are in the same context as when we acquired it. State dependence refers to the finding that we often retrieve information better when we are in the same state of consciousness or mood as when we learned it.

How does sensory memory function?

Each sense is believed to have a sensory register that briefly holds the memory traces of stimuli in sensory memory. The traces then decay. Visual sensory memory makes discrete visual sensations--produced by saccadic eye movements--seem continuous. McDougall used the whole-report procedure to demonstrate that visual stimuli are maintained in sensory memory for only a fraction of a second. Sperling used the partial-report to show that we can see more objects than we can report afterward. Icons are mental representations of visual stimuli. Some people, usually children, can maintain icons over long periods of time and are said to have eidetic imagery. Echoes are representations of auditory stimuli (sounds). Echoes can be held in sensory memory for several seconds.

Another way of storing information is by ______ rehearsal, when we relate new information to things we already know.

Elaborative

What is the role of encoding in memory?

Encoding information means transforming it so that we can place it in memory. We commonly use visual, auditory, and semantic codes to convert physical and chemical stimulation into psychological formats that it can be remembered.

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Enhanced efficiency in synaptic transmission that follows brief, rapid stimulation.

Memories of the events that happen to a person are ________ memories.

Episodic, autobiographical

______ memories are memories of specific information.

Explicit

Anterograde amnesia

Failure to remember events that occurred after physical trauma because of the effects of the trauma.

Retrograde amnesia

Failure to remember events that occurred prior to physical trauma because of the effects of the trauma.

How does short-term memory function?

Focusing on a stimulus allows us to maintain it in short-term memory--also called working memory--for a minute or so after the trace decays. Rehearsal allows us to maintain information indefinitely. The appearance of new information in short-term memory displaces old information.

Retrospective memory

Memory for past events, activities, and learning experiences, as shown by explicit (episodic and semantic) and implicit memories.