Psychology Chapter 8

effortful processing

Encoding that requires attention and conscious effort.

over learning

Even after we learn material, _____ increases retention.

central executive

For most of you, the pages you are reading enter working memory through vision. You might also repeat the information using auditory rehearsal. As you integrate these memory inputs with your existing long-term memory, your attention is focused. Baddeley called this focused processing the_____.

Recognition

Joe is happy to hear that the test will be all multiple-choice questions as he feels he has a better chance to pass by using _____.

Hippocampus

Some patients suffering from amnesia are incapable of recalling events. Yet, they can be conditioned to blink their eyes in response to a specific sound. They have most likely suffered damage to the _____.

long - term memory

The relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system. Includes knowledge, skills, and experiences.

storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

iconic memory

A momentary sensory memory of visual stimuli; a photographic or picture - image memory lasting no more than a few tenths of a second.

working memory

A newer understanding of short - term memory that focuses on conscious, active processing of incoming auditory and visual - spatial information, and of information retrieved from long - term memory.

repressing

According to Sigmund Freud, one reason that people forget is because they are _____ painful memories.

Learning

According to psychologists, memory refers to the persistence of _____ over time.

short - term memory

Activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten.

the serial position effect.

At a block party, Cyndi meets nine new neighbors. Moments later, she can only remember the names of the first three and last two neighbors she met. Her experience illustrates:

sensory memory

At which of Atkinson-Shiffrin's three memory stages would iconic and echoic memory occur?

Space, time, and frequency.

Automatic processing is an unconscious, effortless encoding of information about:

retrieval cues

Darlene is trying to remember the name of a woman sitting next to her on the bus. She knows she met her at a party, and she is trying to remember which one. Darlene is able to imagine where the woman was seated at the party, as well as what she was eating. Darlene is using _____ to remember the woman's name.

misinformation

effect incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event.

shallow processing

encoding on a basic level based on the structure or appearance of words.

deep processing

encoding semantically, based on the meaning of the words; tends to yield the best retention.

testing effect

enhanced memory after retrieving, rather than simply reading, information. Also sometimes referred to as a retrieval practice effect or test-enhanced learning.

repression

in psychoanalytic theory, the basic defense mechanism that banishes from consciousness anxiety - arousing thoughts, feelings, and memories.

mnemonics

memory aids, especially those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices.

chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically.

serial position effect

our tendency to recall best the last and first items in a list.

Implicit; explicit

_____ memory refers to retention of information that is independent of conscious recollection, whereas _____ refers to memory for facts and experiences.

The misinformation effect

_____ occurs when one incorporates misleading information into one's memory of an event.

Mood-congruent memory

_____ refers to our tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with our current mood. In other words, if you are in a bad mood, you will be more likely to have negative associations.

Elizabeth Loftus

_____ revealed that the reports of flashbacks were extremely rare in those patients whose brains were electrically stimulated in different cortical regions. Moreover, the flashbacks appear to have been invented, not relived.

flashbulb memory

a clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

echoic memory

a momentary sensory memory of auditory stimuli; if attention is elsewhere, sounds and words can still be recalled within 3 or 4 seconds.

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories.

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past.

long - term potentiation (LTP)

an increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation. Believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

déjà vu

that eerie sense that "I've experienced this before." Cues from the current situation may subconsciously trigger retrieval of an earlier experience.

priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory.

retroactive interference

the disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information.

proactive interference

the disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information.

spacing effect

the tendency for distributed study or practice to yield better long - term retention than is achieved through massed study or practice.

mood - congruent memory

the tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with one's current good or bad mood.

encoding

The processing of information into the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.

Recall

A measure of memory in which the person must retrieve information learned earlier, as on a fill-in-the-blank test.

Recognition

A measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned, as on a multiple-choice test.

Relearning

A measure of memory that assesses the amount of time saved when learning material again.

Permanent

Short-term memory is to fleeting as long-term memory is to _____.

Making material personally meaningful involves processing at a deep level, because you are processing semantically—based on the meaning of the words. Deep processing leads to greater retention.

If you try to make the material you are learning personally meaningful, are you processing at a shallow or a deep level? Which level leads to greater retention?

It would be better to test your memory with recall (such as with short-answer or fill-in-theblank self-test questions) rather than recognition (such as with multiple-choice questions). Recalling information is harder than recognizing it, so if you can recall it that means your retention of the material is better than if you could only recognize it, and your chances of test success are therefore greater.

If you want to be sure to remember what you're learning for an upcoming test, would it be better to use recall or recognition to check your memory? Why?

90

Imagine a study in which participants are shown 2,000 slides of houses and storefronts, each for only 10 seconds. Later, these same participants are shown 300 of the original slides paired with slides they have not seen before. According to research, these participants would be able to recognize _____ percent of the slides they had seen before.

Recognition

Imagine you have to pick the correct answer from a displayed list of options. This aspect of memory is known as _____.

unconscious

It is debated whether the _____ mind sometimes forcibly represses painful experiences.

Explicit; implicit

Mabel has Alzheimer's disease and has lost her _____ memories for people and events. However, she is able to display an ability to form new _____ memories by being repeatedly shown words.

explicit memory

Memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare." (Also called declarative memory.)

visual and auditory; central executive

Model of working memory includes _____rehearsal of new information. A hypothetical ____(manager) focuses attention and pulls information from long-term memory to help make sense of new information.

Duration

Oliver is trying to make an online purchase, but he doesn't have his credit card. He calls his wife, who reads the 16-digit credit card number to him. Unfortunately, Oliver cannot remember the number long enough to type it into the computer. This is because short-term memory is limited in _____ and capacity.

consolidates

One important reason that sleep is so important in remembering what you have studied is because during sleep, the brain organizes and _____ newly learned information for long-term memory.

Helps us to understand how memory works.

Professor Wallace studies memory in people who have had strokes. Professor Hansen studies people who claim to have clear memories of events that happened over three decades ago. Such research on the extremes of memory:

source amnesia

Recalling something that you had once merely imagined happening as something you had directly experienced best illustrates _____.

inflation

Repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events is called imagination _____ and can create false memories.

Extremes

Research on memory's _____ has helped us understand how memory works.

short-term memory

Research shows that ____stage is not just a temporary shelf for holding incoming information. It's an active desktop where your brain processes information, making sense of new input and linking it with long-term memories.

implicit memory

Retention independent of conscious recollection. (Also called nondeclarative memory.)

Spacing

Ricardo distributes his study time rather than cramming because he wants to retain the information for the long-term. He is using the _____ effect.

suggestive

Sally was asked the question: "Did Uncle Al touch your private parts?" This later became a false memory and Uncle Al was wrongly prosecuted. The problem with the question was that it was _____.

of the automatic processing of space.

Tameka is reading a novel. When the phone rings, she looks up to see if her husband is going to answer it, which he does. She returns her attention to the book, going back to the exact spot on the page where she left off. Tameka is able to effortlessly return to her reading because:

retrieval cues

The happier Judie feels, the more readily she recalls experiences with former teachers who were warm and generous. This best illustrates that emotional states can be _____.

retrieval cues.

The happier Judie feels, the more readily she recalls experiences with former teachers who were warm and generous. This best illustrates that emotional states can be:

sensory memory

The immediate, very brief recording of sensory information in the memory system.

Memory

The persistence of learning over time through the storage and retrieval of information.

retrieval

The process of getting information out of memory storage.

memory construction.

The surprising ease with which people form false memories best illustrates that encoding and retrieval involve:

Short term

Theo suffers from depression and is currently in treatment. His physician is using electroconvulsive therapy, which will affect his _____ memory.

long-term potentiation

This neural basis for learning and memory, found at the synapses in memory-circuit connections, results from brief, rapid stimulation. It is called_____.

automatic processing

Unconscious encoding of incidental information, such as space, time, and frequency, and of well-learned information, such as word meanings.

amnesia

Walid has been working 70-hour work weeks and has been getting his days and nights mixed up as well as having trouble separating his dreams from reality. Just yesterday, he thought a project had been completed, but in reality it was only a dream. This problem is known as source _____.

Automatically process

We _____ information about space. For example, while reading a textbook, we encode the place on a page where certain material appears.

Study repeatedly to boost long-term recall. Schedule spaced (not crammed) study times. Spend more time rehearsing or actively thinking about the material. Make the material personally meaningful, with well-organized and vivid associations. Refresh your memory by returning to contexts and moods to activate retrieval cues. Use mnemonic devices. Minimize interference. Plan for a complete night's sleep. Test yourself repeatedly—retrieval practice is a proven retention strategy.

What are the recommended memory strategies you just read about?

(1) Encoding failure: Information never entered our memory system because we were not paying attention to it, or the information was entered inaccurately. (2) Storage decay: Information fades from our memory. (3) Retrieval failure: We cannot access stored information accurately, sometimes due to interference or motivated forgetting.

What are three ways we forget, and how does each of these happen?

(1) Active processing of incoming visual and auditory information, and (2) focusing our spotlight of attention.

What are two basic functions of working memory?

Priming is the activation (often without our awareness) of associations. Seeing a gun, for example, might temporarily predispose someone to interpret an ambiguous face as threatening or to recall a boss as nasty.

What is priming?

Automatic processing occurs unconsciously (automatically) for such things as the sequence and frequency of a day's events, and reading and comprehending words in our own language. Effortful processing requires attention and awareness and happens, for example, when we work hard to learn new material in class, or new lines for a play.

What is the difference between automatic and effortful processing, and what are some examples of each?

1. We first record to - be - remembered information as a fleeting sensory memory. 2. From there, we process information into short - term memory, where we encode it through rehearsal. 3. Finally, information moves into long - term memory for later retrieval.

What is the three-stage model?

(1) We form some memories (implicit memories) through automatic processing, without our awareness. The Atkinson-Shiffrin model focused only on conscious, explicit memories. (2) The newer concept of a working memory emphasizes the active processing that we now know takes place in Atkinson-Shiffrin's short-term memory stage.

What two new concepts update the classic Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage information-processing model?

Real experiences would be confused with those we dreamed. When meeting someone, we might therefore be unsure whether we were reacting to something they previously did or to something we dreamed they did.

What—given the commonality of source amnesia—might life be like if we remembered all our waking experiences and all our dreams?

positive transfer.

When bits of information do not compete with each other, and actually facilitate memory, it is called:

mood congruent

When people get depressed, they are often flooded with thoughts of failed relationships and missed chances. This experience best illustrates _____ memory.

neutral

When questioning children about past events, it is important to use _____ words.

serial position

When we are tested immediately after viewing a list of words, we tend to recall the first and last items best, which is known as the______effect.

proactive

Whenever Mark tries to recall his new cell phone number, he keeps getting it mixed up with his old cell phone number. Mark's failure to remember his new phone number is probably caused by _____ interference.

the amygdala

Which brain area responds to stress hormones by helping to create stronger memories?

The frontal lobes and hippocampus are important for explicit memory formation, and the cerebellum and basal ganglia are key to implicit memory processing.

Which parts of the brain are elemental for implicit memory processing, and which parts play a key role in explicit memory processing?

Elizabeth Loftus

Which researcher conducted experiments to better understand false memories of childhood traumas?

Although cramming may lead to short-term gains in knowledge, distributed practice and repeated self-testing will result in the greatest long-term retention.

Which strategies are better for long-term retention: cramming and re-reading material, or spreading out learning over time and repeatedly testing yourself?

the misinformation effect.

Yancy was sitting in the park one day and witnessed a robbery. When asked by the police to describe the young criminal, Yancy recalled erroneously that the criminal was a teenager rather than a young adult. Yancy's experience best illustrates:

echoic memory.

Your brother often pretends to listen to what you are saying when he is really focused elsewhere. When you ask him, "What did I just say?", he can sometimes repeat your last few words. This is likely caused by his:

Our explicit (declarable) memories differ from our implicit memories of skills and procedures. Our implicit memories are processed by more ancient brain areas, which apparently escaped damage during the accident.

Your friend has experienced brain damage in an accident. He can remember how to tie his shoes but has a hard time remembering anything told him during a conversation. What's going on here?

echoic

Your girlfriend is talking to you, and you ask her to repeat what she just said. Before she does so, you respond with your answer of "Yes." This is likely caused by _____ memory.

hippocampus

a neural center located in the limbic system; helps process explicit memories for storage.

source amnesia

attributing to the wrong source an event we have experienced, heard about, read about, or imagined. (Also called source misattribution.) Source amnesia, along with the misinformation effect, is at the heart of many false memories.