Psych 3120 exam 2

Characterize sensory memory in terms of capacity, duration, and nature of representation.

.It is the ability to retain impressions of sensory information after the original stimuli have ended. For example, the ability to look at something and remember what it looked like with just a second of observation is an example of sensory memory.

Identify WM'S four components and what their functions are

1. Phonological Loop is the part of our working memory system that handles auditory and verbal information, including language and music. 2.The Visuospatial Sketchpad is the component of working memory responsible for handling visual and spatial information. It temporarily stores information on how things look and allows us to manipulate images in our mind, such as when we mentally rotate a shape to see how it might appear from a different angle 3. Executive control system - responsible for the control and regulation of cognitive processes 4. Episodic Buffer - The episodic buffer is the third member of these slave systems and is theorized to integrate the other functions, known as the phonological loop (information heard) and visio-spatial sketchpad (information seen) with a sense of time, so that things occur in a continuing sequence

What is a flashbulb memory? Describe evidence for and against the idea that there is something special about flashbulb memories that makes them less vulnerable to distortion or forgetting.

A clear and vivid long-term memory of an especially meaningful and emotional event. A survey was sent out to people on the day after 9/11. Then 2, 3, 5 and 10 years after. The researchers saw that the recollection and accuracy of these memories from people were very good compared to any normal memory an individual would try to recall 10 years after an event. This is because these are flashbulb memories. After 10 years about 60% of their account was still on point.

What is a cognitive map, and what kinds of information are represented there?

A cognitive map is a mental representation of the layout of one's environment. It seems that many animals, not just humans, are able to form a mental representation of an environment that they have been in or are currently in. For example, when a friend asks you for directions to your house, you are able to create an image in your mind of the roads, places to turn, landmarks, etc., along the way to your house from your friend's starting point. This representation is the cognitive map.

What are schema? How do schema affect recall of stories or events, positively and negatively?

A schema is a mental concept about stuff that informs a person about what to expect from a variety of experiences and situations. If your schema for example of a date is that everything will go exactly as planned, you will have a lot of fun and a great dinner, that schema might not be accurate of what actually happens. This in the future will influence the way you recall that date. You will probably say it wasn't that great or fun because the schema you had was different from what happened.

Be able to describe the method by which semantic priming measured and what that finding suggests about the organization and retrieval of information from semantic memory.

Another example is the word fragment completion task. Participants are given a word with missing letters. These participants can recognize the word nurse a lot better if it is preceded by doctor for example. These findings suggest that our semantic memory is organized into categories and once an item in it is activated, others in the same category will also be.

Be able to explain what auditory imagery is and what some characteristics are.

Auditory imagery is a mental representation - imagery - using our auditory sense. For instance, someone reading about a character "crunching through the autumn leaves" might "hear" the leaves being crushed underfoot.

Explain how the dual task method was used to test the concept of WM and what was found. How does the old concept of STM relate to Working Memory?

Baddeley and Hitch made a dual task experiment in which participants had to repeat some numbers that were said to them while answering true or false questions. As the number of digits increased, the participants did not make any more errors than before and barely took longer. This proves that answering true or false was done by central executive and the number recital was by phonological loop. This found that WM is more complex than STM.

metacognition

Being aware of your own conscious thought processes and cognition

What evidence supports craik's level of processing model?

Craik's experiment showed that people recognized a lot better words that they tried to remember semantically instead of phonetically or structurally. This is evidence that when meaning is attached, you remember the info better

Be able to explain encoding specificity/state-dependent learning and give some examples. What types of context can be important in encoding?

Encoding specificity is a principle that states that human memories are more easily retrieved if external conditions (emotional cues) at the time of retrieval are similar to those in existence at the time the memory was stored. state-dependent learning is the phenomenon through which memory retrieval is most efficient when an individual is in the same state of consciousness as they were when the memory was formed. A student that usually studies while drinking coffee might want to have some coffee right before or during the exam.

Acoustic confusions

Erroneous perception or memory resulting from the substitution of an incorrect but similar-sounding word, as when someone mishears or misremembers.

Be able to give examples of how eyewitness memory is studied.

Eyewitness memory is a person's episodic memory for a crime or other dramatic event that he or she has witnessed. Elizabeth Loftus' findings seem to indicate that memory for an event that has been witnessed is highly flexible. If someone is exposed to new information during the interval between witnessing the event and recalling it, this new information may have marked effects on what they recall. The original memory can be modified, changed or supplemented. For example: she would ask witnesses the speed of the vehicle from the scene but she would do so in different questions. She found that the estimated speed was affected by her verb use.

Be able to describe Bartlett's study of the "War of the ghosts" story and what results he found.

Goal of study: To investigate whether people's memory for a story is affected by previous knowledge (schemas) and the extent to which memory is reconstructive. He asked people hear a story and then recall that story several times during a period of time. He found that memories are not an exact copy of what happened, but a reconstruction. People also made sense of the story while recalling it by changing unfamiliar parts to familiar and that would fit their ''culture'' and expectations.

Be able to describe Kosslyn's studies demonstrating scanning of images and image detail and to explain why they are important.

He measured the time for patients to imagine moving between two locations. He saw that the response time was greater with greater distance between points. He also compared a rabbit next to an elephant and rabbit next to a fly. He would then ask the eye or nose color of the rabbit and saw that for the one next to the fly people were able to answer a lot quicker because the rabbit is bigger in their minds. This was important to understanding mental imagery. If we understand mental imagery better we can use that to improve performance in several tasks. When we form a mental image our experience seems much like seeing something in our mind. It seems a lot like vision

iconic memory

Iconic memory is sensory memory that's taken in via the visual system. You glance over at a friend's phone as she is scrolling through her Facebook newsfeed. You spot something as she quickly thumbs past it, but you can close your eyes and visualize an image of the item very briefly.

Implicit and explicit memory tasks

Implicit - HM getting better at drawing (procedural task) Explicit - Asking a participant to recall a list of words that they just gave him

What are the important elements of a network model of semantic memory?

In contrast to prototype and exemplar approach, the network approaches are more concerned about the interconnections among related items. Each concept is known as a node (one unit in the network). When you see or hear a concept the node for that concept is activated. That activation spreads to related nodes.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of each approach? prototype and exemplar approaches

In exemplar, you could end up categorizing something in the wrong category because you are comparing it so many things. In prototype, you could also classify it under wrong category since you are comparing the stimulus to a specific prototype

What is the semantic priming effect important and why is it important?

It is an effect in which exposure to one stimulus (i.e., perceptual pattern) influences the response to another stimulus. tell someone to say silk 10 times and then ask what do cows drink, they will say milk. This is the priming effect. It is important because it can help understand language disorders.

What is Craik's levels-of-processing model of memory?

It suggests that it is depth of processing that leads to stronger memories, rather than there being separate memory stores. According to this model, stronger memories occur as a result of a deep memory trace which happens through elaborative rehearsal. Levels of processing suggests that rehearsal of information by merely repeating it does not lead to information being transferred to LTM and that this is a form of maintenance rehearsal. In order for memory to be transferred to LTM using elaborative rehearsal it must have meaning and be understood.

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between WM and academic performance, reading comprehension, selective attention, major depression, or ADHD?

Links have been found between low school achievement and low working memory. This is because working memory comes in to play when following instructions, choosing to focus on things, etc.

What are some limitations on the use of imagery? How have brain studies played a role in resolving the imagery debate?

Mental imagery studies have shown that positive mental imagery will actually improve performance. The limitation is that you can imagine yourself winning the world cup all day but without actual effort and hard work it will not happen. mental imagery also is not great at details.

Metamemory

Metamemory is knowledge and awareness of your own memory, including the contents and processes of your memory.

How accurate is metamemory in general? What factors affect metamemory accuracy?

Metamemory is knowledge and awareness of your own memory, including the contents and processes of your memory. It is not usually very accurate. Emotion could affect it, brain injury to the hippocampus would greatly affect it too.

Be able to explain the dual code hypothesis and supporting evidence

Paivio says that the human mind operates with two distinct classes of mental representation, verbal representations and mental images, and that human memory thus comprises two functionally independent systems, verbal memory and image memory. He says that memory is better for concrete words (potato,car) than abstract words (intelligence, idea) where you can't form a quick visual image. If you see a circle that might bring to your mind the word ''circle''. Humans process and represent verbal and non verbal info in separate but related systems.

Implicit association test

People can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words.

Be able to define proactive interference and release from proactive interference.

Proactive interference: Difficulty in learning new information because of already existing information. Example: Hard time learning to drive stick shift because you are so used to automatic cars Release from proactive experience occurs when the similar previously learnt information no longer interferes with the learning of new information, typically brought on by some change of conditions, such as changing the category (and thus, the meaning) imposed upon the information. Maybe if you changed the interior of the car to be similar to the automatic car you drove before that would cause a release from proactive interference

How does prospective memory differ from retrospective memory? What factors affect prospective memory?

Prospective memory is the ability to remember to carry out future tasks. Retrospective are just memories from past. Brain injury often affects PM. Any other factor that affects WM could also affect PM .

Reality Monitoring

Reality monitoring is defined as the ability to distinguish between memories for events that have actually occurred and memories for IMAGINED events

Retrograde and anterograde amnesia

Retrograde - specific to episodic memories from before the injury. Semantic, STM and WM work ok. New episodic learning also ok. This is where consolidation can come in (the events that happened right before and during time of injury are not even processed or stores and that is why we can't remember) Anterograde amnesia - cannot form new episodic memories. Usually related to TEMPORAL LOBE damage (hippocampus). Past episodic memories from before injury are ok, STM,WM and semantic knowledge ok.

Characterize STM in terms of capacity, duration, and nature of representation.

Short Term Memory is the part of the memory system where information is stored for roughly 30 seconds. Information can be maintained longer with the use of such techniques as rehearsal.

Source monitoring

Source monitoring is an unconscious mental test that humans perform in order to determine if a memory is "real" and accurate as opposed to being from A SOURCE like a dream or a movie. An example of a source monitoring error would be incorrectly recalling a conversation that occurred in a dream as reality.

What is spatial cognition and what types of activities does it include?

Spatial cognition is concerned with the acquisition, organization, utilization, and revision of knowledge about spatial environments. These capabilities enable humans to manage basic and high-level cognitive tasks in everyday life.

Mood congruence

Tendency to remember things that coincide with how you feel now

What is the testing effect, and how does testing affect memory performance over time?

Testing an individual's memory makes the memory stronger and easier to retrieve. This is known as the testing effect. If a person is taught new material and tested on it a day after learning it the information will be more likely to be recalled when tested at a later date.

How did Cahill study emotion and memory, and what did he find?

The Cahill study showed us that the same story presented to two groups of subjects with just a different emotional context in each one, led to differences in recalling that information later. The group that had a story with more emotion attached to it, was able to recall the information a lot better.

Be able to explain the Shepard mental rotation study and why it is important.

The bigger rotation that had to be done in patients minds, the longer it took for them to answer. This proves that we do have mental imagery. People took longer because they were rotating the object in their minds.

What is the misinformation effect?

The misinformation effect refers to the impairment in memory for the past that arises after exposure to misleading information.

How does the notion of schema explain these findings? from bartlett's study war of the ghosts

The schema these participants had, influenced how they recalled the story later on. The parts that had unfamiliar things to them were changed to things that were familiar so that the story would make sense. This proves that their previous schema influenced the way they recalled and stored memory.

Be able to describe the serial position curve, how different types of memory contribute to the pattern of the curve, and some factors (e.g., delay, speed of presentation) that affect the primacy and recency effects.

The serial position curve effect shows that the few first and few last words of a list will be remembered a lot better than the middle words. STM makes us remember the last few words and LTM makes us remember the first ones because we most likely rehearsed them.

Be able to define analog code and propositional code, identify the characteristics of each, and give an example of each.

These codes refer to how information is stored in memory. Analog - preserves physical features. example: looking at a picture of a dog. Propositional - No built in physical features. Example: a written description of the dog with no picture. The memory and image stored in each of these cases would be different since in one you actually have a picture of the dog and the other you imagine it.

Be able to describe the Brown-Peterson task and explain what it tells us about STM. What is chunking and how does it affect STM?

These guys made up an experiment to test memory and strategies like rehearsal. The results from experiments were that the ability to recall decreased if a person wasn't allowed to use rehearsal. Participants were given 3 letters to memorize and then given distracting things to do so that rehearsal was prevented. The longer the researchers distracted the participants, the less the participants could remember about those 3 letters. Chunking is taking pieces of information and grouping them into one. This improves how much you can remember. Tells us that STM works in chunks. It was all about preventing rehearsal, or in other words preventing that the info went from STM to LTM. From this, we see that our STM capacity and duration are short!

What are some effective mnemonic techniques and what makes them work?

These techniques require attention and they provide effective retrieval cues Some are: visualization, rehearsal

What are episodic, semantic and procedural memories, and how do they differ from one another? Be able to give examples of each.

They all fall under the category of LTM. Episodic is always related to specific events, places, times. Semantic is general knowledge memory. So, you would know that an elephant is gray even though you might not ever have seen one or had an experience with one. This is because of general knowledge Procedural memory (implicit memory, non declarative) - your muscle memory in riding a bike for example. This type of memory is usually unconscious.

What would the serial position curves of a patient with anterograde amnesia look like, and why?

They would remember the last words very well since their STM is intact. They might not remember the very first words.

Characterize LTM in terms of capacity, duration, and nature of representation

Unlimited capacity. Ability for retrieval. 3 types: procedural, episodic and semantic.

How do mood and emotion affect memory?

Usually greater emotion will lead to better recall. This is because there is meaning and emotion being attached to some information. An angry mood will usually result in recalling that event or information in a more negative way. Opposite also happens.

What has the work done with HM contributed to our understanding of memory?

We know that even for someone with anterograde amnesia like HM, non declarative memory (procedural) is intact because he got better and better at performing tasks even unconsciously. He has anterograde amnesia because his hippocampus was removed in an attempt to reduce seizures. He still also had good STM/WM and semantic memory.

Spreading activation

When in network semantic memory theory, one node (cat) activates another one (furry, cute, dog)

Be able to explain the concept of Working Memory.

Working Memory is like your brain's task list or sticky notes. As information is coming into your brain, you are both processing it and, simultaneously, storing it. It's necessary to learn, reason, and remember. working memory holds controllers which allow integration, disposal, and retrieval of short-term memory information. These processes are subjected to age. Therefore, working memory tends to decline with age.

Distributed practice effect

a learning strategy, where practice is broken up into a number of short sessions - over a longer period of time.

Echoic memory

form of sensory memory that allows the mind to temporarily perceive and store auditory information or sound. After hearing a funny joke, you might replay that audio in your head

What are the differences between high and low anxiety individuals with respect to memory performance?

high anxiety can lead to working memory problems such as not being able to focus well, distracted thinking and all that. If your working memory is affected, your LTM will also be affected.

Typicality effect

individuals respond more quickly to typical examples of a category than they would to examples that are considered atypical. for example, robin for the concept "bird" , than the y are to atypical instances, for example, penguin.

What is the difference between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?

maintenance rehearsal is just basically repeating to yourself information to keep it in STM for a period of time. This is not effective as it does not transfer to LTM very well. Elaborative rehearsal would be attaching meaning to the words

Be able to describe how information is represented in semantic memory according to a prototype view and an exemplar view.

prototype view- a way to organize semantic memory; in this you decide whether an item belongs to a category by comparing that item with a specific prototype Exemplar view- It argues that individuals make category judgments by comparing new stimuli with instances already stored in memory. The instance stored in memory is the "exemplar". For example, the model proposes that people create the "bird" category by maintaining in their memory a collection of all the birds they have experienced: sparrows, robins, ostriches, penguins, etc. If a new stimulus is similar enough to some of these stored bird examples, the person categorizes the stimulus in the "bird" category.

Self reference effect

tendency for individuals to have better memory for information that relates to oneself in comparison to material that has less personal relevance.

Pollyanna principle

tendency for people to remember pleasant items more accurately than unpleasant ones

Be able to explain the constructive model of memory.

we integrate info from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas; emphasizes the active nature of our cognitive processes