Ch7

What is the method of loci? How can it be used to increase memory for certain types of material?

*using info that's already in LTM to encode STM so you can chunk it down and make it memorable Method of Loci: A memory palace/ house; a walk through something with 26 rooms (Alex Mullen). What you do is use a space that you know really well and have each of the rooms be distinctive. And you memorize your path through the house exactly. Placing things in an interactive way in a room in your memory palace. Interactive imagery and Method of Loci are both mnemonic methods that use chunking.

What is the difference between a pre- and postsynaptic neuron? How are they altered by long-term potentiation (LTP)? What role does CREB play in this process?

-As Hebb hypothesized, a strong simulation of presynaptic neuron A (the neuron before the synapse) results in more enduring, enhanced, postsynaptic activity in a connected neuron B (the neuron after the synapse) -LTP is a mechanism that creates enduring synaptic connections; makes them more effective, which results in increased transmission between neurons; trying to strengthen the synapse between two neurons that fire at the same time which triggers the LTP process. the membrane of postsynaptic neurons is changed to make it more receptive to chemicals released by presynaptic neurons. -In the brain where learning is occurring, LTP increases the amount of protein CREB (primary molecular basis for memory formation and consolidation). It works by changing the activations of genes in neurons, increasing the neuron's response to stimulation; activates RNA that gets the neuron to make more receptors; this happens in consolidation

What is chunking? What is its role in memory?

Chunking is the process of grouping separate stimuli together in chunks in working memory to increase the amount of information stored in short term memory.

Who was H.M. (Henry Molson)? What kind of surgery did he have for his epilepsy? How did it change his memory? How are these changes interpreted?

Henry H.M Molaison; had surgery to remove both medial temporal lobes (contained amygdala and hippocampus) (1957) afterwards it became clear that the hippocampal structures are critical for laying down new conscious memories. -This form of memory loss H.M experienced is called anterograde amnesia: which means the inability to form new memories

Describe how we might measure the duration and capacity of visual sensory memory?

In a study of iconic memory, participants were briefly presented with a 3 x 4 grid of 12 letters and numbers. When asked to read aloud as many letters as possible after a single flash, participants could correctly recall on average, about 4 letters. *what if iconic memory is so brief that it fades before we can even read aloud the letters in iconic memory

What is self-referential encoding? What advantage does it provide?

Self-referential encoding: encoding based on and event's relation to our self-concept, which leads to enhanced memory for the event. This is effective because it engages distinct parts of your brain related to a specific form of self-reflection to enhance remembering.

What is the tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon? How is this related to the other phenomena, which you have learned about, related to the retrievability of memories?

TOT phenomenon: a failure to retrieve information, often the name of a person or place, though we are confident it is stored in memory your brain is able to store much more than you can retrieve at any particular moment; your brain knows more than you have access to. neural traces of memory can persist, even if we lose the capacity to retrieve them.

What are proactive and retroactive interference? Provide examples. Describe an experiment that demonstrates the existence of proactive interference?

retroactive interference: disruptive effect of new learning on the recall of old information proactive interference: disruptive effect of prior learning on the recall of new information (you took Spanish all through high school, now on your first college french test you can only remember Spanish words.)

How does the multi-store model of memory help to explain/predict changes to the serial position curve that arise from modifications to the experimental procedures?

longer delay; primacy increase more words; middle part stretch out; no change in serial position curve we can use information from serial position effect to understand how the multiple stores work together -recency will just be in working memory at the end ....

How should we interpret the finding that the information that cannot be recalled using a free-recall procedure often can be recalled using a cued-recall procedure? What if still more information can be correctly recognized using a recognition memory test?

the cues that are in working memory are important for the success of long term memory there are things in LTM that we can't remember. just because we can't access them now doesn't mean they aren't there

How does information about brain structure and function support the proposed conception of working memory?

The subsystems in working memory occur in diff. parts of the brain. Separate frontal cortical regions are involved in visual and verbal working memory. Verbal processes overlap with areas involved in language. The CE appears to engage regions of the frontal cortex that are commonly used for a variety of cognitive tasks and abilities

What are anterograde and retrograde amnesia? What kind of amnesia do patients with medial temporal lobe damage usually have? What are the limitations of such case studies for our understanding of memory?

anterograde amnesia: inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing new long term memories from forming retrograde amnesia: impairs access to memories prior to the date of brain damage but still permits the individual to place new experiences into long term memory -patients with medial temporal lobe damage would usually have anterograde and to a lesser degree temporally graded retrograde amnesia, which means the events that occurred just before their brain damage are remembered less well that those further in the past

Memory

the storage of information in the brain for later access that allows learning to persist and guide our future behavior.

What are memory traces? What is Hebb's Law? What does it say about the formation of memory traces?

when two neurons communicate they also contain remnants of the past called memory traces Hebb's Law: When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell b and repeatedly/ persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process of metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A's efficiency as one of the cells firing B, is increased." in short-hand "cells that fire together wire together" (means their synapse will be strong)

What is consolidation? When does it take place? What evidence supports the existence of consolidation? What role does sleep play?

-Consolidation is a time-dependent neurobiological process whereby memory storage is stabilized and strengthened. It occurs after experiences have passed, working behind the scenes to build stable enduring memories in the brain- without it there would be no strange and no memory recall resulting in amnesia -Georg Elias Muller and Alfons Pilzecker (1900) proposed the consolidation hypothesis after observing that memory of newly learned information could be disrupted by information presented shortly afterwards. -Some of the most striking evidence supporting consolidation theory comes from the effect of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). Individuals undergoing ECT often show retrograde amnesia, especially when both medial temporal lobes are stimulated. Because recent memories are fragile and susceptible to disruption before they are consolidated into LTM. -Consolidation is directly linked to sleep. It has been proposed to act as a kind of replay of memories in the back of your mind as you sleep to enhance memory storage.

Identify and describe the difference between the two forms of explicit memory. Which is more important for learning in school? What evidence supports this?

-Episodic memory: the explicit recollection of personal experience that requires piecing together the elements of that time and place -Semantic memory: the explicit memory supporting you knowledge about the world including concepts and facts Much if not all learning in school can take place without a normally functioning hippocampus, because it depends on your semantic memory (you know the answer but you don't remember how) Evidence for this can be found in one study with 3 children who suffer hippocampal damage; despite their amnesia they could still learn to read and write without special education.

Why does recognizing a person's face involve a different form of retrieval than recalling the person's name?

-Recognition memory is a form of retrieval that relies on identifying information that you have previously seen or experienced (like recognizing someone's face, whereas remembering their name involves recall)

Why is it said that you may not be able to retrieve the same memory twice? What is the process that causes this? Why might this apparent fallibility of our memory be adaptive?

-Research suggests that after retrieval, an original memory may again undergo consolidation, like an old memory made new. this process is call reconsolidation whereby retrieving a memory returns it to a momentary unstable state rendering it vulnerable to change -This apparent fallibility reflects a capacity that has been selected through evolution to be highly adaptive in that: When you retrieve a memory, you do so in part by reactivating neural networks that support that memory. The recollection of past experiences in itself is a new experience, potentially coming with new thoughts, feelings, and context that your brain can update and store. because we build upon a memory through reconsolidation (on a memory that we already consolidated)

What does it mean to say that short-term memory is post-categorical (and sensory memory is pre- categorical)?

-STM is post-categorical, containing information about meaning. Unlike sensory which can process only raw data, STM knows the difference between a face and vase or a goose and a moose

What is the hippocampus? What role does it play in memory? What evidence supports this interpretation? What does it mean to say that the hippocampus is a "common pathway for long-term memory storage"?

-The hippocampus is a brain structure located in the medial temporal lobes. The hippocampal structures are critical for laying down new conscious memories of experiences and facts. -Evidence for this can be seen in the case of Henry Molaison (H.M.) who had surgery to remove regions of the medial temporal lobes which contained the hippocampus and amygdala in order to relieve him of debilitating seizures.(1957). The surgery was successful in reducing seizures but he was no longer able to convert new experiences into long-term memories. -"the hippocampus represents a common pathway for LTM storage" -meaning it is crucial for getting new memories into the LTM. In contrast, existing memories (especially ones made long ago) may be distributed throughout the brain already, no longer depending on the hippocampus

What is a serial position curve? What are its important regions called?What are experimental manipulations or neurological conditions that selectively affect performance in these regions?

-When results are graphed in order in which words were presented the curve looks like a big smile called the serial position curve; regions are primacy and recency effect -experimental manipulations: Herman Ebbinghaus studied his own memory and found that recall varies as a function of position: what is first last and in between. -neurological conditions: Individuals with Alzheimers & schizophrenia, who had difficulty with working memory, do not show any recency effect in recall.

Why don't we use techniques such as chunking and the method of loci as much as might be possible to improve our memory?

-a lot of work- fairly specialized. general purpose but you can only use for things you can visualize easily. good for lists, decks of cards, but not so good for other things.

Explain what elaboration is and how it helps to improve memory.

-elaboration: a deep encoding process requiring you to make associations between new information and the old information already represented in your brain; these associations improve our memory

What is the encoding-specificity principle? What are some of its practical implications? Why is it particularly important for episodic memory?

-encoding specificity principle: the idea that retrieval is best when the present context recreates the context in which information was initially encoded doorway effect: good example; the simple act of walking through a doorway influences memory because the context changes as you pass through a door into another room Episodic memory by definition, requires this kind of specificity for the time and place of the original event. the encoding specific principle may seem like a peculiar feature of memory, but if memory is to serve us well, retrieval of what we learned should be tied to circumstances similar to how and when the memory was formed.

Describe the difference between implicit and explicit memory. What is some of the evidence that supports this distinction? Identify several forms of implicit memory.

-explicit memory (AKA declarative memory) involves intentional and conscious remembering -implicit memory occurs without intentional recollection or learning and is measured indirectly through the influence of prior learning on behavior Procedural memory: type of memory associated with acquisition of motor skills Affective conditioning: a form of conditioning in which a previously neutral stimulus acquires positive of negative value. -some evidence to support this is how how priming takes place without the need for deep processing or a functioning hippocampus (the brain damaged patient that was picked with the pin by Dr. and developed implicit memories though she had no explicit memory of him pricking her)

What is the difference between gist memories and verbatim memories? How does the DRM paradigm help to illustrate this distinction?

-gist memory, the general global aspects of the supposed event, rather than the verbatim memory, the specific details for an event The Deese-Roediger-Mcdermott (DRM) false memory paradigm has also been used to induce false memories in the lab: when we say pictures of like a classroom and were asked if certain things were there or not

Summarize seven ways to improve the effectiveness of studying.

-pay attention: concentrate on one thing at a time. if you are distracted, take a break and come back ready to encode. try meditation to improve this skill -study often: repetition; the spacing effect demonstrates that information is better remembered when encoding is spaced over time. spacing out study sessions allows synapses to form robust connections dedicated to learning certain facts. this effect may be due to the need to allow time for consolidation into a stable LTM (consolidation is a good reason to take a lot of study breaks -encode deeply: memory is shaped by how you choose to encode info. Make material meaningful to you by elaborating on it and connecting concepts to your own life and what you already know. -test yourself: test and retest yourself. correct your mistakes. retrieval practice is the best known method for enhancing retrieval of the correct information -use retrieval cues: try to increase consistency between learning and memory retrieval. maybe sit in the same place, try and be in the same calm state of mind that you were when you learned the material -reduce stress: stress has been found to reduce LTP in the hippocampus. lower your stress by appreciating that your hard work is not just about doing well on the test but about expanding your knowledge. -SLEEP: your brain is hard at work consolidating information when you sleep, so staying up late disrupts learning. information presented in the hour before sleep is protected because the opportunity for interfering events is minimized. minimizing this interference, which occurs when existing memories influence the formation of new memories and vice versa

Describe positive and negative transfer in memory. It has been suggested that forgetting may be adaptive; discuss how this suggestion depends on the relative importance of the two forms of transfer.

-positive transfer: old information helps facilitate the learning of new information -negative transfer: (in proactive interference) this is the detrimental effect of your past memories on well you can learn and perform today. -under these circumstances, forgetting can be adaptive because it can minimize interference and reduce the negative transfer. (forgetting where you parked your bike today can help you find it tomorrow)

What role does neural persistence play in sensory memory?

-sensory memory is supported by brief neural persistence- continued activity in neurons that rapidly fades. This may be critical to a sense of perceptual continuity, or permanence. Ex: when something moves, we perceive it not as a new object, but as a continuation of our prior perception of the same object

??Describe the concept of a semantic association network. How what important role does spreading activation play in such a network? Describe several experimental results that support this idea.

???semantic network of lots of concept connected together in elaborate ways one context they important and used all the time but now i go into diff context and now different associations are gonna be important so now when you understand a concept more deeply (when you combine an acid and a base; like with salt) check B2 lecture slide???

How do the multistore model and 3 stages of memory relate to one another?

??every time we move from one store to the next we are going through all these phases of memory.

Describe how the semantic memory for a concept might be related to a series of specific episodes when we encountered the concept.

A semantic memory involves general knowledge of things. In this way, our concepts of general knowledge might be a compilation of episodes (or episodic memories). Example: you can remember your father's birthday, but you may not necessarily remember the time that you learned your father's birthday, or every single birthday party that reaffirmed the date.

What is the role of attention in determining what information in sensory memory will make it into short-term memory?

Brief sensory memories can be made to last if they receive sufficient attention for reaching short term memory

How does brain imaging help explain the advantages of deep encoding?

Deep encoding has been shown to map onto high-order brain regions related to thought, such as the frontal lobes and temporal lobe regions related to semantic information ; whereas shallow encoding has been shown to map onto basic regions more related to perception of sensory information.

Describe the structure of an experiment to study the misinformation effect. What role does imagination inflation play in these studies?

Misinformation effect: A decreased accuracy of episodic memories because of information provided after the event. -Elizabeth Loftus; participants who were exposed to misinformation about the stop/ yield signs were more likely to report seeing a stop sign when infect the car stopped in front of a yield sign -there's a boost of confidence associated with imagine the misleading information called imagination inflation

What do studies of the brain tell us about the multistore model?

Neuroscientific studies have found that these stages are distinct from one another. Neurological patients who have a severe memory impairment on tests following a delay of 10 minutes can have intact memory when the retention delays are only a few seconds; however, other patients are severely impaired on short-term memory, unable to hold information about their immediate surroundings for even a few seconds. These same patients can remember information when the retention delays are much longer, thus bypassing short term-memory which provides evidence of independent short-term and long term memories. Patients with amnesia (like Wearing) can hold a phone number in short-term memory by rehearsal even for several minutes.

What is priming? Provide some examples. What type of memory is priming?

Priming: the increased ability to process a stimulus because of previous exposure; this is a type of implicit memory. Examples: when completing word stems the first cowards that come to mind are ones to which you have been previously exposed. Priming is also found in amnesia despite impaired explicit memory for having studied words reflecting a distinct form of memory.

What is meant by the term reminiscence bump? How might this be explained?

Reminiscence bump: there is a prominent 'bump' in autobiographical memories between adolescence and early adulthood. There is a dramatic increase in what we recall about our lives during this period, but then it precipitously drops off again. -during this time the hippocampus is fully mature and active throughout all these ages, so the bump cannot be attributed to biological changes -many major experiences of personhood that mark changes in the direction of your life are likely to occur during this period

What are the names of the visual and auditory forms of sensory memory? How do their characteristics differ?

Sensory memory in vision is called iconic memory; in hearing it is called echoic memory while seeing something is nearly instantaneous, hearing is something that inherently occurs over time, so echoic memory is thought to have a longer duration than iconic memory.(you can't see an object for very long after long your eyes but we can often hear an utterance a few seconds after it was spoken, just as you were about to ask someone to repeat it because you did not "hear" it.)

Why are we more likely to remember events with strong emotional content? Are they also less likely to be forgotten or, if remembered, more likely to be accurate?

Such events are memorable because they are surprising and different; they don't fit in without prior expectations & experiences. Our brain makes decisions about what's important to remember for future navigation/survival. In this way it is evolutionarily adaptive for our survival to remember events that were associated with intense emotion, to prioritize our memories of events that bring us harm or joy. When we get emotionally aroused our bodies teem with stress hormones; this arousal (whether induced by emotions or exercise) enhances LTM for neutral events just prior. Flashbulb memories are extremely vivid memories for emotionally charged events; this gives people great confidence in their memory for emotional events but research indicates people often report incorrect information (false memories) regarding these emotionally charged events when they describe their memory

What are two theories for why we forget information?

Trace decay theory: states that if a person does not access and use a memory, the memory trace will weaken or decay over time and will be less available for later retrieval Interference theory: argues that, similar to these processes , forgetting in LTM is related not to the passage of time but to interference created by integrating new and old information in the brain as time passes

Discuss how memory failures can create problems for the criminal justice system involving both confessions and eye-witness identifications.

We are susceptible to memory distortions even when stakes are high. In a study of exonerations based on DNA, eyewitness misidentifications were the single greatest reason for a wrongful conviction

What is encoding failure? How does this concept help us understand weapon focus? What are other everyday examples of encoding failure?

encoding failure occurs: when information never makes it into LTM weapon focus: the central important details, such as a gun, are encoded and remembered but surrounding peripheral information, such as the color of a mans shirt, are not. attentional memory deficits occur everyday even when we think we are aware: can you draw the apple on an iphone? Which way is George Washington facing on the penny? (abe lincoln) even objects you see all the time you still might not recognize.

Divided attention (as happens in multitasking) has been shown to interfere with memory. Why do you think the effects would be worse when attention is divided during encoding versus when it is divided during retrieval?

encoding is a highly fragile process that requires full attentions

3 stages of memory

encoding: the process of taking information from the world, including our internal thoughts and feelings, and converting it to memories. storage: maintenance of information in the brain for later access retrieval: occurs when we access information stored in the brain from past experience. (taking good notes during a lecture is like encoding whether the ink fades or not is storage and being able to find where you left your notes is retrieval) these stages interact substantially, retrieval of a memory results in a re-encoding of the original event.

What are false memories? Why might this process be generally useful ?

false memories refer to retrieval of an event that never occurred false memories rely on recollect gist memory, the general global aspects of the supposed event, rather than the verbatim memory, the specific details for an event - this can be useful for big picture thinking and prevent interference?

What does it mean to say memory is subjective?

it's inherently subjective and much of the detail is reconstructed; what we remember is colored by how we interpret situations and how we feel in the moment, what we feel is important etc. And much of what we recall is subjective too, because we re-interpret and reconstruct our memories -big individual differences in memory vividness; memories are often inaccurate due to their subjective nature.

What is meant by levels of processing? How does this help us understand that we are not passive recorders of information? Why is this described as both a strength and a weakness of our memory system?

levels of processing refers to the concept that encoding is an active process, which can occur at multiple levels on a continuum from shallow to deep; shallow encoding uses appearances while deep encoding goes beyond appearance to involve significance and meaning shallow encoding is a strength because it allows us to make general assessments about the world; but will generally not get many details -deep encoding is what helps us not be passive recorders of information; past deep encoding can affect future learning

What is motivated forgetting? What results support the reality of this phenomenon? How is it related to repression?

motivated forgetting: occurs when individuals intentionally try to forget information so that they are less likely to retrieve it later Repression: controversial; defense mechanism against remembering a traumatic event -successful suppression of unwanted memories altered activity in the hippocampus and some of the same prefrontal cortical mechanisms used in retrieval were called upon to suppress retrieval of unwanted memories.

What evidence supports the idea that reconsolidation can change or disrupt existing memories? How is this used in forgetting therapy?

reconsolidation can often be examined in classical conditioning experiments. For example: rats that learned to associate a tone with a shock. The next day the tone is presented without the shock (the tone represents a reminder for fear memory). Anisomycin is injected into the amygdala which inhibits the CREB protein process. The injected rats showed much less fear response to the tone than the rats that were not injected suggesting the fear memory had been disrupted (it was the act of retrieving the memory that allowed the drug to result in forgetting) propranolol that stops reconsolidation for PTSD patients In humans, memories can be selectively "zapped" using ECT to "dislodge them. Retrieval plus ECT results in selective targeted forgetting. stronger and older memories may also be susceptible to disruption upon retrieval but require a longer trial to be disrupted

Discuss the principle of memory formation as social collaboration. What cross-cultural evidence supports this idea?

social collaboration: we constantly hear stories about childhood events from family members, and young children have difficulty remembering the source of their memories. -evidence: prominent difference in early memories between North American and Asian children. Cross-cultural studies have shown that North Americans retrieve both more childhood memories and earlier memories than Chinese children. These differences are due to the way cultures place different emphasis on talking about the past.

What is source memory? What are two sources of source memory called? How can these failures occur?

source memory is the ability to recall the context in which we acquired a memory source amnesia: occurs when we cannot remember where our memories come from even though we remember the event. (more personal episodic) when we forget whether the source of our facts was an article or news feed, this would be considered an error or source monitoring (more semantic?)

What is meant by the term infantile amnesia? Outline two suggested causes of infantile amnesia and the evidence that supports each suggestion. Discuss why memories for traumatic events experienced early in life may or may not provide an exception to the general principle of infantile amnesia.

-Infantile amnesia: is the inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories from the first few years of life, usually from birth to age 3 to 3.5 suggested causes for this are that the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex aren't fully formed in infants infants don't have language to label everything in their environment and this limitation might reduce their ability both to store memories and to use language as a retrieval cue -exception: instances of early emotional/ traumatic memories could be due to the boosting o weak hippocampal activity by the amygdala, which is more fully formed early in development (though it might be argued that some of these memories may reflect knowledge learned from family stories (in other words, it might be semantic knowledge about the self, not true episodic memory)

Identify several brain areas involved in the storage of implicit memories. What evidence supports their importance for these kinds of memory?

-Perceptual priming of faces, where previously seen faces are processed is supported by face-sensitive regions in the fusiform cortex. Priming takes place without the need for deep processing or a functioning hippocampus. -visual priming is supported by decreased neural activity for previously seen images in visual cortical regions -procedural memories are preserved in amnesia because they are supported by areas OTHER than the hippocampus such as brain regions important for motor production and coordination (Evidence can be seen: Clive Wearing who has anterograde amnesia but has preserved procedural memories) whereas the hippocampus specializes in formation explicit memories, implicit memory depends on a variety of memory systems throughout the brain

Discuss evidence that overly detailed autobiographical memory may not be beneficial.

-Remembering every detail would be overwhelming. Hyperthymesia: autobiographical memory; AJ she is exhausted by thinking of her past, cannot stop constant recollections, making it hard to focus. displays considerable difficulty remembering information that does not relate to herself. ( may be related to prefrontal cortical circuits, that impairs what is selected for later memory. *a healthy memory is not just about retention but also about being able to forget*

How might the effects of age on memory be understood in terms of attention? Describe a study that helps to demonstrate this.

-age-related memory decline may be explained by decreased selective attention , influencing what gets into memory more than what was fallen out. -despite being attentive, the elderly appear to have decreased focus of attention during encoding into memory, rendering their attention more diffuse; the elderly may have memory for different things than young adults do because of changes in their ability to attend and to ignore

Describe free-recall, cued-recall, and recognition memory procedures. How are they similar, and how are they different? How do these memory testing procedures correspond to different question types you might encounter on an exam?

-free-recall: information is accessed without any cues to aid retrieval -cued-recall: recall from memory is accompanied by retrieval cues or hints (yielding much more effective results than free recall) -recognition memory: is a form of retrieval that relies on identifying information that you have previously seen or experienced, such as recognizing someone's face, whereas remembering their name involves recall. -they all involve the retrieval process. -if you're required to recall freely you're unlikely to access all of the relevant information you actually have stored. (if you were shown 30 words in an experiment yesterday and today you were asked to recall as many as you can, you would likely appear to have forgotten almost all of them; but when given some retrieval cues information related to stored memories can help bring them back. -in experiment cases when memory storage is intact but recall fails- participants are given a list of words that fell in different categories. after participants wrote down all they could remember by free recall. researchers found that recall could be increased with cues for retrieval (on tests open ended questions require free recall and fill in the blank use cued recall, and recognition would be multiple choice)

Identify retrospective memory and prospective memory? Discuss the similarities and differences between them.

-retrospective memory: involves remembering things have done in the past -prospective memory: involves remembering things we need to do in the future They Both: involve the hippocampus, not entirely independent (senior citizens who can no longer provide may details about what happened in their past also can recount fewer details about what might happen in their future) They Differ: in terms of direction of memory in time (one is past, one is future)

What are state-dependent and mood-dependent retrieval? How are these concepts related to the encoding-specificity principle?

-state-dependent retrieval: the increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same mental state during both encoding and retrieval. (if you study for an exam after a few drinks, you will actually recall that information better if you're a lil drunk when you take the exam) -mood dependent: an instance of encoding specificity principle extended to your emotional states (state and mood are both contextual and in this way are related to the encoding-specificity principle)

What roles does the hippocampus play in explicit memory? Why has this structure been described as a "personal time-travel machine"? What role do the lateral and anterior temporal lobes play in explicit memory?

-the hippocampus in the medial lobe is critical for forming memories of the most personal episodic memories. "your hippocampus is your own personal time-machine" -the loss of semantic memory is associated with degeneration of the surrounding lateral and anterior temporal lobe (where our semantic knowledge about the world is thought to be stored)

???Discuss how forgetting might be studied and Ebbinghaus's role in developing this research. Describe the key aspects of the forgetting curve that is revealed by such experiments.

Herman Ebbinghaus 1885- created his own method where he learned a list of nonsense syllables and test himself on delays from hour to a month -consonant/vowel/consonant nonsense syllables not: D-O-T or B-O-L (cause they kinda represent words) possible: D-A-X B-O-K Y-A-T random selection of items ^ Took him 7 years to collect data a publish results during first 9 hours subtotal decline in performance/ 64% of what he initially learn there was a 15% decline in the span of a month -in period between 9 hours and a month he lost about 42% Ebbinghaus other contributions -study affect of list length on learning -memorization time increases sharply with the number of syllables -distributing learning over time is more effective than learning in a single session -small amount of initial practice leads to savings for later learning -continuing to practice material after it is "learned" enhances retention -primacy and recency effects; meaningful material is easier to learn

Outline the multi store model of memory. How do the stages of memory storage that it proposes differ?

The Multistore model of memory proposed that information flows from our senses through three level of memory storage: momentary sensory memory, short-term memory, and long term memory Sensory memory: holds sensory information on the order of milliseconds to less than second; substantial storage capacity but also extremely fragile and very limited duration echoic memory last for about 4 seconds Sensory memory in vision is called iconic memory; in hearing it is called echoic memory Short-term memory: information from all senses can be held-from seconds to less than a minute- before either being stored or permanently forgotten Long-term memory: for hours to many years, and potentially for a lifetime.

What is memory span? Describe several of the specific forms it can take.

a working memory span is defined as how many items can be juggled and manipulated in the mind. digit span: how many digits can be remembered ..?

What is meant by working memory? What are its components? How are the components of working memory related to short-term memory? Where does rehearsal fit into this scheme?

working memory can be thought of as our underlying ability to organize information in a meaningful way in STM & to use encoding strategies such as deep processing; STM and working memory are often used interchangeably, they are related but distinct concepts STM is like a holding dock for a duration less than 30 seconds while working memory provides the operations—loading, unloading, manipulating, and organizing the cargo in the dock; best thought of as working with memory, enhancing the duration of STM and decimating transfer to long term storage. ; working memory is a model for how STM might work; what is in STM is what we are working with rehearsal is the process of actively maintaining information in working memory Working memory also shows that there are multiple forms of STM depending on the type of information being remembered phonological loop: similar your inner hearing voice VS-sketchpad: your mind's eye Central Executive: control center that allows you to manipulate info. in STM; deciding on strategies that we are gonna use for the stuff in STM; frontal lobe functions