Cognitive Psychology Exam 2

What is the capacity of STM (short term memory)?

7 +/- 2 CHUNKS, regardless of the nature of the material EX: phone numbers, words, sentences Recoding or chunking helps by reducing the number of items to be remembered

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

A good recency effect (recall for words at the end that were in STM) however the beginning part of the list is impaired which is the primacy effect and is affected by LTM.

What is metamemory and an example of it?

A kind of metacognition that refers to one's knowledge, monitoring and control of memory. Ex: It is overestimated when evaluating the total number of correct items on a test however it is more accurate when they predict which items they will get right and which they will get wrong.

What is the release from proactive interference?

A memory phenomenon when a person switches from one category of stimuli to a new category. Example: a person may initially see the names of occupations, but then he or she sees the names of fruits.

What is a procedural memory?

A person's knowledge about how to do something. Cannot be verbally reported Measured by improved performance Perceptual skills Motor skills EX: learning to ski, reading upside down

What is a semantic memory?

A person's organized knowledge about the world, including knowledge about words and other factual information. Facts, general knowledge, vocabulary EX: how many months in a year? Types of birds?

What is the Implicit association test and an example of it?

A research tool based on the principle that people can mentally pair two related words together much more easily than they can pair two unrelated words. It is useful in assessing stereotypes, such as stereotypes about gender. Ex: Numbers and calculus go with male and dancers and artists go with female.

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

A schema is organized knowledge about some aspect of the world, so that when you retrieve one part of the schema, you activate a lot of other information as well. One example was in the textbook, which described a study in which subjects in an experiment sat in a professor's office briefly before moving to another room. They were then asked to recall the objects in the office. They were good at recalling objects that were consistent with the schema of an office (desk, lamp), but not as good remembering things inconsistent with an office (wine bottle, picnic basket). In addition, they remembered things that weren't there, such as a pile of books. When a schema is active, it generates expectations about an office, helping organize the stimuli that were there, but sometimes "filling in blanks" inappropriately. (The War of the Ghosts or the Washing clothes stories are other possible examples.)

What is category and an example of it?

A set of objects that belong together. For example: the category called "fruit" represents a certain category of food items.

What factors affect prospective memory?

Absentmindedness, divided attention, performing tasks automatically.

How does the testing effect affect memory performance over time?

After a delay, people remember more of the material if their last activity had been taking a test, even if they received no feedback on the accuracy on that test.

How is information represented in semantic memory according to a prototype view?

An "average" of all members of the category

What is the Brown-Peterson task?

Brief presentation of letters, rehearsal prevented After 3 seconds, ~ 50% lost All letters gone after 20 seconds

What is the duration of STM (short term memory)?

Brief, 15-20 seconds w/out rehearsal

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

Categorization: you place items together like foods, animals, etc Imagery: generate visual images and construct a story using the visual images Method of Loci: imagery related to a familiar route and place an object at various points along that route Acronyms: HOMES, ROY G. BIV it helps condense and chunk information, 1st letter of each word that you are trying to remember and make a different "word" Memory Palaces: Loci and imagery by placing things in different rooms in the house

What is chunking and how does it affect short term memory?

Chunking is breaking up long bits of information into smaller, easier to remember pieces or chunks. It helps STM because the chucks become one bit of information instead of many.

What types of context can be important in encoding?

Cognitive context, physical location, psychological state (arousal, drugs) and mood congruence.

What are the weaknesses of a prototype view?

Concepts may be unstable and vary. For example: A dress is no longer a prototype for the clothing that women commonly wear. Also, we often store specific information about individual examples of a category and an ideal model of semantic memory would need to include a mechanism for storing this type of information as well as prototypes.

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between selective attention?

Dichotic listening scores are higher with good WM span.

What is proactive interference?

Difficulty learning or recalling new material because some previously learned material continues to interfere with the formation of new memories.

What evidence supports Craik's model?

Incidental learning experiment showed that the more "deep" you had to think about something (through chunking and association) the better your recall for the information is.

What were Kosslyn's studies and why were they important?

Evidence from image scanning Time to imagine moving between two locations is tied to actual distance (spatial relationship between elements is preserved) Same pattern for visual imagery as visual perception Image inspection and reporting detail Kosslyn: imagine a rabbit next to an elephant vs next to a fly "Does the rabbit have a pink nose?" Faster responses if the rabbit is next to the fly...the image is bigger and easier to inspect fMRI brain imaging Brain imaging work shows that many of the same brain areas are activated during during perception and imagery

What is the representation of sensory memory?

Exact physical representation

How does the old concept of STM relate to WM?

Executive control determines where to put resources and helps with comprehension and decision making which was not present in STM. It has the phonological loop, visual-spatial sketchpad and the articulatory group and an episodic buffer.

What are the four components of working memory?

Executive control system Controls mental resources Comprehension, decisions, strategies Articulatory loop Visual-spatial sketchpad Episodic Buffer Integrates information from LTM, different modalities, into events

What are schema?

Generalized, well-integrated knowledge about a situation, an event, or a person. Schemas allow people to predict what will happen in a new situation. These predictions are generally correct.

How does the notion of schema explain Bartlett's findings?

He found that the recall of Native American folktales were not correct and involved replacing unfamiliar information with facts already known. These errors were filled in by the person retelling the stories schemas. In other words, old knowledge influences new information by filling in the gaps.

How did Cahill study emotion and memory?

He showed the same slides but with a different story. The beginning and ending of the stories were the same but the middle was much more emotional.

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

High anxiety participants were more likely than low anxious participants to recall negative, anxiety arousing words and high anxiety participants were less likely than the low anxious participants to recall both the the neutral and pleasant words.

What is the function of STM (short term memory)?

Hold info for immediate use, info from sensory memory or from LTM Equated with consciousness

What is the function of sensory memory?

Hold info from sensory path in a "buffer" very briefly for further processing

What is the constructive model of memory?

In long term memory, the proposal that people integrate information from individual sentences in order to construct larger ideas.

What is acoustic confusions and an example of it?

In memory research, the observation that people are likely to confuse similar-sounding stimuli. Ex: A list of letters that sounded the same had a lower number of correctly recalled letters versus a list that had different sounding letters.

What is spreading activation and an example of it?

In network models of semantic memory, the process by which nodes excite nearby or related nodes. Ex: Apple activates nodes nearby which could be worm or tree or red or anything that the person associates with an apple.

What is analog code?

In problem solving, the use of a solution to a similiar, earlier problem to help solve a new problem. Analog codes preserve spatial or temporal relationships among elements, or the visual or auditory qualities (color, size, pitch, timbre) Ex: A dog is black and white, mixed breed, wearing a red shirt, big nose.

What is typicality effect and an example of it?

In the prototype theory of semantic memory, the observation that people judge typical items (prototypes) faster than items that are not typical (nonprototypes).Ex: When judging whether items belong to the category "bird", people judge robin more quickly than penguin.

Explain the dual code hypothesis and give supporting evidence...

Information in memory can be represented in analog codes, propositional codes, or both Memory is better for information represented in multiple codes.

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

Information is organized in semantic memory on the basis of meaning and associations Spreading activation to related concepts helps speed up retrieval of information Top down processing, generating expectations, filling in missing information Degree of relatedness, typicality important

What are the strengths of a prototype view?

It can account for our ability to form concepts about groups that are loosely structured. It can be applied to complex social relationships as well as nonsensical categories and inanimate objects.

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

It is called Levels of Processing or depth of processing. Not HOW MUCH something is rehearsed, but HOW is it rehearsed Attention, active processing, and meaning play important roles in storing information Shallow processing

What is echoic memory and an example of it?

It is one of the sensory memory registers; a component of sensory memory (SM) that is specific to retaining auditory information. Ex: It can hold 3 to 4 seconds of what was just heard.

How is information represented in semantic memory according to an exemplar view?

It is part of a member of a category.

What is iconic memory and an example of it?

It preserves an image of the visual stimulus for a brief period of time after the stimulus has disappeared. For example, look at an object in the room you are in now, and then close your eyes and visualize that object. The image you "see" in your mind is your iconic memory of that visual stimuli.

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

It refers to 3 cognitive activities: our thoughts about cognitive maps, how we remember the world we navigate and how we keep track of objects in a spatial array.

What is metacognition and an example of it?

It refers to your knowledge and control of your cognitive processes. Ex: We use our cognitive processes to think about our cognitive processes.

How is the dual task method used to test the concept of Working Memory?

It requires comprehension at different difficulty levels while "tying up" the STM. Ex: holding onto digits in STM while making desicions about sentances.

What is the Pollyanna Principle and an example of it?

It states that pleasant items are usually processed more efficiently and more accurately than less pleasant items. Ex: People remember the pleasant words on a list more accurately than the negative words.

What does the Brown-Peterson task tell us about Short term memory?

It tells us that short term memory is really short and without rehearsal, information gets lost quickly.

What factors affect metamemory accuracy?

It tends to be less accurate if accessed right after learning the material. People tend to overestimate how many they will get right over all but do better in assessing which items they will remember. If they wait a bit, then access the memory then it is in long term and will be more accurate in remembering the information.

What kinds of information are represented on a cognitive map?

Landmarks, objects in an environment and the space around them. Includes distance and position and big and small places.

What are the leading questions and how do they affect eyewitness reports?

Leading questions are questions that by virtue of how they are phrased emphasize an assumption. Ex: How fast was the car going when it hit the pole? How fast was the car going when it smashed the pole? The witnesses that heard smashed in the question reported higher speeds and remember seeing glass.

Give some examples of how eyewitness memory is studied...

Line up studies and tested the abilities to see if they are accurate in remembering a person that did an action.

What is retrograde amnesia?

Loss of memory for events that occurred prior to brain damage. This deficit is especially severe for events that occurred during the years just before the damage.

What is the difference between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?

Maintenance rehearsal (repeating information to yourself) Elaborative rehearsal (Take information and transform it using imagery and chunking for example)

What are some factors that affect the primacy and recency effects of the serial position curve?

Making the short term memory do a different task at the same time makes the recency effect go down. How much time that you have to rehearse the information for long term memory may increase the primacy effect if you are given more time to rehearse (space in time between words). Also the position in the list effects which type of memory is used.

What is a flashbulb memory?

Memory for the circumstances in which one first learned about a very surprising and emotionally arousing event.

What is the Shepard mental rotation study and why is it important?

Mental rotation operates in a similar way as physical rotation The more mental rotation that is required, the longer the response time Evidence that visual images (analog codes) can be maintained and acted upon in WM

What are the strengths of an exemplar view?

More flexible and can work around stereotypes.

How accurate is metamemory in general?

Not very accurate

What are some limitations on the use of imagery?

Note that imagery is not the same as perception; not like a photograph Qualitative difference Less detail, more standardized Images difficult to maintain in WM Complex images difficult to manipulate, reinterpret

What was Bartlett's study of the "War of Ghosts" story and what results did he find?

Participants weren't given much information about the story of the War of the Ghosts and there wasn't enough information in the story to make them know excatly what was going on. When they were asked to recall the story their schema fit the. You remember information that fits your schema.

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between reading comprehension?

People who score high on reading comprehension tend to have good WM and people who score lower on reading comprehension have lower WM spans.

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between ADHD?

People with ADHD have difficulty on central tendency tasks especially if they have to inhibit a response, plan a project or work on 2 tasks at the same time.

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between major depression?

People with depression have difficulty with some WM tasks. They self report that they have a hard time concentrating and have a ruminative style where they worry about all the things that are wrong in their life.

What is an episodic memory?

People's memories for events that happened to them personally. Memory for an event Tied to specific time and place EX: What did you have for dinner Friday night?

What is the function of LTM (long term memory)?

Permanent, retrievable store

What is the serial position curve?

Primacy Effect: better recall for words at the beginning of the list Recency Effect: better recall for words at the end of the list This pattern occurs regardless of length of list

What is the representation of LTM (long term memory)?

Primarily semantic, meaning-based, but can be based on images, motor representation, etc.

What is propositional code?

Propositional codes are abstract, not tied to a perceptual stimulus, no spatial or physical features. Ex: Driving directions to Sugar House Park from David Eccles School of Business 1. Head SW on 1800 E to E South Campus Dr 0.2 mi 2. Turn right onto E South Campus Dr 0.1 mi 3. At traffic circle, take 2nd exit onto Campus Center Dr 4. Turn right onto E University Blvd 0.4 mi 5. Turn left onto S 1300 E 2.3 mi 6. Turn left onto E 2100 S 0.2 mi 7. Turn right at S 1400 E 0.2 mi 8. Turn left; Destination will be on the right

How does prospective memory differ from retrospective memory?

Prospective memory focus on actions and retrospective memory focuses on remembering information and ideas.

What was found when the dual task method was used to test Working Memory?

Reasoning, verbal STM, and articulation share the same WM resources. There is interference between the comprehension task and the memory task because more resources are needed when you have to hold onto more information.

What is the encoding specificity/state dependent learning?

Recall is better when context at retrieval is similar to context at encoding.

What did Cahill find in studying emotion and memory?

Recall was the same for the beginning and end were the same but there was better recall associated with the more emotional story in the middle.

How do the different types of amnesia compare based on which memory abilities remain intact and which are damaged?

Retrograde amnesia is a loss of memories from before the injury and is common with concussions New episodic learning OK Consolidation or retrieval problems whereas anterograde amnesia is a difficulty in acquiring new episodic memories after the injury and the semantic memories remain intact. The hippocampus is damaged in the frontal lobe. People retain knowledge of past episodic memory STM/WM, semantic OK in both cases

What have studies of individual differences in WM found about the relationship between academic performance?

Scores on WM, especially the phronological loop are usually correlated with reading ability. Scores on central executive tasks are correlated with verbal fluency, reading comprehension, reasoning ability and note taking skills.

What did we learn about the organization and retrieval of information from semantic memory?

Semantic memory is organized through networks of information that are connected by topic. When one network is activated, information spreads. The more associated the information is, the faster this spreading of activation occurs. We can test this through priming tasks and measure using reaction time.

What are the weaknesses of an exemplar view?

Semantic memory would become overpopulated with so many different categories.

What is amnesia?

Severe deficits in episodic memory

How do different types of memory contribute to the pattern of the serial position curve?

Short term memory remembers the last words on the list. (Recency effect) Long term memory uses rehearsal to remember the first words on the list. (Primacy effect)

How do mood and emotion affect memory?

Some studies suggest that whether emotion is positive or negative doesn't matter In general, however, better recall for pleasant than for unpleasant events Mood congruence is important: better recall for pleasant events if in positive mood, for negative events if in bad mood.

What is an explicit memory task and an example of it?

Someone asks you to remember some information and you realize that your memory is being tested and the test asks you to intentionally retrieve some information that you previously learned. Ex: Recalling information that you have been asked to remember specifically.

What is the misinformation effect?

Source misattribution; new information is not distinguished from the original (EX: stop vs. yield sign) Subsequent corrections of misinformation often are not retained Implanted False memories 25% - 50% accept false childhood memory Can incorporate sensory details (Ex: hugging Bugs Bunny at Disneyland)

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

Surgery to control epilepsy Removal of hippocampus in both hemispheres Good STM/WM, semantic memory Variable, some past episodic memories No new episodic learning after the surgery GOOD NEW PROCEDURAL LEARNING

What is reality monitoring and an example of it?

The attempt to identify whether an event really occurred, or whether the event was imagined. Ex: You might think that you told a friend that an upcoming event had been cancelled, however, in reality, you had debated whether to call her or send a message and you never actually conveyed that message.

What is working memory?

The brief, immediate memory for the limited amount of material that a person is currently processing. It also actively coordinates ongoing mental activities. Executive control system Controls mental resources Comprehension, decisions, strategies Two memory systems Articulatory loop Visual-spatial sketchpad Episodic Buffer Integrates information from LTM, different modalities, into events

What evidence is there against the idea that there is something special about flashbulb memories that makes them less vulnerable to distortion or forgetting?

The enhanced memories can usually be explained by several standard mechanisms, such as rehearsal frequency, distinctiveness and elaboration.

What is self-reference effect and an example of it?

The enhancement of long-term memory by releating the material to oneself. Ex: You apply the word generous to yourself because you remember that you loaned a friend your notes when she missed class and you always share your candy, so generous does apply to you.

What is anterograde amnesia?

The inability to form memories for events that occur after brain damage.

What is concept and an example of it?

The mental representation of a category. Ex: You have a ________ of fruit which refers to your mental representation of the objects in that category.

What is auditory imaging and what are the characteristics?

The mental representation of auditory stimuli when the sounds are not physically present. Th characteristics are imagining pitch and timbre.

What is a cognitive map?

The mental representation of geographic information, including a person's surrounding environment.

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

The network model with nodes that are related and the closer the nodes are to each other, the most likely you are to use that example. Strength of the pathway is based on our associations. It is associated with what has already happened in your working memory.

What is the testing effect?

The observation that the act of taking a test is actually an excellent way to boost long term recall for academic material.

What evidence is there for the idea that there is something special about flashbulb memories that makes them less vulnerable to distortion or forgetting?

The recall of the flashbulb memory and the ordinary memories surrounding the event are consistent in their recall over the passage of time.

What are some examples of encoding specificity/state dependent learning?

The scuba study where people learned something on land and another group leartned something under water. It didn't matter where they learned the information but it did matter if they were in the same location where they learned it in order to recall it. The same physical location is important.

How do the episodic, semantic and procedural memories differ from each other?

They have different kinds of information and different kinds of representation.

How have brain studies played a role in resolving the imagery debate?

Through fMRI scans we can see that areas of the brain light up when someone is using imagery versus other areas of the brain and was proof that imagery does exist.

What is the capacity of LTM (long term memory)?

Unlimited...maybe

What is the representation of STM (short term memory)?

Usually phonological, speech-based

What is the duration of sensory memory?

VERY brief ~ 250 msec visual ~ .5 - 2 sec auditory

How is the organization and retrieval of information in the semantic memory measured?

We can measure the organization of semantic knowledge using the network model as a base of how information is stored and connected. When we learn something new, we connect this new piece of information to the rest of the nodes in a related network.

What is source monitoring and an example of it?

When you try to identify the origin of a particular memory. Ex: Where did you learn a bit of information about a movie? Was it from a movie review or did a friend tell you?

What is the duration of LTM (long term memory)?

Years, decades

What is mood congruence and an example of it?

You recall material more accurately if it is the same as your current mood. Ex: If you are in a pleasant mood, you should remember pleasant material better than unpleasant material.

What is implicit memory task and an example of it?

You see the material (usually a series of words or pictures), later, during the test phase, you are instructed to complete a cognitive task that does not directly ask you for either recall or recognition. Ex: A woman with amnesia starts dialing numbers and dials her mother without knowing it.

What is the distributed practice effect and an example of it?

You will remember more material if you spread your learning trials over time. Ex: Studying an hour every day for 2 weeks instead of cramming for 2 days before the exam.

What is the capacity of sensory memory?

visual snapshot 1-2 sec of auditory info