Cognitive Psychology: Memory

duration of iconic memory

1 second

A very brief memory created in a split-second sight is called

A double take.

Research by Elizabeth Loftus shows that eyewitness recognition is very prone to what psychologists call

A false positive.

Hierarchy

A group organized by rank

Rote

A habitual, repetitive routine or procedure

Hippocampus

A neural center located in the limbic system that helps process explicit memories for storage.

Aaron had no memory of how he got home from a party. He then convinces himself that he must have been abducted by aliens while walking home. Subsequently, he is hypnotized in an attempt to help increase his memories of that evening. Based on the research of memory recall through hypnosis, what might we learn?

Aaron may unknowingly create false memories of what happened that night to justify his belief.

Accesible

Able to be reached or understood

Which neurotransmitter is no longer readily produced in Alzheimer's patients?

Acetycholine

A key component for any person to believe that a false event is in fact true is to make sure that the false information is

As plausible as possible.

The tendency of certain elements to enter long-term memory with little or no effort to encode and organize them is what defines

Automatic encoding.

Jeopardy

Danger

Shantel spent a year living abroad in Spain. During that time, her ability to read and speak Spanish grew tremendously. However, now, two years later, Shantel feels she can no longer travel there because she can barely remember a thing. Her problem is most likely due to

Decay theory.

_ memories are said to linger in the mind for a few seconds, allowing people the chance to keep with the flow of conversations and remember what was just said.

Echoic

Amber meets a cute guy named Carson at a party. She wants to make sure she remembers his name so she reminds herself that he has the same name as the capital of Nevada (Carson City). This transferring of information from short-term memory to long-term memory is an example of what type of rehearsal?

Elaborative

A process by which information is transferred from short-term to long-term memory by making it meaningful id called

Elaborative rehearsal.

Colin is asked to repeat what his mother just told him. He says he "forgot" but in reality Collins wasn't paying attention to his mother at all. This is an example of the _ explanation of forgetting.

Encoding failure

Reasons for forgetting

Encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure

What concept suggests that the best place to study for your psychology final to ensure fgood retrieval of concepts is your psychology classroom?

Encoding specificity

Three processes of memory

Encoding, storage, retrieval

Lucy remembers specific incidents that are meaningful to him more clearly than general facts and knowledge. Which type of memory would you say he is strong in?

Episodic memory

Decay

Fading away of memory over time

The ability to remember where you were and what you were doing when the United States was attacked on September 11, 2001, is an example of

Flashbulb memory.

semantic and episodic long-term memories

Frontal and temporal lobes (different locations than short-term memories)

Meaningful

Full of purpose; worthy

Episodic

Happening in parts or segments

Semantic

Having to do with the meaning of words or language

Henry was angry with himself for wasting time watching his favorite football team lose a match. He thought he knew the outcome all along. This tendency to believe that one can accurately predict an outcome is known as

Hindsight bias.

Henry Gustav Molaison (H. M.) suffered from profound anterograde amnesia after his _ were surgically removed in an attempt to control his seizures.

Hippocampi

Maison

House

Icon

Image

Intact

In place, unharmed

Masking

Information that has just entered iconic memory will be pushed out very quickly by new information

Long term

Involving or in effect for a number of years.

Studies by Elizabeth Loftus find that memory

Is highly fluid and can be altered by the person even when the person is unaware he or she is doing it.

Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci

Research has demonstrated you can enhance your memory for specific words if you think about its meaning, how it can be used, and by giving a personal example of its use. This is best accounted for by which model of memory?

Levels-of-processing model

Attenuation

Loss of power in a signal as it travels from the sending device to the receiving device

In Loftus's 1978 study, subjects viewed a slide presentation of an accident. Later, some of the subjects were asked a question about a yield sign when the actual slides contained pictures of a stop sign. When presented with this inaccurate information, how did these subjects typically respond?

Many subjects' overall accuracy dropped when confronted with conflicting information.

Mary has just met an attractive man named Austin at a party. She wants to make sure she remembers his name. What should she do?

Mary should make it more meaningful. For example, she might remind herself that Austin has the same name as the capital of Texas.

Constructive processing

Memories are built or reconstructed from the info stored away during encoding

Recall

Memories are retrieved with few or no external cues

Brenda has been able to tie her shoes since she was 4 but now finds it difficult to explain to her baby brother how to tie his shoes but she can easily demonstrate it for him. Brenda's memory for shoe-tying is best characterized as a _ memory.

Nondeclarative (implicit)

_ memory includes what people can do or demonstrate, whereas _ memory is about what people know and can report.

Nondeclarative; declarative

Tower of Hanoi

O(2^n)

In Hermann Ebbinghaus's classic study on memory and the forgetting curve, how long after learning the lists does most forgetting happen?

One hour

Which model of memory suggests that memory processes occur throughout a neural network simultaneously?

Parallel distributed processing model

Retrieving many different aspects of memory all at once is the

Parallel distributed processing model.

Phineas walks out of his office and into the conference room. However, after he leaves his office, he forgets what he was coming into the conference room for. According to the encoding specificity hypothesis, what should Phineas do to regain his lost memory?

Phineas should return to his office to help him remember what he had forgotten.

Fathima has got a new cell phone number, but finds herself giving her old one when someone asks her for it. This is an example of

Proactive interference.

Types of long-term memories

Procedural (AKA: Nondeclarative/implicit memory) Declarative memory (AKA: Explicit memory)

Stages

Qualitatively distinct periods of development.

Available

Ready for use, at hand

In _, memories are retrieved with no external cues.

Recall

Multiple-choice test questions typically rely on _ while essay questions rely on _.

Recognition; recall

Ruth has just finished her research paper and handed it in. As she walks out of the classroom, she realizes that there were a few more things she should have included in the paper. Ruth's problem is in the memory process of

Retrieval.

human memory consists of multiple systems that have the ability to store information for periods of time that range from _ to _.

Seconds; our lifetime.

Information enters into short-term memory through a process known as _.

Selective attention

For information to travel from sensory memory to short-term memory, it must first be _ and then encoded primarily into _ form.

Selectively attended to; auditory

When you take your final exam in your psychology class, what type of memory will you most certainly need to access to answer each question?

Semantic

Three-stage process of memory

Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Jaclynn had written a grocery list but accidentally left it at home. Trying to remember the list, Jaclynn remembers what was at the beginning of the list and what was at the end but not those things in the middle. This is an example of the

Serial position effect.

When creating a presentation, many public speaking instructors will tell you to develop a strong opening or attention getter to your presentation as well as a good summary and finish. What aspect of memory best explains the else suggestions?

Serial position phenomenon

iconic memory test

Show a grid of letters, and immediately sounded a high, medium, or low tone just after the grid was shown.

Mnemonist

Someone with highly developed memory skills

Memento

Something that serves as a reminder

Implied

Suggested but not directly expressed

Felisha can recall with great detail the day of her wedding and all that occurred. What might psychologists say about these particular flashbulb memories?

The memories were likely enhanced in part by the hormones released during emotional moments.

Duration

The period of time taken by something

Memory

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

Your mother tells you to dress for success at your interview because it's all about "first impressions." In other words, she is telling you that people often remember what they see first. This belief is in line with what element of memory?

The primacy effect

Consolidation

The process by which memories become stable in the brain

Transduction

The process of converting outside stimuli, such as light, into neural activity

Encoding

The processing of information into the memory system

Storage

The retention of encoded information over time.

You are introduced to someone at a party. While talking with the person, you realize that you have already forgotten the person's name. What amount of time does it typically take before such information is lost from short-term memory?

Typically between 12 and 30 seconds

Connectionism

Views memories as products of interconnected neural networks

photographic memory

Vivid mental images, resembling a photograph. Very few people possess such ability.

Raven has just finished learning a list of nonsense words given to her by her psychology instructor as part of a class activity. She had 100 percent recall at the end of class. According to Ebbinghaus's curve of forgetting, how quickly will Raven likely forget about 40 percent of the information she has just learned?

Within the first 20 minutes after leaving the class

curve of forgetting

a graph that shows the amount of memorized information remembered after varying lengths of time

recognition

a measure of memory in which the person need only identify items previously learned

semantic memory

a network of associated facts and concepts that make up our general knowledge of the world

encoding specificity

a process in which memories incorporate unique combinations of information when encoded

digit-span test

a series of numbers is read to subjects who are then asked to recall the numbers in order

retrieval cue

a stimulus for remembering

electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)

a treatment that involves inducing a mild seizure by delivering an electrical shock to the brain

short-term memory (STM)

activated memory that holds a few items briefly before the information is stored or forgotten

working memory

active maintenance of information in short-term storage

anterograde amnesia

an inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia

an inability to retrieve information from one's past

long-term potentiation

an increase in a synapse's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation

Disuse

another name for decay, assuming that memories that are not used will eventually decay and disappear

semantic network model

assumes that information is stored in the brain in a connected fashion

echoic memory

auditory sensory memory

procedural memories

cerebellum

information-processing model

cognitive understanding of memory emphasizing how information is changed

Microsaccades

constant movement of the eyes; tiny little vibrations that people do not notice consciously

comprehensive

covering or including everything

massed practice

cramming

false-memory syndrome

creation of inaccurate or false memories through the suggestion of others

Autobiographical

dealing with the writer's own life

senile dementia

decreases in mental abilities experienced by some people in old age

flashbulb memories

detailed recollections of when and where we heard about shocking events

capacity of iconic memory

everything that can be seen at one time

encoding failure

failure to process information into memory

tip of the tongue (TOT)

feeling certain that one knows a word, but being unable to recall it

simultaneous

happening or existing at the same time

nondeclarative memory

implicit memory for skills, habits, and learned responses Likely involves amygdala and cerebellum

misinformation effect

incorporating misleading information into one's memory of an event

state-dependent learning

learning is associated with internal states of the participant

parallel distributed processing (PDP) model

memory models in which new info changes one's overall knowledge base

explicit memory

memory of facts and experiences that one can consciously know and "declare"

levels-of-processing model

model of memory that assumes information that is more "deeply processed"

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

partial report method

participants heard tone that told them which row of letters to report

memory trace

physical change in the brain that occurs when a memory is formed

short-term memories

prefrontal cortex and temporal lobes

maintenance rehearsal

repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory

implicit memory

retention independent of conscious recollection

distributed practice

spacing the study of material to be remembered by including breaks between study periods

context-dependent learning

superior retrieval when the external context of the original memories matches the retrieval context

mnemonic strategies

techniques to aid memory

Studies show that as time passes, memories

tend to become more and more inaccurate.

automatic encoding

tendency of certain kinds of information to enter LTM with little or no effortful encoding

primacy effect

tendency to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well

recency effect

tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well

eidetic memory

the ability to remember with great accuracy visual information on the basis of short-term exposure

Priming

the activation, often unconsciously, of particular associations in memory

declarative memory

the cognitive information retrieved from explicit memory; knowledge that can be declared

episodic memory

the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place

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

selective attention

the focusing of conscious awareness on a particular stimulus

procedural memory

the gradual acquisition of skills as a result of practice, or "knowing how" to do things

sensory memory

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

infantile amnesia

the inability to remember events from early childhood

elaborative rehearsal

the linking of new information to material that is already known

autobiographical memory

the memory for events and facts related to one's personal life story

Retrieval

the process of getting information out of memory storage

long-term memory (LTM)

the relatively permanent and limitless storehouse of the memory system

hindsight bias

the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it

iconic memory

visual sensory memory

false positive

when we think we perceive a stimulus that is not there