psych quiz #5

What is meant by working memory span? How many pieces of information can we typically hold in working memory at one time?

-7 +/- 2. However this does not necessarily mean items/words. For example the words dog and man are remembered better than canine and gentleman even though they are all one word. This is because the number of syllables affects the working memory. The more syllables the harder it is to remember even if there are the same number of words. Another example is that faster readers can remember more because they can fit more words in a shorter amount of time. This is why bilingual speakers can have a different working memory span across their languages. The language that is spoken fastest/ fits more words in shorter amount of time will have a greater working memory span.

What is the ACP? What does it do? What are the limitations of the ACP?

-ACP: articulatory control process -maintenance rehearsal and translates visual information into an auditory code -limitations: is a serial processor: can only do one thing well at a time (either maintain or translate)

What is proactive and retroactive interference? Please provide an example for each from your own life, making sure to explain how your example illustrates each concept.

-Proactive interference: previously learned information interferes Ex: you learn the cities of the US and then learn the cities of Spain, you try to recall the cities of Spain but the cities of the US keep popping up in your head instead -Retroactive: later learned information interferes Ex: In Spanish class you learn new verb tenses, however trying to remember these new tenses makes you forget the old ones you've previously learned

Be able to provide examples of this phenomenon from real life. What are some psychological effects (e.g., the suffix effect) that are caused by this process? Make sure that you can explain the effect and why it is due to sensory memory.

-The suffix effect is the selective impairment in recall of the final items of a spoken list when the speech is followed by an irrelevant suffix. Replaces what was previously on your mind. -Demonstrates inattention/Change blindness: we couldn't detect the change in the visual of the two airplanes because of the black screen in between which preventing our iconic memory from working. -the presentation of another similar stimulus will "overwrite" the previous one because of the limited capacity. replaces what was previous on your mind

What is articulatory suppression? How does it affect the phonological similarity effect?

-articulatory suppression: somehow occupying up the ACP processes -occupies the ACP (which is a serial processor) so that the phonological similarity effect doesn't occur

Why is contact comfort so important? Make sure you know how Harlow's monkey experiments support these aspects.

-cortisol levels drop during massage/touch. (stress goes down) (video of monkey getting scared, automatically runs to the "mom monkey" that is covered in carpet instead of the monkey that provides food. then fear goes away after a few seconds- feels protected and actually tries to fight back by making noises back)

Know synaptic pruning and sensitive periods

-synaptic pruning: a process whereby the synaptic connections in the brain that are used are preserved, and those that are not used are lost -the brain is highly "plastic" the brain organizes itself in response to its environmental experiences, preserving connections it needs in order to function in a given context and pruning out others. "use it or lose it" - when connections are used, they are preserved. When connections are not used. they decay and disappear. -synaptic pruning allows every brain to adapt well to any environment in which it may find itself

What is the central executive? What purpose does it serve?

-the central executive to organize what is in your working memory -retrieves information, puts information into long term memory and pulls thing out of long term memory

How long do words stay in the phonological loop without the assistance of the ACP? Please explain what is meant by the phonological similarity effect? Why does this occur?

-words stay in the phonological loop without the assistance of the ACP for 2-3 seconds and then rapidly declines. we surpress the ACP by occupying it ex. talking -Phonological Similarity Effect: the proportion of items recalled correctly as a function of presentation modality, phonological similarity and articulatory suppression -letters and words with similar sounds get confused - we remember this dissimilar ones

We discussed memory failures in class (i.e., forgetting). Please describe two types of forgetting that is not retroactive and proactive interference.

1. Anterograde: the inability to encode new memories (although past memories that occurred before a brain trauma of some sort are still there and usually are able to learn new skills) 2. Retrograde: the inability to recall events occurring prior to a brain injury (lose past memories such as memories for events, faces, people or personal information) Clive Wearing has both types of amnesia

What are the two serial position effects? How are they related to WM and LTM? Support your answer with evidence.

1. Primary effect: early items are processed more and are thus encoded into long term memory. Reduced when items are presented quickly (and thus can't be encoded) 2. Recency effect: later items are better remembered because they're still present in working memory. Reduced when a distractor task is presented prior to recall (so items don't remain in working memory)

What are the three different types of sensory memory that we identified in class? Explain Sperling's classic experiment.

1. echoic 2. haptic 3. iconic Sterling's Experiment: three rows of letters were flashed on a screen for 1/20th of a second. Participants were asked to recall all the letters. Most people believed they had seen all the letters, but they could recall only three or four. That is, in the time it took them to name the first three or four, they forgot the other letters. These reports suggested the participants had very quickly lost their memories of exactly what they had seen. He concluded that the visual memory persisted for about 1/3 of a second.

What three concepts did Piaget describe to explain how children gain knowledge? Please use them in an example (not one we used in class)?

1. schemes: ways of thinking based on personal experience. new schemes are formed during each stage of development. 2. assimilation: the process by which new information is placed into an existing scheme 3. accommodation: the process by which a new scheme is created or an existing scheme is drastically altered to include new information that otherwise would not fit into the scheme Ex: a 2 year old sees a Great Dane and asks, "whats that?" The parent answers that it is a dog. But it does not look anything like the family Chihuaua The toddler needs to assimilate the Great Dane into the existing dog scheme The same 2 year old might see a cow for the first time and shout "doggie!" because of the dog scheme that child has developed (4 legs, fur, same size) The parent says "no honey, that's a cow! it says moo and is much bigger than a dog!" Because the child cannot easily fit this new information into the existing dog scheme using the process of assimilation, the child must now create a new scheme, cow, through the process of accommodation.

Describe the difference between declarative (i.e., explicit) and nondeclarative (i.e., implicit) memory. What are the two types of explicit memory? What are the three types of implicit memory?

1.Declarative memory: things you know that you can tell others -episodic: remembering the first day of school -semantic: knowing the capital of France 2.Nondeclarative memory: things you know that you can show by doing -skill learning: ride a bike -priming: being more likely to use a word you heard recently -conditioning: salivating when you see a favorite food

What are the three components of working memory? What are their primary responsibilities?

1.phonological loop: storage, rehearsal 2. central executive: organizer of activities 3. visuospatial sketchpad: visual and spatial info

What is elaboration?

A method of encoding info by connecting it to other info in your LTM -Depth of processing is a type of elaboration → giving things meaning to remember them better

What does attention control?

Attention controls the conscious processing power towards certain stimuli that results in focus and concentration

What is meant by chunking? Why is it important?

Chunking: organizing information into meaningful units to make it easier to remember phone numbers are chunked helps retain information strongly associated collection of elements ex: Chase&Simon study: chunking by chess experts and novices: showed novices and experts pictures of chess pieces on a board for 5 seconds. chess pieces can be arranged in actual game positions or randomly results: expert does better because they can chunk based on game positions. there is no advantage if master can't chunk

What type(s) of memory does Clive Wearing (the amnesiac we discussed in class) have difficulty with? What types of memory does he still possess? Please provide examples.

Clive Wearing has difficulty with most declarative memory. He can process things perfectly fine but forgets everything as soon as it happens, as if he is waking up every 2 minutes ("moment to moment" memory). He also cannot relate himself to the past or project himself in the future. He still possess declarative (semantic memory), for example, the love for his wife and non declarative (skill learning) memory for example his ability to conduct and play music.

What is encoding specificity? How did Baddeley and colleagues test this idea?

Encoding specificity: the greater congruence between encoding and retrieval, the greater your memory accuracy (info is best recalled in the same environment where it is learned) -Baddeley experiment: 8 scuba divers learned on land and 8 learned under 20 ft of water. 4 land learners were tested under water and 4 underwater learners tested on land. Those who learned and tested under different circumstances did worse

What is Long-term potentiation? What brain regions are tied to memory?

Long term potentiation: the strengthening of a synaptic connection, making the postsynaptic neurons more easily activated by presynaptic neurons prefrontal cortex(working memory), hippocampus(spatial memory), temporal lobe(declarative memory), amygdala(fear learning), cerebellum(motor action learning and memory)

How does Long-Term Memory differ from Working memory?

Long-term memory: the relatively permanent storage of information -nearly limitless -longer duration and far greater capacity than working memory Working memory: an active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use -updated to take new information into account

Please describe the novelty preference task that researchers use for infants. What is it used for and how does it work?

Novelty Preference Task: habituate an infant to an object, delay, present subtle change. If the baby detects a difference they'll stay attentive on new object The assumption: memory is shown when an infant prefers the novel object to the old object It is used to test an infant's memory and their preference for an unfamiliar/new stimuli -Tests the "built in equipment" that babies are born with

What happens to our memory as a retention interval increases (and we cannot use maintenance rehearsal)? Please provide an empirical support for your answer (see Peterson and Peterson).

Peterson Study-participants were asking to remember meaningless three consonant syllables. asked to count backwards from a random number in threes or fours until they saw a red light appear and then they were asked to repeat the syllables they remembered. -the longer the interval delay the worse the recollection of the trigrams was -results: short term memory has a limited duration when rehearsal is prevented

Does Piaget endorse a continuous or discontinuous model of development? Know schemes, assimilation, and accommodation.

Piaget endorses a discontinuous development-there are distinct sudden changes ex. caterpillar-cocoon-butterfly

Be able to provide reasons for Psychology's shift from Behaviorism to a cognitive perspective. Be able to provide evidence (i.e., Know the Rescorla experiment and Bandura's observational learning.)

Rescorla Experiment: The rats froze out of fear in response to a loud sound- they associated a light with a loud sound. Rescorla proved that the rats froze because of the light that triggered the thought that a noise was coming as opposed to the behaviorists who thought the rat froze in response to a direct connection between lights and freezing. Bandura's observational learning: -conducted in 1960's -Bandura divided preschool children into two groups. One group watched a film of an adult playing quietly with a large inflatable doll Bobo.The other group watched a film of the adult attacking Bobo furiously: whacking the doll with a mallet, punching nose etc. When the children were later allowed to play with a number of toys, including the Bobo doll, those who had seen the more aggressive display were more than twice as likely to act aggressively toward the doll - results showed that exposing children to violence may encourage them to act aggressively

What are schemas? How do they differ from scripts?

Schema: a generalized mental representation or concept of any given class of objects, scenes or events Script: schemas that involve the use of time (a certain order of things)

What are the different types of attachment?

Secure attachment: the attachment style when the infant is confident enough to play in an unfamiliar environment as long as the caregiver is present and is readily comforted by the caregiver during times of distress Insecure avoidant attachment: the attachment style when the infant may exhibit insecure attachment through various behaviors, such as avoiding eye contact with caregiver, or by alternating between approach and avoidance behaviors Insecure resistant/ambivilent attachment: parenting associated with inconsistent caregiving - sometimes nurturant, sometimes not

Please describe the sensorimotor stage. Then, describe the behaviors/concepts that characterize the sensorimotor stage of development?

Sensorimotor Stage: the first stage in Piaget's theory of cognitive development where infants acquire information about the world through their senses and motor skills. Reflexive responses develop into more deliberate actions through the development and refinement of schemes. Children understand objects mainly through direct actions on them.

What is social referencing?

Social referencing refers to the tendency of a person to look to a significant other in an ambiguous situation in order to obtain clarifying information.

What is a source confusion? How is it involved in memory distortion? Use a study to demonstrate how source confusion is involved in memory distortion.

Source confusion: we mix up sources because memory is reconstructive Involved in memory distortion because memories can be affected by information acquired after the original experience. We don't remember like a video recorder so we fill in gaps based on schemas that we know. Study Example: The misidentification of Thomas Brewster where a woman was assaulted and worked with a sketch artist to get a suspect. They found that Thomas Brewster fit the description but the woman couldn't make a positive ID out of the photo lineup or live lineup. After 4 years she was still unable to make a positive ID, however, after 11 years she saw the picture and identified him as the culprit. She got her sources confused between the actual killer at the scene and his picture from the lineup.

Why is a cell phone so much different than having a conversation in your car with a friend, or listening to music?

Strayer and Johnston's study simulated a driving task where people were required to apply brakes as quickly as possible in response to a red light. Reaction time for those with a phone was two times slower than those without. The purpose was to demonstrate how much the use of a phone can draw attention away from driving. Inattentive blindness is if you aren't looking for something you won't see it.

What is a serial position effect?

The idea that the ability to recall items from a list depends on the order of presentation, with items presented early or late in the list remembered better than those in the middle.

What is the self-reference effect? What type of encoding does it demonstrate? (Make sure to relate it to one of the types of encoding that I mentioned in

The self-reference effect is a tendency for people to encode information differently depending on the level on which the self is implicated in the information. When people are asked to remember information when it is related in some way to the self, the recall rate can be improved.

What is the Visuospatial Sketchpad?

The visuospatial sketchpad holds conscious visual representations & spatial information Ex: folding up boxes in our minds

What is attachment?

active, intense emotional relationship(bond) between two people over time.

Do we have full control of our attention? That is, can we willingly focus on one aspect and ignore everything else?

attention is a limited resource -The Stroop effect is the finding that naming the color of the first set of words is easier and quicker than the second. In psychology, the Stroop effect is a demonstration of interference in the reaction time of a task. -Dichotic Listening is a psychological test commonly used to investigate selective attention within the auditory system and is a subtopic of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. Specifically, it is "used as a behavioral test for hemispheric lateralization of speech sound perception." -cocktail party effect: someone calls your name across the room at a party and you will turn immediately even if you are in a conversation with someone else -short term memory/working memory: a memory storage system that briefly holds a limited amount of information in awareness. -the place where all conscious thought happens -an active processing system that keeps different types of information available for current use

How can change blindness be explained by sensory memory?

change blindness: failure to detect change ex. the two images of the airplane. there was a black screen in between the two images and we were unable to detect the change because we were distracted by the black frame which prevented our iconic memory from working.

Concrete operational stage

concrete operational stage: children begin to think about and understand logical operations, no longer fooled by appearances

Formal operational stage

formal operational stage: people can think abstractly and they can formulate and test hypotheses through deductive logic

Preoperational stage

preoperational stage: children think symbolically about objects, but they reason based on intuition and superficial appearance rather than logic

What aspects are important in forming attachment bonds?

protection, food/nourishment, contract comfort

What is sensory memory? How does it differ from WM?

sensory memory: A memory system that very briefly stores sensory information in close to its original sensory form. Allows us to experience the world as a continuous stream working memory: the system responsible for the holding and processing of new and already stored information and is important process for reasoning comprehension, learning and memory updating

You should also know the neurochemistry behind touch and lack of touch.

touch: Cortisol levels go down when touched learn language faster, grow faster when touches lack of touch: inhibits bone growth lowers immune system damages hippocampus: learning and mem.