Psych 201 Ch 6

Auditory sensory memory

Echoic memory; a brief memory that is like an echo; 3 seconds

_____ rehearsal is one of the best strategies for transferring information to long-term memory.

Elaborative

schema distortion

False or distorted memories caused by the tendency to fill in missing memory details with information that is consistent with existing knowledge about a topic.

retroactive interference

Forgetting in which a new memory interferes with remembering an old memory; backward-acting memory interference.

proactive interference

Forgetting in which an old memory interferes with remembering a new memory; forward-acting memory interference.

deja vu experience

A memory illusion characterized by brief but intense feelings of familiarity in a situation that has never been experience before.

imagination inflation

A memory phenomenon in which vividly imagining an event markedly increases confidence that the event actually occurred.

tip-of-the-tongue experience

A memory phenomenon that involves the sensation of knowing that specific information is stored in long-term memory, but being temporarily unable to retrieve it.

semantic network model

A model that describes units of information in long-term memory as being organized in a complex network of associations.

Alzheimer's Disease

A progressive disease that destroys the brain's neurons, gradually impairing memory, thinking, language, and other cognitive functions, resulting in the complete inability to care for oneself; the most common cause of dementia.

script

A schema for the typical sequence of an every day event.

recognition

A test of long-term memory that involves identifying correct information out of several possible choices.

cued recall

A test of long-term memory that involves remembering an item of information inresponse to a retrieval cue.

recall or free recall

A test of long-term memory that involves retrieving information without the aid of retrieval cues.

mood congruence

An encoding specificity phenomenon in which a given mood tends to evoke memories that are consistent with that mood.

schema

An organized cluster of information about a particular topic.

Hermann Ebbinghouse

Began the scientific study of forgetting. Published Memory: A contribution to Experimental Psychology.

procedural memory

Category of long-term memory that includes memories of different skills, operations, and actions.

semantic memory

Category of long-term memory that includes memories of general knowledge, concepts, facts, and names.

episodic memory

Category of memory that includes memories of particular events.

Karl Lashly

Conducted experitments to locate area of brain where memory trace occurs. Rats in a maze, removed parts of brain to see if the rats would forget how to run the maze. Complex memory=distributed accross multiple brain locations.

hippocampus

Critical role in encoding of new memories and transfer of new memories from short-term to long-term memories.

prospective memory failure

Due to retrieval cue failure, the inability to recall a memory becuase of missing or inadequate retrieval cues,

George Sperling

Duration of Sensory Memory Experiment demostrated that our visual memory holds a great deal of information very briefly, just long enough for us to pay attention to specific elements that are significant to us at the moment.

visuospatial sketchpad

component of working memory specialized for spatial or visual material. Remembering the layout of a room or city.

phonological loop

component of working memory that is specialized for verbal material.

central executive

component of working memory which controls attention, integrates information, and manages the activities of the phonological loop and the visiospatial sketchpad. Also initiates the retrieval and decision processes as necessary and integrates information coming into them.

Lakisha's brother often pretends to listen to what she is saying, but really he is focused elsewhere. When she asks him, "What did I just say?" he can sometimes repeat her last few words. The reason he can do this is likely due to:

echoic memory.

Lamaar's girlfriend is talking to him, and he asks her to repeat what she just asked him. But before she does so, he realizes what she said and responds with his answer of "Yes." This is likely due to:

echoic memory.

Dwain has a very clear memory of the events of his first day of college. The memory of this experience would be considered a(n) _____ memory.

episodic

Karina has been playing baseball for years, and has gotten better over time. She can describe the first time she played baseball, which is a(n) _____ memory. However, her improvement in skill cannot be put into words, and would be an example of a(n) _____ memory.

explicit; implicit

Source confusion

forgetting or misremembering the true source of a memory.

Oliver is trying to make an online purchase, but he doesn't have his credit card. He calls his wife, who reads the 16-digit credit card number to him. Unfortunately, Oliver cannot remember the number long enough to key it into the computer. This is because:

his short-term memory is limited in its duration and capacity.

Nine-year-old Jade has just discovered something very interesting. She can look at a picture in a book and, when she closes her eyes, she can still see the picture very clearly for a few tenths of a second. Jade is experiencing

iconic memory.

The unconscious capacity for knowing how to do something is known as:

implicit memory.

Raoul decided to ask a hypnotherapist to help him deal with difficult childhood issues. What Raoul doesn't realize is that, if the hypnotherapist asks leading questions, the resulting memories can be inaccurate because of:

memory construction

Monica has recently noticed that she has difficulty retaining and recalling information that she has learned. It is likely that Monica is having difficulties with her:

memory.

Deon is trying to remember his locker combination but keeps using the locker combination he had last year. Deon is suffering from:

proactive interference

As Jillian practices fencing, she finds herself improving steadily at the sport, though she can't really describe what she is doing differently than when she started fencing. Her increase in skill is a good example of _____ memory.

procedural

dementia

progressive deterioration and impairment of memory, reasoning, and other cognitive functions as the result of disease, injury or substance abuse.

memory trace

a distinct structural or chemical change in the brain when a new memory is formed. Also called engram.

Memory

a group of related mental processes that are involved in acquiring, storing, and retrieving information. Involves 3 fundamental processes: encoding, storage, and retrieval.

Maria puts down her purse when she enters a dinner party. While she is doing this, several people greet Maria, so she is not paying attention to where she puts it. Her divided attention results in an encoding failure called _____, which leads to her being unable to find her purse later.

absentmindedness

Nate is going to the grocery store to pick up a few things. He decides not to write a list, and instead, repeats the eight items he intends to buy over and over in his head on the way to the store. This is an example of:

rehearsal.

The idea of unconscious _____ of memories is a controversial topic in psychology because it is hard to study and also to know whether memories are forgotten due to a lack of rehearsal or are simply blocked.

repression

A new memory interfering with the ability to remember an old memory is to _____ interference as an old memory interfering with the ability to remember a new memory is to _____ interference.

retroactive; proactive

Cameron knows that the hybrid offspring of a lion and tiger is known as a liger, but he can't remember for the life of him where or how he learned this. His knowledge of the name for the hybrid offspring is an example of a(n) _____ memory.

semantic

It is much easier to learn meaningful material than to learn nonsense material. This best illustrates the advantage of:

semantic encoding

Amal is balancing her checkbook. As she calculates each of her purchases and records them, she relies the most on her:

short-term memory.

Short-term memory is to _____ as long-term memory is to _____.

temporary; permanent

autobiographical memory

the events of your life, your personal life history.

Yancy was sitting in the park one day and witnessed a robbery. When asked by the police to describe the young criminal, Yancy recalled erroneously that the criminal was a teenager, rather than a young adult. Yancy's experience best illustrates:

the misinformation effect

visual imagery

using vivid images to enhance coding into memory

Dr. Gruber is running a memory experiment using fMRI. One participant is asked to remember a particular set of words, and Dr. Gruber notices that the occipital lobes are particularly active during the task. The participant is most likely using what type of encoding?

visual imagery

Tonio is trying to remember the names of different dog breeds. To remember that wiener dogs are called dachshunds, he pictures one with boats around its collar. This is an example of:

visual imagery.

iconic memory

visual memory; the brief memory of an image or icon; 1/2 second

Jamal has to make an important phone call. Unfortunately, his cell phone is not charged and he has to use his landline, which does not store phone numbers. To make the call, he has to get the number from his cell phone and remember it long enough to dial on his landline. For this task, which stage in his memory system is most important?

working memory

Short-term memory is also referred to as:

working memory

Yvonne is driving and realizes that she made a wrong turn. She stops at a gas station to ask for directions. In trying to remember the information she is given, Yvonne utilizes her

working memory

long-term potentiation

A long-lasting increase in synaptic strength between two neurons.

misinformation

A memory distortion phenomenon in which your existing memories can be altered if you are exposed to misleading information.

source confusion

A memory distortion that occurs when the true source of the memory is forgotten.

false memory

A distorted or fabricated recollection of something that did not actually occur.

retrieval cue

A clue, prompt, or hint that helps trigger recall of a given piece of information stored in long-term memory.

suggestion

Hypnosis, guided imagery, or other highly suggestive techniques that can inadvertently or intentionally create vivid false memories.

false familiarity

Increased feelings of familiarity fue to repeatedly imagining the event.

chunking

Increasing the amount of information that can be held in short-term memory by grouping related items together into a single unit, or chunk.

implicit memory

Information or knowledge that affects behavior or task performance but cannot be consciously recollected; also called non-declarative memory.

explicit memory

Information or knowledge that can be consciously recollected; also called declarative memory.

amygdala

Involved in encoding and storing the emotional qualities associated with particular memories, such as fear or anger.

medial temporal lobes

Involved in encoding compex memories by forming links among the information stored in multiple brain regions. Do not actually store information.

cerebellum

Involved in procedural memories and other motor skill memories. Also, classsically conditioning simple reflexes.

anterograde amnesia

Loss of memory cuased by the inability to store new memories; forward-acting anmesia.

retrograde amnesia

Loss of memory, especially for episodic information backward-acting amnesia.

source memory or source monitoring

Memory for when, where, and how a particular experience or piece of information was acquired.

prefrontal cortex

Memory involving the sequence of events but not the events themselves.

repression

Morivated forgetting that occurs unconsciously; a memory that is blocked and unavilable to consciousness.

suppression

Motivated forgetting that occurs consciously; a deliberate attempt to not think about and remember specific information.

Eric Kandal

Nobel Prize for using Aplysia snail to show changes in neuron function and structure when learning a new memory.

clustering

Organizing terms into related groups during recall from long-term memory.

Brenda Milner & Suzanne Corkin

Psychologists who studied Henry Gustav Moliason for 50 years. Anterograde amnesia after surgery removing portions of medial temporal lobes, hippocampus and amygdala.

elaborative rehearsal

Rehersal that involves focusing on the meaning of information to help encode and transfer it to long-term memory.

prospective memory

Remembering to do something in the future.

The Ebbinghouse Forgetting Curve

Reveals 2 distinct patterns in the relationship between forgetting and the passage of time. Much of what we forget is relatively soon after we originally learned it. How quickly we forget material depends on several factors, such as how well the material was encoded in the first place, how meaningful the material was, and how often it was rehearsed. The amount of forgetting eventually levels off.

_____ memory holds facts, names, and concepts.

Semantic

Gordon runs into a deli to pick up some snacks. His friend requests a Sprite to go with her sandwich. At first Gordon doesn't think he's heard her. He says, "What?" and, in the instant that the words come out of his month, Gordon realizes what she has said. _____ causes Gordon to know what his friend said.

Sensory memory

amnesia

Severe memory loss.

short-term memory

The active stage of memory in which information is stored for up to 20 seconds. Working memory. The "workshop" of consciousness.

memory consolidation

The gradual, physical process of converting new long-term memories to stable, enduring memory codes.

forgetting

The inability to recall information that was previously available.

retrieval cue failure

The inability to recall long-term memories becuse of inadequate or missing retrieval cues.

encoding failure

The inability to recall specific information because of insufficient encoding of the information for storage in long-term memory.

maintenance rehersal

The mental or verbal repetition of information in order to maintain it beyond the usual 20-second duration of short-term memory.

encoding specificity principle

The principle that when the conditions of information retrieval are similar to the conditions of information encoding, retrieval is more likely to be successful.

retrieval

The process of recovering information stored in memory so that we are consciously aware of it.

storage

The process of retaining information in memory so that it can be used at a later time.

encoding

The process of transforming information into a form that can be entered into and retained by the memory system.

Sensory memory

The stage of memory that registers information from the environment and holds it for a very brief period of time. 3 seconds

long-term memory

The stage of memory that represents the long-term storage of information.

working memory

The temporary storage and active, conscious manipulation of information needed for complex cognitive tasks, such as reasoning, learning, and problem solving. More likely to involve the recall and manipulation of information held in long-term memory.

recency effect

The tendency to recall the final items on a list.

primary effect

The tendency to recall the first items on a list.

context effect

The tendency to recover information more easily when the retrieval occurs in the same setting as the original learning of the information.

serial position effect

The tendency to remember items at the beginning and end of a list better than items in the middle.

interference theory

The theory that forgetting is caused by one memory competing or replacing another.

flashbulb memory

Thought to involve the recall of very specific details or images surrounding a significant, rare, or vivid event.

stage model of memory

Three distinct stages: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

Richard Thompson

Trained eye blink in rabbits to locate cerebellum as location where simple memories were localized in the brain.

Blending fact and fiction

Using vivid, authentic details to add to the legitimacy and believability of a pseudoevent.

decay memory

We forget memories because we don't use them and they fade away over time as a matter of normal brain processes.

misinformation effect

When erroneous information received after an event leads to distorted or false memories of the event.

A police officer stops Ashanta to ask about an automobile accident she may have witnessed the previous day. Since she was in the area at the time of the accident, the officer asks how fast the cars were going when they "smashed" into each other. Given the research findings of Loftus and Palmer, how might the officer's wording effect Ashanta's recollection of the incident? She would be more likely to remember:

a more serious accident than if the officer had said "hit" each other.

self-reference effect

applying information to yourself as a means of improving memory information.

Encoding is to _____ as storage is to _____.

data entered into a computer; data saved on the hard drive

One night, Sandra has a dream that her former college roommate got married. She runs into her in a coffee shop about a year later and ask her how the wedding was. This form of memory distortion is also known as:

source confusion