Memory - Psych

What is implicit memory?

Memory that occurs without conscious recall. Examples include procedural skills and classical conditioning.

What is explicit memory?

Memory that involves conscious recall. Examples include facts, general knowledge, and personally experienced events.

What is automatic processing?

Processing that happens with little or no conscious effort; associated with implicit memory.

What is effortful processing?

Processing that requires conscious attention and effort; associated with explicit memory.

What brain areas process implicit memories?

The cerebellum and basal ganglia.

What brain areas process explicit memories?

The hippocampus and frontal lobes.

What is procedural memory?

Memory for how to perform skills or actions, such as riding a bike.

What is declarative memory?

Memory for facts and events.

What is the difference between procedural and declarative memory?

Procedural = knowing HOW to do something. Declarative = remembering facts or events.

What is the Two-Track Memory Processing idea?

Memory can be processed through an implicit track and an explicit track.

Give an example of implicit memory involving fear.

You may fear clowns but not consciously remember the event that caused the fear.

Give an example of explicit memory involving fear.

You fear clowns and consciously remember that the fear began at a childhood birthday party.

Who are Atkinson and Shiffrin?

Psychologists who proposed the 3-stage processing model of memory in 1968.

What does the Atkinson-Shiffrin model focus on?

How we process explicit memories—the facts and experiences we can consciously know and declare.

What are the three stages in the Atkinson-Shiffrin model?

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

What is sensory memory?

A very brief memory of sensory information.

What is the capacity of sensory memory?

Very large, but it lasts for only a very short period of time.

What is an example of sensory memory?

Seeing an object briefly and still retaining its image for a moment after it disappears.

What is short-term memory?

A limited-capacity memory system that briefly holds information.

What is the capacity of short-term memory?

About 7 ± 2 items.

Who is associated with the "magic number 7"?

Miller.

What is Miller's magic number?

7 ± 2 items, referring to the approximate capacity of short-term memory.

How long does short-term memory last?

A short period of time; effortful processing strategies can increase its effective capacity.

What is long-term memory?

A system for storing information over a much longer period of time.

Who was George Sperling?

A researcher who studied sensory memory using experiments involving briefly displayed letters.

What was Sperling's whole-report experiment?

Participants saw letters for less than a second and were asked how many letters they could remember.

How many letters did participants remember in Sperling's whole-report experiment?

About 3–4 letters, or approximately 50%.

What was Sperling's partial-report experiment?

Participants saw the same display but were told by a tone which row of letters to report.

What did Sperling's partial-report experiment show?

Participants could recall about 100% of the letters from the cued row.

What did Sperling's experiments demonstrate?

Sensory memory holds a great deal of information, but only very briefly—about half a second.

What is iconic memory?

Fleeting sensory memory for visual stimuli.

What is echoic memory?

Fleeting sensory memory for auditory stimuli.

How can you remember echoic memory?

Think "echo" = hearing.

What is an example of echoic memory?

Remembering a series of numbers immediately after someone stops saying them.

Who is Alan Baddeley?

A psychologist associated with the working memory model.

What is working memory?

An active mental "desktop" where the brain processes new information and connects it with long-term memories.

How is working memory different from simple short-term memory?

Working memory actively processes and manipulates information rather than simply storing it temporarily.

What are the three main components emphasized in Baddeley's working memory model?

Central executive, phonological store/loop, and visuospatial sketchpad.

What is the phonological store/loop?

It temporarily stores auditory and verbal information, such as language and music.

What does the phonological loop need for information to reach long-term memory?

Auditory rehearsal.

What is the visuospatial sketchpad?

It temporarily stores information about how things look and allows us to manipulate images mentally.

What is the central executive?

A supervisory system that controls the flow of information to and from the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.

What is an example of the visuospatial sketchpad?

Mentally "walking through" a map of a city when giving directions.

What is an example of the phonological loop?

Saying a phone number or access code out loud to help remember it.

What is an example of the central executive?

The Stroop activity, where the brain determines which information is relevant versus irrelevant.

In the Stroop activity, what does the word itself represent?

Phonological information.

In the Stroop activity, what does the color of the word represent?

Visuospatial information.

Who were Craik and Lockhart?

Psychologists associated with the Levels of Processing (LOP) model.

What is the Levels of Processing model?

The idea that how deeply information is processed affects how well it is remembered.

What is shallow processing?

Processing information at a basic physical level, such as focusing on letters or sounds.

What are examples of shallow processing?

Determining whether a word is capitalized, counting letters, or focusing on its sounds.

What is deep processing?

Processing information semantically, based on the meaning of the information.

What is an example of deep processing?

Using a word in a meaningful sentence.

What is the main idea of Craik and Lockhart's model?

The deeper and more meaningful the processing, the better the retention.

What is the self-reference effect?

The memory advantage for information that is personally related to the learner.

What is an example of the self-reference effect?

Remembering lots of information about basketball because you played basketball growing up.

How do emotions affect memory?

Strongly emotional or stressful events can produce very strong memories.

What happens in the brain during emotional events?

Emotions trigger stress hormones, which cause the amygdala to boost activity in brain areas involved in memory formation.

What is a flashbulb memory?

A clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

What is an example of a flashbulb memory?

Remembering where you were when you learned about the death of a loved one.

What is mood-congruent memory?

The tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with your current mood.

What does mood-congruent memory mean when you are in a good mood?

You are more likely to recall experiences consistent with a good mood.

What does mood-congruent memory mean when you are in a bad mood?

You are more likely to recall experiences consistent with a bad mood.

What is an explicit memory task?

A task where the participant knows they will need to remember something.

What is an implicit memory task?

A task that indirectly measures memory.

What is recall?

Generating an answer from memory.

What is recognition?

Choosing the answer from a list or set of options.

What is a declarative memory task?

A task involving remembering facts or events.

What is a procedural memory task?

A task involving knowing how to perform something.

What is the difference between recall and recognition?

Recall = generate the answer. Recognition = choose the answer.

What is amnesia?

A loss or impairment of memory.

What is anterograde amnesia?

The inability to learn new explicit information after trauma.

Which people are associated with anterograde amnesia?

Patient H.M. and Clive Wearing.

What is retrograde amnesia?

The inability to retrieve explicit information learned before trauma.

What does "temporally graded" mean in retrograde amnesia?

More recent memories are typically more vulnerable to being lost than older memories.

What memories are typically more intact in retrograde amnesia?

Older information is typically more intact than more recent information.

What is an important difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?

Anterograde = difficulty forming new explicit memories AFTER trauma. Retrograde = difficulty retrieving explicit memories FROM BEFORE trauma.

Can implicit memories remain after amnesia?

Yes. People may still remember skills such as speaking or riding a bike even when explicit memories are impaired.

What is decay theory?

The idea that memory weakens when it is not used, and that the passage of time contributes to forgetting.

What is interference theory?

The idea that memories can be forgotten because other memories interfere with them.

What is proactive interference?

Old memories interfere with recall of newer information.

What is retroactive interference?

New memories interfere with recall of older information.

What is an example of proactive interference?

Writing the previous year when trying to write the new year shortly after New Year's.

What is an example of retroactive interference?

Learning new friends' names in college and then having difficulty remembering old high school classmates' names.

How do you remember proactive vs. retroactive interference?

PROactive = old information pushes FORWARD and interferes with new information. RETROactive = new information reaches BACKWARD and interferes with old information.

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

An increase in a cell's firing potential after brief, rapid stimulation.

Why is LTP important?

It is believed to be a neural basis for learning and memory.

What did Lynch and Staubli's research show?

Drugs that block LTP interfere with learning.

What did Silva and colleagues find?

Mutant mice lacking an enzyme needed for LTP could not learn their way out of a maze.

What did Service's research show?

Rats given a drug that enhanced LTP learned a maze with about half the usual number of mistakes.

What is memory consolidation?

The neural storage of a long-term memory.