Cognitive Exam 3

How does memory encoding work?

Acquiring information and transferring it into LTM

How does memory retrieval work?

Information from LTM is transferred into working memory

What is the difference between maintenance rehearsal and elaborating rehearsal?

Maintenance is better for STM and elaborate is better for LTM

What did Craik and Tulving do?

Showed that memory was better after deep processing than shallow processing

What is a classifier?

In multivoxel pattern analysis, the classifier is a computer program designed to recognize patterns of voxel activity

What is consolidation?

The process that transforms new memories into a state in which they are more resistant to disruption

What is cued recall?

A procedure for testing memory in which a participant is presented with cues, such as words or phrases, to aid recall of previously experienced stimul

What is deep processing?

Processing that involves attention to meaning and relating an item to something else. Deep processing is usually associated with elaborative rehearsal

What is elaborating rehearsal?

Rehearsal that involves thinking about the meaning of an item to be remembered or making connections between that item and prior knowledge

What is free recall?

A procedure for testing memory in which the participant is asked to remember stimuli that were previously presented

What is generation effect?

Memory for material is better when a person generates the material him- or herself, rather than passively receiving it

What is graded amnesia?

When amnesia is most severe for events that occurred just prior to an injury and becomes less severe for earlier, more remote events

What is the levels of processing theory?

The idea that memory depends on how information is encoded, with better memory being achieved when processing is deep than when processing is shallow. Deep processing involves attention to meaning and is associated with elaborative rehearsal. Shallow processing involves repetition with little attention to meaning and is associated with maintenance rehearsal.

What is long-term potentiation?

The increased firing that occurs in a neuron due to prior activity at the synapse

What is maintenance rehearsal?

Rehearsal that involves repetition without any consideration of meaning or making connections to other information

What is the multiple trace model of consolidation?

The idea that the hippocampus is involved in the retrieval of remote memories, especially episodic memories. This contrasts with the standard model of memory, which proposes that the hippocampus is involved only in the retrieval of recent memories.

What is multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA)?

A procedure for determining the pattern of voxel activation that is elicited by specific stimuli, within various structures

What is paired-associate learning?

A learning task in which participants are first presented with pairs of words, then one word of each pair is presented and the task is to recall the other word.

What is reactivation?

A process that occurs during memory consolidation, in which the hippocampus replays the neural activity associated with a memory. During reactivation, activity occurs in the network connecting the hippocampus and the cortex. This activity results in the formation of connections between the cortical areas.

What is reconsolidation?

A process proposed by Nader and others that occurs when a memory is retrieved and so becomes reactivated. Once this occurs, the memory must be consolidated again, as it was during the initial learning. This repeat consolidation is reconsolidation.

What is retrograde amnesia?

Loss of memory for something that happened prior to an injury or traumatic event such as a concussion.

What is the self-reference effect?

Memory for a word is improved by relating the word to the self.

What is the spacing effect?

The advantage in performance caused by short study sessions separated by breaks from studying.

What is the standard model of consolidation?

Proposes that memory retrieval depends on the hippocampus during consolidation, but that once consolidation is complete, retrieval no longer depends on the hippocampus.

What is state-dependent learning?

The principle that memory is best when a person is in the same state for encoding and retrieval. This principle is related to encoding specificity.

What is synaptic consolidation?

A process of consolidation that involves structural changes at synapses that happen rapidly, over a period of minutes

What is systems consolidation?

A consolidation process that involves the gradual reorganization of circuits within brain regions and takes place on a long timescale, lasting weeks, months, or even years

What is the testing effect?

Enhanced performance on a memory test caused by being tested on the material to be remembered.

What is transfer-appropriate processing?

When the type of task that occurs during encoding matches the type of task that occurs during retrieval. This type of processing can result in enhanced memory.

What did the Cabeza experiment show?

A person’s brain is more extensively activated when viewing photographs taken by the person himself or herself than when viewing photographs taken by someone else

What are the most memorable points in a persons lifetime?

Transition points

What is a key structure in emotional memories?

The amygdala

What did Brown and Kulik propose?

Flashbulb memory

Why are flashbulb memories not the same as photographs?

Flashbulb memories change and people make errors when remembering them

What did Talarico and Rubin discover?

People make more memory errors with increasing time front the event

What did Bartlett propose?

A constructive approach to memory where people add in their personal knowledge, experiences, and expectations to their memory

What is cryptomnesia?

Unconscious plagarism

What is source monitoring?

The process of determining the orgins of our memories, knowledge, or beliefs.

What is the illusory truth effect?

When repeating an event or statement increases the perceived truth of the statement

What is autobiographical memory?

The memory for specific experiences from our life

What is a script?

A type of schema that involves our conception of the sequence of actions that usually occur during a particular experience

What is the amygdala?

A subcortical structure that is involved in processing emotional aspects of experience, including memory for emotional events

What is the cognitive hypothesis?

An explanation for the reminiscence bump, which states that memories are better for adolescence and early adulthood because encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability.

What is the cognitive interview?

An explanation for the reminiscence bump, which states that memories are better for adolescence and early adulthood because encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability.

What is the constructive nature of memory?

The idea that what people report as memories are constructed based on what actually happened plus additional factors, such as expectations, other knowledge, and other life experiences.

What is the cultural life script hypothesis?

The idea that events in a person’s life story become easier to recall when they fit the cultural life script for that person’s culture. This has been cited to explain the reminiscence bump.

What is the cultural life script?

Life events that commonly occur in a particular culture.

What is flashbulb memory?

Memory for the circumstances that surround hearing about shocking, highly charged events. It has been claimed that such memories are particularly vivid and accurate.

What is the highly superior autobiographical memory?

Autobiographical memory capacity possessed by some people who can remember personal experiences that occurred on any specific day from their past.

What is the illusory truth effect?

Enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation.

What is the misinformation effect?

Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event that changes how the person describes that event later.

What is misleading postevent information (MPI)?

The misleading information that causes the misinformation effect.

What is music-enhanced autobiographical memories (MEAMS)?

Autobiographical memories elicited by hearing music

What is the narrative rehearsal hypothesis?

The idea that we remember some life events better because we rehearse them. This idea was proposed by Neisser as an explanation for “flashbulb” memories.

What is the post-identification feedback effect?

An increase in confidence of memory recall due to confirming feedback after making an identification, as in a police lineup.

What is pragmatic inference?

Inference that occurs when reading or hearing a statement leads a person to expect something that is not explicitly stated or necessarily implied by the statementWhat is the reminiscence bump?

What is the reminiscence bump?

The empirical finding that people over 40 years old have enhanced memory for events from adolescence and early adulthood, compared to other periods of their lives.

What is repeated recall?

Recall that is tested immediately after an event and then retested at various times after the event.

What is repeated reproduction?

A method of measuring memory in which a person is asked to reproduce a stimulus on repeated occasions at longer and longer intervals after the original presentation of the material to be remembered.

What are repressed childhood memories?

Memories that have been pushed out of a person’s consciousness.

What is a schema?

A person’s knowledge about what is involved in a particular experience

What is the self-image hypothesis?

The idea that memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image or life identity is being formed. This is one of the explanations for the reminiscence bump.

What is source misattributions?

What occurs when the source of a memory is misidentified

What is source monitoring?

The process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs. Remembering that you heard about something from a particular person would be an example of source monitoring.

What is weapons focus?

The process by which people determine the origins of memories, knowledge, or beliefs. Remembering that you heard about something from a particular person would be an example of source monitoring

What is youth bias?

Tendency for the most notable public events in a person’s life to be perceived to occur when the person is young.