Unit 3 IB Psychology

What is the Multi-Store Memory Model?

A model that describes memory as consisting of three stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.

What is the duration and capacity of the sensory memory in the Multi-Store Memory Model?

The sensory memory has a large capacity as it takes information from the enviroment but has a small duration of .5 seconds to 2 seconds.

What is the duration and capacity of the short-term memory in the Multi-Store Memory Model?

The capacity of the short-term memory is limited with a duration of 30 seconds without rehearsal.

What is the duration and capacity of the long-term memory in the Multi-Store Memory Model?

The long-term memory's capacity is unlimited with a permanent duration.

What is the Working Memory Model?

A representation of short-term memory. It suggests that STM is a dynamic processor of different types of information using sub-units coordinated by a central decision-making system.

What are the names and purposes of the components in the Working Memory Model?

Executive: Directs attention to the relevant information in the short-term memory

Phonological Loop: The inervoice that repeats and rehearses information, and the inner ear that holds auditory information for 2 seconds

Visuospatial Sketchpad: The mind's eye that stores visual and spatial information

Episodic Buffer: Connects the auditory and visual components of the working memory to form coherent memories that will be transferred to long-term.

What is reconstructive memory?

altering of memories through simplification, enrichment, or distortion

due to experiences, beliefs/attitudes, or interference

What is the role of confabulation in reconstructive memory?

Confabulation is the filling in of gaps in memories with things that did not happen, which is part of the reconstructed memory.

What is the role of schemas in reconstructive memory?

Schemas act as mental frameworks, helping reconstruct memories by filling in missing details with organized and expected information. However, schemas cause reconstructive memories to have distortions because they make them fit preexisting beliefs or experiences.

What is a flashbulb memory?

A vivid and detailed memory of an emotionally significant event.

What two components are needed for a flashbulb memory to form?

Surprise and importance.

What are the differences between the accuracy and the confidence of flashbulb memories?

Flashbulb memories are characterized by extremely high confidence and vividness, making people feel they remember perfectly, but their factual accuracy often fades or contains errors over time.

What is the dual process model of decision making?

The model consists of two systems: System 1, a fast, intuitive, emotional, and automatic process that utilizes heuristics (shortcuts), and System 2, a slower, deliberate, logical, and effortful process that analyzes facts and weighs options, using algorithms.

What are heuristics?

simplified principles used to make decisions

What is the availability heuristic?

a mental shortcut that relies on immediate examples that come to a given person's mind when evaluating a specific topic, concept, method, or decision.

- the more examples one can think of, --> perceived higher possibility of something happening

What is the representative heuristic?

The tendency to assess the likelihood of an occurrence by matching it with a preexisting category (stereotype)

What is the anchoring/adjustment heuristic?

Using a number of value as a starting point (anchor)

to which you then make adjustments.

What is classical conditioning?

A type of learning where reflexive involuntary behavior becomes associated with an involuntary stimulus

What is operant conditioning?

the learning of a voluntary behavior through association with a consequence

What is a theory?

well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations

What is a model?

a simplified representation of a concept to aid in further understanding it (attempts to explain the how of a concept)

What is the levels of processing model?

the deeper the understanding/meaning

of the information attempted to be transferred, the more effectively the information is transferred

What are the components of the levels of processing model?

Structural: What words look like (shallow)

Phonetic: What words sound like

Semantic: what the words mean or are associated with (deep)

What are explicit memories?

Long-term memories that need conscious recall

- process in the hippocampus and stored in the cortex

- Episodic: memories of personal events

- Semantic: Facts or general knowledge

What are Implicit memories

Memories that don't need conscious recall

- Procedural memories: motor or cognitive skills

- Conditioned memories: Classical and operant conditioning

What is source amnesia?

the inability to remember where, when or how previously learned information has been acquired, while retaining the factual knowledge

What is the role of source amnesia in reconstructive memory?

The failure to recall where or how you learned something, leading you to misattribute details, integrate external info as your own experience, or create false memories.

What is the special mechanism hypothesis?

A potential explanation for the persistence of flashbulb memories suggests that there is a biological structure (mechanism) that creates a permanent record

of an event when critical levels of surprise are reached.

What is the cognitive load theory?

A theory that suggests there is a limit to how much information we can process at one time through the short-term memory.

- the working memory is limited

Loftus and Palmer (1974)

Loftus and Palmer's 1974 study showed leading questions alter eyewitness memory: participants watched car crash videos and were asked about speed using different verbs; verbs like "smashed" led to higher speed estimates than "contacted" , suggesting the verb influenced recall, potentially by adding details (like broken glass) not originally there, demonstrating memory's reconstructive.

Loftus & Pickerell (1995)

Embedded among true memories and vouched for by a trusted source, participants were asked to recall each event over multiple interviews. Roughly 25% of participants developed partial or full "memories" of the mall episode. This showed the creation of false memories but also raised ethical concerns.

Neisser and Harsch (1992)

Tested the theory of flashbulb memory. Participants had to write a description of how they heard a certain shocking event, and answer questions about where they were. What they were doing, their feelings, etc. answered less than 24 hours after the disaster, then asked 2 1/2 years later. Showed evidence that flashbulb memories, although strong, may not be

accurate.

Brown and Kulik (1977)

Investigate flashbulb memory and how it works

40 Caucasian Americans and 40 black Americans answered questions such as 'what were you doing when you heard about...' about the JFK assassination or MLK

demonstrates that surprising memories tend to be strongly remembered;

Tversky and Kahneman (1974)

Participants were told that the base rates (how many people in the group) were either lawyers or engineers.

The experiment illustrated the base-rate fallacy, showing that people often ignore statistical base rates and rely instead on specific descriptions, a bias linked to the representativeness heuristic

Sana et al. (2013)

Examined the detrimental effects of in-class laptop usage on student learning through two experiments in a simulated classroom environment.

Participants were randomly assigned to multitask on their computers during a lecture. Supported the cognitive load theory, the more effort your brain is placing on other things, the less effort it can devote to the task at hand

Mueller and Openheimer 2014

Aimed to determine if typing notes hindered the retention of memories compared to handwritten notes.

Undergraduate students were randomly assigned to either take notes via paper or a laptop on a series of 4 lectures on various topics then were tested later on the subject in a week.

supports the value of taking notes by hand;

levels of processing model, and that people tend to copy notes verbatim with a laptop

(shallow level of processing) whereas they may tend to condense/summarize when taking notes

by hand.