Psychology Exam 2

What is the Modal Model of Memory (also called the three-stage model)?

• Dominant metaphor for memory

• Stage 1: sensory store/memory

• Stage 2: short-term store/memory (STM)

• Stage 3: long-term store/memory (LTM)

What is Sensory memory? What is its capacity, duration and function?

• The ultra-short-term, initial stage of memory that briefly holds raw, unprocessed information from our five senses before it fades or moves to short-term memory

  • Function: to sustain sensations for identification

  • Capacity: very large (“scenic”)

  • Duration: very short (0.5-3s)

  • One for each sense (such as echoic and iconic)

What are echoic and iconic memory? What is the duration of each of these?

• Iconic memory:

  • The visual sensory store; briefly stores sensory memory for visual information

  • 0.25-0.5s

• Echoic memory:

  • The brief sensory memory for auditory information; acts like a short echo that lets brain hold onto a sound just long enough to process it

  • 3-4s

How did the Sperling study measure the duration and capacity of sensory memory?  What were the results of the Sperling study?

• He measured the capacity and duration of sensory memory (specifically iconic memory) using three distinct procedures: the whole-report, partial-report, and delayed-partial-report methods

What is Short-term memory? What is its capacity, duration and function?

• The brain's system for temporarily holding a small amount of information in an active state

  • Function: to do conscious work; to think

  • Capacity: 7 plus or minus 2 items (or “chunks”)

  • Duration: 10-15 seconds

What is chunking?

• Grouping method: Chunking is a memory technique that binds individual pieces of data into larger, meaningful units.

• Bypassing limits: It helps you overcome the strict capacity limits of short-term memory by letting you remember groups instead of isolated items.

What is the magic number? This is also known as the capacity of our short-term memory.

7 plus or minus 2

How did Peterson and Peterson study the duration of short-term memory? What were the results of the study?

• Had participants recall meaningless three-consonant combinations (trigrams) after varying delay intervals while counting backward to block mental rehearsal

• Saw that accuracy went down and plateud at 10-15 seconds

What are attention, rehearsal, encoding and retrieval?

• Control processes of working memory:

  • Attention: selects information from sensory memory

  • Rehearsal: maintains information in working memory

  • Encoding: sends information to long-term store

  • Retrieval: brings information from LTM to working memory

What is Long-term memory? What are its capacity, duration and function?

• The brain's system for storing information over extended periods

  • Function: to tie together the past with the present

  • Capacity: enormous (essentially unlimited)

  • Duration: very long (essentially permanent)

Who is Clive Wearing? What kinds of things could he remember and what kinds of things could he not remember as a result of his brain injury? What do these deficits and retentions indicate about memory?

• Clive Wearing is a British musician born in 1938 who suffered severe brain damage in March 1985 after contracting herpes simplex encephalitis (a viral brain infection)

• The infection destroyed his hippocampus and parts of his temporal and frontal lobes, leaving him with one of the most extreme cases of amnesia ever recorded.

  • Could remember: Procedural and muscle memory, basic general knowledge, speech capabilities, intelligence, emotional recognition (of his wife)

  • Could not remember: anything that had happened to him prior to the present moment; could not form new long-term memories

  • Showed that human memory relies on multiple neural systems and that hippocampus is crucial for transferring short-term experiences into conscious episodic long-term memories

What is the serial position effect?

• The psychological tendency to remember the first and last items in a series best while forgetting the middle items

What is recency?

• Recency effect: tendency to better remember information presented at the end of a sequence

  • Explained by short term memory

What is primacy?

• Primacy effect: tendency to better remember information presented at the beginning of a sequence

  • Explained by encoding

What are the different kinds of long-term memory? For example, explicit vs. implicit memory, types of explicit memory, etc.

• Explicit memory: conscious, intentional recall of facts and events

  • Episodic memory: memories of when and where you were, and what you were doing

  • Semantic memory: general information, knowledge, facts

• Implicit memory: unconscious, automatic use of skills and past experiences

  • Procedural memory: once good at, do without thinking (piano, tying shoes)

  • Classical conditioning effects: links a neutral signal to a natural, automatic reflex due to prior events (test anxiety)

  • Priming: an unconscious process where exposure to one stimulus affects how you respond to a related stimulus shortly afterward

What is a mnemonic?

• An individual memory aid—such as a short poem, acronym, song, or mental image—designed to organize or lock in complex data

What is imagery?

• The use of mental pictures or visual representations to encode, organize, and retrieve information more easily

What is the method of loci?

• Mnemonic technique

• Uses visual imagination and familiar spatial environments to organize and recall information (memory palace)

What is the keyword method?

• Mnemonic technique

• The strategy uses a two-stage process to build a bridge between an unknown word and its meaning:

  • Step 1: The Acoustic Link (The Keyword): Find a word in your native language that sounds like or reminds you of a prominent part of the foreign or unfamiliar word. This similar-sounding word is your "keyword"

  • Step 2: The Imagery Link: Create a vivid, bizarre, or interactive mental image that connects your keyword to the actual meaning of the word you want to learn

What are the misinformation effect and source monitoring errors?

• The misinformation effect: the decreased accuracy of episodic memories because of information provided after the event

• Source monitoring errors: forgetting the source of our facts

What are the different types of levels of processing for memory? Which will produce the best recall?

• The levels of processing theory states that memory retention depends on the depth at which we encode information. There are three main levels ranging from shallow to deep:

  • Structural (Visual) Processing — Shallow

    • Encodes information based on its physical and visual appearance, such as whether a word is in uppercase or lowercase letters, font style, or length.

    • Produces a weak, fragile memory trace that decays very quickly. Uses simple maintenance rehearsal (rote repetition).

  • Phonemic (Auditory) Processing — Intermediate

    • Encodes information based on how it sounds, such as whether two words rhyme or the rhythm and tone of a speaker's voice

    • Provides slightly more durability than structural processing

  • Semantic Processing — Deep:

    • Encodes information based on its meaning, context, and personal associations, such as deciding if a word fits into a specific sentence or connecting new ideas to prior knowledge

    • Produces the strongest, most durable long-term memory trace. It is heavily enhanced by elaborative rehearsal and the self-reference effect (relating the material to yourself)

What are anterograde amnesia and retrograde amnesia?

• Anterograde amnesia: the inability to transfer information from short-term to long-term memory, preventing new long-term memories from forming

• Retrograde amnesia: a form of amnesia in which access to memories prior to brain damage is impaired, but the individual can store new experiences in long-term memory

What is a flashbulb memory?

• Extremely vivid memories of emotionally significant events

• Their vividness gives people great confidence in their accuracy, but research indicates that these memories also change

What is the difference between recall and recognition?

• Recall is the act of retrieving information from long-term memory without any direct cues or prompts, while recognition is the ability to identify previously learned information when you encounter it again

What is encoding specificity (e.g., context-dependent learning; state-dependent learning)?

• The encoding specificity principle refers to the idea that memory recall is most effective when the context, environment, or internal state present at the time of retrieval matches the context present when the information was originally learned (encoded)

  • Context-dependent: This refers to matching the external environment; If you study in the same physical room or location where you later take your exam, you will likely remember the material better.

  • State-dependent: the increased likelihood of remembering when a person is in the same mental state during both encoding and retrieval

    • Mood-dependent retrieval: an instance of the encoding specificity principle extended to emotional states

Who was Ebbinghaus, and what was his forgetting curve?

• A German psychologist who pioneered the experimental study of memory

• The Forgetting Curve is a mathematical graph that shows how the human brain rapidly loses newly learned information over time if it is not reinforced

In forgetting, what is the difference between decay and interference?

• Decay means a memory fades naturally over time due to a lack of use, while interference means forgetting happens because other memories block or compete with the information you are trying to recall

What are retroactive and proactive interference?

• Proactive Interference: old information gets in the way of remembering new information.

• Retroactive Interference: new information gets in the way of remembering old information

What are heuristics?

• Heuristics are “rules of thumb” that produce quick solutions at the cost of possible error

  • People use heuristics

What are algorithms?

• An algorithm is a procedure that always produces a correct solution

  • They can require a lot of time and computational resources

  • Computers execute algorithms

What is inductive reasoning?

• Reasoning from specific examples to a more general conclusion

What is a descriptive approach?

• A non-experimental research method that systematically and accurately documents the characteristics, behaviors, or status of a population or phenomenon without manipulating any variables

What is a normative approach?

• A method of studying or analyzing a subject that focuses on how things ought to be rather than just describing how they currently are

What are base rates? How do people ignore base rates?

• The overall background statistical probability or frequency of an event or characteristic occurring within a given population

• Example: is a detail-oriented person more likely to be a librarian or salesperson

  • Most people say librarian, when in reality its salesperson, just because statistically theres are more salespersons

What is the availability heuristic?

• The easier it is to think of examples of something, the more common we think it is

• The more you are exposed to something the more you are likely to overestimate its prevalence

What is the representativeness heuristic?

• A mental shortcut that people use to estimate the probability of an event or object by comparing it to an existing mental prototype or stereotype

  • Such as thinking a detail-oriented person is more likely to be a librarian than a salesperson

What is confirmation bias?

• Bias in how we seek out and find information when we are trying to reach a conclusion

• We are wired to look for confirming evidence rather than disconfirming evidence

What is deductive reasoning?

• Starting off with a set of generalizations and reasoning your way to a specific conclusion

In problem-solving, what is the initial state, the goal state, and the current state?

• Initial state: where things start off

• Goal state: where you are trying to get to (there can be many goal states)

• Current state: whatever state of the problem you are currently in

What is a weak method of problem-solving?

• Methods that don’t rely on world-knowledge or knowledge of the problem domain

What is forward chaining?

• A step in means-ends analysis (weak method)

  • Moving the current state closer to the goal state

What is backward chaining?

• A step in means-ends analysis (weak method)

  • Move the goal state closer to the current state (creating a sub-goal that makes achieving the main goal easier)

What is the difference between experts and novices in problem-solving?

• Experts and novices do NOT differ in the use of weak methods

• Experts and novices DO differ in domain knowledge

What is the paradox of expertise?

• A psychological and cognitive phenomenon where deep immersion and high skill in a specific domain can simultaneously degrade flexibility, narrow vision, and reduce predictive accuracy

• Going on autopilot basically

How can analogies be helpful?

• Can simplify abstract concepts, reduce cognitive load, and connect new or unfamiliar information to existing knowledge

What are Functional fixedness and Duncker’s candle problem?

• Functional fixedness: a cognitive bias that limits a person to use an object only in the way it is traditionally used

• Duncker’s candle problem:

  • The test presents the participant with the following task: how to fix and light a candle on a wall (a cork board) in a way so the candle wax won't drip onto the table below.^[4] To do so, one may only use the following along with the candle:

    • a book of matches

    • a box of thumbtacks

  • People struggled to see past the intended use of each object and consider other functions

What were the findings of research on the question of whether labels help or hurt memory for pictures?

• In Duncker’s candle problem, labeling can affect the time it takes to solve the problem

  • If the thumb tacks and the box were labeled as one entity, it took around 9 minutes

  • If they were labeled separately, it took about 0.5 minutes

• Language helps you break out of functional fixedness

What is linguistic determinism?

• A strong type of linguistic relativity:

  • The language that you speak determines how you perceive, think about, and remember the world around you

What is linguistic relativity?

• Also known as “The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis”

• Language influences, shapes, or biases your worldview, attention, and cognitive processes, without strictly restricting them

What are the conditions for a proper test of linguistic relativity?

• Multiple languages tested: Compare native speakers of at least two (or more) distinct languages that encode a specific domain differently (such as spatial orientation, color terms, or grammatical gender)

• Clearly defined linguistic differences: Identify and document structural, lexical, or syntactic variations between the languages (e.g., a language using absolute cardinal directions vs. relative left/right terms)

• Independent demonstration of cognitive differences: Measure non-linguistic cognitive performance (such as memory, categorization, perception, or problem-solving) using tasks that are kept separate from the language test itself to prevent circular reasoning

Why was so much research done with colors?

• The amount of words there are to describe colors varies widely by language

• Allows for a system to study linguistic relativity

Describe the research done with the Tarahumara and what its findings tell us about linguistic relativity?

• By comparing English speakers (who have separate words for "blue" and "green") with the Tarahumara people (who use a single word, siyóname, for both), researchers proved that while language doesn't change our physical biology, its vocabulary labels warp our subjective perception by exaggerating differences between categorized items.

What is the current psychological view on the question of does language affect how we reason and remember about the world?

• Language can clearly influence our ability to perceive, remember, and solve problems

• The ability of language to determine how we perceive, remember, and solve problems is limited

• How limited remains to be seen

What are mental sets?

• A cognitive tendency to approach a problem using familiar rules, strategies, or procedures that have worked in the past, even when a simpler or more effective alternative exists

  • Ex: trying to fix a malfunctioning household appliance or computer by repeating a restart or trick that worked for a completely different issue in the past.

What are belief perseverance and confirmation bias?

• Confirmation bias: the tendency to actively search for, interpret, favor, and recall information that confirms your existing beliefs, while ignoring or discounting evidence that challenges them

• Belief perseverance: the tendency to cling to an established belief even after facing clear, compelling, or contradictory evidence that completely disproves it (sometimes even surviving the total destruction of the original evidence)

What is framing?

• A cognitive bias where people react differently to the same information depending on how it is presented, rather than its underlying facts

  • Ex: highlighting a single characteristic of an item to change how it is evaluated (such as labeling beef as "80% lean" rather than "20% fat")

What is loss aversion?

• A cognitive bias where the psychological pain of a loss is about twice as powerful as the pleasure of an equivalent gain

What are overconfidence and hindsight biases?

• Overconfidence: believing you are smarter, more skilled, or more right than the facts or data support

• Hindsight bias: looking back at an event and falsely believing you foresaw or could have predicted the outcome before it happened

What is intelligence?

• The capacity to think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, reason, plan, solve problems, learn from experience, and acquire new knowledge

What is the benefit of using IQ tests as a definition of intelligence?

Using IQ tests as a working definition of intelligence offers several practical and scientific benefits, though researchers widely acknowledge that IQ tests measure specific cognitive processes rather than the entirety of human intelligence

On an IQ test, what is the mean and standard deviation?

• Mean = 100

• Standard deviation + 15

Does Francis Galton believe that nature or nurture plays more of a role in determining intelligence?

• He believed that there is no escaping from the conclusion that nature prevails enormously over nurture when the differences of nurture do not exceed what is commonly to be found among persons of the same rank in society and in the same country

• Suggested that environment has some role, but once certain requirements are met, genes matter more

What is eugenics?

• “Well-born”

• The study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discouraging reproduction by people presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits (negative eugenics) or encouraging reproduction by people presumed to have inheritable desirable traits (positive eugenics)

What does Radical Behaviorism suggest about intelligence?

• Radical behaviorism filled the void left by the decline of eugenics

• Intelligence not as a fixed inner mental capacity or trait, but as a label for a complex repertoire of learned behaviors shaped by environmental interactions and reinforcement histories

What is differential psychology?

• The branch of psychology concerned with individual and group differences in psychological traits and behavior

• Differential psychologists study twins and adoptees to show that both nature and nurture contribute to these differences

What’s the difference between MZ and DZ twins?

• Monozygotic (MZ): identical twins; result when a fertilized egg splits within a few days of conception to produce two genetically identical zygotes

  • Share 100% of their genes

• Dizygotic twins (DZ): fraternal; result from two separate eggs fertilized by two different sperm cells during the same pregnancy

  • Share, on average, 50% of their genes

How does comparing MZ to DZ twins help with controlling the environment?

• If genetics is the major source of individual differences, MZ twins will be more similar than DZ twins

• If rearing environment is the major source of individual differences, MZ and DZ twins will be equally similar

Do MZ or DZ twins perform more similarly on IQ tests?

• MZ twins are more similar in IQ than DZ twins

  • MZ: r = 0.82

  • DZ: r = 0.51

How are adoption studies critical in determining the role of nature vs. nurture?

• They share none of the same genes, but were raised in the same environment

• Allows researchers to measure the impacts of nature and nurture

What are the key findings from twin studies & adoption studies?

• MZ twins are more similar than DZ twins (genetics are important)

• MZ twins are not perfectly similar (environment is important)

• Twin similarity for psychological traits is not very different from similarity for physical traits

• Adopted siblings are only slightly similar (sharing a rearing environment does not make people very similar)

What is the Minnesota Study of Twins Reared Apart (MISTRA)?

• Conducted by Thomas J. Bouchard Jr. at the University of Minnesota, investigated identical (monozygotic) and fraternal (dizygotic) twins who were separated in infancy and raised in different families

What are the findings of the differences between MZ twins reared apart versus together?

• MZ twins reared apart and MZ twins reared together had very similar psychological traits

• MZ twins are very similar even when reared apart (genetics is important)

• MZ twins reared apart are not perfectly similar (environment is important)

• MZ twins reared together are not much more similar than MZ twins reared apart

  • Sharing a rearing environment does not contribute much to twins’ similarity