PSYCH EXAM 3

working memory

short term memory

duration of short term memory

seconds to mins

duration of long term memory

relatively permanent

storage capacity of long term memory

infinite

storage capacity of short term memory

“chunks” 7±2 - organized packets of information

flow of information in memory

stimulus into short term memory then rehersal into long term memory

2 kinds of rehersal

maintenance and elaborative

maintenance rehersal

holds info in STM

elaborative rehersal

moves info into ltm

serial position effect in :

free recall

serial position effect in free recall example task

read 20 words at one time, recall in any order

primacy effect

early part of list recalled better than middle

primacy effect recalled from

STM

recency effect

last part of list recalled better than middle

recency effect recalled from

short term memory

reduce recency

delay between 20th word and recall

reduce primacy:

present words faster

STM: phonological

based on speech sounds- confuse “boat with coat”

LTM: semantic

based on meaning: confuse boat with ship

STM: psychological code

phonological

LTM psycholgical code

semantic

neural code of STM

dynamic

dynamic neural code of STM

pattern of activity among a group of cells

Neural code of LTM

sctructural

structural neural code of LTM

pattern of connections within a group of cells

“trace consolidation”

what goes on during elaborative rehearsal- a memory trace changes from a dynamic to a structural pattern

inturruption of consolidation process

amnesia

events before trauma

retrograde amnesia

events after trauma

anterograde amnesia

forgetting stm

DISplacement and or decay

LTM forgetting

misplacement and or retrival failure; proactive interference: old info affects new, retroactive

old info affects new: LTM

proactive interference

retroactive interference: LTM

new info affects old

limit on storage capacity of working memory (STM) is viewed as

limit on processing capacity

used in all processing of information- mental calculation, reading, etc

working memory

what kind of encodiding will be most successful?

deeper (more meaingful) processing leads to better memory

connected to notion of elaborative rehersal

criak and tulving 1975 experiment- investigated how the depth of processing affects memory recall, supporting the "Levels of Processing (LOP) model".

elaborative rehersal; subjects were shown lists of words and asked to use one of three strategies:

visual: (shallow) is the word printed in capital letters;

acoustic/ phonological (intermediate): does the word rhyme with__?

Semantic (deep): does the word fit into the following sentence: A ___ rides on trails.

epidosic memory

episodes, events with time and place: “I saw an elephant at a zoo in 2008”

generic/ semantic memory

facts, concepts, and meanings: “an elephant has big floppy ears and a trunk”

explicit memory

reference to prior learning experience;

recall- “what are the words on the list you read?”

recognition- “circle the words you saw earlier”

implicit memory

no conscious awareness of remembering- priming- read list of words then do tasks..

stem completion- “MOT__”

word fragment completion- “_U_O_O_I_E”

declarative memory

knowing THAT (mainly explicit)

statements, using episodic and generic information

procedural memory

knowing HOW (mainly implicit)

skills: riding a bike, playing an instrument, etc

encoding

the process of transforming what we perceive, feel, think into an enduring memory

storing

process of maintaining information in memory over time

retrieving

process of bringing to mind information that has been previously encoded

neural code short term memory

DYNAMIC; pattern of ACTIVITY among a group of cells

neural code: long term memory

structural- pattern of connections within a group of cells

trace condolidation

from dynamic pattern to strucutral pattern —> elaborative rehersal (adding meaning to this information): will help with putting the information into the pattern

making a short term memory into a long term memory

consolidation increases in sleep, when you recall the information, when you speak about the information, when you practice the information

trace consolidation is being interrupted

amnesia

old information affects new information- getting into the way of the new recent information

proactive interference

new information affects the old information- getting in the way of the old information

retrograde interference

learn spanish— learn french— spanish interferes with the recall of french words

proactive interference

learn spanish— learn french— french interferes with the recall of spanish words

retroactive interfence

priming in implicit memory

in general we are trying to see if we can make a response more easier to do- ex- show “nurse” on screen which primes the subject to respond faster to “doctor” which shows next

info in the form of words or numbers

generic/ semantic

memory in the form of an event or episode

episodic memory

Patient HM

Damage to critical brain regions (hippocampus) associated with memory consolidation— leads to inability to create new memories- ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA

Patient HM’ hippocampus was removed- leads to

the inability to form new (explicit/declarative memories)= anterograde amnesia

although patient HM could not form new declarative memories, he was still able to make new

implicit/ procedural memories - able to learn how to draw a star in the mirror—> no recollection of this, but has the implicit procedural memory to perform well on drawing task

experiment with HM shows that he still has the ability to have procedural memories:

shows that as time goes on, the ability to draw the star in the mirror, got better and better- this shows that even though HM cannot form new declarative memories he can still make new implicit/ procedural memories

encoding specificity principle:

to retrieve a memory it is best if the context at the time of retrieval is the same as the context at encoding

retrieval cue

stimulus that helps retrieve a memory—> retrival cues should be related to the context that the memory was created in

example of retrieval cue

list of words: cats, dogs, monkeys, guinea pigs…—> a retrieval cue could be elephant; NOT guitar

if you study in the same environment that you take the exam in

retrieval cue

Loftus and Palmer Retrieval experiment

1- first shows participants images of a car accident (no broken glass in images)

2. then they were asked each group 1 of these questions:

   1. how fast werE they going when they “smashed” into each other?

   2. how fast were they going when they “hit” each other?

3. now a week later…

   1. asked if they remember they saw broken glass in the images” (no glass was actually in the image)

      1. if they were asked with the word “smashed”

         1. more likely to say there was broken glass in the image

         2. they would picture the broken glass in the scene

         3. this is a false memory and it is because of the words (smash) that were used when asked about the image previously

4. conclusion: MEMORY CAN BE RECONSRTUCTED AND MAY BE DISTORTED BY OTHER INFORMATION

sansation

basic, primitive mental state corresponding to energies in the environment; experience of world; light energy, sound energy; seeing blue, hearing a sound

perception:

mental state corresponding to properties of objects and events in environment; knowledge of the world- seeing blue- its the sky; seeing green stuff on the ground- its grass

Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies

Quality of sensation (visual, auditory, touch) depend on which nerve fibers are stimulated; fibers of optic nerve are normally stimulated by light; any sensory experience must have corresponding set of nerve fibers: experience of color, brightness, loudness, pitch

intensity of color

brightness

wavelengths

color!- we do not see color we see wavelengths and our brain creates the colors

short wavelength

blue

medium wavelength

green

long wavelength

red

400mn

blue

500mn

green

700mn

red

2 kinds of photoreceptors

rods and cones

rods

low light conditions- nighttime; black and white only

cones

bright light conditions- daytime; color vision

3 types of cones

each type responds to certain wavelengths: short, medium long wavelength cones

short wavelength cones

sensitive to short wavelengths (blueish)

medium wavelength cones

sensitive to medium wavelengths (greenish)

long wavelength cones

sensitive to long wavelengths (reddish)

retina

photoreceptors

3 types of opponent process cells

stimulating black/ white'; stimulating red/green; stimulating blue/yellow

staring at a red image for too long and looking at a blank screen after, you see green because the red cells are tired after firing continuously for too long

afterimages

stimulating black/white

when excited you see white, when inhibited you see black

stimulating red/green

when excited you see red, when inhibited you see green

stimulating blue/yellow

when excited you see blue when inhibited you see yellow

who screated the Trichromatic theory

Thomas Young and Hermann von Helmholtz

Trichromatic Theory

all colors will be a mixture of blue, green, and red based on the response of those cone types

retina

photoreceptors, bipolar cells, and ganglion cells; rods are more common in periphery of retina; cones are more common in center of retina

optic nerve

nerve fibers that send visual information to brain; creates a blind spot because there are no photoreceptor cells here

fovea

indentation at center of retina where cones are most prevalent ; most visual activity= clearest vision- can see details and shapes best

how signals travel in retina

rods/cones (photoreceptors)→ bipolar cells→ ganglion cells _> ganglion cells’ axons/optic nerve→ brain

lateral inhibition

neighboring receptor cells tend to inhibit each other using inhibitory interneurons to connect them

result of lateral inhibtion

exaggeration of contrasts; dark looks darker, light looks lighter