psych 4033 final exam

what is serial recall

- remembering items in the exact order as presented

- Remembering a phone number in the exact order: 385-7129.

what is free recall

- recall items in any order

- After seeing a list of words (apple, desk, rain, tiger), recalling them in any order: "rain, tiger, apple..."

what is cued recall

- given a cue to help retrieve a specific item

- Given the cue "fruit" after studying "apple - desk," you recall "apple."

what is yes/no recognition

- decide if you've seen the item before

- Shown the word "tiger", and deciding if it was on the list you studied.

what is forced choice recognition

- choose the correct item from a set of options

- Choosing the studied word "apple" from a pair: apple or orange.

what is word fragment competition

- fill in blanks of partial words

- Seeing "_pp_e" and completing it as "apple" because you saw it earlier.

what is word association task

- respond with the first word that comes to mind

- Saying "banana" when prompted with "fruit", influenced by earlier exposure.

what is backwards digit span

- repeats digits in reverse order

- You hear "4-2-9" and say "9-2-4."

what is symmetry span task

_ remembering spatial locations while judging symmetry

- judge whether a shape is symmetrical, then remember a red square's location

what is the n-back task

- indicate if the current stimulus matches on n step back

- Press a button if the letter matches the one two letters ago: A-C-A (press on second A).

what is the operation span (o-span)

- solve math problems while remembering words

- Solve 2 + 3 = ? and remember the word "dog." Repeat this with more problems and words, then recall the words.

what is reading/listening span task

- read/listen to sentences while remembering final words

- Read: "The bird flew away." Try to remember the last word "away." Do this for multiple sentences, then recall all last words.

what are the 3 parts in the modal model

sensory memory, STM and LTM

what is sensory memory

brief store (iconic = visual, echoic = auditory)

what is STM

limited capacity, relies on auditory code

what is LTM

stores information permanently

what does the sperling task show

we briefly store more sensory info than we can report (full vs partial report)

what is sperling task

participants were shown a 3x4 grid of letters (12 total) on a screen for 50 milliseconds—too quick to read each letter.

what is the whole report condition in the sperling task

- Participants were asked to recall as many letters as possible from the entire grid.

- On average, they only recalled 4-5 letters, leading to the early assumption that sensory memory had a limited capacity.

what is the partial report condition in the sperling task

- After the grid disappeared, participants heard a tone (high, medium, or low) signaling which row (top, middle, or bottom) to recall.

- They could typically recall 3-4 letters from the cued row, suggesting they saw all 12 letters, but the memory faded too quickly to report them all.

STM uses what

auditory coding

what are the components in Baddeley's model of working memory

phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, central executive, episodic buffer

what is the phonological loop

deals with verbal and auditory information

what are the 2 part of the phonological loop

phonological store and articulatory rehearsal process

what is the phonological store

the "inner ear", holds sounds/words briefly

what is the articulatory rehearsal process

the "inner voice", repeats info silently to keep it in memory

what is the visuospatial sketchpad

holds visual and spatial information and help with navigation, visualizing objects, and spatial orientation

what is the central executive

the control system of working memory; direct attention, switches tasks, suppresses irrelevant info,a nd coordinates the loop and sketchpad

what is the episodic buffer

integrates information across time and modalities, connects working memory with long-term memory and conscious awareness, and can hold chunks of information from multiple sources.

what are the supporting effects of Baddeley's model of working memory

articulatory suppression, phonological similarity, sound effect,a nd word length effect

what is articulatory suppression

speaking interferes with verbal memory.

what is phonological similarity

similar-sounding items are harder to remember.

what is irrelevant sound effect

background noise disrupts memory.

what is word length effect

longer words are harder to recall.

what is iconic memory

(visual) stores visual information for a very brief duration (~250-500 milliseconds), high capacity but fades quickly, and discovered through Sperling's partial report task (people saw a full grid of letters but could only recall a row if cued immediately).

what is echoic memory

(auditory) stores sounds for slightly longer—about 2-4 seconds, important for understanding language and following conversations, allows us to hold onto a few spoken words even if we weren't fully paying attention at first.

what is haptic memory

(touch) stores tactile sensations for about 1-2 seconds, useful for processing and responding to physical contact or textures.

what is episodic memory

(explicit) Memory of personal experiences or autobiographical events, including the context (time, place, emotions), Often described as "mental time travel" because you can relive past events.

example: Remembering your high school graduation—what you wore, who was there, and how you felt.

what is semantic memory

(explicit) Memory for facts, concepts, meanings, and general knowledge; Not tied to specific personal experiences.

Example: Knowing that Paris is the capital of France, or that dogs are mammals.

what is the hub and spoke model

it explains how semantic memory is organized; helps explain how we can link a concept like "bicycle" to how it looks, how it moves, and how to use it

what is the hub in the hub and spoke model

(in the anterior temporal lobe) it integrates conceptual knowledge

what are the spokes in the hub and spoke model

represents modality specific information (visual, motor, auditory, etc..)

what is procedural memory

Memory for skills, habits, and actions that are performed automatically, without conscious recall.

example: riding a bike, typing on a keyboard, or playing a piano

what is prospective memory

memory for remembering to perform a task in the future; can be event or time based; relied on a combination of working memory, executive function, and long term memory

what is event based prospective memory

triggered by a specific event

example: remembering to give your friend a message when you see them

what is time based prospective memory

triggered by a specific time or passage of time

example: remembering to take medicine at 8PM

what is amnesia

form of memory loss that affects a person's ability to store, retain, or recall information, it can result from brain injury, psychological trauma, or neurological disease.

what are the 4 types of amnesia

retrograde, anterograde, psychogenic, transient global

what is retrograde amnesia

inability to recall events that occurred before the onset of amnesia; memory lost is often for episodic events, but semantic memory can also be impaired in severe cases; common causes: head trauma, stroke, brain infections, neurodegenerative diseases; more recent memories are lost first; older memories are more likely preserved.

example: A person can remember childhood experiences but can't recall anything from the year leading up to a car accident.

what is anterograde amnesia

inability to form new long-term memories after the onset of amnesia; STM and procedural memory usually remain intact; the problem is transferring new info to LTM; common causes: damage to the hippocampus or medial temporal lobe (e.g., patient H.M.); Often co-occurs with retrograde amnesia in severe cases.

example: A person can remember everything up to a brain surgery but cannot remember conversations from just hours ago.

what is psychogenic amnesia

(functional amnesia resulting from psychological trauma rather than physical brain injury; often affects autobiographical (episodic) memory, especially identity-related memories.

types: dissociative Amnesia and fugue state

example: A person may be found wandering in another city with no memory of who they are or how they got there, often after a traumatic event.

what is dissociative amnesia

memory loss related to a traumatic event.

what is a fugue state

sudden travel away from home with inability to recall one's past or identity.

what is transient global amnesia

sudden, temporary episode of both anterograde and retrograde amnesia, usually lasting several hours; symptoms are repetitive questioning, disorientation, no other neurological symptoms; recovery is usually complete, but people don't remember the episode itself.

example: Someone suddenly forgets where they are, asks the same question over and over, and recovers within a few hours.

what are the two types of interference

retroactive and proactive

what is retroactive interference

new info disrupts old info

example: struggling to remember an old phone number after you've learned a new one

what is proactive interference

old info disrupts new learning

example: writing the address for a new house interferes with writing an address of an old house

what is distributed practice (spacing effect)

learning is more effective when study sessions are spread out over time rather than crammed in one sitting (massed practice); work bc spacing improves encoding variability, reduces interference, and allows for memory consolidation between sessions.

example: studying vocab words 10 minutes each day for a week is more effective than one hour the night before a test.

what is the testing effect

retrieving information from memory strengthens it more than simply re-studying the same material; works bc retrieval enhances memory trace reactivation and makes the memory more accessible in the future.

example: taking practice quizzes helps you perform better on actual exams than just rereading the textbook.

what is the effect of sleep on learning?

sleep plays a key role on memory consolidation, particularly for declarative and procedural memories; works bc during sleep, the brain replays and strengthens neural connections related to newly learned information

example: studying before sleeping leads to better recall than studying in the morning and staying awake all day

what is context dependant memory

memory is better when the external environment at encoding matches that at retrieval; works bc environmental cues become part of the memory trace and can trigger recall later.

example: you remember more biology facts when taking a test in the same classroom where you studied them.

what is state dependant memory

recall is improved when a person's internal physiological state (e.g., drug state, fatigue, alertness) is the same at encoding and retrieval.

example: If you study while caffeinated, you may recall better if you're caffeinated during the test.

what is mood dependant memory

you recall information better when your emotional state at retrieval matches your mood at encoding.

example: if you're sad while learning something, you may recall it better when you're sad again.

what is mood congruent memory

you are more likely to recall memories that match your current mood; this is not about matching states, but rather bias in what gets retrieved.

example: When you're happy, you're more likely to recall happy memories; when you're depressed, sad memories come more easily.

what is synesthesia

can help memory by adding sensory associations, but can also be distracting depending on context

what is the reminiscence bump

tendency to recall more personal events from ages 10-30, due to identity formation and emotional salience; linked to cultural scripts

what is autobiographical memory

personal memories combining episodic (events) and semantic (facts about self) information.

structure:

- event specific: sensory rich, vivid moments (ex: graduation)

- general events: repeated or extended experiences (ex: going to summer camp)

- lifetime period: broader phases like "collage years" or "highschool:

what are ten functions of autobiographical memory

reflective: understanding the self

social: bonding with others through shared experiences

ruminative: dwelling on negative events

generative: creating life meaning or legacy

what are memory cues

odors and visual cue are powerful; they can evoke vivid, emotional memories

what is the narrative structure

memories follow a life-story format with chronological and thematic coherence

what are flashbulb memories

emotionally intense memories, often vivid and believed to be accurate, where confidence in the memory is high but accuracy fades over time.

what are the cultural differences in autobiographical memories

westerners tend to recall earlier, more individualistic memories and eastern cultures focus more on collective or family-oriented memories.

what is HSAM (highly superior autobiographical memory)

extraordinary recall of personal life events.

what is SDAM (severely deficient autobiographical memory)

poor recall of personal events, often linked to low imagery.

what is aphantasia/hyperphantasia

affects vividness and sensory richness of memories.

what is false memory

recollections of events that either did not occur or are grossly distorted.

what is the DRM paradigm

- participants falsely remember a word (e.g., "sleep") that is semantically related to a list (e.g., bed, pillow, nap).

-demonstrates how memory is associative and subject to intrusion errors.

what was the lost in the mall study

- demonstrates how false memories can be implanted through suggestion, showing that people can recall events that never occurred

- people read about 4 incidents from their childhood- 3 are true, one (getting lost in a shopping mall) is false

- repeated recall of the events that occurred over several weeks

- by the end, 25% had false memories of getting lost in the shopping mall

what was the balloon ride study

participants were shown a doctored photograph of themselves as a child on a hot air balloon ride, an event that never occurred. after several interview sessions, about 50% developed detailed false memories of the experience, demonstrating how imagery and repetition can implant memories.

what was the mousetrap study

-kids told about two true events and two false events (mouse trap, ballon ride)

- ids thought about these events 7-10 times over the course of the 10 weeks

- then asked to recall the events, substantial number of kids fell for it and were able to give details

- kids maintained that the false events did really happen about 1/3rd of the time

- they were adamant in their belief that it had happened even when told that it didn't

what is confabulation

creating false memories without intent to deceive, seen in brain injury patients

example: patient claims to have dined with obama last week.

what is imagination inflation

imaging a false event increases belief that it occured

example: imagining stirring coffee or peeling a banana leads to belief that one actually did these actions.

what are recovered memories

some are authentic but many can result from suggestion, especially with hypnosis or guided imagery; individuals are often more susceptible to false memory formation.

what are the alien abduction studies

participants with recovered abduction memories scored high on fantasy proneness; imagination and suggestion contributed to the creation of vivid, detailed but false memories

what is the legal relevance in false memories

memory is malleable; jurors and courts may be influenced by confident but inaccurate testimony, important to use caution with repressed/recovered memory claims, especially in legal contexts.

what is the misinformation effect

when false information is introduced after an event, it can alter the memory of the original event.Classic experiment: showed participants a series of slides depicting a car accident. some were misled afterward (told the car passed a stop sign when it had actually been a yield sign). later, many participants reported the false detail, illustrating the power of suggestion.

how does prior exposure affect line up identifications

prior exposure to a suspect (even briefly) can bias a witness to select that person in a lineup, especially if they've seen the face before (even in an unrelated context). this creates source monitoring errors, where the person feels familiar but the context of that familiarity is misattributed to the crime.

what is cryptomnesia

a type of unconscious plagiarism where a person recalls an idea or memory but believes it's original because they have forgotten the source.

example: a songwriter might accidentally reproduce a melody they once heard but cannot consciously remember.

this illustrates how source memory can fail.

what is the false fame effect

an experiment found that people misidentify previously seen non-famous names as famous ones if enough time passes between exposure and testing, this happens because the names feel familiar, but the source of the familiarity is forgotten, leading people to assume the names are famous.

what is the sleeper effect

over time, people dissociate the content of a message from its source. initially, a message from an unreliable source may be discounted, but as the source memory fades, the content of the message may become persuasive. this is significant for understanding long-term attitude change based on exposure to misinformation.

what were the childhood abuse recovered memories experiement

researchers studied individuals who, often through therapy, "recover" memories of childhood abuse. studies suggest some recovered memories can be accurate, but others are likely false, especially when therapists use suggestive techniques (e.g., guided imagery, hypnosis).

how are implanted memories created

through repeated suggestion, visualization, and sometimes the use of doctored photographs or family confirmation, which create a sense of familiarity and emotional investment in an event that never happened.

what is the effect of eyewitness testimony on conviction

- is incredibly persuasive in court, even if the memory is flawed

- jurors often assume that confidence equals accuracy, though research shows these are weakly correlated.

- wrongful convictions have been linked to faulty eyewitness identification in a significant percentage of cases.

what factors affect memory for crimes

how questions are phrased and the misinformation effect

how to how the questions are phares affect memory for crimes

- leading questions can reshape memories

- example: when participants viewed a car crash video. when asked "How fast were the cars going when they smashed into each other?" versus "hit," those hearing "smashed" reported higher speeds and were more likely to remember seeing broken glass (even though there was none).

what is the misinformation effect

when false information is introduced after an event, it can alter the memory of the original event.Classic experiment: showed participants a series of slides depicting a car accident. some were misled afterward (told the car passed a stop sign when it had actually been a yield sign). later, many participants reported the false detail, illustrating the power of suggestion.

what is the easterbrook hypothesis (cue narrowing)

high emotional arousal narrows the focus of attention to central details and reduces attention to peripheral information.

what is the weapon focus effect

witnesses of crimes often recall the weapon vividly but cannot accurately describe the perpetrator's face.

what is consolidation theory

emotional arousal activates stress hormones (e.g., adrenaline, cortisol) that strengthen the consolidation of memories in the hippocampus and amygdala.

evidence: showed that emotionally charged stories were remembered better than neutral stories, especially after a delay.

what is cue utilization theory

arousal limits the range of cues used during encoding and retrieval. under high stress, people rely on fewer cues, which can either strengthen or weaken recall depending on what cues were attended to at the time.

evidence: studies show high-stress conditions can either improve or impair memory depending on the context, task, and type of retrieval cues available.