EXAM MEMORY

Can non-humans have semantic memory

True

Node

• is the unit of memory which is then connected to others

• may be strongly connected or less strongly connected

What is the Principle of cognitive economy in Collin and Quillians hierarchical network model

List each property as infrequently as possible

Which support Collins and Quillian's Hierarchical Network Model

It takes longer to verify "a canary can fly" then "a canary can sing" because "fly" is attached to a node one level up

What is the sentence verification task in Collin and Quillian study

Participants are asked to decide as quickly as possible if a sentence is true or false

What were the challenges/limitations of the Collin and Quillian study

They discovered people are slow to verify sentences such as "a canary can skin" because it is unfamiliar rather than because of the large hierarchical distance between the concept and its property

Another study found verification times were faster for more typical or representative category members than atypical ones "a canary is a bird" vs "a penguin is a bird"

Spreading activation

The transfer of activation from one node to an associated node

• once a node is activated this activation will spread to existing associated nodes

Semantic priming

When a particular node is activated that activation will spread to associated nodes

Lexical decision task for Collin and Loftus study

Participants must judge as quickly as they can whether a string of letters is a word or not

Semantic priming + lexical decision task in Collin and Loftus study

Participants still have to judge if a string of letters is words but now that string is preceded by a prime.

Subliminal priming in Collin and Loftus study

The participant is not consciously aware of the prime

Mediated priming in Collin and Loftus study

Occurs when the prime word is related to a word which is also related to the target word

Concept

Mental construct that contains information associated with a specific idea

Category

Mental construct referring to a set of objects or ideas that are grouped together or are associated with each other

levels of categorization

Basic, subordinate, superordinate

Basic level

The one we are most likely to invoke

Ex tools

Subordinate level

Allows for more specific or specialized categories to be formed

Ex power tools

Superordinate

Higher order categories that include general information and include many more common categories

Ex human implements

What level of categorization is retrieved the fastest

Basic level is retrieved the fasted compared to subordinate and superordinate

Family resemblance

Membership in a category may be defined by each items general similarity to other members in the category rather than by a specific list of features

Typicality effect

Verification times are faster for more typical or representative category memories than atypical ones

Exemplar theory

Categories are classified by maintaining a large number of specific instances of a category that are associated with each other in semantic memory

Prototype theory

They form the central characteristics in our representations of categories

Schema

Generalized knowledge about an event, person or situation

Script

Well learned sequence of events associated with common activities

The _________ forms the backbone upon which new information can be _________

Schema;associated

Branaford and Johnson study

Presented participants with confusing passages to read. Some participants were given schematic information to assist them in understanding the passage these provided with the title recalled more information from the passage than those who had not read the title

What is retrieval

Is the process of how we activate information for long term

• involves the reinstatement, via spreading activation of a pattern of activation over features that represent memory

• it is the presence of the right retrieval cues that activate or make accessible a particular memory

Four conditions in Godden and Baddeley

Encoding on land - retrieving on land, encoding on land - retrieving underwater, encoding underwater - retrieving underwater, encoding underwater - retrieving on land

State dependent memory pt 1

When encoding specificity is applied to internal human states such as drug states or mood states

• Eich et al examines the influence of smoking on people's memory. Long term use of marijuana has been shown to cause deficits in memory performance

State dependent memory pt 2

When encoding specificity is applied to internal human states such as drug states or mood states

• Eich and metcalfe examined whether mood states were subject to the encoding specificity principle

Mood congruence

Refers to the kinda of information we retrieve, positive or negative

Mood dependence

mood dependence refers to the match between our state at learning and our state at remembering

Recognition memory

A persons ability to correctly decide whether they have encountered a stimulus previously in a particular context

Tasks: forced choice recognition test, yes no recognition test

Signal detection theory

A model of recognition memory that posits that memory targets and lures on a recognition test possess an attribute known as strength or familiarity, which occurs in a graded fashion, with previously encountered items generally possessing more strength than novel items.

four outcomes of signal detection theory

Hit: Correctly recognizing an old item

Miss: Failing to recognize an old item

False alarm: Mistaking a new item as old

Correct rejection: Correctly identifying a new item as new

memory strength

Items have a familiarity level depending on prior exposure

word frequency effect

Free recall: High-frequency (common) words are better recalled

Recognition memory: Surprisingly, low-frequency words are better recognized

dual process theories of recognition memory

A class of recognition models that assumes that recognition memory judgments can be based on two independent forms of retrieval process: recollection and familiarity

familiarity based recognition

A fast, automatic recognition process based on the perception of a memory's strength

recollection

The slower, more attention-demanding component of recognition memory in dual-process models, which involves retrieval of contextual information about the memory

inhibition

is a mechanism that actively interferes with and reduces the likelihood of recall of particular information

retrieval induced inhibition

When recently retrieved information interferes with the retrieval of other related information

Anderson et al's (1994) experiment on retrieval induced inhibition included three conditions: practiced items (RP+) and unpracticed items (RP-) and then there are the unpracticed categories (NRP). their findings indicated that _____________ items are recalled _______________ items

RP- and worse then NRP

Three basic conditions in Anderson et al

practiced items (RP+), unpracticed items (RP-) and unpracticed categories (NRP)

how might memory inhibition help patients with PTSD

Having patients recall wartime memories that are not traumatic may help hinder recall of traumatic war time memories

what is the implication for real world memory

Therapy that encourages patients to recall related but nontraumatic wartime memories may work to inhibit the unbidden retrieval of the traumatic ones

part set cueing

refers to the phenomenon in which cueing part of a list of items interferes with retrieving the rest of the list items

source monitoring error

Remembering information but being mistaken about the specific episode that is the source of that memory

proactive interference

Disruption of new learning by previously stored information

retroactive interference

Disruption of old (previously stored) information by more recent learning

prenatal learning

fetuses respond to environmental sounds in the 3rd trimester

high frequencies are blocked, and lower frequencies (prosodic characteristics) pass through to the fetus

fetal heartbeat

Changes in heart rate to infer whether the fetus can distinguish between a familiar and a novel auditory stimulus

Recognition of previous auditory experiences during the last trimester

Mothers recited a short nursery rhyme once a day during weeks 33 to 37

The fetuses exhibited cardiac deceleration to the familiar rhyme when tested in week

movements

By about 6 weeks of gestational age, the fetus starts making simple, stereotyped movements that allow it to feel the space around it and sense the action of its body

By about 25 weeks of gestational age, the brain and sense organs are sufficiently developed for the fetus to start perceiving and learning about sounds

Habituation and recognition are possible before birth

fetal magnetoencephalography (fMEG)

Sensors placed against the mother's abdomen measure the magnetic fields generated by neuronal activity in the fetus's brain

High brain activity in fetuses the first few times an auditory stimulus is played

The brain activity habituates with repeated presentation of the same tone—but rebounds when a new tone is played

habituation

When sound 1 is presented, all 10 human fetuses initially respond with movement

As the sound is repeated, the number of fetuses responding decreases

When a new stimulus (sound 2) is presented, all the fetuses again respond

Finally, the original stimulus (sound 1) is presented again. The fetuses show spontaneous recovery of responding followed by fast habituation.

do newborns prefer the sound of their mother's voice and language to other voices in languages

true

Even when they're not listening to their mother's voice, newborns prefer listening to another woman speaking mom's language than a different language

does four-day old French infants prefer hearing a women speaking French to the same woman speaking Russian

true

novelty preference

Infants prefer to look at new things

If they do not show a preference for something they have seen earlier, it indicates that they have some form of memory for that earlier object

If the novelty preference persists, then a memory may not have formed

Continuing novelty preference for old objects indicates that something is interfering with learning

newborns can move their eyes

Although newborns are restricted in their ability to move their limbs, they can move their eyes

This allows researchers to observe visual recognition behavior in young infants

We can use gaze direction as a proxy for memory

nonnutritive sucking

Babies suck (NOT figuratively!): nutritive and non-nutritive sucking

Non-nutritive sucking can be monitored by sensitive electronic equipment

Amplitude: the measurement of how hard/fast the baby sucks

Their rate of sucking may increase or decrease depending on what they see or hear in the environment around them

Sucking in response to stimuli

conjugate reinforcement technique

Used with 2-6-month infants

A retention interval of a few minutes or several weeks

Relation between kicking and reinforcement