cognitive exam 2

What was Atkinson & Shiffrin’s (1968) modal model study?

They proposed memory moves through sensory memory, STM, and LTM with rehearsal helping transfer information into LTM, showing memory operates in stages

What was the Clive Wearing case study?

Clive Wearing could not form new long-term memories but could still play piano, showing procedural memory can remain intact despite severe amnesia

What were Sperling’s whole and partial report studies?

Participants briefly viewed letter arrays; partial report showed people briefly stored most letters, demonstrating sensory memory has large capacity but short duration

What was the Brown-Peterson task?

Participants memorized letters while counting backward to prevent rehearsal; recall rapidly declined, showing STM lasts about 15–20 seconds without rehearsal

What was the digit span task?

Participants repeated strings of digits and usually remembered about 7 ± 2 items, showing STM has limited capacity

What did Ericsson & Chase (1980) study?

Participants used chunking and practice to improve digit recall, showing chunking organizes information to improve memory performance

What did Luck & Vogel (1997) study?

Participants detected changes in visual arrays; accuracy decreased with more items, showing STM has limited visual capacity

What did Alvarez & Cavanagh (2004) study?

Participants remembered fewer complex objects than simple ones, showing STM capacity depends on information complexity

What problem did Baddeley’s working memory model address?

The modal model could not explain active manipulation of information, so Baddeley proposed multiple working memory components

What do phonological similarity and word length studies show?

Similar sounding and longer words are harder to remember, showing the phonological loop processes verbal information

What does articulatory suppression demonstrate?

Speaking during rehearsal interferes with memory, showing rehearsal is important for the phonological loop

What did Shepard & Metzler (1971) study?

Participants judged rotated objects; slower responses at greater rotation angles showed people mentally rotate images

What does the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task demonstrate?

Participants struggled when switching sorting rules, showing the central executive controls attention shifting

What does the driving while talking example demonstrate?

Phonological, visuospatial, and executive systems can work simultaneously during complex tasks

What was the HM case study?

HM had his hippocampus removed; STM stayed intact but new LTM formation was impaired, showing the hippocampus is critical for long-term memory formation

What was the KF case study?

KF had parietal lobe damage; STM was impaired but LTM remained intact, showing STM and LTM are separate systems

What do HM and KF together demonstrate?

A double dissociation showing STM and LTM rely on different brain systems

What do serial position studies demonstrate?

People remember beginning and end list items best, showing primacy relies on LTM and recency relies on STM

What did proactive interference studies show?

Previously learned information interfered with new learning, reducing recall

What does release from proactive interference demonstrate?

Switching categories improves recall, showing STM uses semantic coding

What did semantic coding studies show?

Participants remembered sentence meanings better than exact wording, showing LTM stores meaning semantically

What did Endel Tulving propose?

Episodic memory involves mental time travel, meaning people mentally relive past experiences

What did Peterson & Peterson find about episodic memory?

People remembered classmates decades later, showing episodic memory has large capacity and duration

What do mirror tracing and reverse reading studies demonstrate?

Performance improved with practice, showing procedural memory supports skill learning

What does expert-induced amnesia demonstrate?

Experts perform skills automatically without awareness, showing procedural memory becomes unconscious

What do priming studies demonstrate?

Previous exposure influenced later responses without awareness, showing priming unconsciously affects processing

What is the difference between repetition and conceptual priming?

Repetition priming uses repeated stimuli while conceptual priming uses related meanings to speed responses

What did Perfect & Askew (1994) study?

Repeated advertising exposure increased familiarity and preference, showing priming influences judgments

What does the propaganda effect demonstrate?

Repeated statements seem more true because familiarity increases perceived truth

What did Craik & Lockhart (1972) propose?

Levels of processing theory states deeper encoding leads to better memory

What did Craik & Tulving (1975) find?

Semantic encoding produced the best memory compared to shallow visual or acoustic encoding

What is the difference between maintenance and elaborative rehearsal?

Maintenance rehearsal repeats information while elaborative rehearsal connects meaning, leading to stronger memory

What do imagery studies demonstrate?

Forming mental pictures improves encoding and recall

What does the self-reference effect demonstrate?

Information related to oneself is remembered better because personal relevance deepens encoding

What does the generation effect demonstrate?

People remembered self-generated information better, showing active generation strengthens memory

What do organization studies demonstrate?

Group information improves recall because categories create retrieval cues

What did Karpicke & Roediger (2008) study?

Repeated testing improved long-term retention, showing retrieval practice strengthens memory

What does encoding specificity demonstrate?

Memory improves when encoding and retrieval contexts match

What do state-dependent learning and transfer-appropriate processing demonstrate?

Recall improves when mental states or processing types match between study and retrieval

What was the Jill Price HSAM case study?

Jill Price recalled highly detailed autobiographical events, showing some people have extremely strong autobiographical memory

What do autobiographical memory studies show?

People remember some life periods better than others due to recency effects, childhood amnesia, and the reminiscence bump

What are the three explanations for the reminiscence bump?

Self-image formation, rapid life changes, and culturally expected life events improve memory for ages 10–30

What did Schrauf & Rubin (1998) find?

Immigration shifted the reminiscence bump later in life, supporting the cognitive explanation

What did LaBar & Phelps (1998) study?

Emotional stimuli were remembered better than neutral stimuli, showing emotion strengthens memory

What did Brown & Kulik (1977) propose?

Flashbulb memories are vivid memories for shocking emotional events

What did Neisser & Harsch (1992) find?

People’s flashbulb memories changed over time, showing vivid memories are not always accurate

What does the narrative rehearsal hypothesis state?

Repeatedly hearing and retelling events strengthens but can distort flashbulb memories

What did Jacoby (1989) study?

After delays, participants misidentified nonfamous names as famous, showing source monitoring errors increase over time

What does the illusory truth effect demonstrate?

Repeated information feels more true because familiarity influences judgment

What did Bartlett’s War of the Ghosts study demonstrate?

Participants changed stories to fit their cultural expectations, showing memory is reconstructive

What do schemas and scripts demonstrate?

Prior knowledge and expectations shape memory recall

What did the DRM false memory study show?

Participants falsely recalled related words like “sweet,” showing memory is influenced by associations and expectations

What did Loftus & Palmer (1974) study?

Participants estimated car speeds after different wording; stronger verbs increased estimates, showing misleading wording alters memory

What did the hot air balloon and Bugs Bunny studies demonstrate?

Doctored photos and misleading information created false and impossible memories

What do eyewitness misidentification studies demonstrate?

Familiarity and source monitoring errors can lead witnesses to identify the wrong person

What did Stanny & Johnson (2000) find?

People remembered fewer details when a weapon was present, demonstrating the weapon focus effect

What did Wells & Bradfield (1998) study?

Confirming feedback increased eyewitness confidence, demonstrating the post-feedback identification effect

Why are double blind lineups important?

They reduce accidental influence from lineup administrators

What is a cognitive interview?

A method that helps witnesses mentally recreate events with minimal interruption to improve recall

What did Nash & Wade (2009) find?

Many participants falsely confessed to cheating, showing false confessions can occur even without strong evidence

What is memory?

The processes of retaining, retrieving, and using information after the original information is gone

What is the modal model of memory?

A model explaining how different types of memory operate and interact

What are the three stages of memory (structural features)?

Sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory

What is sensory memory?

Holds sensory input for a few seconds

What is short-term memory (STM)?

Holds limited information for about 15–20 seconds

What is long-term memory (LTM)?

Holds large amounts of information for many years

What is rehearsal?

A process used to keep information in STM

What is memorizing?

Moving information from STM into LTM

What is retrieval?

Getting information from LTM into STM

What are the two types of sensory memory?

Echoic memory and iconic memory

What is echoic memory?

Auditory memory lasting a few seconds

What is iconic memory?

Visual memory lasting less than a second

How does sensory memory support continuous perception?

It briefly holds information so stimuli can be combined into one experience

What is persistence of vision?

Continued perception of a visual stimulus after it disappears

Who studied sensory memory capacity?

George Sperling

What is the whole report method?

Recalling all letters from a briefly shown array of 12 letters

How many letters are usually recalled in whole report?

About 4.5 out of 12 letters

What does the whole report method suggest?

Sensory memory fades rapidly

What is the partial report method?

Recalling one row of letters based on a tone cue

How many letters are recalled in partial report?

About 3.3 out of 4 letters

What does the partial report method show?

Sensory memory has large capacity (>80%) but rapid decay

How much information can STM hold?

About 5–9 items

How long does STM last?

About 15–20 seconds

Why is STM important?

It is for everyday tasks like remembering names and directions

What does STM include?

New info from sensory memory, current info in working memory, and old info retrieved from LTM

What is the Brown-Peterson task?

A task testing STM duration using a distractor task

What does the Brown-Peterson task show?

STM lasts about 15–20 seconds without rehearsal

What is the digit span task?

A task measuring STM capacity by recalling digits

What is the average digit span?

About 7 ± 2 digits (people recall abt 5-9 items)

What is chunking?

Grouping information into meaningful units

What does chunking do?

Makes more information easier to remember

Does chunking increase STM capacity?

No, it increases how much information fits into each item

What is the change detection task?

A task measuring STM by detecting changes in arrays

What do change detection studies suggest?

STM capacity depends on amount of information, not just number of items

What is working memory (WM)?

A system for storing and manipulating small amounts of information briefly

How is working memory different from STM?

WM stores and manipulates information, while STM mainly stores information

What tasks require working memory?

Speech comprehension, calculations, following directions, problem solving, and mental manipulation

What is the digit span forward task?

Repeating digits in the same order to measure STM capacity

What is the digit span backward task?

Repeating digits backward to measure working memory capacity

What limitation does the modal model have?

It does not account for working memory