psc 130 exam 1 (new)

• What is short-term memory (STM)

• STM is memory for information that entered your brain a few seconds or minutes before.

• What are the two subtypes of STM mentioned in the lecture?

• Sensory memory and working memory.

• What is working memory (WM)?

• WM is the ability to keep a limited amount of information in mind for quick access so you can use it for an upcoming goal.

• What is one key difference between STM and WM?

• A key difference is that WM is intentional STM.

• According to the lecture, WM is the “baby” of what two things?

• STM and attention.

• Why is memory considered important in real life? Name two examples.

• Any two: sense of identity, aging, Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases, head injury, PTSD/depression/schizophrenia/anxiety disorders/phobias, recovered vs. false memory, eyewitness testimony, studying for exams.

• Who was Mnemosyne in Greek mythology?

The goddess of memory.

What is the root meaning connected to the word mnemonic?

It comes from the Greek root for memory.

Who was Hermann Ebbinghaus and why was he important to memory research?

Ebbinghaus was an early memory researcher who developed controlled methods to study memory and showed how quickly we forget information.

• What kind of materials did Ebbinghaus use in his memory studies?

• He used lists of CVC triplets like ZUG, REN, and DAX.

• What does CVC stand for?

Consonant-vowel-consonant.

What did Ebbinghaus discover about forgetting over time?

We forget a lot very quickly at first, but then the forgetting curve flattens out.

Who was Sir Frederic Bartlett?

Bartlett was a memory researcher who used more naturalistic studies of memory.

Bartlett argued that memory is not a perfect copy of experience. What kind of process did he say memory is?

He said memory is a reconstructive or imaginative reconstruction process.

In Bartlett’s “War of the Ghosts” study, what tended to happen to the story over repeated recalls?

The story became shorter, more coherent, and more culturally familiar over time.

What are schemas, according to Bartlett’s view?

Schemas are organized knowledge structures people use to interpret information and reconstruct memories.

Who studied patient H.M.?

Brenda Milner.

What happened to H.M. after his bilateral temporal lobectomy?

His seizures improved, but he became unable to form new memories for events.

What is anterograde amnesia?

An inability to form new memories after the injury or surgery.

Why was H.M.’s case important for the study of memory?

It showed that memory has different types and involves different brain regions/networks.

What are the two main branches of long-term memory shown in the diagram?

Declarative (explicit) memory and nondeclarative (implicit) memory.

What is the difference between episodic memory and semantic memory?

Episodic memory is memory for personal events, while semantic memory is memory for facts and general knowledge.

What is implicit memory also called?

Nondeclarative memory.

Which brain region is especially important for representing items in a particular spatiotemporal context?

The hippocampus.

Which brain region is associated with detailed representation of items like people, words, and objects?

The perirhinal cortex.

Which brain region is associated with the representation of task rules?

The prefrontal cortex.

What did George Miller mean by the phrase “the magical number 7 ± 2”?

WM capacity is limited to about 7 plus or minus 2 chunks/items for verbal material.

What is memory span?

The number of items, usually digits, that can be repeated immediately in the correct order at least 50% of the time.

About what digit span does 90% of the population have?

5–8 items.

What is chunking?

Chunking is organizing information into meaningful subgroups.

Why does chunking help working memory?

It helps by making information easier to hold in mind as larger, meaningful units.

According to the lecture, is WM capacity limited by items or by chunks of knowledge?

Chunks of knowledge, not just separate items.

What are the main processes listed under episodic memory?

Encoding, consolidation, recollection-based retrieval, and familiarity.

What role do attention and top-down control play in WM?

Attention helps WM because WM is an intentional, controlled, top-down form of short-term memory.

What is the Multi-Store (Modal) Model, and who proposed it?

A model of memory by Atkinson & Shiffrin (1968) describing how info moves from sensory memory → STM → LTM.

What are the three main components of the Multi-Store Model?

Sensory registers, short-term store (STS), long-term store (LTS).

What role does rehearsal play in the Multi-Store Model?

Rehearsal keeps info in STM and helps transfer it to LTM.

Why was STM considered a “bottleneck” in this model?

Because info must pass through STM to reach LTM.

What was one major problem with the Modal Model?

It treated rehearsal too simply and ignored complex processing in STM.

What important distinction did patient H.M. help establish about memory?

STM and LTM are separate systems.

What model replaced the Modal Model?

The Working Memory Model.

Who developed the Working Memory Model?

Baddeley & Hitch (1974).

What are the three main components of Baddeley’s Working Memory Model?

Central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad.

What is the role of the central executive?

Controls attention and coordinates memory processes.

What does the phonological loop do?

Maintains and rehearses verbal information.

What are the two parts of the phonological loop?

Phonological store (inner ear) and articulatory control process (inner voice).

What does the visuospatial sketchpad do?

Maintains visual and spatial information.

What is subvocal rehearsal?

Silent repetition of information in your mind.

What is the phonological similarity effect?

Memory is worse when items sound similar.

What happens during articulatory suppression?

Repeating a word while trying to memorize something.

Why does articulatory suppression interfere with memory?

It blocks the articulatory control process.

What is the word length effect?

Longer words are harder to remember than shorter ones.

According to the lecture, what do these three effects (similarity, suppression, word length) support?

Evidence for the phonological loop.

What happened to patient K.F.?

He had damage to the left parietal lobe.

What was unusual about K.F.’s memory performance?

Very low digit span (1–2 items) but normal learning in other tasks

What does K.F.’s case suggest about STM?

STM has multiple components, not just one system.

What happened to patient P.V.?

He had a selective STM deficit after a stroke.

What type of learning was P.V. unable to do?

Learning nonword associations.

What does P.V.’s case suggest about the phonological loop?

The phonological loop is specifically needed for speech-based memory.

What is conduction aphasia?

A disorder where people struggle to repeat speech but understand meaning.

Which brain area (SPT) is involved in verbal working memory?

Superior planum temporale (SPT).

What does brain imaging show about the phonological loop?

Sustained brain activity during rehearsal in language-related areas.

What is a double dissociation?

When two tasks show opposite patterns of impairment, proving separate systems.

What did the Heyer & Barrett (1971) study test?

It tested visual vs. verbal working memory.

What did verbal distraction affect more: identity or position memory?

Identity memory.

What did visual distraction affect more: identity or position memory?

Position memory.

What does this double dissociation suggest?

Verbal and visual WM are separate systems.

How did K.F.’s visual memory compare to his verbal memory?

His visual memory was normal but verbal memory was impaired.

What does this tell us about verbal vs. visual WM?

Verbal and visual WM are distinct.

What is the difference between the dorsal and ventral visual pathways?

Two visual processing pathways in the brain.

What does the dorsal (“where”) pathway process?

Spatial location (“where”).

What does the ventral (“what”) pathway process?

Object identity (“what”).

Why is the visuospatial sketchpad considered too simple?

Because visual and spatial processing may use different brain systems.

What is one key takeaway from this lecture about working memory?

Working memory is multi-component, not a single system.