final exam psych

Kahneman experiment

placed hands in ICE for 60 seconds vs 90s; the 90s got hotter by 1 degree. Most people picked the longer trail because they rely on shortcuts of the past to make irrational decisions

three memory model

assumptions about the structure of memory; functionally distinct types of memory

model

classifies each memory store

span

how much information it can hold

duration

how long it can hold that informations

sensory memory

stores a lot of information but for very brief periods due to constant updating; briefly holds sensory information (sights, sounds, etc.) after the stimulation is over; rapidly and continuously being "refreshed" by new sensory information

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iconic memory

visual sensory memory

echoic memory

auditory sensory memory

Sperlings classic 1960 partial report task

looked at span and duration for iconic memory; flash letters and ask to remember a certain row

results of Sperlings classic 1960 partial report task

Whole report condition - average 4.5 of 12 letters recalled participants only saw on average 4.5 letters and saw most or all of the letters but sensory memory faded rapidly partial report condition - average 3.3 of 4 letters (82%) in row recalled• since position of cue was unknown, must have seen \~82% of whole display

only at sensory memory is there anything like

raw unprocessed sensory material

in order for sensory information to enter STM from sensory memory it must be…

attended

attention

involves selectively focusing on certain details of a stimulus and "filtering out" others

short term memory (STM)

can store limited amounts of information for an indefinite amount of time

in order for info to stay in STM it must be

rehearsed

rehearsal

the process of repetitively verbalizing or thinking about information

without rehearsal, STM can only hold info for

a few seconds

brown and Peterson 1959

remember the following set of three letters while you count backwards in your head by 3s from 100; After about 10-15 seconds of being prevented from rehearsing, Brown & Peterson's participants could not remember

decay

fading of memory overtime

interference

new information or confusion with other memories

proactive interference

old info interferes with new

retroactive interference

new info interferes with old

Miller 1956

showed that capacity of STM is about 7 items, plus or minus two "Magic Number" chucking can increase capacity to 20 or more items

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chucking

a short-term memory strategy that involves mentally rearranging many pieces of information into a familiar and meaningful pattern; a single chunk can represent a wealth of information

Chase and Simons chess experiment

had master (> 10,000+ of practice) and beginner (< 100 hours) chess players recall positions of chess pieces

Chase and Simons chess experiment results

when pieces were in real game positions, the master recalled 16/24 pieces; the novice recalled 4/24 when pieces were in random positions, there was no advantage for the master in real game positions, pieces formed familiar patterns (chunks) for the master

maintenance rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves repetition without any consideration of meaning or making connections to other material

maintenance rehearsal works fine as Long as you are not

distracted

elaborative rehearsal

Rehearsal that involves thinking about the meaning of an item to remembered or making connections between that item and prior knowledge

which is more effective for getting info from STM or LTM

elaborative rehearsal

depth of processing model

has been studied extensively in the context of remembering verbal material.  we can rehearse a word based on how it looks on the page, what the word mean

Craig and Tulving experiment

Showed that "deeper" types of rehearsal lead to better recall (p. 247) • study phase: presented participants with 60 words and a particular rehearsal strategy

Craig and Tulving experiment Shallow

visual; based on physical properties of the word

Craig and Tulving experiment Intermediate

phonological encoding; based on how the word sounds

Craig and Tulving experiment Deep

semantic encoding; based on the meaning of the word

what does evidence suggest about the depth of processing model

Evidence suggests deep (semantic) > intermediate (phonemic) > shallow (structural)

what do rely on according the depth of processing model

intermediate (phonemic)

is STM just a storage area?

no

Working memory

information can be both stored and manipulated at the same time 

n-back tasks

working memory test; n = 2, must remember what the stimulus was two trials ago but also compare with current and update that

information as each new stimulus is presented

long term memory

stores large amounts of information for very long periods of time and maybe permanently

Hyperthymestic syndrome

condition of possessing an extremely detailed memory of one's life

how does STM info enter LTM?

must be encoded (transforming info for storage)

Serial postion effect

refers to the finding that people tend to remember items (e.g., words from a list) from the beginning (primacy effect) and the end (recency effect)

Items from the beginning have entered

LTM through rehearsal

Items from the end are still in

STM

implicit memory

memories we don't deliberately remember or reflect on consciously

procedural memory

memory for how to carry out highly practiced skills

priming

ability to identify a stimulus more easily or quickly after we’ve encountered a similar stimuli

explicit memory

memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness 

episodic memory

memory of events in which we can remember our own participation; experience associated with episodic memory = "mental time travel" 

semantic memory

memory for facts; experience associated with semantic memory = "knowing"

Clive wearing Video

retains implicit memory (e.g., how to play the piano) but is unable to encode new memories. Wearing case might be also be taken as further evidence of STM-LTM distinction: ◦ e.g., still has limited STM -> can understand a sentence

In order to use a stored memory for something it must be

retrieved from LTM and put back into STM; then can be output towards some action

retrieval is subjected to

error and failure, such as top of the tongue phenomenon

retrieval can also be helped with

availability of retrieval cues

Jenkins and Russell

people spontaneously organize items into clusters as they recall them

Reedier and Mcdermott

found that people have false memories for the words in the red at the bottom of the lists;

Brewer and Treyens

had participants wait in the office and then participants were called into another room and told that it was actually a memory experiment.

* when asked to recall what was in the office, they included some things that were not there but fit into their "office schema"

◦ e.g., 30% said they saw books but there weren't any

schema

* common expectation about our environment

◦ in this case, the schema is "offices have books"

Jacoby L

Misidentification of nonfamous names in the delayed test shows that we retrieve the memory first ◦ e.g., "The name Sebastian Weissdorf is familiar" then we decide where the memory came from "He is nonfamous" or◦ "He is famous"

Source monitoring error

Misidentification of the source of a memory; we reorganize info in memory to fit categories that describe our world therefore memories can be inaccurate or false; we fill in missing info with info that fits with our belief system or expectations about the world

Flashbulb memories

Detailed and vivid memory of where we were and what we were doing when an important event happened

Are flashbulb memories resistant to decay? people claim to remember things years later

No, Evidence from repeated recall (soon after/years later) demonstrates "flashbulb memories" can be wrong or false like other memories

Recovery of repressed memories- Freud

Freud proposed that we can push threatening or painful memories out of conscious awareness ◦ repression as a "defence mechanism" Freud believed that repressed memories can be "recovered" in psychotherapy and that it may be therapeutic to do so ◦ problem: if memories are vulnerable to contamination/suggestion/forgetting,how do we know if these memories are real?

Eyewitness testimony

Despite the fact jurors are much more convinced by confident testimony, there is a worryingly weak correlation between confidence and accuracy

Police lineups

Line-ups should be done in sequential rather than simultaneous order◦ Simultaneous order encourages relative identification as opposed to absolute identification, which leads to reduced false identification.• Inform the witness that the perpetrator might not be in the line-up  Maybe due to demand characteristics. People biased to pick the person that looks most like the perp.

what is failure of memory?

failure to pay attention

Solution to failure of memory

pay attention to attention; anticipate situations in which our attention is required

Encoding specificity

The cues that are available at encoding will be useful if they are also available at

retrieval

external cues

where you were; context dependent learning

internal cues

how you felt’ state dependent learning

Diving Club Godden

Diving Club learned a list of words either on land or 20 feet underwater (STUDY), then remembered that list either on land or 20 feet underwater

Diving Club Godden results

Recreation of the external conditions at STUDY at the time of TEST led to better recall.

Goodwin Vodka study

Participants learned items either after having 5 oz. of vodka or nothing (STUDY), then remembered that list either after having 5 oz. of vodka or nothing

Goodwin Vodka study results

Recreation of the internal conditions at STUDY at the time of TEST led to better recall.

mnemonics

"learning aid, device, or strategy that aids recall" 

keywords

the use of imagery to relate known words to to-be-remembered items

methods of places

to be remembered items are imagined at intervals along a route. At recall, the route is mentally traced to retrieve the items.

Exam studying- deep encoding

relate material to other knowledge that you already have

Exam study- practice tests

try to recreate the exam situation when doing practice tests; this is encoding specificity

Exam study: Use distributed practice

spacing the repetitions of to-be-remembered information over time  (better)

Exam study: massed practice

clustering the repetitions of to-be-remembered information close together in time “cramming” (worse)

Keppel experiment

had students memorize a list of words; all students studied the list 8 times


1. one group had all eight study trials on the same day (massed practice)
2.  the other group studied the list two times four days in row (distributed practice) 
3.  recall was either one day or one week after studying

Keppel experiment results

massed practice group did just as well after one day (good for short term info) however, distributed group did much better one week later (good for long term info)

dementia

is an umbrella term for a number of neurocognitive disorders

Alzheimer's disease ◦ Huntington's disease ◦ Lou Gehrig's disease ◦ Parkinson's disease

what is happening in the neural level of memory loss?

protein involved in production and growth of neurons goes awry

results in tangled clumps of cells that fall apart and disintegrate


1. brain level: brain deterioration in areas including in the hippocampus (i.e., memory center of the brain)
2. behavioural level: severe memory loss, disorientation

which memory declines with age?

episodic memory

pollyanna principle

some forgetting may be deliberate; studies show older adults more likely to remember pleasant things than unpleasant 

social context as a factor in age related memory decline

1. poorer memory performance associated with poorer memory self-efficacy (confidence)
2. poorer memory may become a self-fulfilling prophecy

Associative deficit hypothesis

proposal that age-related decline is not related to single memories but in making connections between memories

Naveh Benjamin experiment

study phase: participants were presented with name/face pairs

test phase:

* face recognition -> presented with face pairs - which face did you see before?
* name recognition -> presented with name pairs - which name did you see before?
* name-face associative recognition -> presented with a) two faces and a name and b) two names and a face which a) face/b) name did you see before?

Naveh Benjamin experiment  results

older adults didn't differ from young on name recognition  but were impaired on name-face associative recognition

Blanchet 2006 experiment

Study phase: younger and older adults listened to melodies under three conditions


1. intentional encoding- listen and remember for later recognition (full attention)
2. dancing judgement- say whatever rhythm is a march or a waltz (no attention on memory test
3. International and dancing judgement- same as 1 but with dancing judgement (attention divided for both tasks)

Test phase: indicate if they had heard the melody before

Blanchet 2006 experiment 

* older as good as younger with full attention (intentional

encoding)
* older remembered fewer melodies but only when more

attentional resources were required

Tip of the tongue experiment by Salthouse and Mandell

showed people faces of politicians and celebrities; answered “know”, “don’t know” or “TOT” then indetifed correct answer from MC list

* if TOT is selected the point is only given if the response was TOT and MC was correc

Tip of the tongue phenomenon increases with

age

well defined problem

clear starting point and a fully specified goal; one solution

ill-defined problem

starting point and goal cannot be fully specified; multiple solutions

radius (5cm) of a circle problem: Find the length of the line L.

solving this problem depends on how you represent the problem in your mindif in your mind, line L represents the long side of a triangle, the solution will not become apparentchanging the representationchanging your idea of line L to represent the diagonal of a rectangle