psych vocab – Flashcards
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Learning that persists over time indicates the existence of what for that learning?
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memory
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What can both human memory and computer memory both be viewed as?
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information-processing systems
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What are the three tasks that information-processing systems can perform?
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encoding, storage, and retrieval
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What model views memory as emerging from interconnected neural networks?
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connectionism
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What is the classic model of memory called? And whose was it?
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three-stage processing model by Atkinson and Shiffrin
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According to the model, we first record information as a fleeting ____, from which it is processed into ____-____ memory, where the information is _____ through rehearsal into _____-_____ memory for later retrieval.
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sensory memory, short-term, encoded, long-term
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A modified form of this model accommodates two important new concepts. First, some information is processed _____ and _____ into long-term memory, without our _____ awareness.
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directly, automatically, conscious
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By what concept of memory has the phenomenon of short-term memory been clarified?
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the concept of working memory
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What does the concept of working memory focus more on?
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the active processing of briefly stored information
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What does this form of working memory process?
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incoming stimuli as well as information retrieved from long-term memory
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What is automatic processing?
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encoding that doesn't require conscious attention or effort
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Some processing requires effort at first but with _____ it becomes effortless.
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practice
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What are some examples of material that is typically encoded with little or no effort?
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space, frequency, time, and well-learned information (like native languages)
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What is effortful processing?
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encoding that requires attention and effort
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With novel information, conscious repetition, or _____, boosts memory.
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rehearsal
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Who was Herman Ebbinghaus?
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a pioneering researched in verbal memory who found that the longer he studied a list of nonsense syllables, the fewer the number of repetitions he required to relearn it later.
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What increases retention?
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additional rehearsal or overlearning
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What is the spacing effect?
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when distributed rehearsal is more effective for retention
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What is the serial position effect?
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the tendency to remember the first and last items in a list best
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What is the recency?
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the tendency to recall the last items in a list quickly and well
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What is the primacy effect?
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the tendency to recall the first items of a list better than the last items following a delay
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What is semantic encoding?
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when you encode by the meaning of the words
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What is acoustic encoding?
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when you encode by sound
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What is visual encoding?
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when you encode by the picture images of the words
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What is memory best with based on the comparison of visual, acoustic, and semantic encoding?
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semantic
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What is the self-reference effect?
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when you have especially good recall for information that you can meaningfully relate to yourself
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Memory that consists of mental pictures is based on the use of what?
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the use of imagery
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Concrete, high-imagery words tend to be remembered _____ (better/less well) than abstract, low-imagery words.
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better
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When is memory for concrete nouns facilitated?
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when we encode them semantically and visually
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What is rosy retrospection?
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the tendency to recall the high points of events, such as family vacations
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What are mnemonic devices?
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memory aids
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What is an example of the peg-word system?
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a jingle that begins with "one is a bun, two is a shoe"
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What are chunks?
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meaningful units of grouped information that aids memory
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What is an example of the chunking technique?
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acronyms: when you form words from the first letters of to-be-remembered words
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What can material be processed into? What are these composed of?
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hierarchies; composed of a few broad concepts divided into lesser concepts, categories, and facts
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Where are stimuli from an environment first recorded into?
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sensory memory
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What did George Sperling find out?
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George Sperling found out that when people were briefly shown 3 rows of letters, they could recall about half of them. When Sperling sounded a tone immediately after a row of letters was flashed to indicate which letters were to be called, the subjects were more accurate.
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What did George Sperling's experiment suggest?
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suggested that people have a brief photographic or iconic memory lasting about a few tenths of a second
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What is sensory memory for sounds called?
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echoic
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How fast does echoic memory fade compared to photographic memory?
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echoic memory fades less faster than photographic memory and lasts for about 3 or 4 seconds
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Short-term memories have a limited life without what processing?
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active
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How quickly were memory letters gone when rehearsal was prevented by the Petersons asking people to count backward?
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12 seconds
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What is our short-term memory capacity? Who discovered it?
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about seven chunks of information discovered by George Miller
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Short-term memory for random _____ (digits/letters) is slightly better than for random _____ (digits/letters), and memory for information we hear is somewhat _____ (better/worse) than that for information we see.
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digits, letters, better
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Both children and adults have short-term recall for roughly as many words as they can speak in ____ (how many?) seconds.
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2
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What is the capacity of permanent memory in contrast to short-term memory and contrary to popular belief?
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it's limitless
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What psychologist attempted to locate memory by cutting out pieces of rats' cortexes after they had learned a maze?
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Karl Lashley
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No matter where he cut, the rats _____ (remembered/forgot) the maze.
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remembered
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What is the physical basis of memory and what does it involve?
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the memory trace involves a strengthening of certain neural connections, which occurs at the synapses between neurons
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What neurotransmitter was released in greater amounts which made the synapses more efficient?
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serotonin
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Who did an experiment involving a sea slug, Aplysia to find out what happens when learning occurs?
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Kandel and Schwartz
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After learning has occurred, a sending neuron needs _____ (more/less) prompting to fire, and the number of _____ _____ it stimulates may increase. What is this phenomenon called?
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less, receptor sites
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What is long-term potentiation?
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the possible neural basis for learning and memory
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Blocking this process with a specific _____, or by genetic engineering that causes the absence of an _____, interferes with learning.
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drug, enzyme
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Rats given a drug that enhances _____ will learn a maze _____ (faster/more slowly).
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LTP, faster
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After LTP has occurred, will the electric current passed through the brain disrupt or not disrupt old memories and will or will not wipe out recent experiences?
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it will not disrupt old memories and will wipe out recent experiences
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When we are excited or under stress, will the hormones being released facilitate or impair learning and memory?
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facilitate
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Two emotion-processing clusters, the _____, in the brain's _____ system increase activity in the brain's memory-forming areas.
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amygdala, limbic
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Does drugs that block the effects of stress hormones facilitate or disrupt memories of emotional events?
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disrupt
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What are flashbulb memories?
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memories for surprising, significant moments that are especially clear
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Like other memories, these memories _____ (can/cannot) err.
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can
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What is the loss of memory called?
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amnesia
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What do studies on people who have lost their memory suggest?
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suggest that there is not a single unified system of memory
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Although amnesia victims typically _____ (have/have not) lost their capacity for learning, which is called _____ memory, they _____ (are/are not) able to declare their memory, suggesting a deficit in their _____ memory systems.
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have not, implicit, are not, explicit
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Where do amnesia patients typically suffer damage to of their limbic system?
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hippocampus
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What is the hippocampus important for? Damage on the left side of this structure impairs _____ memory; damage on the right side impairs memory for _____ designs and locations. The rear part of this structure processes _____ memory.
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important in the processing and storage of explicit memories;verbal, visual, spatial
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What does the hippocampus seem to function as?
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as a zone where the brain temporarily stores the elements of a memory.
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However, memories _____ (do/do no) migrate for storage elsewhere.
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do
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The hippocampus is active during _____ sleep, as memories are processed for later retrieval. Recalling past experiences activates various parts of the _____ and _____ lobes.
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slow-wave, frontal, temporal
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The cerebellum is important in the processing of ____ memories.
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implicit
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Humans and laboratory animals with a damaged cerebellum are incapable of simple _____ - _____ conditioning.
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eye-blink
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What helps explain infantile amnesia?
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the dual explicit-implicit memory system
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Why don't we have explicit memories of our first three years?
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because the hippocampus is one of the last brain structures to mature.
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What is recall?
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the ability to retrieve information not in conscious awareness
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Bahrick found that 25 years after graduation, people were not able to _____ (recall/recognize) the names of their classmates but were able to _____ (recall/recognize) 90 percent of their names and their yearbook pictures.
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recall, recognize
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If you have learned something and then forgotten it, you will probably be able to _____ it _____ (more/less) quickly than you did originally.
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relearn, more
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The best retrieval cues come from the associations formed at the time we _____ a memory.
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encode
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What is the process by which associations can lead to retrieval called?
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priming
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Studies have shown that retention is best when learning and testing are done in _____ (the same/different) contexts.
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the same
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What is the experience of deja vu?
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The experience of deja vu is when a person is in a context similar to the one they've been through before. When this happens, though we can't recall the previous situation, the present situation gives us cues that help us retrieve the past experience
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What is the type of memory in which emotions serve as retrieval cues?
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state-dependent memory
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What is our tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with our current emotional state called?
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mood-congruent memory
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What are the effects of mood on memory?
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When we're happy, we look back at happy events in a light and positive manner. The memories then extends our good mood.
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People who are currently depressed may recall their parents as _____. People who have recovered from depression typically recall their parents about the same as do people who _____.
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rejecting, punitive, guilt promoting; have never suffered depression.
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We would constantly be overwhelmed by information without what ability?
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the ability to forget
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What memory researcher identified the seven sins of memory, divided into three categories that identify the ways in which our memory can fail?
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Daniel Schacter
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What are the three categories of the seven sins of memory?
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the three sins of forgetting, the three sins of distortion, and the one sin of intrusion
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What is the first type of forgetting caused by?
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encoding failure
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Why does encoding failure occur?
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because some of the information that we sense never actually enters the memory system
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One reason for age-related memory decline is that the brain areas responsible for _____ new information are _____ (more/less) responsive in older adults.
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encoding, less
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What do studies by Ebbinghaus and by Bahrick indicate?
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most forgetting occurs soon after the material is learned.
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What is this type of forgetting known as and what may it be caused by?
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storage decay, memory trace
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When does retrieval failure occur?
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when information that is stored in memory temporarily cannot be found
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Research suggests that memories are also lost as a result of _____, which is especially possible if we simultaneously learn similar, new material.
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interference
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What is the disruptive effect of previous learning on current learning called?
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proactive interference
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What is the disruptive effect of learning new material on efforts to recall material previously learned called?
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retroactive interference
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What is positive transfer?
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when old information facilitates our learning of new information
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What may protect a person from painful memories?
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motivated forgetting or repression
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What do increasing numbers of memory researchers think about motivated forgetting?
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it's less common than Freud believed
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Research has shown that recall of an event is often influenced by our experiences and assumptions. The workings of these influences illustrate the process of memory ______.
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construction
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What do witnesses to an event experience when they receive misleading information about said event? And what do they do about it?
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misinformation effect; they misremember the event.
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What did a number of experiments demonstrate about false memories when people are induced to imagine nonexistent events? What do these people later experience?
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false memories can be created when people are induced to imagine nonexistent events; these people later experience imagination inflation
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People who believe they have recovered memories of alien abduction and child sex abuse tend to have what?
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vivid imaginations
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What have Loftus' studies shown about the effects of misleading postevent information on eyewitness reports?
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the phrasings of questions can affect answers. Certain words like "smashed" can cause viewers of a video to mistakenly believe that they saw broken glass in the video as well when there weren't any in the first place.
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What is at the heart of many false memories? When does it occur?
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source amnesia is at the heart of many false memories, which occurs when we attribute an event to the wrong source
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Because memory is reconstruction as well as reproduction, we _____ (can/cannot) be sure whether a memory is real by how real it feels.
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cannot
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The persistence of memory _____ (does/does not) reveal whether it derives from an actual experience. Whereas real memories have more _____, gist memories are more _____.
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does not, details, durable
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Eyewitnesses' confidence in their memories ______ (is/is not) related to the accuracy of those memories.
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is not
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Memory construction explains why memories "refreshed" under _____ are often inaccurate.
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hypnosis
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Research studies of children's eyewitness recall reveal that preschoolers _____ (are/are not) more suggestible than older children or adults. For this reason, whether a child produces an accurate eyewitness memory depends heavily on how he or she is ______.
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are, questioned
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Children are most accurate when it is a first interview with a _____ person who asks _____ questions.
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neutral, nonleading
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Researchers increasingly agree that memories obtained under the influence of hypnosis or using other "memory work" techniques _____ (are/are not) reliable.
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are not
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Memories of events that happened before age _____ are unreliable. This phenomenon is called _____ ______.
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3, infantile amnesia
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What five strategies does the SQ3R study technique identify for boosting memory?
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survey, question, read, rehearse, and review.
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What are several strategies for improving memory?
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spaced-put study sessions with the objective of overlearning in mind, make the material more meaningful, use mnemonic devices, sleep more, and self-test yourself
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What are the three steps in memory information processing?
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encoding, storage, and retrieval
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What is visual sensory memory referred to as?
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iconic memory
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Approximately how long does it take for echoic memories to fade?
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3 to 4 seconds
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Which of the following is not a measure of retention? a) recall b) recognition c) relearning d) retrieval
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d) retrieval is not a measure of retention
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Approximately how long is our short-term memory span in terms of items?
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7
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Memory techniques such as acronyms and the peg-word system are called what?
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mnemonic devices
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What is the process where one way to increase the amount of information in memory is to group it into larger, familiar units called?
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chunking
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Kandel and Schwartz have found that when learning occurs, more of the neurotransmitter _____ is released into synapses.
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serotonin
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What does research on memory construction reveal about memories?
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memories reflect a person's biases and assumptions
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In a study on context clues, people learned words while on land or when they were underwater. In a later test of recall, those with the best retention had what? a) learned the words on land, that is, in the more familiar context b) learned the words underwater, that is, in the more exotic context c) learned the words and had been tested on them in different contexts d) learned the words and had been tested on them in the same context
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d) learned the words and been tested on them in the same context
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What does the spacing effect mean?
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distributed study yields better retention than cramming
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Studies demonstrate that learning causes permanent neural changes in the _____ of animals' neurons.
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synapses
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In Sperling's memory experiment, research participants were shown three rows of three letters, followed immediately by a low, medium, or high tone. The participants were able to report which row of letters?
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any one of the three rows of letters
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Studies of amnesia victims suggest that.... a) memory is a single, unified system b) there are 2 distinct types of memory c) there are 3 distinct types of memory d) memory losses following brain trauma are unpredictable
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b) there are 2 distinct types of memory
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Memory for skills is called what?
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implicit memory
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The eerie feeling of having been somewhere before is an example of what?
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deja vu
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When Gordon Bower presented words grouped by category or in random order, recall was... a) the same for all words b) better for the categorized words c) better for the random words d) improved when participants developed their own mnemonic devices
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b) better for categorized words
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The three-stage processing model of memory was proposed by...
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Atkinson and Shiffrin
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Hypnotically "refreshed" memories may prove inaccurate-especially if the hypnotist asks leading questions-because of.... a) encoding failure b) state-dependent memory c) proactive interference d) memory construction
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memory construction
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Which are of the brain is most important in the processing of implicit memories?
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cerebellum
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Which of the following terms does not belong with the others? a) misattribution b) blocking c) suggestibility d) bias
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b) blocking
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Which of the following best describes the typical forgetting curve? a) a steady, slow decline in retention over time b) a steady, rapid decline in retention over time c) a rapid initial decline in retention becoming stable thereafter d) a slow initial decline in retention becoming rapid thereafter
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c) a rapid initial decline in retention becoming stable thereafter
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Jenkins and Dallenbach found that memory was better in people who were a) awake during the retention interval, presumably because decay was reduced b) asleep during the retention interval, presumably because decay was reduced c) awake during the retention interval, presumably because interference was reduced d) asleep during the retention interval, presumably because interference was reduced
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d) asleep during the retention interval, presumably because interference was reduced
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What measure of retention is the least sensitive in triggering retrieval?
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recall
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Where in the brain do amnesia victims typically experience damage?
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hippocampus
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Which type of word processing-visual, acoustic, or semantic-results in the greatest retention?
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semantic
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Long-term potentiation refers to... a) the disruptive influence of old memories on the formation of new memories b) the disruptive influence of recent memories on the retrieval of old memories c) our tendency to recall experiences that are consistent with our current mood d) the increased efficiency of synaptic transmission between certain neurons following learning
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the increased efficiency of synaptic transmission between certain neurons following learning
