LTM structure 1
What timespan does long-term memory cover? (From when to when)
Everything from 20 seconds ago to as far back as you can remember
If you’re an eyewitness, a lineup tests your ________ whereas being asked to describe the perpetrator from memory tests your ___________.
Recognition; recall
Which encoding principle states that testing yourself on information improves your memory for it?
Retrieval practice effect (aka testing effect)
(This is a specific case of the generation effect so that would also be right!)
What are prions?
Prion: a type of protein that can trigger proteins in your brain to misfold, which can cause dementia (Creutzfeldt-Jakob in humans)
How do people with highly superior autobiographical memory differ from average people?
Subtle brain differences and obsessive remembering
No differences in standard short-term and long-term memory tasks (like learning word lists)
Name and describe the two types of explicit memory
Episodic memory: Memory for a specific, personal experience; can feel like reliving
Semantic memory (aka semantic knowledge): memory for general knowledge, facts; does not involve “mental time travel”
Describe the 3 types of implicit memory
Conditioning: stimulus-response associations
Procedural memory: skill memory and memory for actions
Priming: experience with a stimulus changes your response to that stimulus in the future
In the picture of the polar bear sitting among a bunch of penguins, why is the polar bear easier to remember?
Distinctiveness effect: memory is best for unique or unusual items
Name the causes of anterograde amnesia
Hippocampus damage, which can be caused by:
•Injuries (e.g., car accidents; swords up the nose)
•Brain inflammation (e.g., viral encephalitis)
•Stroke
•Thiamine deficiency (alcoholism)
What types of memory does autobiographical memory include?
(Bonus: what are examples of types of information that autobiographical memories often include?)
Types of memory: semantic and episodic
Types of information: visual and auditory, spatial, thoughts and feelings
What are the different ways that information is coded in short- and long-term memory, and which type tends to last longer than the others?
Semantic, visual, auditory
Semantic (for example the meaning of a paragraph) outlasts auditory and visual (for example the specific wording of the paragraph)
Describe the 3 stages of memory processing (the memory pipeline from information going into your brain, to accessing information from your brain)
Encoding (aka study): Acquiring information and transforming it into memory
Maintenance (aka retention): The period of time between encoding and retrieval
Retrieval (aka test): Accessing information from memory
Describe the emotion effect, including the timecourse/cause of the effect
Memory is better for emotional items than neutral items
It happens after a delay--the effect happens because emotional things are forgotten more slowly
Describe the two main types of amnesia (including the subtypes)
Anterograde amnesia: can't form new memories after brain damage
Flat retrograde amnesia: missing all (or most) memories from before the injury
Graded retrograde amnesia: missing memories before the injury, but still have memories from further back in life
What are the two theories/reasons why we forget? (Including what they mean)
•Decay theory: memory traces fade over time
•Interference theory: older memories are more difficult to retrieve because there is more competition from other memories
Why are we likely to remember a toothbrush cup as being on a bathroom counter, even if it had actually been on the floor?
How does the strength of underlying episodic memory affect this?
Semantic knowledge biases our episodic memories, so we remember things as being more congruent with semantic knowledge than it actually was
When underlying episodic memory is weaker, the influence of semantic knowledge on episodic memory is stronger. (and vice versa)
Name and describe the 4 subtypes of episodic memory
Recall (stimulus is absent) and recognition (stimulus is present)
Within recognition: recollection (have specific details) and familiarity (do not have specific details)
Studying all at once (cramming) vs gradually studying: what do most people think is better, and what is actually better?
(What encoding principle is this talking about?)
People on average believe that cramming will lead to better memory, but actually, gradually studying leads to better memory
Encoding principle is distributed vs massed practice
Name 3 ways to reduce memory decline with aging
1.Exercise
2.De-stress
3.Eat healthy (especially less saturated fat, and more fruits, veggies, and antioxidants)
What are 3 ways to improve eyewitness memory?
1.Inform witness that perpetrator might not be in lineup
2. Fair lineups: Use “fillers” in lineup that look similar to suspect
3.Improve interviewing technique
Describe why we have better memory for the beginning and end words of a list (on the serial position curve), and the terms for those memory boosts
The serial position curve shows how well people remember words based on their position on a list
Primacy effect: better memory for words at the beginning of a list, because of rehearsal
Recency effect: better memory for words at the end of a list, because they're in short-term memory
What does the generate-recognize model propose?
Name 3 examples of deep processing, 3 examples of shallow processing, and the relevant encoding principle
Encoding principle: Levels of proccessing
Deep:
•Thinking about how something relates to you, or how it relates to other information
•Thinking about what the information means
•Applying information
Shallow:
•Repeating something over and over to remember it
•Memorizing surface-level information about it
•Paying attention to what something sounds or looks like
•E.g., count the number of A’s; compare the length of words
•Memorizing a statement without knowing what it means
Which types of memory decline with normal aging, and which don't?
Decline:
- Recall declines (and does so more than recognition)
- Recollection declines (and does so more than familiarity)
Don't decline:
- Implicit memory
- Semantic memory
Define source monitoring, and describe 5 examples of source monitoring errors
Source monitoring: process of determining origins of our memories
Examples:
- Misremembering where you initially heard something
- Thinking that something you dreamed was actually a real memory
- Misremembering where you know someone from
- Unconscious (aka accidental) plagiarism
- Illusory truth effect and propaganda
- Imagining an event and misremembering it as real later on