Sensory, short-term and working memory. 122 questions, answered

Which memory process is described; transforming information to a form i which it can be stored in the memory.

encoding.

Which memory system is described; storage where information is temporarily held in an accessible state.

short-term memory.

Which memory system is described; information is held for longer periods, and can be accessed when needed.

long-term memory.

How do we call the act of retrieval of information?

recollection

Which memory system is described; system in which information is held and can be actively manipulated in order to perform a task.

working memory.

How do we call the temporary sensory register that allows sensory information to flow through to the memory systems?

sensory memory.

Which store of the sensory memory briefly stores auditory stimuli?

the echoic memory

Which store of the sensory memory briefly stores tactile information?

the haptic memory.

Describe the iconic memory experiment from sperling.

a table of 12 letters was shown for 50 milliseconds
the task was to report as many as possible
or to report as many of one row indicated by the height of a tone, high, middle or low.

How do we call a memory task in which the objective is to report as many objects as possible without a specific order?

a whole report.

What did sperling found in his experiment on iconic memory in the whole report task?

it doesn't matter how many letters are presented, the max reported will be around 4 or 5.

In sperlings experiment on iconic memory, how do we call the type of report with the tone-row task?

a partial report

What were the result of the partial report group in sperlings experiment on iconic memory?

on average 3 letters of a row with four letters where reported, independent from which row.

How did sperling discover with his experiment on iconic memory that information in the iconic memory decays very fast?

if the tone in the partial condition was delayed to 1 second, the performance in the partial group was equal to the whole report group.

Describe the auditory equivalent of sperlings task by darwin.

participant wears stereophones
the participant is presented with nine, letters or numbers. divided over the left side, the right side, and the middle presented right after each other in groups of three.
whole report or,
partial report was indicated by a screen which shows a bar either right, left, or middle.

What where the results of the auditory sperling task experiment by darwin?

performance was better in the partial report task compared to the whole report task.
when the cua was elayed, performance of the partial report started to become the same as the whole report task.

Describe a backwards masking task.

a subject is presented with a stimulus, and right after that, or at the same time close by another, neutral, stimulus is presented to erase any afterimage. the task is to identify the stimulus

What can be concluded from a backwards masking task?

information in the sensory memory is very fragile and can easily be disrupted by new information.

Describe the second partial task in sperlings second version of the iconic memory task.

a set of 12 letters and numbers is presented
the partial task is to either report as many numbers, or as many letters

What can be concluded from the second partial task in sperlings second version on his iconic memory experiment?

the participants in the second partial condition had no advantage over the whole report condition.
thus can be concluded that the information in the sensory memory can't be categorized
information in the sensory memory can't be manipulated or used, it is knowledge free.

Describe the brown-peterson task on sort term memory

 Try to remember 5 letters, e.g., XJCRH
 After the letters are presented, a number is shown (e.g., 307)
 Immediately start counting backwards in steps of 3
 When ‘Write!’ appears, write down the letters you had to remember

How do we call the process that is necessary to keep information refreshed in the short term memory?

maintenance rehearsal.

How do we call the process of encoding that involves the extraction and organisation of some information in order to transfer to the long-term memory so it can integrate with information already stored there?

elaborative rehearsal.

How do we call the process by which information is lost from the short-term memory because of new information coming in?

displacement.

Describe the modal model by atkinson and shriffin.

sensory input --> sensory memory --> attended information --> short-term memory --> maintenance rehearsal --> short term memory --> elaborate rehearsal --> long term memory --> retrieval --> short-term memory.

How do we call the number of digits that can be held in the short-term memory?

the digit span.

How do we call the strategy of memory improvement by which one groups smaller units together in a larger unit, often with meaningful categorization?

chunking.

What is a free recall test?

a whole report on a list, the order of recall is not relevant.

What is the reason for the recency effect?

these items remained in short-term memory till the moment of recall.

How do we call the principle where, in a free recall test of a list of words, the participants are better at recalling the words at the beginning of the list compared to those in the middle?

the primacy effect.

How do we call the graph that plots the recall of a word list such that performance is projected to the word's position on a list?

the serial position curve.

Describe a multi list recall task.

a participant is repeatedly presented with a list of words after which there is a free-recall task.
after a set of lists a free recall task from all the list is conducted.

What is the result from a multi list recall task?

performance on recalling words that were in the end of the lists was worse than recalling words from the middle of the lists.

How can we conclude that the recency effect reflects items in the short term memory from the results of a multi list recall task?

the negative recency effect occurred, because the items at the end of each list aren't transferred to long term memory because participants kept them in short term memory at recall moments. after this moment they forgot the items. the fact that the recency effect didn't occur tells us that the recency effect is about stm, not about ltm items.

How do we call the principle that in multi list recall tasks poorer memory is shown for list-end items compared to items of earlier positions?

negative recency effect

How do we call the principle where some patients have intact ltm but impaired stm or the other way around?

the double dissociation of function.

Describe patient KF.

 Short-term memory disorder (digit span ± 2). Long-term memory is intact!
 Disorder is more pronounced for auditory compared to visual memory

What can be concluded from the double dissociation of function?

STM and LTM are separate
STM is not a single, unitary store but contains of multiple sub systems (KF performed well on LTM tasks, but bad on digit span tasks)

How do we call a sensory-specific multi-component storage system to store, process and actively manipulate information?

the working memory.

Which component of Cowan's embedded process model of the working memory is described; inactive component from which information can be activated and retrieved if it's relevant to the current task.

the long-term memory

Which component of Cowan's embedded process model of the working memory is described; subset of time-limited active memory.

capacity-limited memory within the focus of attention.

Which component of Baddeley's working memory model is described; control and coordinate the attentional activity of the other components

the central executive.

Which component of Baddeley's working memory model is described; component proposed to temporary storage and manipulation of sound, auditory, and all forms of speech information.

the phonological loop.

Which component of Baddeley's working memory model is described; component for structuring the information from visuo-spatial sketchpad, phonological loop, and the long term memory into single structures or episodes.

episodic buffer

How do we call the disorder affecting the motor function of speech?

anarthria.

How do we call the subjective experience of hearing your thoughts as if spoken?

inner speech.

Which component of the phonological loop is described; Can hold speech-based information for a period of 2-3 seconds (unless the information is rehearsed)

the phonological store.

Which component of the phonological loop is described; Sub-vocal rehearsal to maintain information in the phonological store and converts visual information to a speech-based form.

the articulatory control process.

What are the effects of the word length effect?

the shorter words are, the more of them can be remembered
memory performance for slow pronounced words are worse compared to fast pronounced words of the same length.
memory span will be higher in countries with a faster articulation rate

How do we call the principle where sub-vocal rehearsal is disrupted when subjects need to rehearse a string that is irrelevant to the current task, like repeatedly counting till 3 or saying the constantly.

the effect of articulatory suppression.

What is the reason that the effect of articulatory suppression reduces memory performance?

The repetition of the irrelevant string uses the capacity of the articulatory control process, and prevents information in the phonological store from being refreshed.

Which principle causes the following; Recall of visually presented verbal material is poorer when irrelevant speech is presented during learning. Limited to speech sounds but also for speech in an unknown language!

the irrelevant speech effect.

What is the reason the irrelevant speech effect occurs?

Speech gains access to the phonological store and uses some of the available capacity

What principle causes the following; Recall is poorer for an ordered list of verbal items when the items sound alike, compared to when they sound different.

the phonological speech effect.

What is the reason the phonological speech effect occurs?

when the items sound alike, refreshing the items in rehearsal will cause confusion.

Of which components does the visuo-spatial sketchpad consists?

the visual cache
the inner scribe

which component of the visuo-spatial sketchpad is described; maintaining information in the visuo-spatial sketchpad, processing spatial information.

the inner scribe.

Describe the brooks matrix task

subjects are required to remember sentences that were either difficult to visualize or easy to visualize
they were given an empty matrix to help them with the visualization of the spatial material. but for the nonsense (difficult spatial visualization) the participants had to rely on verbal coding.

In the brooks matrix task the sentences could be presented either auditory or visually, what which presenting method would result in the highest recall rate for the spatial sentences?

the auditory presentation, visual presentation would interfere with the task since it would take up space in the visuo-spatial sketchpad.

Describe baddeley's pursuit rotor interfering task with the brooks matrix test.

the brooks matrix test is done normally, but the participants have to track a moving target using a hand held stylus.

Which condition performed worse on the baddeley interfering test, the spatial sentenced, or nonsense sentenced?

the spatial sentenced, the interfering task takes up space in the visuo-spatial sketchpad and therefor less space for the main task of memorizing the sentences.

Through which processes does the central executive control and regulate the information processing of the other components of the working memory?

inhibition
monitoring behavior (adapting behavior when mistakes are made)
task switching

Where is the central executive localized?

the frontal cortex.

How do we call a failure to override a routine set of actions; a routine is performed while another action was intended?

a capture error.

How do we call a range of deficits reflecting problems with executive functions due to injury to the frontal areas of the brain?

dysexecutive syndrome.

How do we call the inappropriate repetition of an action?

perseveration.

How does perseveration occur with the wisconsin card sorting task?

at first the task is to sort tasks on an object feature, like amount of objects on the card, color or shape.
second, the task changes to sorting on a different object feature than before.
perseveration occurs when the subject continues to carry out the initial task.

How do we call the dysfunctional automatic reaching for, and use of objects in the environment?

utilization behavior.

What are the functions of the episodic buffer?

interface between LTM and working memory components
acts as a global workspace accessible for conscious awareness
allows information from different sources (vssp, pl, ltm)

How do we call the theory by Craick and Lockhart that states that better learning results from deeper semantic processing which produces stronger, more elaborate memory traces and better retrieval, than shallow, superficial level processing.

the levels of processing theory.

According to the levels of processing theory by Craick and Lockhart, what is necessary for learning, and what isn't?

necessary;

emotion
deep processing

not necessary;

rehearsal
intention to learn

In the theory of levels of processing by Craick and Lockhart what does deeper processing mean?

the degree of which semantical processing, the processing of meaning, is involved.

Describe the levels of processing experiment by Craick and Tulving.

Subjects were asked to process a list of words, but not told to remember the words.
there were three conditions,
the case condition; is the word written in capital letters or not? relies on shallow processing
the rhyme condition; does the word rhyme with another given word? medium shallow processing
sentence condition; does the word fit in this sentence? deep processing, relies on meaning
after the subjects were given an unexpected recollection task. (recognition)

What were the results on the Craick and Tulving experiment on the levels of processing?

there was a better recognition for the conditions with deeper processing
it shows that deeper processing helps better recollection.
it shows that intention to learn is not necessary on a deeper processing level.

How do we call learning that takes place while there isn't any intention to learn?

incidental learning.

Describe the Hyde and Jenkins experiment on intentional learning and levels of processing.

participants were put in four conditions and were presented a list of words
condition 1; learn the list of words, intentional learning
condition 2; how pleasant do you find the word, deep processing
condition 3; how many E's are in the word, superficial processing
condition 4; how many letters does the word have, superficial learning
after this task the subjects were presented an unexpected recollection task.

What were the results of the Hyde and Jenkins experiment on intentional learning and levels of processing?

recollection of the deep processing condition was better than shallow processing
recollection of the deep process condition and the intentional condition was approximately the same, shows that intention to learn is not necessary.

What was the critique on the experiments of the processing levels and intentional learning?

circular reasoning; there is no independent measure of the depth of the processing, the retention was better because of the depth of processing, the processing was deeper because retention was better.
biased recall task, if the recall task was on superficial features like how many words were written in capitals, conditions of shallow processing recalled better than deep processing because that's what they focussed on.

How do we call techniques to enhance memory performance?

mnemonics.

How do we call a mnemonic strategy of grouping items in familiar categories?

categorization.

With the mnemonic strategy of categorization what is the best way to categorize?

the more categories, the better
make categories in hierarchical order, subcategories.

How do we call the mnemonic strategy in which a familiar route is imagined and images of items to be recalled are placed alongside the route?

method of loci.

How do we call the mnemonic strategy in which to be recalled items are linked by imaginary to an already learned word or number sequence?

pegword method.

How is the theory called that explains the benefits of mnemonics to the ability of concrete words to be encoded both verbally, and visually. in contrast abstract words can only be encoded verbally, so mnemonics don't work as well.

the dual coding hypothesis.

What are the premises on which the dual coding hypothesis is build?

concrete words can be encoded verbally and visually. so both perspective can be used to retrieve stimuli.
abstract words can't be dual encoded so mnemonics don't work as well on them.

What principle states that if the context of the to be recalled items is similar to the context of the to be recalled items at encoding, memory performance will be better?

the encoding specificity principle.

What were the results of the cue-dependent memory experiment by Thomson and Tulving on encoding specificity?

There was a recall advantages for the words learned without a cue of the strong cue was present at recall, if a weak cue was presented for words learned without a cue, no recall advantage was present
there was a big advantage for the weak cue-learned words, if the weak cue was presented at recall task
concluding that if the context at recall is similar with context at encoding, recall is best. independent from what kind of context it is.

How do we call the principle where memory is better when the external environment at testing is the same as at learning?

context effects.

Describe the context effects experiment of Godden and Baddeley.

a list of words was learned under water and on land.
retrieval was better under water if the words were learned under water. same goes for the list learned on land.

How do we call the concept that occurs where memory is better when internal psychological conditions at learning are similar to the psychological conditions at recall?

state dependent memory effects.

What describes the fact that information is learned better if studied on many different occasions compared to an equal studying time but in one sitting?

the spacing effect.

What are the explanations for the spacing effect?

deficient processing
encoding variability

Which explanation for the spacing effect is described; massed repetitions lead to insufficient processing of the second repetition compared to the first. attention becomes less and less.

deficient processing

Which explanation for the spacing effect is described; massed representations lack variability making it hard to disentangle new information from each other.

encoding variability.

Describe Ebbinghaus' experiment on forgetting.

took hisself as subject
studied syllables
created a curve on how much he forgot.

How do we call the period between studying a list and the recall moment?

the retention interval

How do we call the concept that describes how much you have to study again to remember the whole list again. the amount of words that you have remembered and thus don't have to study again.

the savings.

What were the foundings on Ebbinghaus' experiment on forgetting?

as the retention interval increases, the savings decreases.
the more times he relearned the lists the longer the retention intervals could get to stay on the same amount of savings.

How do we call the principle that occurs when later learning impairs memory for earlier learning?

retroactive interference.

Describe the experiment of Minami and Dallenbach on decay and forgetting.

cockroaches learned their way around a T-shaped maze, one side contains food, the other an electric shock.
after learning one set of cockroaches was set to move freely among other cockroaches, while another set was put in a box without light where movement was impossible.
after a retention interval both sets were put back in the maze.

What were the results on the experiment by Minami and Dallenbach on Decay and forgetting in cockroaches?

the longer the retention interval, the worse the memory
free-moving cockroaches needed more time to relearn the T-maze again, compared to the immobilized cockroaches.
So, memory is better preserved when there is less interference.

Describe the experiment by Jenkins and Dallenbach on humans for interference and decay.

subjects learned a set of items prior to sleep, or in the morning.
subjects were tested after either 1, 2, 4 or 8 hours of sleep or being awake.

What were the results on the experiment by Jenkins and Dallenbach on humans for interference and decay?

Less forgetting after period of sleep compared to being awake
can't be explained by simple decay, since retention intervals were the same for both groups, difference can only be explained by state n retention interval.

How do we call the positive effect of sleep, or inactivity on memory after study period?

retrograde facilitation.

How do we call the neural mechanism that increases strength of connections between neurons that fire together?

long term potentiation.

Describe the experiment by Ekstrand on retrograde facilitation.

a learning experiment of 3 groups.
group1; (control) learn, stay awake recall after 4 hours
group 2; learn, sleep for 4 hours, recall
group 3; sleep 4 hours, learn sleep 4 hours, recall.
this experiment tests if non-rem and rem sleep have different degrees of retrograde facilitation.

What were the results on the experiment by Ekstrand on retrograde facilitation?

the learn, sleep, recall group performed better than the other groups.
this suggests that non-rem sleep has a better retrograde facilitation and is therefor critical for consolidation of memories.

What is the reason non-rem sleep has such a good retrograde facilitation rate?

non-rem sleep blocks long term potentiation.
long term potentiation would occur with dreams and the learned material (association)
deep, non-rem sleep therefor serves as an immobilized state without any action (dreams) that could potentially interfere with the learned material.

Besides sleep when is retrograde facilitation also observed?

with consumption of alcohol and benzodiazepines, because of the blocking of long term potentiation.

How do we call unwanted memories, like traumatic memories, that frequently come to mind?

intrusive memories.

How do we call the impaired ability to recall some items caused by earlier retrieval of related items?

retrieval induced forgetting.

How do we call memory impairment brought about by instructions to forget some items?

directed forgetting

How do we call a task in which participants are instructed to not respond to a presented stimulus and inhibit thoughts to answer, and sometimes instructed to answer?

think/not think task.

What was the result of the think not think task of Anderson?

it showed that the hippocampus, involved in recollection of memories, is less active when instructed to not think.

How do we call the degree to which lab results can be applied to real life situations?

ecological validity.

Of which two things does the ecological validity consist?

representativeness
generalizability.

How do we call a vivid memory of a dramatic event and the circumstances in which the event was experienced, or heard about?

a flashbulb memory.

Describe the experiment of Talarico and Rubin on flashbulb memories.

students were asked about the event of nine eleven.
the questions were set to make a good view of the flashbulb memories of the students
confidence measures of how sure the students were on how close the recall of the memory was to the reality.
this procedure was also done with an everyday memory
retest after either 1, 9 or 32 weeks.

Describe the experiment of Loftus and Zanni on false memories.

subjects watched a video on a scene.
after the video they either got a neutral, or a suggestive question on what they saw.
did you see A broken headlight, compared to did you see THE broken headlight.

What were the results on the experiment of Talarico and Rubin on flashbulb memories?

7% confirmed to the neutral question compared to 15% on the suggestive question.
so a suggestive question can be sufficient to create a (false) memory.

Describe the experiment of Roediger and Karpicke on test-retest.

three groups of participants
group 1; 4x5 minutes studying, just reading
group 2; 3x5 minutes reading 1x5 minutes testing, recalling as much as possible
group 3; 1x5 minutes reading 3x5 minutes testing.

What were the results of the experiment of Talarico and Rubin on flashbulb memories.

group 1 did best on recall after 5 minutes
group 1 did worst on recall after 1 week, group 3 did the best
so elaborate rehearsal is crucial for long term memory.

Sensory, short-term and working memory

122 important questions on Sensory, short-term and working memory