Deck 7: B: Memory

Question 1

Discuss the three important ways in which the short-term and long-term memory systems differ.

Answer 1

Answers will vary but should contain the following information for full credit.
--Short-term and long-term memory processes differ in terms of storage capacity,duration,and in the types of memory errors that occur.Short-term memory seems to be limited to a storage capacity of approximately five to nine chunks of information,although some researchers have suggested an even more limited capacity (more chunking may be occurring than researchers can either assess or simply realize).Long-term memory,by contrast,has a seemingly unending storage capacity.
--Short-term memories vanish after approximately 20 seconds,while long-term memories endure for days,months,years,and even the rest of our lives.As long as we have appropriate retrieval cues we may be able to access information from our long-term memory.
--Short-term memory errors seem to be based on acoustic information rather than the semantic information that accompanies long-term memory errors.While short-term memory errors are likely to involve mistaking what word we've heard (e.g. ,a heavily accented statement of lake is heard as like by someone unfamiliar with the dialect),long-term memory errors occur regarding the meaning of the information.For example,a witness to an automobile accident misremembers a car driving through a yellow light and hitting another car as the offending driver running through a red light.

Question 2

Describe and differentiate by duration and capacity the various systems of memory.

Answer 2

Answers will vary but should contain the following information for full credit.
--Most psychologists believe that there are at least three separate systems of memory: sensory,short-term,and long-term memory.These systems differ in both span (amount of information that may be held)and duration (how long the information may be retained).Sensory memory is the initial memory system.Information from any of the five senses is briefly retained here and then either moves on to the next system or the information is "lost." Even though research by Sperling suggests that all information is available to use,our limited attention is only able to recall a few items of all possible items through sensory memory.For example,a student can only recall a few items of what a professor is saying during class lecture as he or she is writing down information in his or her notes.
--The information that moves on is said to be in short-term,or working,memory.This system of memory can hold between five and nine "pieces" of information at any single time and can keep this information for about 20 seconds.These pieces of information may either be individual pieces of information or may be "chunked" together (e.g. ,remembering Freud's three structures of personality-the id,ego,and superego-as a single chunk because they are interrelated.Or remembering the three types of memory systems as a "chunk" of memory systems-sensory,short-term,and long-term).The information may be lost here as well,through processes such as decay or interference,or moved on to the next system via either elaborative or maintenance rehearsal.
--The third,and final,system is known as long-term memory.The capacity of this system is thought to be quite large and the information can remain here for years or decades.The information in memory is stored here until accessed through retrieval cues or priming.

Question 3

What is source monitoring? Describe and discuss how source monitoring is related to memory errors.

Answer 3

Answers will vary but should contain the following information for full credit.
--According to a source monitoring view of memory,we try to identify the origins of our memories by seeking cues about how we encoded them.Source monitoring refers to our efforts to identify the origins (sources)of a memory.Whenever we try to figure out whether a memory really reflects something that happened or whether we merely imagined it,we're engaging in source monitoring.For example,we typically rely on cues regarding how vivid and detailed our memories are.All things being equal,memories that are more vivid and detailed are more likely to reflect actual events (Lynn et al. ,2003).If our memory of a conversation with a friend on campus is vague and fuzzy,we may begin to wonder whether it really happened or if it was merely a product of our overactive imagination.
--Source monitoring confusion-a lack of clarity about the origin of a memory
--Many other memory errors reflect confusions in source monitoring.Take the phenomenon of cryptomnesia (literally meaning "hidden memory"),whereby we mistakenly forget that one of "our" ideas originated with someone else.Some cases of plagiarism probably reflect cryptomnesia.

Question 4

What is encoding specificity? Explain and describe both context- and state-dependent memory,and provide an example of each.

Question 5

Discuss how our memories both serve us well and lead to memory errors.

Question 6

Discuss the serial position curve and how the primacy and recency effects demonstrate differences between short-term and long-term memory.

Question 7

Differentiate between retrograde and anterograde amnesia,discuss the biological bases of these memory deficits,and describe how implicit and explicit memory differs between them.

Question 8

Why do you,as an adult,have a superior memory to an elementary school child?

Question 9

Describe how the three methods of measuring memory differ,and provide an example of each.

Question 10

Identify and discuss the three main mnemonic devices described in your text,and provide an example of each.