Question 1

What is memory?

Accepted Answer

The capacity to register, store, and recover information over time

Question 2

What is an information processing model?

Accepted Answer

A model that attempts to compare our mind to a computer

Question 3

What is encoding?

Accepted Answer

Process in memory where sensory receptors send impulses that are registered by neurons in our brain

(in the information processing model, this is like keyboard information going to your computer's CPU)

Question 4

What is storing, in memory?

Accepted Answer

The process of retaining encoded information in our brain, for some period of time (from a single second to a lifetime)

(in the information processing model, this is like writing data to a hard drive)

Question 5

What is retrieval?

Accepted Answer

Getting information out of memory storage

(in the information processing model, this is like opening a file from the hard drive)

Question 6

Who was Donald Broadbent?

Accepted Answer

British psychologist that modeled human memory and thought-processes using a flowchart

Question 7

Who was Anne Treisman?

Accepted Answer

British cognitive psychologist that developed feature integration theory

(you must focus on complex stimuli to find a meaningful pattern in it)

Question 8

Who was Fergus Craik?

Accepted Answer

Cognitive psychologist who developed the levels-of-processing theory

Question 9

What is the levels-of-processing theory?

Accepted Answer

A theory that states how long and how well we remember information depends on how deeply we process the information when it is encoded

(shallow processing and deep processing; developed by Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart)

Question 10

What is shallow processing?

Accepted Answer

Using the physical characteristics to remember sensory information, rather than meaning

Creates weaker memories that deep processing

(part of Craik and Lockhart's levels-of-processing-theory)

Question 11

What is deep processing?

Accepted Answer

Attaching meaning and creating associations to new information

Creates stronger memories than shallow processing

(part of Craik and Lockhart's levels-of-processing-theory)

Question 12

What is semantic encoding?

Accepted Answer

Type of encoding where the meaning of a stimulus is encoded, rather than its physical appearance

(occurs during deep processing)

Question 13

What is elaboration-rehearsal?

Accepted Answer

Meaningful analysis of information, that occurs during deep processing and leads to better recall

Question 14

What is self-referent encoding?

Accepted Answer

The idea that making information personally meaningful makes it easier to recall

Question 15

What is the Atkinson-Shiffrin three-stage model of memory?

Accepted Answer

An information processing model that describes three memory systems:

Sensory memory, short-term memory (STM), and long-term memory (LTM)

Question 16

What is sensory memory?

Accepted Answer

External events from our senses that are only held long enough to be perceived

Question 17

What is iconic memory?

Accepted Answer

Visual sensory memory, that lasts for less than a second

(makes sure we don't see gaps between frames in a motion picture)

Question 18

What is echoic memory?

Accepted Answer

Auditory sensory memory that only lasts for about 4 seconds

(allows us to hear a flow of information)

Question 19

How does selective attention relate to memory?

Accepted Answer

Being able to focus on a small fraction of what we sense allows us to encode specific information into STM

Question 20

What is automatic processing?

Accepted Answer

Unconscious encoding of information that occurs without interfering with normal thoughts

(example of parallel processing)

Question 21

What is parallel processing?

Accepted Answer

Ability of the brain to process different stimuli at the same time

(automatic processing is an example)

Question 22

What is effortful processing?

Accepted Answer

Encoding that requires focused attention and conscious effort

Question 23

What is short-term memory?

Accepted Answer

Capacity to hold a very limited amount of information for ~30 seconds, unless it's processed further

Question 24

How many items can a human hold in their STM?

Accepted Answer

7 ± 2 unrelated bits of information

(5-9)

Question 25

What is rehearsing information?

Accepted Answer

Consciously repeating information so that it is stored longer in STM

(often out loud)

Question 26

What is chunking?

Accepted Answer

Grouping information into meaningful units, to help increase the capacity of STM

(remembering a word, rather than the letters that make it)

Question 27

Who is Alan Baddeley?

Accepted Answer

British psychologist who developed a model of working memory

Question 28

What is Baddeley's working memory model?

Accepted Answer

A three-part memory system of working memory that temporarily holds information

(consists of a phonological loop, visuospatial working memory, and the central executive; far more complicated than STM)

Question 29

What is long-term memory (LTM)?

Accepted Answer

A relatively permanent and almost unlimited memory system

Information from STM may pass into LTM

Question 30

What are the two parts of LTM?

Accepted Answer

Explicit memory and implicit memory

(also called declarative memory and non-declarative memory)

Question 31

What is explicit memory (declarative memory)?

Accepted Answer

LTM of facts and experiences we consciously know and can verbalize

(remembering how to solve a math problem; two parts: semantic memory and episodic memory)

Question 32

What are the two parts of explicit memory?

Accepted Answer

Semantic memory (facts and general knowledge) and episodic memory (personally experienced events)

Question 33

What is semantic memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of explicit memory that deals with facts and general knowledge

Question 34

What is episodic memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of explicit memory that deals with personally experienced events

Question 35

What is implicit memory (non-declarative memory)?

Accepted Answer

LTM for skills and procedures to do things that aren't concsiously recalled

(remembering how to ride a bike)

Question 36

What is procedural memory?

Accepted Answer

Part of implicit memory that deals with motor and cognitive procedures

(remembering the steps to tie your shoelaces)

Question 37

What are the two parts of implicit memory?

Accepted Answer

Procedural memory (procedures for motor actions, like tying shoelaces) and classical/operant conditioning effects (automatic associations between stimuli)

Question 38

What is prospective memory?

Accepted Answer

Memory to perform a planned action or remembering to perform that planned action

Question 39

What are the four major models for the organization of LTM?

Accepted Answer

Hierarchies, semantic networks, schemas, and connectionist networks

Question 40

What are hierarchies, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Memory system where concepts are arranged from more general to more specific classes

Question 41

What are concepts?

Accepted Answer

Mental representations of information

(events, organisms, attributes, or even abstractions)

Question 42

What are prototypes, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Typical examples of a concept

(robin might be a prototype for the concept of "bird", while penguin is not)

Question 43

What are semantic networks?

Accepted Answer

Memory system where concepts have multiple links to other concepts

More irregular and less organized than hierarchies

(the concept of "bird" might be linked to fly, feathers, wings, animals, etc.)

Question 44

Who is Dr. Stephen Kosslyn?

Accepted Answer

American psychologist and neuroscientist who showed we scan a visual image of a picture (mental map) when asked questions

Question 45

What are schemas, in memory?

Accepted Answer

Preexisting mental frameworks, that start as basic operations and get more complicated as add additional information

Allow us to organize and interpret information, while still being able to expand and make inferences

Question 46

What is a script?

Accepted Answer

A schema for an event

(a script for elementary school might make us expect it to have teachers, classrooms, desks, chairs, etc.)

Question 47

What is connectionism theory?

Accepted Answer

Theory that states memory is stored throughout the brain in connections between neurons

Many neurons work together to process a single memory

Question 48

What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?

Accepted Answer

The strengthening of neural connections in long-term memories

Requires fewer neurotransmitters to make neurons fire

Question 49

What is a flashbulb memory?

Accepted Answer

A vivid memory of an emotionally arousing event

(associated with an increase of adrenal hormones, which causes the memory to be formed)

Question 50

What is the thalamus' role in memory?

Accepted Answer

Encoding sensory memory into short-term memory

Question 51

What is the hippocampus' role in memory?

Accepted Answer

Helps for explicit long-term memories

(destruction results in anterograde amnesia)

Question 52

What is anterograde amnesia?

Accepted Answer

The inability to put new information into explicit memory

Caused by destruction of the hippocampus

Question 53

What is retrograde amnesia?

Accepted Answer

Memory loss for the past, often caused by a disruption of LTP

(LTP is disrupted by trauma, such as getting hit in the head)

Question 54

What is the difference between anterograde and retrograde amnesia?

Accepted Answer

Anterograde amnesia prevents new memories from being formed

Retrograde amnesia prevents past memories from being remembered

(antero=front; retro=back)

Question 55

What is the cerebellums role in memory?

Accepted Answer

Involved with implicit memory of skills, like learning to ride a bike

Question 56

What is recognition?

Accepted Answer

Identifying learned items when they are presented

(knowing the answer to a multiple choice question)

Question 57

What is recall?

Accepted Answer

Retrieval of previously learned information

(remembering information to write an essay or FRQ)

Question 58

What is reconstruction?

Accepted Answer

Reviving and interpreting past experiences that have produced emotional disturbance

(part of psychoanalysis)

Question 59

Who was Hermann Ebbinghaus?

Accepted Answer

German psychologist who pioneered the study of memory, and developed the forgetting curve

(Alu is based on the forgetting curve!)

Question 60

What is a forgetting curve?

Accepted Answer

A curve that describes how quickly you forget knowledge after learning

(initially steep, but smooths out over time)

Question 61

What is the savings method?

Accepted Answer

A method used by Ebbinghaus to measure retention of information

Amount of repetitions required to relearn the list, compared to the amount of repetitions required to learn the first time

Question 62

What is the overlearning effect?

Accepted Answer

If you continue to practice something after learning it well, you will be less likely to forget it

(like when you review these flashcards; discovered by Ebbinghaus)

Question 63

What is the serial position effect?

Accepted Answer

Tendency to recall the last and first items in a list best, forgetting the words in the middle

Question 64

What are retrieval cues?

Accepted Answer

Reminders associated with information we are trying to remember

Memory, AP Psychology Flashcards