Exam 6: Section 3: Memory

Semantic information is information kept in short-term memory just long enough to be processed before being moved into long-term memory.

Information can be held in short-term memory for about 20 seconds.

The research of psychologist George Sperling demonstrated that the maximum capacity of sensory memory is four items of information, plus or minus one.

The fMRI study described in the Focus on Neuroscience, "Assembling Memories," showed that retrieving a sensory memory reactivates the same sensory area of the cortex that was involved in the initial perception of the event.

According to decay theory, we forget memories because we don't use them.

In both the "professor's office" study and the study about "Jack" performing everyday activities, participants experienced compelling false memories about details that would have been consistent with the situation.

Brenda Milner and Suzanne Corkin are the psychologists who studied Henry Molaison (H.M.) extensively over the last 50 years.

As a general rule, the more closely retrieval cues match the original learning conditions, the more likely it is that retrieval will occur.

Episodic memory and semantic memory are components of Baddeley's working memory model.

Despite the claims of those who advocate recovery therapy, most survivors of trauma are troubled by NOT being able to forget details surrounding the traumatic experience.

From studies of other human patients with similar kinds of brain damage, it is clear that the memory impairments experienced by H.M. are highly unusual.

Sensory memory allows you to hear a series of musical notes as a melody.

In his pioneering studies of forgetting, Ebbinghaus was the first researcher to demonstrate how the misinformation effect, source confusion, and imagination inflation all contribute to imperfect memories.

David looks up a phone number and then continues to repeat the number until he has dialed it. This is an example of maintenance rehearsal.

Psychologist James Lampinen had participants listen to a story about a guy named "Jack" who performed some everyday activities, like washing his car and taking his dog to the veterinarian for shots. When tested for details, Lampinen found that participants were more likely to remember actions that were inconsistent with the activity rather than actions that were consistent with the activity.

Neuroscientist Eric Kandel won the Nobel Prize for his discovery that diseased neurons in the hippocampus are the cause of memory loss in Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.

If you're like most people, you probably don't remember when or where you acquired most of your semantic memories.

When new information is learned, some information is rapidly forgotten relatively quickly. Information that is not forgotten tends to be retained in long-term memory for a long period of time.

Amber walked in her front door and put her textbook in the kitchen instead of on her desk as she normally did. Ten minutes later she was unable to find her textbook. Absentmindedness is the most likely explanation for Amber's memory lapse.

British psychologist and memory researcher Alan Baddeley developed the best-known model of working memory, which has three components, the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and the central executive.