PSYX 280
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Jenna Anderson
Think About It Ch. 6-9
Chapter 6
1. Of the last five minutes, only the previous 15-30 seconds of it is in my short term
memory. From the last five minutes, I can recall my friend talking about her plans
for dinner tonight, going past Livingston, and a familiar song playing on the radio
while we are driving to Billings. This information made its way into my long term
memory, but will likely fade being that it is fairly insignificant. I will likely not
remember these moments later today or tomorrow unless I rehearse them or a
certain retrieval cue brings them into my consciousness.
2. Long-term memory is an archive of everything learned or experienced before the
previous 30 seconds. Memories are stored in the long term as semantic,
episodic, or procedural. Semantic knowledge is learned information or facts.
Episodic memories often have significant self-ties or emotions attached to them
from a certain experience. Procedural knowledge is knowing how to do
something or perform a skill. Over time, episodic memories may fade into
semantic knowledge through a process called semanticization. It is likely, that
what you did ten minutes ago is still episodic but after a year, turns semantic.
What you remember from ten years ago is most likely episodic or procedural
knowledge.
3. The propaganda effect is the phenomenon that occurs when people believe
something is true because they have seen it before, even if they were told it was
false when they were first exposed to it. This is similar to fake news on social
media. Repeated exposure to false claims creates an illusory truth effect in which
people believe everything they see on social media.
4. I remember learning to tie my shoes in kindergarten class I can’t remember
learning the actual skill itself. Similar to learning the piano though, you pay close
attention to detail and where your fingers are. Over time, as you learn to play the
piano or tie your shoes expert-induced amnesia takes over and performing the
skill takes less attention to detail.
Chapter 7
1. When reading my textbook for this class I’ve seen many retrieval cues that
remind me of what I learned in my last class, motor learning and control. Such
cues like Wickens, Kahneman, and the divisions of LTM remind me of the motor
learning theories I studied in that class.
2. I don’t study that hard truthfully. When I do, I rely on recall and practice testing.
Making quizzes or drawing diagrams and charts that I need to know help me
organize and generate which is stated in the text to help consolidation. I also
tend to take breaks and prioritize sleep, which supposedly helps too. I could
PSYX 280
2/25/25
Jenna Anderson
definitely improve my note taking skills being an active reader and not just
highlighting or disregarding note taking all together which is what I normally do.
Chapter 8
1. My most recent birthday I turned 21. It was a Wednesday and I was babysitting
that week. I celebrated that weekend in Bozeman at the Cat-Griz football game.
The year before, I was home for Thanksgiving break. My 21st was easier to
remember both because it was more recent and it was a milestone. I can
remember a lot more details because I had planned this trip to Cat Griz for so
long. I believe my memory is more accurate for my 21st but I guess I could
evaluate my accuracy by answering this same question a year from now and
seeing what details remain and what changes.
2. I think doing away with eyewitness testimony would be good for our justice
system. It would elongate the investigation process by focusing on other, more
concrete, evidence but this would be better than wrongfully imprisoning
someone.
3. I’ve written up a biography of my grandma before. She remembers many details
of her childhood on the ranch, her wedding, her pregnancy with twins, her kids
weddings, and her grandchildren's births. My mom talks a lot about her young
adulthood especially while I’m going to school where she grew up. She talks a lot
about meeting and marrying my dad and raising us kids. I’d say a majority of their
memories do fall within the reminiscence bump. I would say this is due to the
cultural life script more than anything since it mostly has to do with big life
changes and family relationships that occur within this timeframe.
Chapter 9
1. This network is fairly similar to that in figure 9.12. This model is hierarchical. I put
little information about concepts butt key words at each node.
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Jenna Anderson
2. When asking others to quickly name three vehicles, I received the response “car,
truck, tractor”, and “Ford, Chevy, Dodge”. The first response is from someone
who doesn’t really car for cars and the second response from my brother is more
specific because he’s more of an expert in vehicles. These are both rather basic
responses but fairly different. This shows how people may categorize concepts
differently and at different depths.
3. When I asked my people to name the items in figure 9.10 they mostly said guitar,
fish, and jeans/pants. I think the people I asked opted for jeans over pants is
likely due to our geographical upbringing, everyone in Montana wears blue jeans
so that’s what we call denim pants. I’m sure if I kept asking people around here
they would also say trout instead of fish given that there’s a lot of fishermen
around here.