Unit 3 Review
1. Two processes that cause
forgetting are decay and
displacement.
(a) Define each.
(b) Both processes are
examples of _____ failure.
Unit 3 Review
1. (a) Both decay and displacement
cause information to be lost from
memory. Decay occurs when
information is not used over a period
of time. Displacement occurs when
the capacity of STM is reached; newly
arriving information then takes the
place of currently held information.
(b) Decay and displacement are
examples of storage failure.
Unit 3 Review
2. In the Atkinson-Shiffrin model,
what two strategies can be used to
get information from short-term
memory to long-term memory?
Unit 3 Review
2. One strategy is repetition. The
more times you repeat information
that is in STM, the more likely it is
that a copy will be sent to LTM.
The other strategy is elaboration.
You retrieve related information
from LTM, combine it with the new
information in STM, then send the
entire package, new + old, to LTM.
Unit 3 Review
3. Before you can store
information in short- or long-term
memory, you must _____ it.
Unit 3 Review
3. You must encode information
before you can store it. Encoding
means that you put the
information into a form that the
memory system can process.
Unit 3 Review
4. How do researchers measure
the capacity of short-term
memory?
Unit 3 Review
4. They use the memory span
test. They present a short list of
digits or letters and immediately
afterwards test recall for the items
in their original order. The
longest list you can repeat is your
memory span. This is about 7
units of information, plus or minus
2.
Unit 3 Review
5. The original version of the
interference theory of forgetting
explained forgetting in terms of a
single factor: _____. Based on the
results of Melton & Irwin’s study, a
second factor was added: _____.
Unit 3 Review
5. The first factor was response
competition: When something was
forgotten, something else was
recalled by mistake.
The second factor was extinction
(originally called “unlearning”):
Forgotten information was suppressed
because on previous occasions when it
was recalled, it was not reinforced by
positive feedback.
Unit 3 Review
6. In an experiment on retroactive
interference (RI), the experimental
group memorizes two lists and gets a
test on list # _____.
Suppose the list contains15 words.
The Experimental Group remembers 6
words and the Control Group
remembers 11 from that list. How
much RI occurred in the Experimental
Group?
Unit 3 Review
6. In an experiment on RI, the
Experimental Group gets a test on
List 1. The Control Group gets a
test on the same list, the only one
they memorize. If the
Experimental Group does worse
than the Control, it’s because of
retroactive interference from List
2. In the example, the amount of
RI is 5 words.
Unit 3 Review
7. In Peterson & Peterson’s experiment
on short-term memory, subjects quickly
forgot a 3-letter nonsense syllable over a
period of 18 seconds during which
rehearsal was prevented. The Petersons
said this forgetting was caused by _____.
Keppel & Underwood found that recall
decreased as subjects were tested on
more and more items, showing that
previous items were retained and caused
forgetting through _____.
Unit 3 Review
7. The Peterson’s claimed that forgetting
was caused by decay, the simple passage
of time, and not by interference from any
other materials presented during the
experiment.
Keppel & Underwood showed that
proactive interference from previously
presented items caused much of the
forgetting. Recall was relatively high on
subjects’ very first item and decreased as
more and more items were given.
Unit 3 Review
8. How is the Peterson & Peterson
procedure used to study “release
from proactive interference”? In
your answer, describe how the
procedure differs for the
Experimental and Control groups
and the kind of evidence that
demonstrates release from PI.
Unit 3 Review
8.
Procedure
Instead of presenting 3 letters on a trial,
you present 3 words, all from the same
conceptual category, like names of fruits.
You test recall 15 seconds after
presentation. This is done for 3 trials,
each time with different words from the
original category (fruits). On the 4th trial,
the procedure is the same for the Control
Group but the Experimental Group gets
words from a new category.
Unit 3 Review
8.
Release from PI
Recall in the Control Group decreases
across all 4 trials, showing proactive
interference from the similar words on
preceding trials. Recall in the
Experimental Group decreases across
Trials 1 – 3 but then increases in Trial 4.
The shift to a different category
eliminates proactive interference from the
previous words.
Unit 3 Review
9. In the experiment by Weldon &
Roediger on “transfer-appropriate
processing”, subjects were more likely
to recognize a fragmented picture of an
airplane if they previously saw that item
as a _____ (picture, word).
They were more likely to recognize the
word, airplane, that had letters missing
if they previously saw that item as a
_____ (picture, word).
Unit 3 Review
9. Picture fragments were more
likely to be recognized if the
previously studied item was a
picture. Word fragments were
more likely to be recognized if
the previously studied item was
a word.
Unit 3 Review
10. What is “transfer-appropriate
processing”?
Unit 3 Review
10. Transfer-appropriate
processing means using the
same cognitive operations
during retrieval that were used
during learning (encoding). The
chances of retrieving
information are best if there is a
match between the operations
used during retrieval and
encoding.
Unit 3 Review
11. Transfer-appropriate
processing is a special case of the
“encoding specificity principle”.
Define this principle and explain
how it relates to transferappropriate processing.
Unit 3 Review
11. The encoding specificity principle
says that the chances of retrieving
information are best if the situation
in which retrieval is attempted
closely resembles the situation in
which learning (encoding) took
place. Mental operations are an
important part of these two
situations. Keeping these operations
the same facilitates retrieval.
Unit 3 Review
12. “Procedural learning” puts
information into long-term
memory that enables us to carry
out skilled actions and habits. It’s
classified as “nondeclarative
memory” rather than “declarative
memory.” Explain why and give an
example of a procedural memory.
Unit 3 Review
12. Declarative memory is information
we can describe. Nondeclarative
memory is information we can’t
describe. We usually can’t describe
how and when muscles throughout
our body should contract to perform a
particular action, like tying our
shoelaces, but the fact that we can
perform this action shows that we
have the necessary information in
memory.
Unit 3 Review
13.
Collins & Quillian’s hierarchical model of semantic
memory says that we store facts in conceptual categories
and these categories fit together logically, with broad
categories containing narrower categories, for example,
ANIMAL contains BIRDS, which contains CANARY...
In which category or categories would
you find the fact that birds breathe, and
what basic assumption of the model does
this illustrate?
Unit 3 Review
13. The fact that birds breathe is stored
only in the ANIMAL category. This
assumption is called the principle of
“cognitive economy”. To save space
in memory, a given fact is stored in
the broadest (highest) category to
which the fact applies. By implication,
it applies to categories contained
within the broadest one, such as
birds.
Unit 3 Review
14. In a “speeded verification task”, it
takes a subject longer to say “True” when
given the statement “An ant is an animal”
than when given the statement “A dog is
animal”. How would this difference in
reaction times be explained in terms of
Collins & Loftus’ Spreading Activation
Model of semantic memory? Why can’t it
be explained by Collins & Quillian’s
Hierarchical model?
Unit 3 Review
14. The Spreading Activation Model
would say that the line of association
connecting DOG to ANIMAL is shorter
than the line connecting ANT to
ANIMAL. This would be an example
of the Typicality Effect:All instances of
a concept are not equally good
examples of it...
Unit 3 Review
14. The Hierarchical Model says that
relationships between categories are
always logical. Logically, dogs and
ants (like birds) are animals.
Therefore, the DOG category and the
ANT category are the same distance
from the ANIMAL category. It should
take subjects the same amount of
time to get from ANT to ANIMAL as to
get from DOG to animal.
Unit 3 Review
15. Define “priming” and give an
example.
Unit 3 Review
15. In priming, you are more likely to recall
information if you were given related
information (called the “prime”) a short
time before. For example, suppose you
were unable to recall the word “bird”
from a list. You then recall it when given
the prime “animal”. The Spreading
Activation Model readily explains this:
Activation spread along a line of
association connecting ANIMAL and BIRD.
Unit 3 Review
16.
(a) In Collins & Quillian’s model, what
would be the hierarchical order among the
categories, MAMMAL, DOG, and ANIMAL?
(b) According to the model, how should
reaction times compare for the
sentences, “A mammal is an animal” and
“A dog is an animal”?
(c) What is likely to be found, and what
effect would this finding illustrate?
Unit 3 Review
16. As the most inclusive category, ANIMAL
would be at the top of the hierarchy, then
would come MAMMAL, and then DOG.
The model predicts that “MAMMAL is
ANIMAL” will be verified faster than “DOG
is ANIMAL” because MAMMAL is closer to
ANIMAL. However, DOG is a more familiar
word so the DOG sentence would be
verified faster. This finding illustrates the
familiarity effect.