Chapter 5 Review Questions

fluid (p. 133)

dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (p. 133)

inhibitory (p. 147)

associative deficit hypothesis (p. 150)

Korsakoff’s syndrome (p. 152)

Explicit memories are distinct from implicit memories in that the former consists of information that an individual is aware of knowing and producing. An example of explicit memory is being able to answer the question “What is the capital Canada?” with the answer, “Ottawa.” Implicit memory, however, consists of information that the individual produces without consciously being aware of doing so. For instance, a person may read a magazine article, and later find herself unintentionally using turns of phrase in conversation that she encountered in the reading. (pp. 134, 138-139)

The butcher-on-the-bus phenomenon is ascribed to instances when a person has knowledge of a particular event, but cannot recall the event in an autonoetic fashion. For instance, you may stumble upon someone you know rather well (such as meeting your butcher on the bus), but be unable to remember how you know this person. Seeing your butcher out of context riding with you on a bus might produce this type of effect. The face is familiar but you cannot pin it to an episodic memory. The tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon occurs when you cannot remember a specific word while being certain you have learned it before. A characteristic quality of a TOT experience is that there is great specificity for the identity of the missing word. You know enough about the missing word to produce phonologically and semantically similar words. (pp. 143)

In working memory, the crystallized memory systems consist of long-term information storage that is changed by learning (such as episodic memories, language, and visual semantics). Fluid memory systems on the other hand, consist of the visuo-spatial sketchpad, the episodic buffer, and the phonological loop. These structures are temporary storehouses involved in the active processing of information in working memory, and are unchanged by learning. (p. 132)

The associative deficit hypothesis is used to explain the difficulty that some elderly adults may experience while attempting to associate units of related information together, such as names with faces. The difficulty faced is not necessarily due to a lack of information held in memory but characteristic of an issue connected to linking relevant information together. (p. 150)

Sperling studied sensory memory by presenting his participants with an array of nine letters which were briefly presented (50 ms). In the whole report task participants had to recall all nine letters, and there performance was poor. In the partial report task participants only had to recall one row of letters and, there performance was quite good. By introducing a delay before having participants recall in the partial report, Sperling was able to demonstrate that visual sensory memory decays quickly in that with a one-second delay between presentation and recall, performance in the partial report task was no better than performance in the whole report task. (pp. 128–129)

Disconnection syndrome means that amnesic patients can acquire new information, but they have no conscious awareness that learning has taken place. In terms of memory systems, it suggests that their implicit memory system is functioning, but that they have difficulty with tasks re-quiring their explicit memory system. For example, in the famous name paradigm, both amnesiacs and control participants rated previously seen non-famous names as more likely to be famous simply as a result of being exposed to the names. However, the control participants were also likely to be able to recognize a now famous name from the original presentation whereas the amnesia participants were much less likely to recognize the name from previous exposure. In other words, the amnesiacs judged a non-famous name to be famous but had no conscious (explicit) recollection of having seen the name previously. (pp. 153–154)

When searching the semantic network of words and their associations, words that are more closely associated semantically are activated before words that are less related to one another. In the example given, the word “daisy” activates a node that is shared by the word “flower” but must travel a series of nodes before successfully identifying the word “horse.” Thus, the word “daisy” more successfully primes the mind for the word “flower” than for the word “horse.” (pp. 145–146)

The term “involuntary semantic memories” refers to a semantic memory which pops into your mind without any apparent episodic context and appears to be completely irrelevant to your current thoughts. In daily life, it operates as a method of priming for everyday occurrences. (pp. 146–147)

The phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad are both temporary storage components for information in working memory. They are similar in that both memory systems are limited in capacity and only hold information temporarily. Also, both can hold information from long-term memory. They are different in that the phonological loop stores only verbal information while the visuo-spatial sketchpad stores only visual and spatial information. (p. 132)

Prospective memory is the ability to remember to perform a specific activity in the future. Once executed, prospective memory also implies that the individual must remember that the task has been successfully completed in order to avoid unnecessarily repeating the same action. An example of prospective memory is remembering to take your medication after lunch. (p. 157)