Test: Human Memory- 2 - Humanities/Arts MCQ

Some cues may also be more informative and direct us to more specific events or information. Short answer examination questions, such as ‘What ages are associated with Piaget’s concrete operational stage?’, target a specific response by providing more information in the cue. A question like ‘Where did you go on Friday night after you left the pub?’ differs from its counterpart above by providing more information in an effort to extract some specific material. As cues become more directive, the recall is termed cued recall.

A constructivist approach describes memory as the combined influences of the world and the person’s own ideas and expectations. (For some classic constructivist approaches to memory, see Bartlett, 1932/1995; Bransford, 1979; Neisser, 1967, 1976.) When two people see the same film, their reported memories of the film will be similar, but there will often be notable differences as well. Why might their reports be different? The experience of each person while they are watching the film will be somewhat different because they are different people, drawing upon different pasts with different values and goals. They might have been seated next to one another, but in some senses they actually saw (or experienced) different films.

Tulving distinguished between two types of memory. Episodic memory is memory for personally experienced events and semantic memory is memory for abstract knowledge. Autobiographical memory is a type of episodic memory specific to the recall of events from our earlier life. Observation and inference are not terms used to refer to types of memory.

A partial report procedure is a technique for inferring the capacity of a memory store, even when the memories do not last long enough to inform a complete report. Using this procedure, Sperling (1960) found that people could recall about three letters from any row of four, which meant that they could actually potentially recall (for just a very brief period) about nine out of the twelve letters.
Psychologists inferred from research such as this that there is a sensory memory store which holds a large amount of incoming perceptual information very briefly while selected elements are processed. This sensory memory for visual information was termed iconic memory by Neisser (1967). Sensory memory for auditory information was referred to as echoic memory. Sensory memories are generally characterized as being rich in content, but very brief in duration.

The encoding specificity principle developed by Tulving states that what is remembered later depends on the similarity between the test conditions and the original study conditions; the better the match between encoding and testing cues, the better the memory of the information. The encoding specificity principle is not concerned with how hard people study, nor is it concerned with how we process the information per se, but rather the conditions present during the encoding stage. This principle does not make a distinction between episodic and semantic memory.

The sensory memory store holds a large amount of information, but only a few elements will be selected to further process before most of the information is lost. Short-term and long-term memory stores hold information longer than the sensory store, but the type of processing influences how much information will be retained. Explicit and implicit memory do not refer to types of memory stores per se, but different levels of awareness of the conditions under which the learning occurred.

Elaborative rehearsal considers the meaning of information and spaced retrieval practice is based on the idea that memory is strengthened when recall is attempted just before it becomes too difficult to accomplish; both of these lead to better recall of information. Maintenance rehearsal refers to repeating information over and over, but information is not moved into the long-term store. Frequent retrieval practice is not the best way to improve memory of information. Schemas and mnemonics are specific techniques that occur automatically or consciously to help us remember information, but do not necessarily transfer information into long-term memory. Explicit and implicit are not terms used to refer to methods of practice to improve memory.

The issue of reality monitoring – identifying which memories are of real events and which are of dreams or other imaginary sources – has been addressed by Johnson and Raye (1981). These researchers maintain that the qualitative differences between memories are important for distinguishing external memories from internally generated ones. They argue that external memories have stronger sensory attributes, are more detailed and complex, and are set in a coherent context of time and place. By contrast, they argue that internally generated memories have more traces of the reasoning and imagining that generated them.

The episodic buffer is the most recent addition to Baddeley’s model and describes the component that integrates and manipulates material in working memory. The central executive controls attention and coordinates the lower systems. The phonological loop is responsible for inner speech. The visio-spatial sketch pad is responsible for setting up and manipulating mental images. Retrieval scheme is not a term used to refer to the components in Baddeley’s model.

Expanding retrieval practice is an excellent strategy for students. It is relatively undemanding in terms of the effort and creativity required, and can be applied to virtually any material (Morris & Fritz, 2002).