Section 4-1: Learning, Memory, & Cognition

1. What are the two assumptions of Skinner's radical behaviorism?
2. What is "mentalism" and why did radical behaviorists reject mentalism?
3. How would you define "latent learning" in your own words?
4. What is an example of latent learning in your own life?
5. What is a "cognitive map" and how did E. C. Tolman think it was important in animal learning and behavior?
6. How would you define "observational learning" in your own words?
7. What is an example of observational learning in your own life?
8. How did Albert Bandura and his colleagues study the observational learning of aggressive behavior in preschool children?
9. Why did Bandura and his colleagues distinguish between "acquisition" and "performance" of a learned response?
10. How would you define "vicarious conditioning" in your own words?
11. How is the concept of "expectation" important in vicarious conditioning?
12. How is vicarious conditioning similar to and different from observational learning?
13. What is an example of vicarious conditioning in your own life?
14. What happened to the behavioristic approach after about 1960?
15. In your own words, what was B. F. Skinner's major criticism of cognitive psychology?
16. What is the major assumption of the cognitive approach in psychology?
17. How would you describe the computer model of the mind in your own words?
18. What was the main influence on the development of the computer model of the mind by early cognitive psychologists ?
19. What is the information-processing approach?
20. How would you define amnesia in your own words?
21. How would you describe Korsakoff's Syndrome and what is its major cause?
22. What is organic amnesia?
23. What is dementia and how is amnesia related to it?
24. What are the three main methods used by researchers to study memory?
25. What are the two types of memory tasks used in memory research?
26. What are the two types of trauma thought to cause amnesia?
27. What are the two examples of normal, everyday forgetting described in the text?
28. What is infantile amnesia? How might Sigmund Freud explain infantile amnesia?
29. In your own words, how would you define encoding?
30. What is an example of structural encoding not mentioned in the text?
31. What us an example of phonemic encoding not mentioned in the text?
32. What is an example of semantic encoding not mentioned in the text?
33. How are structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding similar to each other?
34. How do structural, phonemic, and semantic encoding differ from each other?
35. What is a memory code? (In your answer, please give some examples of memory codes.)
36. In your own words, how would you define the storing of information in memory?
37. What is a memory store?
38. In your own words, how would you define the retrieving of information from memory?
39. If information is not encoded, can it still be stored? Why or why not?
40. If information is not stored, can it still be retrieved? Why or why not?
41. What can cause forgetting?

Section 4-2: The Standard Model of Memory

1. What are the two serial-position effects?
2. How would you define the primacy effect in your own words?
3. How would you define the recency effect in your own words?
4. Would your first impression of a person be an example of the primacy effect or the recency effect? Why?
5. What is the standard model of memory (SMM)?
6. How are the three subsystems making up the SSM similar to each other?
7. How do the three subsystems making up the SMM differ from each other?
8. What is iconic memory? In which subsystem of the SMM does it belong?
9. What did Sperling (1960) do to show the existence of iconic memory?
10. About how long are iconic memories stored?
11. About how long are echoic memories stored?
12. How is the sensory memory subsystem involved in subliminal perception?
13. What is perceptual defense?
14. What is the main conclusion to be drawn from scientific studies of perceptual defense?
15. What is the nature of the memory code for sensory memories?
16. What is an engram?
17. What is the major cause of forgetting from sensory memory?
18. According to the standard model of memory, what is attention?
19. At what level of awareness are short-term memories?
20. Why was Henry M. able to remember a set of numbers for 15 minutes even though he was unable to transfer this memory from the short-term store to the long-term store?
21. How would you define a mnemonic scheme in your own words? (Note: In your answer, please give an example of a mnemonic scheme that you have used.)
22. What is the duration of unrehearsed short-term memories? What is the duration of rehearsed short-term memories?
23. What is the approximate capacity of the short-term store?
24. Of what use is the short-term store if it is so limited in terms of capacity and duration?
25. How are short-term memories of verbal material encoded?
26. If I try to recall a word list that I learned 5 minutes ago, and recall that it included the word "pig" when the word actually was "big," what kind of memory codes did I form?
27. If I try to recall a word list that I learned 5 days ago, and recall that it included the word "pig" when the word actually was "pork," what kind of memory codes did I form?
28. When a memory subsystem is limited in terms of its duration, what theory of forgetting best explains why memories are lost from its memory store?
29. When a memory subsystem is limited in terms of its capacity, what theory of forgetting best explains why memories are lost from its memory store?
30. Which theory (or theories) of forgetting best explain(s) why memories are lost from the short-term store?

Section 4-3: Working Memory & Long-Term Memory

1. How would you define working memory in your own words?
2. What are the four main components of working memory?
3. How would you define the central executive in your own words?
4. What is an example of the functioning of the central executive that is not mentioned in the book?
5. How would you define the phonological loop in your own words?
6. What is an example of the functioning of the phonological loop that is not mentioned in the book?
7. How would you define the visuo-spatial sketch pad in your own words?
8. What is an example of the functioning of the visuo-spatial sketch pad that is not mentioned in the book?
9. What is a "buffer" in the functioning of a computer program?
10. How would you define the episodic buffer in your own words?
11. What is an example of the functioning of the episodic buffer not mentioned in the book?
12. In what way is the episodic buffer related to long-term memory?
13. How does the work of translators show that working memory and long-term memory interact in processing information held in the short-term store?
14. At what level of awareness is the information held in the short-term store?
15. At what level of awareness are the mental processes of working memory?
16. How would you define "retention interval" in your own words? (Note: In your answer, please give an example of a retention interval in everday life.)
17. How would you define "elaborative rehearsal" in your own words?
18. What kinds of memory codes are produced by elaborative rehearsal?
19. What are some examples of elaborative rehearsal from your everyday life?
20. Why do I ask questions such as those in #17 and #19? (Hint: It has something to do with elaborative rehearsal and the formation of long-term memories.)
21. How are maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal similar?
22. How do maintenance rehearsal and elaborative rehearsal differ?
23. What are the methods of elaborative rehearsal described above?
24. How would you chunk the following list of 32 numbers:
    18411850186518811901192319451963?
25. What information in long-term memory did your working memory use to chunk the numbers in Question 24?
26. How many chunks of information did you end up with?
27. What has research shown about the relative abilities of elaborative rehearsal and maintenance rehearsal to form new long-term memories?
28. What is meant by "deep knowledge"?
29. What is the best way to develop deep knowledge?
30. What is the most effective studying strategy to use in your courses? (Note: In your answer, please describe the specific activities included in this strategy.)
31. What happens to the amount of stored information as it is transferred from the sensory store to the short-term store to the long-term store?
32. What reduces the amount of time and effort needed to elaboratively rehearse information in the short-term store?
33. What effect does this reduction of time and effort to elaboratively rehearse have on the amount of information transferred from the short-term store to the long-term store?
34. As you develop more and more knowledge about an academic area, what should happen with respect to the amount of time and effort needed to elaboratively rehearse new information in that area?
35. At what levels of awareness is the long-term store?
36. What are the two major types of memory in the long-term store and what is the distinction between them?
37. What are some examples of explicit memories from your own life?
38. What are some examples of implicit memories not mentioned in the text?
39. Why is it difficult to think of examples of implicit memories from your own life?
40. How would you define in your own words the concept of "retrieval cue"?
41. What are some examples of retrieval cues not mentioned in the text?
42. Why are retrieval cues necessary in order to get information out of the long-term store?
43. Why is a particular stimulus able to act as a retrieval cue for a particular memory?
44. When a retrieval cue activates a memory code in the long-term store, what happens to the memory code (that is, where does it "go")?
45. What do you think may happen to a long-term memory code once it is transferred to working memory?
46. How can déjà vu experiences be explained by the concept of retrieval cues?
47. How would you define state-dependent memory in your own words?
48. What is an example of state-dependent memory not mentioned in the text?
49. How is "mood-dependent memory" similar to the "mood-congruence effect"?
50. How does "mood-dependent memory" differ from the "mood-congruence effect"?
51. How would the mood-congruence effect limit what a therapist can learn about a client's past life?
52. Why should you be skeptical when a happy person tells you that his life has always been wonderful?

Section 4-4: Long-Term Memory & Forgetting

1. What is the average duration of long-term memory codes?
2. Which retrieval tasks are most often used in research on explicit memories?
3. What are examples of these retrieval tasks in your everyday life?
4. How are recall tasks similar to recognition tasks?
5. How do recall tasks differ from recognition tasks?
6. Which retrieval tasks are most often used in research on implicit memories?
7. What are examples of these retrieval tasks in your everyday life?
8. How are relearning tasks similar to priming tasks?
9. How do relearning tasks differ from priming tasks?
10. What is the capacity of the long-term store?
11. Explicit memories of verbal material typically are encoded in which way for storage in long-term memory?
12. What kind of amnesia were Henry M. and Greg suffering from?
13. How is anterograde amnesia similar to retrograde amnesia?
14. How does anterograde amnesia differ from retrograde amnesia?
15. If you know people suffering from amnesia, which type(s) of amnesia are they experiencing?
16. Which structure in the limbic system is of central importance for forming and retrieving long-term memories?
17. Were Henry M.'s and Greg's anterograde amnesia complete?
18. How are semantic memories similar to episodic memories?
19. How do semantic memories differ from episodic memories?
20. What are some examples of semantic memories in your everyday life?
21. What are some examples of episodic memories in your everyday life?
22. Which type of long-term memory do people with damage to their hippocampi have the most difficulty storing and retrieving?
23. What are the major components of the long-term memory subsystem?
24. What is an example from your everyday life of each component?
25. How would you describe "memory consolidation" in your own words?
26. What is the consolidation theory of hippocampal functioning?
27. How was this theory tested and what do the results suggest about the theory?
28. What is the retrieval theory of hippocampal functioning?
29. What are its strengths with respect to the consolidation theory?
30. What is one problem with the retrieval theory?
31. What is the spatial theory of hippocampal functioning?
32. How is dreaming and cognitive maps related to this theory?
33. Why were London taxi drivers used to test this theory?
34. What were the results of the taxi-driver studies and did they support the spatial theory?
35. Why were the posterior hippocampi of the taxi drivers larger than those of others?
36. How did Penfield and his colleagues study the location in the brain of explicit memory codes?
37. What did they conclude about the location of these memory codes?
38. What is the reproduction theory of explicit memories?
39. What do modern memory researchers believe regarding the location in the brain of explicit memory codes?
40. What do modern neurologists and memory researchers think happened when Penfield stimulated the temporal lobes and his patients seemed to retrieve episodic memories?
41. What is the reconstruction theory of explicit memories? (In your answer, please describe the nature of memory codes and what happens during the retrieval of explicit memories.)
42. How does the reconstruction theory explain the forgetting of explicit memories?
43. What does the reconstruction theory imply about the accuracy of our retrieved explicit memories?
44. What is the cause of forgetting according to reconstruction theory?
45. What is an example from your own life of forgetting because of reconstruction?
46. What is the best way to prevent forgetting due to the reconstruction of memory codes?
47. How would you define the concept of "flashbulb memory" in your own words?
48. What is an example of a flashbulb memory not mentioned in the text (perhaps one that you've experienced)?
49. What did Neisser and Harsch (1992) study and how did they study it?
50. What were the results of the study by Neisser and Harsch (1992) and how did they interpret these results?
51. What is the cause of forgetting according to encoding-specificity theory?
52. What is an example from your own life of forgetting because of a mismatch between a retrieval cue and the way in which a memory was encoded?
53. What is the best way to form a memory code that can be activated by a broad range of retireval cues?
54. What is the cause of forgetting according to interference theory?
55. What is an example from your own life of forgetting something due to interference?
56. What is the best way to prevent forgetting caused by confusing similar information stored in explicit memory?
57. What is the cause of forgetting according to defensive theory?
58. What is an example of defensive forgetting that is not mentioned in the text?
59. Why is it so difficult to find clear evidence for defensive forgetting?