PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
1. Explain the relationship between Sensory memory, STM, and LTM: Sensory memory gathers info from our
environment through our sensory receptors and send the subsequent information to your STM which can then that
information to our LTM if properly encoded
2. Explain Sensory memory: It is a very short lived buffer for moist information that hits our sensory receptors
3. What is an iconic memory? What about echoic memory?: Visual sensory memory and Auditory sensory
memory
4. Sperling, 1960 had an array of letters flashed quickly on a screen and asked participants to report as many as
possible to study iconic sensory memory and. what were the results for the whole, partial, and delayed-partial
report: For the whole report condition: 4. letter or 37.5%
For the partial report condition: 3. letters or 82.5%
For the delayed partial report condition: 1. letter or 37.5%
5. How come for the whole report method for Sperling's 1960 experiment on messing iconic sensory memory
were participants only able to remember such a low amount of letter (37.5%): Not the capacity of sensory
memory that is the issue but the duration, as you are writing down the first letter down you are losing memory of the
other letters. You can only record something so quickly
6. Why might the partial report for Sperling's 1960 experiment might be an underestimate for the capacity of
sensory memory: Its an underestimate due to cueing the rows and the duration of sensory memory again, as you are
writing down each letter you begin to forget the fourth when you get to it
7. How does sensory memory work according to Sperling (1960): Iconic senso- ry memory holds lots of information
about it decays very rapidly (1s or less) and acts as a buffer, briefing holding onto stimulus so they can be processed
8. Based on the conclusions of Sperling's 1960 partial report experiment explain the capacity and duration of
Sensory Memory: Iconic sensory memory holds on to large amounts of information that decays very rapidly, meaning
that information in sensory memory only lasts about ~1s
9. Explain the duration and capacity of Short-Term Memory: It has a capacity of about ~4 chunks and a duration of
about 15-20 seconds
10.For the CogLab: Sternberg Search retrieval of information is and is
, taking about ms to process one item: The retrieval of information is a serial process (one at a
time) and is exhaustive (all items will be retrieved) and each item takes about ~50 ms to process
11.What were the results for the Brown and Peterson task for STM and why was the duration limited?: After 3
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31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
seconds participants were 80% accurate, after 18 seconds they were only 10% accurate.
2/
31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_g9x7m0
This drop in performance was due to items decaying in STM so no longer can be retrieved
12.For the Brown and Peterson task why were participants told to count back- wards after learning the list?: To
prevent rehearsal from occurring and preventing the use of STM
13.Why is the duration of STM (15-20 seconds) so limited?: Due to decay, which occurs when rehearsal is
prevented, the memory traces "fade" from memory over time
14.Explain Keppel & Undrewood (1962) analysis of Brown and Peterson's data: They argued that Decay isn't
the only explanation for the limited duration of sensory memory
They looked at peoples performance on their first trial and their subsequent trials and found that when only looking at
the first trial they performed quite well and only on subsequent trials did performance decrease.
If this was due to decay then the first trial should have looked like the subsequent trials, so they argued that actual
reason memory was fading over time was due to proactive interference
15.What is proactive and retroactive interference?: Proactive interference is when new information interferes
with learning new information
Retroactive interference is when old information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned information
16.What caused the limited duration for which information stays in STM?: it is caused by Decay, proactive and
retroactive interference
17.Why might the notion of us remembering 5-9 things in STM according to George Miller (1956) not be
entirely true?: Due to rehearsal which can increase the numbers of items we can remember
18.According to Luck & Vogel's (1997) change detection experiment how many items can be remembered in
STM: The less squares on screen leads to increased performance
The typical result was about 4 items, but after 4 items performance significantly decreases
19.Explain the case of the College student S.F., studied by Ericsson, Chase, & Faloon (1980): An average college
student was trained for 230 hours, going from an initial digit span of 7 up to 79 digits. He did this by chunking
information into meaningful chunks
3/
31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_g9x7m0
He would combined 3-4 digits into a subgroup, would combine 4 groups of sub- groups into one supergroup, and would
finally combined 4 supergroups into a mega group
20.What were the results of Chase and Simon's (1973) study of chunking for chess masters and beginners?: If
chess masters and beginners were unable to chunk chess pieces they had no difference in scores
If chunking was allowed chess masters had a significant advantage
21.Conrad (1964) had participants briefly see target letters and were asked them to write them down to study
auditory encoding for STM, what was a common error he found: He found that errors often occurred with letters that
sounded alike, not look alike; therefore, STM for letters is auditory (or vocal) not visual so we encode auditory
information by how they sound when spoken not how they look
22.Della Sala (1999) had participants presented with visual information that couldn't be verbalized and were
tasked with recreating patterns up to 9 items, what were the results?: Mistakes made were based on proximity
providing evidence that we can also encode STM for visual stimuli
23. Wicken, et al (1999) had a trial procedure which was repeated 4 times where participants listened to 3
words and then counted backwards for 15 seconds then had to attempt to recall the three word with 2 conditions:
-the same conditions (use words from the same category on every trial)
-the switch condition (use words from a new category on trial 4)
what were the results for both conditons?: same = Performance was good for the first trail but then dropped off due to
proactive interference
switch = Performance increased on trial number 4 due to proactive interference no longer affecting results
24.For the experiment done to study semantic coding by Wickens, et al (1999), why was performance worse in
the same condition on trials 2,3, and 4 than on trial 1?: Proactive interference due to the subsequent information
interfering with newer information as they were all semantically related therefore decreasing performing on subsequent
trials
25.For the experiment done to study semantic coding by Wickens, et al (1999), why was performance improve
for trial 4 in the switch condition: Due to the release from proactive interference, ie, newly learnt information was no
longer interfering with the previously learned info
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31
1. Explain the relationship between Sensory memory, STM, and LTM: Sensory memory gathers info from our
environment through our sensory receptors and send the subsequent information to your STM which can then that
information to our LTM if properly encoded
2. Explain Sensory memory: It is a very short lived buffer for moist information that hits our sensory receptors
3. What is an iconic memory? What about echoic memory?: Visual sensory memory and Auditory sensory
memory
4. Sperling, 1960 had an array of letters flashed quickly on a screen and asked participants to report as many as
possible to study iconic sensory memory and. what were the results for the whole, partial, and delayed-partial
report: For the whole report condition: 4. letter or 37.5%
For the partial report condition: 3. letters or 82.5%
For the delayed partial report condition: 1. letter or 37.5%
5. How come for the whole report method for Sperling's 1960 experiment on messing iconic sensory memory
were participants only able to remember such a low amount of letter (37.5%): Not the capacity of sensory
memory that is the issue but the duration, as you are writing down the first letter down you are losing memory of the
other letters. You can only record something so quickly
6. Why might the partial report for Sperling's 1960 experiment might be an underestimate for the capacity of
sensory memory: Its an underestimate due to cueing the rows and the duration of sensory memory again, as you are
writing down each letter you begin to forget the fourth when you get to it
7. How does sensory memory work according to Sperling (1960): Iconic senso- ry memory holds lots of information
about it decays very rapidly (1s or less) and acts as a buffer, briefing holding onto stimulus so they can be processed
8. Based on the conclusions of Sperling's 1960 partial report experiment explain the capacity and duration of
Sensory Memory: Iconic sensory memory holds on to large amounts of information that decays very rapidly, meaning
that information in sensory memory only lasts about ~1s
9. Explain the duration and capacity of Short-Term Memory: It has a capacity of about ~4 chunks and a duration of
about 15-20 seconds
10.For the CogLab: Sternberg Search retrieval of information is and is
, taking about ms to process one item: The retrieval of information is a serial process (one at a
time) and is exhaustive (all items will be retrieved) and each item takes about ~50 ms to process
11.What were the results for the Brown and Peterson task for STM and why was the duration limited?: After 3
1/
31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
seconds participants were 80% accurate, after 18 seconds they were only 10% accurate.
2/
31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_g9x7m0
This drop in performance was due to items decaying in STM so no longer can be retrieved
12.For the Brown and Peterson task why were participants told to count back- wards after learning the list?: To
prevent rehearsal from occurring and preventing the use of STM
13.Why is the duration of STM (15-20 seconds) so limited?: Due to decay, which occurs when rehearsal is
prevented, the memory traces "fade" from memory over time
14.Explain Keppel & Undrewood (1962) analysis of Brown and Peterson's data: They argued that Decay isn't
the only explanation for the limited duration of sensory memory
They looked at peoples performance on their first trial and their subsequent trials and found that when only looking at
the first trial they performed quite well and only on subsequent trials did performance decrease.
If this was due to decay then the first trial should have looked like the subsequent trials, so they argued that actual
reason memory was fading over time was due to proactive interference
15.What is proactive and retroactive interference?: Proactive interference is when new information interferes
with learning new information
Retroactive interference is when old information interferes with and impedes the recall of previously learned information
16.What caused the limited duration for which information stays in STM?: it is caused by Decay, proactive and
retroactive interference
17.Why might the notion of us remembering 5-9 things in STM according to George Miller (1956) not be
entirely true?: Due to rehearsal which can increase the numbers of items we can remember
18.According to Luck & Vogel's (1997) change detection experiment how many items can be remembered in
STM: The less squares on screen leads to increased performance
The typical result was about 4 items, but after 4 items performance significantly decreases
19.Explain the case of the College student S.F., studied by Ericsson, Chase, & Faloon (1980): An average college
student was trained for 230 hours, going from an initial digit span of 7 up to 79 digits. He did this by chunking
information into meaningful chunks
3/
31
, PSYCH 351A EXAM 3 CONDENSED SET
Study online at https://quizlet.com/_g9x7m0
He would combined 3-4 digits into a subgroup, would combine 4 groups of sub- groups into one supergroup, and would
finally combined 4 supergroups into a mega group
20.What were the results of Chase and Simon's (1973) study of chunking for chess masters and beginners?: If
chess masters and beginners were unable to chunk chess pieces they had no difference in scores
If chunking was allowed chess masters had a significant advantage
21.Conrad (1964) had participants briefly see target letters and were asked them to write them down to study
auditory encoding for STM, what was a common error he found: He found that errors often occurred with letters that
sounded alike, not look alike; therefore, STM for letters is auditory (or vocal) not visual so we encode auditory
information by how they sound when spoken not how they look
22.Della Sala (1999) had participants presented with visual information that couldn't be verbalized and were
tasked with recreating patterns up to 9 items, what were the results?: Mistakes made were based on proximity
providing evidence that we can also encode STM for visual stimuli
23. Wicken, et al (1999) had a trial procedure which was repeated 4 times where participants listened to 3
words and then counted backwards for 15 seconds then had to attempt to recall the three word with 2 conditions:
-the same conditions (use words from the same category on every trial)
-the switch condition (use words from a new category on trial 4)
what were the results for both conditons?: same = Performance was good for the first trail but then dropped off due to
proactive interference
switch = Performance increased on trial number 4 due to proactive interference no longer affecting results
24.For the experiment done to study semantic coding by Wickens, et al (1999), why was performance worse in
the same condition on trials 2,3, and 4 than on trial 1?: Proactive interference due to the subsequent information
interfering with newer information as they were all semantically related therefore decreasing performing on subsequent
trials
25.For the experiment done to study semantic coding by Wickens, et al (1999), why was performance improve
for trial 4 in the switch condition: Due to the release from proactive interference, ie, newly learnt information was no
longer interfering with the previously learned info
4/
31
