Chapter Concept Check Answers

Concept Check 1

• As pointed out in Chapter 3, bottom-up processing is the processing of incoming sensory information from the physical environment. This is what occupies sensory memory so it is bottom-up input. Also, as pointed out in Chapter 3, top-down processing uses the information in our long-term knowledge base to interpret the bottom-up input. Thus, long-term memory can be thought of as providing top-down input because it is the repository of our knowledge base and past experiences.
• The duration of iconic memory must be very brief because if it were not, our visual sensory register would get overloaded quickly, leading to successive visual images overlapping in the register. Thus, we wouldn’t perceive the world normally because it would be a constant mix of conflicting overlapping images.
• A “chunk” is a meaningful unit in our memory; for example, a single letter, an acronym, and a word each comprise one chunk. We have a memory span of 7 ñ 2 unrelated letters, acronyms, or words.
• H. M. demonstrated a practice effect on the mirror-tracing task and the manual skill learning task in which he had to keep a stylus on a small dot that was spinning around on a turntable, but he did not consciously remember ever having done either task. This shows that he formed new implicit long-term memories for how to do these tasks because his performance on the tasks improved as he gained experience on them but that he did not form new explicit long-term memories for actually having done the tasks because he could not remember ever doing these tasks. H. M. also demonstrated repetition priming effects on a word fragment completion task without conscious awareness of the earlier presented priming words. Thus, he demonstrated implicit long-term memory for the words on the word fragment completion task but he had no explicit long-term memory for having seen them before. In another study, he was classically conditioned to give an eyeblink response to a tone. After the conditioning, whenever he was exposed to the tone, he gave the eyeblink response; but he did not consciously remember ever having been conditioned. This finding shows that he formed new implicit long-term memories of the association between the tone and eyeblink but did not form any new explicit long-term memories for the conditioning episodes.

Concept Check 2

• Elaborative encoding is more effective than memorizing because the process of elaboration ties the new information to older, well-known information. This older information provides many good retrieval cues for the new information. Thus, elaborative encoding provides both more retrieval cues and better ones than memorizing.
• State-dependent memory and mood-dependent memory are both instances of the encoding specificity principle operating because in each case, maximal similarity in study-test physiological states or moods leads to the best long-term memory.
• Both mnemonics relate the new information to a well-known sequence. In each mnemonic you step through the sequence and retrieve the list item tied to that step. In the case of the method of loci, sequential locations within a well-known room or place are used whereas in the peg-word system, the steps are part of a well-learned jingle (one is a bun, two is a shoe,…). Thus, both mnemonics use elaborative rehearsal.

Concept Check 3

• In recall, the information has to be reproduced. In recognition, the information only has to be identified.
• Encoding failure theory and storage decay theory assume the forgotten information is not available in long-term memory. Both the interference and cue-dependent theories of forgetting assume it is still available but not accessible.
• Schemas help to create false memories because in using them, we tend to replace the actual details of what happened with what typically happens in the event that the schema depicts. As Bartlett found in his schema research, this is especially true for unusual details. This means that schemas tend to normalize our memories and lead us to remember what usually happens and not exactly what did happen.
• Source misattribution leads to false memories because we don’t really know the source of a memory. The event may never have occurred, but we think that it did because we misattributed the source of the memory. The misinformation effect leads to false memories through the effect of misleading information being given at the time of retrieval. We incorporate this misleading information for an event into our memory and thus create a false memory for it.