Psychology: Interference and Memory Effects

Podcast

Play an AI-generated podcast conversation about this lesson

Questions and Answers

What does proactive interference primarily affect in memory recall?

Forgetting of the last item on a list

Retention of new information

Forgetting of previously learned information (correct)

Formation of long-term memories

Which factor is commonly believed to explain the recency effect in list learning?

Proactive interference affecting previous items

Formation of new neurons helping memory consolidation

Retroactive interference affecting earlier items (correct)

Increased attention to the last item

What is often true about memories that people recall after a long period of forgetting?

They invoke strong emotional reactions (correct)

They first manifest in visual memories

They are usually entirely fictional

They always include vivid details

Which question has been a controversial topic among psychologists?

Is cramming more effective than spaced studying? Signup and view all the answers

Which type of memory is least impaired in patients like H.M.?

Procedural memory Signup and view all the answers

What is a common characteristic of individuals with Korsakoff's syndrome?

Confabulations about past events Signup and view all the answers

Why is the immaturity of the hippocampus an incomplete explanation for infant amnesia?

Preschool children have developed recognition abilities Signup and view all the answers

What explanation do studies on mice provide for infantile amnesia?

Absence of self-awareness in infants Signup and view all the answers

What is the effect of testing yourself on what you are trying to learn?

It improves memory by forcing you to recall information. Signup and view all the answers

What happens when you try to describe something that you do not remember perfectly?

You fill in the gaps with reasonable guesses. Signup and view all the answers

Which phenomenon is similar to the assumption that if one knows something, everyone else would know it too?

Hindsight bias Signup and view all the answers

What conclusion did the phenomenon of choice blindness lead to?

People ignore evidence against their decisions after making a choice. Signup and view all the answers

What do preattentive or bottom-up processes lead you to pay attention to?

Anything that is unusual Signup and view all the answers

When is mind-wandering most likely to occur?

When someone is bored Signup and view all the answers

What does the Stroop effect demonstrate?

It is difficult to suppress habitual responses. Signup and view all the answers

Do stimulant drugs aid academic performance for people without ADHD?

Their benefits are mainly a placebo effect. Signup and view all the answers

Which phenomenon is influenced by priming a concept?

Spreading activation Signup and view all the answers

What is a common outcome of becoming an expert in a field?

Frequently recognizing the correct answer by Type 1 processing Signup and view all the answers

When is using a heuristic preferable over an algorithm?

When time constraints are present Signup and view all the answers

Under which conditions is 'buyer's regret' most likely to occur?

When making decisions as maximizers Signup and view all the answers

What does 'base rate' information refer to?

The frequency of an event under normal circumstances Signup and view all the answers

Which biases are illustrated by expecting violent behavior on full moon nights?

Confirmation bias and the availability heuristic Signup and view all the answers

When are individuals most likely to exhibit overconfidence?

During the easiest questions Signup and view all the answers

What cognitive bias is demonstrated when people prefer the phrase '90 percent fat free' over 'contains 10 percent fat'?

Framing effect Signup and view all the answers

What is the term for the type of memory utilized when using some words that you read recently without realizing it?

Implicit Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary recommendation for police when asking a witness to identify a suspect in a lineup?

Use an array of suspects varying widely in their appearance. Signup and view all the answers

What is an example of a semantic memory?

"Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory." Signup and view all the answers

What is the average duration that information can remain in short-term memory without rehearsal?

Less than 20 seconds unless it is rehearsed Signup and view all the answers

How does emotional arousal generally affect the process of memory storage?

It improves storage. Signup and view all the answers

What does 'depth of processing' refer to in the context of memory?

The number and variety of associations Signup and view all the answers

What is a possible explanation for believing false information seen several times online?

Source amnesia Signup and view all the answers

Why can a person name only about 4 or 5 numbers after seeing them for a split second?

Short-term memory has a limited capacity. Signup and view all the answers

What effect describes the phenomenon where familiar words improve letter recognition?

Word-superiority effect Signup and view all the answers

Which method has been shown to improve children's reading skills more effectively?

Whole word method Signup and view all the answers

What influence does increasing the number of characters seen in each fixation have on reading speed?

It increases reading speed Signup and view all the answers

What evidence did Spearman find to support the existence of general intelligence (g)?

High correlation of test scores among monozygotic twins Signup and view all the answers

What change in intelligence is most commonly observed after the age of 20?

Fluid intelligence declines while crystallized intelligence increases Signup and view all the answers

Which conclusion is most strongly supported by research regarding intelligence and education?

IQ explains variations in school performance Signup and view all the answers

What was the original objective of Binet's first IQ test?

Select students for advanced training Signup and view all the answers

What is a key benefit of Raven's Progressive Matrices test?

Effective for those with limited verbal skills Signup and view all the answers

What provides the main evidence for a genetic influence on intelligence?

Comparison of the chromosomes of people differing in intelligence Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is known to improve cognitive performance for many low-performing children?

Better nutrition Signup and view all the answers

In what way do human brains exceed those of all other species?

Humans have the largest number of neurons Signup and view all the answers

On average, how do males and females compare in IQ?

On average, males and females differ on certain subscores but equal on overall IQ Signup and view all the answers

Which of the following is an accepted explanation for the Flynn effect?

More recent generations have better health and nutrition Signup and view all the answers

What can we conclude about a test if people get approximately the same scores on a test and a retest?

Its reliability is high Signup and view all the answers

A measurement of a test's validity for predicting college grades will be low under which of these conditions?

If the college admits students with a wide range of scores on the test Signup and view all the answers

Because measurements of athletic performance have less than perfect reliability, what can we predict about changes in performance over time?

Most athletes who are near average at first will improve over time Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Proactive Interference vs. Retroactive Interference

Proactive interference primarily affects previously learned information, hindering the acquisition of new information.
Retroactive interference primarily affects newly learned information, hindering the retention of previously learned information.

Recency Effect Explanation

The formation of new neurons does not explain the recency effect in list learning.
Hindsight bias does not explain the recency effect in list learning.
Retroactive interference does not explain the recency effect in list learning.
Proactive interference does not explain the recency effect in list learning.

Memories After Years

Memories recalled after years have intense associated emotions. However, those memories tend to lack detail..
They are rarely accurate recollections, and often fantasies.
They may appear in dreams.

Heated Controversy in Psychology

Whether studying all at once or spaced out is more effective.
How effectively clinicians can recover lost memories.
The importance of interference in forgetting.
Types of memory impaired by hippocampal damage.

Long-Term Memory Formation

Formation of new memories includes episodic memory, procedural memory, and imagination of future events.

Korsakoff's Syndrome

Characterized by retrograde amnesia without anterograde amnesia, loss of implicit memory, and confabulation. Inability to recognize faces is possible but not necessary.

Infant Amnesia

Immaturity of the hippocampus does not explain infant amnesia.
Varying hippocampal maturation rates among species and individuals does not fully explain infant amnesia.
Preschool children can form long-term memories however infant amnesia is still often about mostly procedural memories.

Memory Testing

Free recall is a method of testing memory.
Cued recall is a method of testing memory.
Recognition is a method of testing memory.
Savings or relearning is a method of testing memory.

Procedural vs. Declarative Memory

Procedural memory is rapidly extinguished.
It develops even with long delays between stimulus and response.
It usually forms during a short, sensitive period.
It develops gradually.

Semantic Memory Example

Remembering the meanings and definitions of words.

Short-Term Memory Duration

Information remains in short-term memory for less than a second.
It lasts up to 20 seconds or longer with rehearsal.

Emotional Arousal and Memory

Emotional arousal enhances memory encoding but can hinder the consolidation process.
Thinking about the use of items in a survival situation aids memory retention.
Recalling when an item was first and last seen aids in memory recall.

Depth of Processing

Depth of processing refers to the strength of processing of information.
It depends on the number of connections and the number and type of associations.

Effective Study Strategies

Study in different locations and at different times for greater retention.
Actively test yourself to improve memory.

Testing Impact on Memory

Testing yourself strengthens memory.

Describing Unremembered Things

Gaps in memory are filled with reasonable guesses, making the recollection less coherent.
Detail and probability of uncommon or improbable events influence recollections.
Reporting what one saw and not heard is used to recall events.

Children's Theory of Mind

Children with poor theory of mind may assume others know what they know.

Encoding Specificity Principle

The encoding specificity principle details how memory retrieval is influenced by the context and circumstances of the memory.

Choice Blindness

After making a decision, people tend to ignore evidence against their choice.
Reasons for choices are often fabricated after the fact.
Decisions may be coincidental.

Mind-Wandering Conditions

Mind-wandering is most prominent when someone is bored.
It is also common at the start or after some time in demanding tasks.
It occurs approximately every 15 minutes on average.

Stroop Effect

Demonstrates the difficulty in suppressing a habitual or automatic response.
Certain stimuli have stronger impact on attention or behavior regardless of intentional efforts.

Stimulant Drug Impact

Stimulant drugs do not aid in academic performance for people without ADHD.

Base Rate Information

Base rate refers to the inherent frequency of an event occurring.
It influences how we perceive the circumstances of an event.
It relates to how easy it is to think of examples of an event to make judgments.
It includes the number of choices available in a particular situation.

Overconfidence

It is more common when answering easy questions.

Use of Availability Heuristic & Framing Effect

The availability heuristic is a method of judging the probability of something based on how easily examples of it come to mind.
The framing effect deals with how the same information can be presented differently to alter or affect the conclusion.

Expertise Development

Prolonged practice with feedback that extends across unrelated fields improves expertise.
Intensive practice is more effective when it begins in adulthood.
Visualization leads to higher levels of confidence in expertise or skill.

Expertise in Skill Application

Expertise in activities like chess shows improved pattern recognition, transmission ratios, overall memory, and senses.

Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles improve working memory, neural transmission, and crossword puzzle performance, but not much else.

Williams Syndrome

Indicates that language learning is not determined by overall intelligence, but rather is a complex interplay of hemispheres where one side can contribute more to language than the other.

Language Development in Deaf Children

If deaf children are not exposed to sign language in their childhood, they may not develop strong language skills later in life.

Bilingualism

Bilingual individuals use both hemispheres in processing language, in many cases.
The time of bilingualism acquisition affects the hemispheres used.

Linguistic Processing & Sounds

Sounds that fall in between sounds, for instance the letters d or t, may produce other sounds in the listener's ears, based on context and circumstances.

Word Superiority Effect

Identifying familiar words helps in faster processing.
It improves reading comprehension.

Increased Reading Speed

Decreasing the amount of time spent on each saccade and decreasing the total time spent on each fixation is important for increasing reading speed.

Intelligence & Scores

Monozygotic twins share genetic similarities, leading to a high correlation and similarities in test scores.
Intelligence scores of intellectually "gifted" children are often positive indicators of future success.
Male and female intelligence scores usually do not differ greatly.
After 20 years, fluid intelligence tends to decrease while crystallized intelligence increases.

IQ Test Purpose

Binet's initial IQ tests aimed to identify and support those with special educational needs.
Identifying the brightest students for specialized training may also be a primary objective.
Identifying the relationship between intelligence and brain size and comparing ethnic groups were also objectives in earlier use.

Raven's Progressive Matrices Test

This test isolates different cognitive skills and identifies strengths and weaknesses, rather than overall performance.
This test aids in determining areas of particular strengths and weaknesses in the user in areas of intelligence.
People who do not fully know English, and individuals who are blind, can still use or take the exam..

Importance of Cognitive Enhancement

Better nutrition for low-performing children correlates with improved overall performance.
Children often benefit from learning strategies specifically designed to address their individual learning styles.

Flynn Effect

Improved health and nutrition are contributing factors to the rise of IQ scores over time, potentially also better schools.
revisions of IQ tests do not help in explaining increases or decreases in scores from previous testing instances.
Better schooling is also a significant contributing factor.

Test Validity and Reliability

High reliability indicates consistent measurements, but it doesn't guarantee a test is valid (accurate).
Validity assesses the extent to which the test measures what it intends to measure.

Stereotype Threat

Stereotypical expectations can hinder performance.
Other people's expectations affect participants' success.
Parents' educational levels may play a part.
General knowledge or familiarity with test subject matter may lead to higher scores.

Studying That Suits You

Use AI to generate personalized quizzes and flashcards to suit your learning preferences.

Description

Explore the concepts of proactive and retroactive interference in memory. This quiz delves into how these types of interference affect learning and memory retention over time. Test your understanding of the recency effect and the accuracy of memories recalled after long periods.