Ch. 7 Paragraphs

1. Discuss working memory, how it is used, and what it's limitations are.
       Working memory is the short-term system that holds information for a brief period of time. Our general temporary information that we process on a regular basis and that is replaced if not saved is our immediate memory, which is very similar to the RAM of a computer. Information remains in working memory for about 20-30 seconds before disappearing unless one actively prevents that from happening. Working memory can hold a limited amount of information, usually 7 items (plus or minus two), before having to replace information. This limit is called the memory span. Organizing items into chunks make it easier to remember more information.
2. What different forms of long-term memory have been demonstrated, and how they are different from each other?
        Our long-term memory is divided into the two main categories of explicit memories and implicit memories. Explicit memories are the ones that we can recall and know about. Explicit memories are divided into two groups. episodic memories, which refer to a person's past experiences which include the time, place, and events, and semantic memory, which includes random facts of information gathered without personal experience.
        Implicit memories are the ones that we are not fully conscious of. Implicit memory influences peoples' lives in subtle ways. We are not always aware of why we are affected by certain things in certain ways because we can't make the connection. Classical conditioning employs implicit memory by our minds making associations that we don't recognize, but have been conditioned to.
3. Discuss the evidence that long-term memory is organized according to meaning.
        Fergus Craik and Robert Lockhart developed the theory that memory is based on depth of elaboration. Their levels of processing model shows that the more deeply and item is encoded, the more meaning it has and the better it is remembered. In maintenance rehearsal, people repeats an item over and over to remember it better. In elaborative rehearsal we encode information in more meaningful was such as thinking about it more conceptually or comparing it to personal information. At the biological level of analysis, brain imaging studies have proven that semantic encoding activates the most brain regions and is best remembered, acoustic encoding is the next best, and visual is the least likely to be remembered.
4. How do we retrieve information from long-term memory?
       People retrieve memories by using retrieval cues. A retrieval cue is anything that helps a person sort through the data in the long-term memory to find the right information. One example of this would include being asked a fill in the blank question. If you had a word key, however, than you might pick up on the correct answer by making the connection. With the encoding specificity principle, stimuli encoded along with an experience can later trigger a memory, such as a certain smell, song, or visual.
5. Discuss the evidence that the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus, play a special role in declarative memory.
        One piece of evidence that supports that the medial temporal lobes and the hippocampus play a role in memory are the results from H.M. After having parts of these region surgically removed, H.M. was unable to form new memories in what is called anterograde amnesia. However, H.M. was able to access the long-term memories he had made before the surgery. Immediate memories become lasting through consolidation. Learning leaves a biological trail or pathway in the brain by changes in the strength of neural connections. It has also been proposed that once memories are activated, they need to be consolidated again in a process called reconsolidation. Actual storage of memories most likely occurs in the particular brain regions engaged during perception. The medial temporal lobes form links between the different storage sites and direct the gradual strengthening of the connections.