Reading Activity Week #6 (Due Monday)

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Please read chapter 5. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:

Next you will be asked what three things from the chapter that you found interesting?

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Thanks,

--Dr. M

26 Comments

Reading Activity Chapter 5

1a)
I found William James’ dualistic model of memory interesting. James explained short-term and long-term memory well.
1b)
The dualistic model of memory was interesting as James characterized short-term memory as primary memory and long-term memory as secondary memory. I have never heard our memories to be recognized as primary and secondary. Primary memory is more immediate in which the event never left our consciousness while secondary memory is more indirect memory and is not easily forgotten.
2a)
The case of H.M. was very interesting. H.M. had severe epilepsy and underwent surgery to relieve him of epilepsy symptoms.
2b)
The H.M. case explained the importance of long-term memory within our brain. Through the H.M. case, it was interesting to learn about the effects of lesions to the temporal lobe of the hippocampus. When H.M. had parts of his temporal lobe (including the hippocampus) removed, he lost the storage of information in his long-term memory. However, his short-term memory was not disturbed. It is interesting to learn that the temporal lobe structure of our brain is involved in the storage of our long-term memory.
3a)
The working memory model proposed by researcher, Alan Baddeley was interesting.
3b)
The working memory model is fascinating as it seems to really look at how we process old and new information. It is interesting to think about how we can process so much information given to us in just a few minutes throughout the day. With the working memory model, our brain is able to hold and manipulate information given to us as we perform cognitive tasks. It is intriguing that our brain is able to process how to complete a task while storing other information at the same time. Our brain is always working and combining new information with old information.
4a)
The concept of short-term memory and chunking was the least interesting.
4b)
This was the least interesting as I did not find it challenging to think about. I think it is logical to take ideas within our short-term memory and put them with information in our long-term memory to find a larger meaning about something. Even putting small pieces all from our short-term memory together will aid in combining that information with the information stored in our long-term memory to make sense of a larger concept.
5)
The concept from chapter 5 that I think will be most useful in understanding Cognitive Psychology is the coding of information in our short-term memory. This concept explains how we are able to answer questions and think logically about situations or issues. There are three forms of coding information in our short-term memory. First, there is auditory form. This information is readily available when we are asked a question and can easily answer. Next is visual form which requires deeper thinking as we visually search our memory to determine the answer to a question. Last is semantic form. Short-term memory can be coded semantically when we answer a question in which we relate the answer to the meaning of known objects. Within our short-term memory we have these three forms which are crucial in helping us determine how to react or reply to certain situations.
6)
Chapter 5 builds on the previous chapters as we are now looking further into our attention and memory of the brain. We are taking what we have learned about the visual and audio portions of our mind and applying how we can remember things we have seen or heard to build on our experiences and knowledge.
7a)
I would like to learn more about the components of the working memory model.
7b)
The working memory model was very interesting to me as explained above. I would like to learn more about the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad components. The phonological loop looks at our memory recall of words that we vocal while the visuospatial sketchpad, on the other hand, is more of a memory recall of objects and tasks. I would like to learn why we can only remember short words after saying them and why we only recall activities and motions that were more central to us. It would be interesting to learn why we ignore some issues, but our attention focuses on others.
8)
As I was reading the chapter I was thinking about bottom-up and top-down processing in relation to the previous chapter. I am curious about why I recall certain information and not other information. Also, it is interesting that I can recall all the words to my favorite song over and over, but yet I struggle remembering a math formula or something I have studied for an exam. This goes along with the bottom-up and top-down processing as each of us recalls situations in a different manner and some may recall information learned in class while others do not recall that information. How do we determine what we are going to remember and what we are not? Is it determined by how we are taught or what interests us?
9)
Dualistic model of memory, short-term memory, long-term memory, primary memory, secondary memory, temporal lobe, hippocampus, H. M. case, working memory model, Alan Baddeley, chunking, coding of information, auditory form, visual form, semantic form, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, bottom-up processing, top-down processing

1)I thought the concepts of decay and interference were interesting. It was interesting because while reading through the topic, my initial thought was that it would possibly be more difficult to recall the numbers given more quickly because you didn’t have enough time to rehearse them, pointing towards interference because the newly stated numbers were interfering with the previous ones the participants hadn’t yet been able to more adequately instill in their memory. However, the graph that was created from the study done testing these two concepts suggested much more strongly that decay plays a bigger role in short-term memory loss than does interference. I believe that in some situations these could overlap and both contribute though.

2)One of the studies done to develop the Brown-Peterson technique seemed really interesting. I seem to lack the creativity in thinking up how to effecticely test various questions, such as how long does something stay in our short-term memory. The experiment done by the Peterson’s seemed very simple to perform but very clever when it came to what they were trying to test. They gave participants a three letter cluster then immediately had them count backwards by 3’s for whatever amount of time they were testing this particular individual, so that they couldn’t rehearse the three letters. Their results very strongly indicated that the more time that passes without rehearsal of the letters, the less likely they were to correctly recall them.

3)I thought the story of H.M. was fascinating because of how odd some of the discoveries about him were after his surgery. We see movies that portray people who for one reason or another have lost their long-term memory after a particular event but still retain short-term memory, but not very often do you come across a real life story where this has happened to someone. I felt rather sad for him as I read but also rather interested in whatever was going on in his brain. I thought it was particularly interesting on how some of the tests they did on his long-term memory yielded that it definitely wasn’t functioning on anything happening after the surgery, however other things did seem to stick in his long-term memory such as the mirror reversal task. It’s a task that is challenging at first but after some practice people can usually complete successfully. He didn’t do the task prior to the surgery, and once he did after the surgery he couldn’t recall doing it at a later time, however he still somehow improved each time he did the task even though he didn’t remember practicing it before.

4)One portion of the chapter that wasn’t all that interesting to me was when the storage capacity of short-term memory was discussed. I’ve learned about short-term memory before, and more specifically I’ve already covered what our storage capacity is in at least a couple of other classes. For example, I’ve already learned that it’s rarely more than eight items, which is part of the reason phone numbers were initially decided to have seven items so when an individual needs to remember a phone number for a moment to dial it it’s usually within our brain capacity to do so.

5)While it’s it’s a rather obvious and general statement, I think learning about short-term memory as a whole was useful to my learning and understanding of cognitive psychology. Because cognitive psychology encompasses how your mind works and functions, this is a very important topic to know about if you want to have a greater understanding of cognitive psychology. Your short-term memory is something your brain is constantly using as you’re maneuvering through life. It was also helpful to learn about how some specific aspects of short-term memory worked, such as it’s capacity, it’s flaws, what can alter it, and so on because those things led to an even deeper understanding of and important part of cognitive psychology.

6)This chapter builds on the previous chapters by continuing to expand our knowledge on cognitive psychology. It’s taking the information we’ve already covered on the brain, how it’s complex and has countless components and functions that our life could suffer without, and elaborating in more detail on some of these components. This chapter discussed short-term memory, which ties into various topics covered in previous chapters such as perception. We perceive things around us constantly which are usually filtered temporarily into our short-term memory.

7)I would like to learn more about various studies done testing working memory. It seems like an interesting topic that could possibly be helped or hindered by various aspects in our lives. I’m curious about if studies done have found ways to improve our working memory so that we can better understand, learn about, and retain information about the world around us.

8)While reading this chapter I wondered about what can enhance or prohibit our short-term memory. It’s an intersting concept since it’s something we use constantly as we interact with the world, but it’s not something that we use in the long-term to be successful later in life. Something we’re learning now must not only be stored in short-term memory, but be transferred to long-term memory for access later. I wondered aout how this proces works and how it can be best utilized in order for us to be most successful in what we do everyday.

9)Short-term memory, decay, interference, Brown-Peterson technique, mirror reversal task, storage capacity, working memory

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found the concept of working memory model very interesting. This theory was taught in many of my previous psychology courses already, so initially I thought there was nothing new to know about the model: it pulls out long-term memory and works with short-term memory. However, the concepts of the central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are completely new. Phonological loop is a limited rehearsal loop that deals with sounds and visuospatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial tasks; while episodic buffer combines information from long-term memory, visual, spatial, and verbal information with the central executive, suggesting that all information is integrated. Central execution works to coordinates the other smaller systems, selecting attention or inhibition, shifting between tasks and be in charge of the whole system in general. Working memory model is a lot more complicated than what I first thought it would be, with one larger system in charge of other smaller slave systems, integrating information from different sources.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

Waugh and Norman developed a dualistic model that contains both primary memory and secondary memory, which were initially proposed by William James a few decades earlier. The model might not be entirely correct, but it definitely played an important role in contributing to our most recent understanding of the systems of memory. In this previous model, Waugh and Norma proposed that as a stimulus enters primary memory, which is a limited storage, it can only be retained if it is being rehearsed. As an item goes through the process of rehearsal, it is then being transferred to secondary memory, which has no limits of capacity. Items that are not rehearsed will then be forgotten. Waugh and Norman also introduced the concept of displacement, where newer memories replace the older ones. These concepts appear interesting to me because it was the foundation of the following newer memory models; although we may not entirely agree with this older memory model version nowadays, it is still important because it helps us understand how other memory models came along.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

I thought the ideas of chunking regarding short-term memory and long-term memory interesting. The explanation provided was very vivid and therefore I could construct an image in my head of how short-term memory is retained for a short period of time. Letters and words are held in slots, and when that slots are filled up, extra items are forgotten. On average, there are seven slots to be filled up in our short-term memory. It is a rather easy but important concept because it helps explain why and how our capacity to process information is limited. As of long-term memory, chunking does not occur until meanings are provided to the items. This is proven accurate by an experiment which asks participants to recall meaningful chunks and meaningless chunks. Meaningful chunks were better recalled.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

I thought the section on short-term memory is less interesting because the concept is not new. It is being mentioned repeatedly in all of my psychology courses. The fact that it is limited, and information held there are easily lost without going extra effort to retain it is nothing new. Also, I had a chance to get really familiar with the concept of short term memory because we spent a week of classes doing small experiments, including the experiment described where participants were asked to recall three letters that did not have a chance to be rehearsed.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?

Even though I found it less interesting, I think that it is important to thoroughly understand short-term memory before understanding other aspects of memory in cognitive psychology. It must be very important to be mentioned in every psychology courses I took in three different universities. The concept is very general and easy to comprehend, so it does not take long to become very familiar with the idea. It would also be very helpful when learning about eyewitness testimony, where some short-term memory was asked to be recalled.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

The previous chapter discusses object recognition. But what happens after you recognize something? Do you forget it or do you retain it for further usage? Although this chapter does not mention much about anything mentioned in the previous chapter, it does provide many additional and extended knowledge regarding cognitive psychology. The previous chapter talks about selective attention, which is important to the concept of short-term memory; do we filter this stimulus or do we rehearse it to retain it? This chapter also briefly mentions selective attention and inhibition in the portion of working memory model.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

I would like to learn more about cases of brain damage that causes impairment in either short-term memory or long-term memory, or both. I really enjoyed reading the two cases provided in the textbook but not much details are provided. I am curious about how they cope with daily tasks, the damaged region, and what conclusions scientists made regarding the cases. I think that learning about these cases will allow me to have a better understanding of how memory works, as well as the difficulties and limitations one has to face when it does not work correctly.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

I thought about photographic memory, and how it makes a person ace an exam but cannot recall any of the information a few days later. I do not have photographic memory and it takes me a little bit more time than other people to comprehend texts, therefore I do not do well on exams but can recall a lot more even months or years after the exams. I wonder if the exams system is a good judge on how much a person has learned. It seems rather unfair that students with photographic memory can jam a night before the exam and ace it, while other students study for the whole week and it is not guaranteed whether they can get a B or not. If university only looks at grades of exams to graduate students, many students with photographic memory will be graduated without any useful information retained in their long-term memory.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Working memory model, central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, dualistic model, chunking, short-term memory, long-term memory, object recognition, selective attention

1a) What did you find interesting?
1b) Why was it interesting to you?

I found the concept of working memory model very interesting. This theory was taught in many of my previous psychology courses already, so initially I thought there was nothing new to know about the model: it pulls out long-term memory and works with short-term memory. However, the concepts of the central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are completely new. Phonological loop is a limited rehearsal loop that deals with sounds and visuospatial sketchpad deals with visual and spatial tasks; while episodic buffer combines information from long-term memory, visual, spatial, and verbal information with the central executive, suggesting that all information is integrated. Central execution works to coordinates the other smaller systems, selecting attention or inhibition, shifting between tasks and be in charge of the whole system in general. Working memory model is a lot more complicated than what I first thought it would be, with one larger system in charge of other smaller slave systems, integrating information from different sources.

2a) What did you find interesting?
2b) Why was it interesting to you?

Waugh and Norman developed a dualistic model that contains both primary memory and secondary memory, which were initially proposed by William James a few decades earlier. The model might not be entirely correct, but it definitely played an important role in contributing to our most recent understanding of the systems of memory. In this previous model, Waugh and Norma proposed that as a stimulus enters primary memory, which is a limited storage, it can only be retained if it is being rehearsed. As an item goes through the process of rehearsal, it is then being transferred to secondary memory, which has no limits of capacity. Items that are not rehearsed will then be forgotten. Waugh and Norman also introduced the concept of displacement, where newer memories replace the older ones. These concepts appear interesting to me because it was the foundation of the following newer memory models; although we may not entirely agree with this older memory model version nowadays, it is still important because it helps us understand how other memory models came along.

3a) What did you find interesting?
3b) Why was it interesting to you?

I thought the ideas of chunking regarding short-term memory and long-term memory interesting. The explanation provided was very vivid and therefore I could construct an image in my head of how short-term memory is retained for a short period of time. Letters and words are held in slots, and when that slots are filled up, extra items are forgotten. On average, there are seven slots to be filled up in our short-term memory. It is a rather easy but important concept because it helps explain why and how our capacity to process information is limited. As of long-term memory, chunking does not occur until meanings are provided to the items. This is proven accurate by an experiment which asks participants to recall meaningful chunks and meaningless chunks. Meaningful chunks were better recalled.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?

I thought the section on short-term memory is less interesting because the concept is not new. It is being mentioned repeatedly in all of my psychology courses. The fact that it is limited, and information held there are easily lost without going extra effort to retain it is nothing new. Also, I had a chance to get really familiar with the concept of short term memory because we spent a week of classes doing small experiments, including the experiment described where participants were asked to recall three letters that did not have a chance to be rehearsed.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?

Even though I found it less interesting, I think that it is important to thoroughly understand short-term memory before understanding other aspects of memory in cognitive psychology. It must be very important to be mentioned in every psychology courses I took in three different universities. The concept is very general and easy to comprehend, so it does not take long to become very familiar with the idea. It would also be very helpful when learning about eyewitness testimony, where some short-term memory was asked to be recalled.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?

The previous chapter discusses object recognition. But what happens after you recognize something? Do you forget it or do you retain it for further usage? Although this chapter does not mention much about anything mentioned in the previous chapter, it does provide many additional and extended knowledge regarding cognitive psychology. The previous chapter talks about selective attention, which is important to the concept of short-term memory; do we filter this stimulus or do we rehearse it to retain it? This chapter also briefly mentions selective attention and inhibition in the portion of working memory model.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
7b) Why?

I would like to learn more about cases of brain damage that causes impairment in either short-term memory or long-term memory, or both. I really enjoyed reading the two cases provided in the textbook but not much details are provided. I am curious about how they cope with daily tasks, the damaged region, and what conclusions scientists made regarding the cases. I think that learning about these cases will allow me to have a better understanding of how memory works, as well as the difficulties and limitations one has to face when it does not work correctly.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?

I thought about photographic memory, and how it makes a person ace an exam but cannot recall any of the information a few days later. I do not have photographic memory and it takes me a little bit more time than other people to comprehend texts, therefore I do not do well on exams but can recall a lot more even months or years after the exams. I wonder if the exams system is a good judge on how much a person has learned. It seems rather unfair that students with photographic memory can jam a night before the exam and ace it, while other students study for the whole week and it is not guaranteed whether they can get a B or not. If university only looks at grades of exams to graduate students, many students with photographic memory will be graduated without any useful information retained in their long-term memory.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Working memory model, central executive, episodic buffer, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, dualistic model, chunking, short-term memory, long-term memory, object recognition, selective attention

1a) What did you find interesting?

I liked re-reading about primacy-recency effect.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
When we covered this in my intro to psych class I don’t think I fully grasped how complex memory is, so reading about it now was interesting. Its odd to see that they designed an experiment to find that items are both remembered better at the ends and beginning of lists. It’s even more odd that they found the von Restorff effect to show that an item in the middle of the list will also be better remembered.
2a) What did you find interesting?

I thought the section about chunking was pretty interesting.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was interesting, especially to the model of short-term memory, because they noted that you could only hold a set amount of things in your STM (7 plus or minus 2 items). The neat part was that the recall was an average of seven items regardless of if they were full words or only letters. Although words have a lot more information to be recalled than a single letter, the letters are chunked together in words to make up only one item. That’s pretty interesting when trying to consider how the brain stores memories.
3a) What did you find interesting?

I was interested in the research about the coding of information via the visual code.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
It was interesting to me, because rather than accepting that memory was coded by means of an auditory code, they chose to devise an experiment to test for a visual code, which they found by noting the discrepancies between identifying letters of different forms (such as Aa instead of AA).
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 

I think the least interesting aspect of this chapter was the inclusion of the history of context of who discovered what.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
It is interesting to see who did what, but I kind of dislike reading about it in the middle of reading about all of the theories.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I think the most helpful concept in this chapter is seeing how all of the experiments were structured to observe something that would be otherwise hard to observe, like distinctions between short and long-term memory. For example, the use of the Sternberg task to find that reaction times were similar for item-present and item-absent lists suggesting that we use an exhaustive search when recalling things from short-term memory.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
The chapter talked a lot about models, which we learned the importance of back in chapter one. The concept of working memory related a lot to the concepts of iconic end echoic memory back in chapter three. And once again, the cognitive neuroscience section related back to the chapter on neuroscience.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 

I would like to learn about what happens inside the brain that constitutes a memory.
7b) Why?
I think the study of memory is pretty fascinating, and I saw something on tumblr a while ago about video of the storing of information in a mouse brain. I would like to learn more about what is taking place in the brain so that the communication of neurons via electrical stimulation may recall a memory.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was thinking about how many concepts in psychology changed when they introduced more advanced imaging techniques, and if there would be some way to actually measure the capacity of short term memory or visualize the storing and encoding of memories in the brain through use of a high powered MRI or something.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.

Primacy-recency effect, von Restorff effect, memory, chunking, short-term memory, long-term memory, working memory, neuroscience, Sternberg task, visual code, auditory code

1a&b) I liked reading about the H.M. case. I know I have learned about this before but it still is very important because it helped researchers learn a lot about how our short-term and long-term memory work. The text talks about how H.M. had severe epilepsy and that they made a surgical excision that included removing his hippocampus and other parts of the temporal lobe. He ended up not being able to store long-term memories. This can be quite a problem because he was unable to remember anything for more than what was currently happening. H.M. was able to learn new things and store the new experiences over time, so he constantly thought it was the year that he had his surgery and had no recollection of his life previous to that. This all is very interesting to me and I will probably be doing another blog on it so that I can research more details.

2a&b) I also found the phonological loop interesting because it explains how we are able to only hold a limited amount of information. It talked about how time is an important factor in how many words we are able to remember. The longer the words, the less we’ll remember because the phonological loop will be longer. Memory has always been interesting to me but I have never learned about it in depth. This section really caught my attention because it goes into more detail about the studies that have been done and the information that they found by doing those studies.

3a&b) Chunking was the third thing that I found interesting. I especially enjoyed learning about our short term memory and chunking. They talk about how we would be recalling more information if we were given a list of words than a list of letters. The reason for that is that words have more meaning so we are able to “chunk” them together and give our brains an explanation of their connectedness. This makes it much easier for our brains to remember the string of words. Unless the letters spell a word, chunking is much harder to do with just letters. Chunking reminds me of priming in a way. It is a resource our brains use to hold more information and to create a pattern that familiarizes what we are taking in. I think there is a far more neurological side to this and I would love to dig deeper and get a better understanding of how the brain processes such things.

4a&b) I found the Brown-Peterson technique the least interesting. That is really hard to say because I loved this chapter but I decided on this because it seemed like the most obvious information to me. I think it is common sense that if we don’t practice a word string or whatever we are attempting to commit to memory, chances are we won’t remember it. When I am attempting to remember something in the short-term, I tend to repeat it in my head over and over. I give it a type of rhythm and melody so that my brain has a reason to remember it. This to me is an interesting subject it just seems like the most obvious one.

5) I think short-term and long-term memory is very important to be aware of in Cognitive Psychology. When certain areas of the brain are damaged, how people’s short or long term memory is affected can give researchers a much better idea of what areas of the brain are being used for what. I also think that memory, in general, is an important part of cognitive psychology. In order for our brains and bodies to function and be successful humans we have to have a memory. It is something that can either cause us to be an effective person, or could cause us an immense amount of problems. Many of the worst kinds of diseases as we age are those that attack our memory, such as Alzheimer’s and dementia.

6) I think this chapter adds the very important component of memory. We have slowly been learning different roles of our brains and the areas that those roles are localized. This chapter adds in the component of memory which is a huge subject in cognitive psychology.

7a&b) I would love to learn more about H.M.’s case, the phonological loop, and chunking. I think it would be interesting to look up more studies that have been done and to even take a few tests myself. All of these subjects really interest me and I can’t wait to learn more about them.

8) While I was reading this chapter I just thought a lot about my personal memory and tried to relate things back to my experiences. I mentioned earlier that I repeat things over and over in my head and try to give them a type of rhythm so that my brain finds that information important and stores it longer. For tests I use acronyms and story lines to remember information and it works wonderfully. It is really interesting to have a reading that I can compare to my own life.

9) Terminology: H.M., short-term memory, long-term memory, hippocampus, temporal lobe, phonological loop, chunking, Brown-Peterson technique, Alzheimer’s, dementia

1) One thing that I found interesting from the chapter was the part about the cognitive neuroscience support. This was particularly interesting to me because it goes in more depth about the parts of memory and what they are being used for. The most interesting part to me was the case that Canadian researcher Brenda Milner did looking at epilepsy and looking at the parts of the hippocampus. They removed parts of the temporal lobe even the amnesia. After the surgery the patient was not able to learn names or recognize the faces of people he had met since the operation. The patient was able to have conversations but was not able to remember past conversations. To me this was really interesting because thinking about how one would live life without having any of these functions would they gain other psychological disorders from not being able to function with those features that they had before the operation.

2) The second thing that I found interesting was the capacity of STM. I found this particularly interesting because we often feel that we are able to see and process many things at one time but in reality we are only able to process about seven units. This means that when throwing a few objects like marbles we thing that we are able to process where all twenty marbles went but in reality our brain is only able to focus on about six or seven marbles and where they landed. This to me is interesting because we often find our self-trying to do multiple things at one time, especially todays generation because they feel that they are able to do their homework listen to music watch TV and be able to text their friend but in reality they are not able to focus on more than about one or two of those tasks so they are just going through the motions with the rest. Chunking is what we often do when we are reading information, there are many letters and words on the screen or paper but our brains have to put those letters together to make words and sometimes this can be over powering to the brain with all the different letters on the page.

3) Another thing that I found interesting was one of the blue cognition in everyday life boxes about attention and memory. I found the first quote of this section very interesting. “You’ll never learn anything if you don’t pay attention!” I found this extremely true as we often can see ourselves going through every day and only paying attention to what we feel like paying attention to. I think that if more people were more open to change and to be able to learn about new topics in life they would more likely pay more attention to the way life is going on around them. Everyday throughout life we are being bombarded with different stimuli which are demanding out attention and frequently create a need for us to buy into this makes it really hard for us to focus on new information and tasks at hand. I often wonder if there are ways to increase our attention span and to be able to help organize all of these different stimuli that we are often getting bombarded with on a daily basis.

4) There wasn’t really anything that I didn’t find interesting in this chapter. One thing however I felt that the chapter’s information was really broad. I think that this chapter didn’t go into as much depth on the main concepts as the rest of the chapters have in the past. I felt that throughout this chapter I felt that I was left empty on material and that it could have been touched in more detail.

5) This whole chapter I feel will be important to cognitive psychology because everything we do with cognitive psychology always results back to the stimuli in the brain. I feel that by knowing more about how our brain remembers information in our short term and long term memory we are able to do more with our brains ourselves and not only that but we can help those around us. I also feel that knowing different ways on how our brain stores this information with help us to be able to retrieve it.

6) Chapter five builds on the previous chapters as we go farther in to detail about memory and attention. We are talking about what we have learned through visual and auditory perception and how it relates to the functions of our brain. We are applying this to what we are learning and how we can remember information and build on from our experiences.

7) One thing that I would like to learn more about is visual testing on the working brain. I think that this would be interesting to know more about as we are developing a understanding of our brain and how it works to know more about these visual testing’s on a working brain but then to look at the difference through a brain that may not be working as well and to be able to actually
see the difference in where the brain is not functioning correctly.

8) While reading this chapter I was thinking about the different things that we deal with in life and how these stimuli that we come in contact with actually do bombard our life and take over. Often times I notice that it is very hard to learn in classes just because of everything that is going on in my day to day life and this makes it really hard to pay attention to everything that is being talked about in classes and other topics that I could potentially learn more from rather than all these things that are taking over my life.

9) Short-term memory, storage capacity, working memory, selective attention, and chucking.

There were plenty of things that were interesting in chapter 5. I liked the section that dealt with storage. I thought about the example that Otto gave in class about his sister and her ability to remember full pages of information on tests, but then not remember the information then after. I also liked the part that dealt with HM and the mirror reversal task. I actually did this particular test once, and it is very difficult, but the thing about it is that it can be remembered. This information became useful especially dealing with the case of HM. The last section that I found to be interesting was the section that dealt with long term memory chunking, and short term memory chunking. It was interesting to read about this section because I got a better understanding of what the information. I did not know that there needed to be meaning placed in order to remember chunked words. The section that I did not like them most was the section on decay and interference. It was not the longest chapter so it was hard to find something that was not terribly interesting. I will also talk about how this chapter helped with my understanding of cognitive psychology, how it built off of the last chapter, what I would like to learn more about, and then some ideas that I had while I was reading the chapter.

I thought that the section on storage was interesting because I did not know how it worked. I had read about storage a time or two in other psych classes, but I think this chapter did a good job in helping me understand storage a little better. Information that is stored into the short term memory can be processed into the long term memory. Just because the information is on the short term memory means that it will be forgotten, but rather if we connect meaning with it. Also, if information is stored in the long term memory it does not mean that it will be stored there forever, or that we will be able to recall the information automatically. We are not able to recall the information automatically because there might be information that is coming in that does not allow us to recall the long term memory. Information that is left in the short term memory will most likely decay. This means that if the information that we learned such as a set of numbers is not processed into the long term memory than it will be forgotten. This deals with the topic of decay and interference that I will talk about later in the blog. I thought that this section was interesting and was a good reminder of the topic. Like I said, I had read about this information in previous classes, but I thought that this chapter did a good job in helping me store into my long term memory.

The next section that I thought was interesting was the section on the mirror reversal task. I had read about HM in the history and systems course that I had taken. In the book the focus I believe was on retroamnesia. In this book and chapter the focus is on memory of course. HM had lesions on his brain and was unable to remember events that had occurred. They asked him to do the mirror reversal task to see if he could remember how to do the task. Each time he had done the task he lost memory of the task the next time he was instructed to do it. What they found is that HM was getting better and better at the task each time he was instructed to do so. What scientists learned is that implicit tasks that involve perceptual and motor skills can be learned, but not stored into the long term memory. So, even though HM did not remember doing the task each time that he performed it, his brain had learned to motor pattern, and therefore became use to doing the task. What was also discovered from this experiment was that HM suffered from temporal and hippocampus lesions. Scientists then drew the conclusion that the temporal lobe and hippocampus deal with areas of the brain that use memory.

The last interesting thing that I read about in this chapter was the section on long term memory chunking and short term memory chunking. In previous sections of the book it talked about the short term memory was only able to hold 7+- items at a time. Therefore, the range of items that one can hold is between 5 and nine. In the short term memory it is easier to remember items that are together rather than individual items. For example it is easier to remember an actual word rather then an individual letter. There are potential of none slots that are open in ones short term memory, so it would be more useful to store 9 words rather than 9 letters. I use chunking daily to memorize items for an exam. Otto had mentioned in the beginning of the year that it would be great to learn this information while we are younger because of the obvious benefits. I did not learn about chunking until I was a sophomore here at UNI. Chunking allows me to do better on exams because I can better remember items. It would have be much more useful if I knew this information when I was in high school. Anyways, there is a difference between short term chunking and long term chunking. In order for information to be placed into long term memory there needs to be a meaning placed to that set of words. For example it is easy to remember the set of words UNI. If we just wanted that set to be stored into short term memory then we would just need to remember UNI, but if we wanted that set of words to be placed into LTM then we would place the value of University of Northern Iowa to it. I thought that this section was interesting because it is something that I deal with everyday, and it will be useful in the future because I now know the ways in which my brain chunks information into my STM/LTM.

The section that I did not like the most was the section on decay and interference. It was a shorter section, but it lead to the other sections that I talked about. Decay happens when information that is placed into the short term memory is not stored into the long term memory. An example of this can be remembering a grocery list. WE can remember up to nine items and successfully get those items at the grocery store, but when asked to recall the items that we got at the grocery store later that day it might be hard to recall that information because we did not consider the information important enough to store into our long term memories. Interference definition is like it sounds. If we are asked to remember a telephone number and then a couple of minutes later someone else gives us their phone number then those numbers that we just received would interfere with the numbers that we got earlier that day. The first telephone number may have been stored to our long term memory, but that does not mean that we are always going to be able to recall that information, mainly because of interfering information.

I thought that this chapter helped me in understanding cognitive psychology in the sense that I can use it everyday. The section on chunking was useful because now I know how my brain operates.I have the tools now to do better on exams because I will know how to study better. I would have liked to learned this information a while ago when I was younger, but I will make use out of it now. There was a lot of important information within this chapter that I will be able to apply to my everyday life in the future.

I would like to lean more about HM. The book did not talk about him as much as I would have liked to. I had read about him in previous classes and found his story interesting. I know that this book is not a history book on the people in it, so I would like to learn more about HM in my topical blog that I will write for Wednesday. I think that It will be interesting to learn about the life of HM along with the research that was found from studying him.

The chapter did a nice job of building off of the last chapter in the sense that now we are talking about storage. In the last chapters it was more about the perception of information rather than how that information is stored into the brain. I think that this current chapter was a little more interesting that the last couple chapters because it is more applied to my life. I can use the tools that this chapter talked about to better understand how my brain works, rather than knowing areas of the brain and how we perceive information.

Some thoughts that I had while I was reading the chapter mainly had to do with other classes that I had taken here at UNI. A lot of the information that I learned from this chapter had already been touched on. I thought that this chapter did a better job of explaining the material. Also I thought of the story that Otto told about his sister and photographic memory. I wanted to know how that works and why some people have the capabilities to retrieve information that they had read briefly, and are able to recall when the information is not in the long term memory. It is a interesting subject to learn about and may be the topic of discussion for my topical blog for this week.

terms: STM, LTM, HM, decay, interference, store, mirror reversal task, chunking,

1a) What did you find interesting?
Interference and decay
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
At first after reading this section I could not really understand what it was trying to say, luckily a nice chart was provided to help explain it a little better. I had always thought our short term memory loss was due to decay or the amount of time that has passed. What caught my interests was how interference or the amount of other stimuli in the environment can play a big factor as well. The figure from the book actually showed that participants with more time and more objects to remember did worse that with less time and less objects. It makes sense to me, whenever I am leaving to go somewhere I always feel like I’m forgetting something because there are so many things to remember. If I only had one or two items to remember it would be much easier.
2a) What did you find interesting?
H.M. & support for cognitive neuroscience.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I was immediately interested in the study on H.M. after reading the section about his operation and what followed after. The book covers it very briefly but it was a very interesting story about a man with epilepsy whose seizures were so severe he had a section of his brain removed as a last resort. The operation, a bilateral surgical excision, removed a portion of his temporal lobe and hippocampus. Doctors were not really sure how he would recover but H.M. started to see improvements with his epilepsy, however he could not form new memories. He would forever think he was 27, which was when the operation took place, and he would never remember anyone new again. This reminded me a lot of the film 50 First Dates, when a car accident leaves the woman in film in a similar situation. I brings support to neuroscience and the theory that suggests memory stores are located all over the brain.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Working memory.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
The first thing that interested me in this section was the visuospatial sketchpad, which is a kind of visual and spatial map our brain is responsible for. The sketchpad helps us remember sizes and shapes or the speed and direction of moving objects. The visuospatial sketchpad is similar to the phonological loop, another component of the working memory; in that it is a mind map for information we might see on a test. The two are also similar in that they are monitored by the central executive, which is a hilarious name for it. The central exec does just what you would think it does, tells other people or signals in this case what to do and where to go as far as long term and short term. Revised models of the working memory model have also shown that the systems are integrated with one another.
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
Primary and secondary memory.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
While I appreciate what James did for psychology and that he basically discovered how our memory works I feel like I have heard the same thing regurgitated in every psych class I have taken.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
The biggest take away I will have from this chapter are some of the memory improving techniques. Our memory is spread out all over our brain in my opinion, but figuring out how to get it into those spots for it to stick is the real question. The amount of time we spend studying or learning something new is very important but if we are trying to remember to many things at once it can hinder us.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds off of the last one because in the last we were dealing with how we perceive the world around us and how we react to stimuli. In this chapter we are dealing with how those stimuli are stored into long term memory so we can navigate through the environment without having to learn about it again every day.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
Working memory.
7b) Why?
I would like to improve my memory.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
As I spoke about a little earlier I thought of the film with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore called 50 First Dates. In the movie she forgets everything that happened to her the previous day and has to re-learn many things about her life and the people she “knows”.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
-working memory, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, temporal lobe, hippocampus, cognitive neuroscience, decay, interference, primary memory, secondary memory

Chapter 5: Memory Models and Short-Term Memory

The first thing I found interesting when reading Chapter 5 was the discussion of decay and interference. The book informs us that decay happens when something fades in your memory (due to time) and interference happens when things in your memory are replaced by other things. There was an experiment done to examine which factor produces a greater affect on the memory. The experiment concluded that interference (of other items in the memory) is a greater factor than decay (due to time) on the memory. I feel this is interesting because most people probably would think otherwise, including myself. I think more research on this would be a possible topic I would like to look into.

Secondly, I found the topic of short term memory and the capacity of the short term memory to be an intriguing part of Chapter 5. The chapter says that, based on the findings of Miller, the short term memory can hold seven items on average. Miller found that the earliest observations of short term-memory capacity were observed by Sir William Hamilton, a nineteenth century philosopher. He said: “If you throw a handful of marbles on the floor, you will find it difficult to view at once more than six, or seven at the most, without confusion.” I think this is interesting mostly because I find short term memory games to be really entertaining. I like to test my short term memory a lot and often, so I think it is interesting to learn that seven items is the average, because that does not seem like many items. Additionally, I think it’s interesting to think about how our brain decides which things will be store in our long term memory and which things will only survive our short term memory.

The third topic I found interesting in Chapter 5 was discussed in the “Cognition in Everyday Life: Make That Call” section. This mini-section of Chapter 5 talked about auditory rehearsal. When we are trying to remember a phone number, or any number most likely, we repeat the number vocally until our need to remember the number has expired. I thought this was interesting because I find it to be incredibly true. Because we repeat things we need to remember for a short period of time out-loud, once could argue that our short term-memory is dependent about vocal rehearsal. This is not a fact, according to the book, but only an opinion or theory. When reading this idea, I thought about deaf people and their short-term memory abilities versus a non-deaf person and their short-term memory abilities. I only thought of this because when we repeat these numbers out-loud to remember them, we are hearing ourselves speak the information. However, deaf people would not be able to hear themselves repeat the information. So, I am wondering if this effects their ability to remember things, like numbers, for a short period of time.

The topic in Chapter 5 I thought was least interesting was the section about the working memory. I have encountered this topic in my other classes, of course, and I always find it a little confusing. To me, it seems like the short term memory and the long term memory are very obvious structures in our minds, but the working memory seems more of an idea than an actual thing. I think it is because I have not learned enough about the working memory to fully understand the concept. The working memory is also something I could research further to hopefully clear up the confusions I have surrounding the topic.

I feel the general topics of the short term memory and the long term memory are the most useful topics in Chapter 5 in understanding cognitive psychology. Memory is such a huge part of our lives and functioning as human beings, and for all other animals, as well. Cognition and thought processes and functioning seem highly dependent on memory, so naturally the topics of short term memory and long term memory are going to be incredibly useful in further knowledge gained about cognitive psychology.

I think Chapter 5 builds on the concept of perception and how we perceive information really well, which has been a previous topic of cognitive psychology. How we perceive certain objects and people and many other things highly relates to memory because we must remember how we perceive certain things for survival and concerns of the sort.

Chapter 5 proposed many interesting subjects I would want to look further into, but I feel the most intriguing topic and the most likely topic I will use when writing my topical blog will be the discussion of auditory rehearsal and deaf people. I am unsure if there will be a lot of information on the topic, but I am very curious about the short term memory of deaf people compared to non-deaf people. I am very interested in the ways deaf people adapt in regards to short term memory and remember things without auditory rehearsal.

When reading Chapter 5, I thought a lot about my short term memory and my long term memory. Mostly, I thought about how I memorize things or which types of information are easier for me to remember than other types. Thinking about my experiences with memory helps me understand and remember topics in the chapter much better.

Terms Used: decay, interference, short term memory, long term memory, short term memory capacity, auditory rehearsal, working memory, perception

Please read chapter 5. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
Next you will be asked what three things from the chapter that you found interesting?

1a) What did you find interesting? 1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I thought the von Restorff effect was interesting because it shows how our brains are wired to categorize stimuli and recognize the stimuli that are unlike the others in a group. It is interesting that the unusual stimuli are remembered more readily than the usual stimuli. This effect is also very easy to recognize in everyday life. For example, if you go to the store and see someone wearing a very large, odd hat, you are more likely to remember that person than the 20 people you walked by wearing baseball caps.

2a) What did you find interesting? 2b) Why was it interesting to you?
I found the case of H.M. to be interesting because it shows the importance of the relationship between short term and long term memory. It would be very hard to function without long term memory. His life pretty much came to a standstill after the surgery because he could not form any new long term memories. It’s a very sad case.

3a) What did you find interesting? 3b) Why was it interesting to you?
I have always found the seven plus or minus two theory interesting because it applies to things in our daily lives such as remembering phone numbers. I found it very interesting that the length of phone numbers is based on psychological research so that it is easier to remember phone numbers.

4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting? 4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I thought the Brown-Peterson technique was least interesting because it seemed very intuitive. It’s fairly apparent that if you do not rehearse things, you will forget them. It’s important to the understanding of memory but it is not really novel information.

5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I thought the dichotomous nature of short and long term memory was most useful in understanding cognitive psychology. I thought this reflected how our brain processes stimuli well. It represents separate mechanisms yet these two mechanisms influence and affect each other. This reflects many concepts and ideas in psychology.

6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter builds on previous information by discussing how stimuli are processed and stored in memory. It deals with one chunk of the complicated process of memory.

7a) What topic would you like to learn more about? 7b) Why?
I would like to know more about the brain structures involved in memory. The hippocampus has been discussed in detail in several classes but I would like to know more about structures in the cortex and temporal lobe.

8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
I was wondering about types of treatment for individuals who have lost either their short term or long term memory. This seems very debilitating to me and I am curious how these individuals adapt to the inability to form new long term memories or the inability hold information in short term memory.

9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Brown-Peterson technique, long term memory, short term memory, von Restorff effect

1a) The first thing I found interesting in this chapter was the concept of short term memory.

1b) I enjoyed learning about this because through all of my experience in other psychology classes I would say I have a pretty good understanding of what STM is. However, learning about the evolution of it is interesting. I enjoyed learning about how it went from being created by introspection to something using physiology and science. Whether it be using electroshock in rats while learning how to run mazes, or using the Brown-Peterson technique of assigning 3 letters and giving the task to count backwards to prevent rehearsal, the techniques used to create experimental data are all very interesting.

2a) The next thing I found interesting was the section on cognitive neuroscience support and more specifically H.M.

2b) I have learned the story of H.M. many times before but some of the details were a little fuzzy so getting a refresher was helpful and I was able to expand on what I already knew. Before reading I knew that H.M. had some type of surgery and could only remember things prior to the surgery so his long term memory was intact but he struggled with his short term memory. I didn’t remember though that he had a bilateral surgical excision that removed part of his temporal lobe and his hippocampus. What was the most interesting to me was that H.M. could relearn a skill and retain that information over time like a mirror reversal task as long as it involved perceptual and motor skills, but where he struggled was transferring those types of information to his LTM.

3a) One last thing I found interesting in this section was the section in the blue box called Working memory in navigation.

3b) This was interesting to me because it applied what we had learned in the chapter to the real world. Also it is interesting because I always wonder why some people are better and navigating than others, which it doesn’t directly answer but it gives some insight of how we better determine directions using word tasks, spatial-tapping tasks, and a combination of both. The book goes on to say how our working memory plays a role since it includes visual-spatial and auditory-verbal components which help in this task. Results showed that suppressing the verbal articulatory loop caused more errors than the spatial task which shows how important verbal codes are.

4a) One thing that I found the least interesting in this chapter was the section on STM and chunking.

4b) This wasn’t very interesting to me because I already knew all about chunking from previous classes. I remember doing multiple activities using this in intro psych, and I was apart of a research experiment that used this technique so I feel like a already have a good enough understanding on the subject.

5) All in all I would say that the topic covered in this section that will be the most important with our understanding of cognitive psychology down the road would be the overall meaning and definitions of long and short term memory. Cognition deals a lot with memory and how our brains process things so by understanding the difference between these two things is very important.

6) This chapter was a little different than chapters up until this point but all in all it built on previous ones because again it took us into another subcomponent of memory and broke things down into STM and LTM. It also expanded on the different ideas of how visual and audio are influenced by this and it went on to describe different ways we store information we learn.

7a) Since this chapter involves memory I would like to take a deeper look into Alzheimers and what all goes on with brain functioning and STM/LTM in this disease.

7b) My grandfather had Alzheimers disease for the last 10 years of his life and I am intrigued to find out more about this and what it all entails.

8) When I was reading through this chapter I was thinking a lot of all of the different examples of LTM/STM I have seen in my life. I kept thinking about in movies how much they depict this. In 50 First Dates the lady had damage to her brain so she only has STM and no LTM, then in that same movie there is 10 second Tom who only remembers STM for 10 seconds, and then I was thinking about the Notebook and how the lady develops Dementia which seems similar to H.M.’s case, however Dementia isn’t caused by damage to the brain so I started wondering how we do develop this and that is why I want to do more research on this topic.

9) Terms: long term memory, short term memory, Brown-Peterson Technique, H.M., hippocampus, temporal lobe, spatial-tapping tasks, visual-spatial, auditory-verbal components, chunking.

The first thing I found interesting was the dualistic models of memory. This is the idea by William James that there is short-term memory (primary memory) and long-term memory (secondary). Primary memory gives a true depiction of what occurs, but is not processed deeply in the brain. Secondary memory is stored in the brain and can be transitory or permanent. There was little evidence that these separate memory systems exist, however, until 75 years after James came up with the idea. I liked this section because the first person to come up with the idea of separate memory systems must have been really introspective and imaginative. The fact that he knew this without having evidence to back it up really impresses me.

The second thing I found interesting was the case of H.M. by Brenda Milner. H.M. was a patient who had some of his temporal lobe removed in order to treat his epilepsy. While it succeeded, it left H.M. without the ability to store information in his long-term memory. His short-term memory was not affected. He did well on IQ tests, could remember people he met and information he had before the surgery, but was unable to store new information. He could remember someone new and could hold a conversation only as long as he was with them. He still thought he was the age he was when he had his surgery and that it was the year of his surgery. I liked this section because case studies really interest me. I like seeing abnormal cases and how the person lives/what their case does to further psychology. This also reminds me of the movie "50 First Dates".

A third section I found interesting was the one on visual code. This said that some information is coded visually in short-term memory. This was proven by showing that processing letters that were different in form but same in name (Aa) took longer than processing pairs that were the same in form and name (aa or AA). This interests me because I process a lot of information visually and often try to recall things by imagining how they appear in a picture in my head.

One section I found less interesting was the one on the STM and chunking. This section said that our STM has the ability to remember an average of 7 units. This means that we can remember 7 letters as well as we would remember 7 words. The size of the item doesn't matter because it is being stored and recalled as a chunk. I did not find this section very interesting because I have already learned this. This is something that is talked about in intro to psych classes as well and in memory and language classes.

I think that this entire chapter will be helpful in cognitive psychology because so much of us is based off of our memory. Learning how our memory works can help us to take full advantage of it and us it to its capacity.

This chapter builds on the previous ones in that we were talking about stimuli earlier and now we are discussing how that stimuli is processed. It is like we are working our way deeper and deeper into the brain.

I would like to learn more about different case studies of people who have had memory impairments. This is because I really enjoy case studies and I think that losing memory can be really damaging for a person.

While reading this chapter I thought about how I rely on memory every day without even realizing it. We take for granted that we can remember things and recall things, and we blame ourselves when we have problems remembering, but a lot of it is outside of our control.

terms:
long-term memory, short-term memory, primary, secondary, William James, transitory, permanent, H.M., Brenda Milner, temporal lobe, visual code, chunking, cognitive psychology, processing, stimuli, storing, recalling

1.
a. I found the primacy-recency effect as an interesting topic. I think that is an interesting topic because of how it affects us.
b. This is a topic that I have been learning about in other classes as well as this one. The ability to remember the first and last things that you learn is a great thing. When you are sitting in class with the teacher giving a lecture you have to remember all the things that the teacher is saying so that you can pass that quiz at the end of the class. The first part of that lecture is placed in the long-term memory. This is because of the primacy effect; the first thing that you learn is in the beginning of the lecture that is primacy. The things that are later in the lecture is placed in short-term memory. This is because of the recency effect; the last thing that you learn in the class that is why the end of the lecture is recency.
2.
a. I was also interested in the storage capacity, theory.
b. The ability to store certain things that fit into your memory space allotted to you. Storage capacity is limited to certain amounts of information at a time, in the short-term memory. The valid information that has to be stored for later is transferred to the larger memory storage of the Long-term memory from the short-term memory. The memory has areas that are limited, but it can also bring up great things in the future for what you like it to.
3.
a. I found the mirror reversal task very interesting as a topic.
b. It was interesting how H.M. could do better as time passed and he got better at tracing the star because of the practice effects theories that have been theorized. H.M. had amnesia, which makes transferring information from the short-term memory to the long-term memory impossible. There was no way for him to store the information that he was learning in his long-term memory so all he had was his short-term memory. She showed improvement over time though with the tracing of the star. Having learned things that were not known to the brain that were done to us, memory fails you some times. H.M. shows that memory is very interesting to learn about.
4.
a. I didn’t find the Atkinson and Shiffrin model very interesting.
b. This is something that I have been learning about in another class, and it has some flaws. The model is that the memory starts in the short-term memory and goes to the long-term memory. Some things go directly into the long-term memory and the short-term memory at the same time because the information is very important for later use. Some things don’t need to go through the short-term memory so that differs from the model.
5. I think the Long-term memory and the short-term memory are the most important to this chapter because they explain a lot about how memories are sorted and kept in our mental abilities. So by learning the two types of memory we can learn more about other parts of memory.
6. This relates to the previous chapters by shoeing how memory systems of past chapters are sorted out into the brain. They also shoe the way that they work out for your brain and what they do for you.
7.
a. I would like to learn more about the primacy-recency effects, which affect our daily lives.
b. I want to be able to remember all the things in the middle so I can remember more about the things that I have learned in class.
8. I was thinking that short-term memory and long-term memory we have easy lives. If we just had one type of memory Long-term or short-term life would be very difficult.
9. Short-term memory, Long-term memory, Atkinson and Shiffrin model, Mirror Reversal task, storage capacity,primacy, recency, primacy-recency effect

Chapter 5
The first thing that I found interesting from chapter 5 was the chart that shows free recall in a serial task. There is a graph that represents how well we remember objects in a list depending on how many objects there are. The curve of the line looks like a “U”. This means that we are more likely to remember objects at the beginning of the list and at the end of the list. I think that this is really interesting because it’s almost like the objects in the middle of the list just sort of drop off. We remember the items at the beginning because we are consciously trying hard to remember those items. The items at the end are easier to remember because they are the most recent ones heard. The objects in the middle are harder to remember because our minds start to get clustered. I think that it’s really interesting because one might assume that the curve looks different. I think that some people might assume that the items at the beginning would be easier to remember and then it would slowly taper off. But in reality we remember things best because of primacy effects and recency effects. Primary effects happen at the beginning of the list because we are trying harder to remember the information. Recency effects happen because the things at the end of the list are the most recently heard.
The second thing that I found interesting from chapter 5 was the information of forgetting. There are two reasons that someone might forget something. The first reason is decay. If a memory decays, it means that it has faded and been forgotten. The other way that something can be forgotten in by interference. Interference is when there is something that “gets in the way” of the memory. This could be because of more items that are replacing the first items. The thing that I found most interesting about these two terms was the way you decipher between the two. The example the book gives involves a series of random numbers. Say that someone reads you the list of number, and then they ask you to recall as many as you can. You are given two scenarios. The first time they read the numbers, they read one number every second. The second time they read the number, they read 4 numbers each second. If you recall more items when there are 4 numbers spoken each second, it means that you did worse with the 1 number per second because of decay. Since the 1 number per second sequence took longer, you will be more likely to forget some of the numbers. If this is not the case, then forgetting will be due to interference.
The third thing I found interesting in chapter 5 was the information on the capacity of one’s short term memory. I know that short term memory doesn’t last very long, and I didn’t expect it to have a large capacity, but I didn’t think it was as small as it is. In 1956 Miller found that the short term memory holds about seven units. Seven seems like a very small number for a person’s short term memory. This is really interesting to me because we go through the day and we perceive so much different information. It makes me wonder what amount we can actually, successfully retain. I think about my average day. I go to my classes every day and I do homework every night. So in my average day, I take in a lot of information. If the short term memory capacity is only seven units, it seems like I will have to use a lot of repetition and rehearsal.
There wasn’t anything in particular that I found in this chapter that wasn’t interesting. It was a pretty short chapter and I had already known most of the information. I am learning about short and long term memory in one of my other classes so this information was very familiar to me. I think that memory is a very fascinating part of cognition and mental processes. There wasn’t really a part of this chapter that I didn’t find interesting.
I think that this chapter will help me in learning about cognitive psychology a lot. I think that this chapter is very important in learning about cognitive psychology. This chapter shows how we store information and how we remember things. Short term memory and long term memory are very important in cognitive processes and the learning of information.
The information in that chapter is very closely related to the other chapters. The chapters we have gone over so far were all about perception and sensations. Memory is a way to store a person’s perceptions. When someone takes in information, it is first put into short term memory. With repetition and rehearsal, the information can then be stored in long term memory. Which also shows that the chapter to come will tie into the previous chapters as well. Without memory, we wouldn’t be able to recall anything that we perceive or sense. Memory is a vital part of all of our perceptions.
I think that I would like to learn more about systems for remembering units. Everyone has different way of storing things to their memories. I would like to research and find out what some of the systems are. I would also like to find out if some of the systems for remembering are better to use than others. I know that if I have to remember a list of units, I like to picture scenarios or images in my head. So when I am trying to recall information I usually use imagery. I know that some people use mnemonics and other things as well. I think that it would be interesting to learn what some of these things are and which are better to use. Maybe in doing this and finding out this information, I will be able to strengthen my memory.
While I was reading this chapter, I honestly felt that I was reading it for the second time. I felt that I had read this chapter before. I am currently in a class called Memory and Language. We have been learning about memory for the past 5 weeks, so I feel that I have a pretty good handle on this information. I’m glad that the chapter was sort of a recap to what I have been learning in my other class. It will help me to remember the information that we are going over in both of these classes.

Terms: Interference, Decay, Recency Effects, Primacy Effects, Free Recall in a Serial Task, Capacity of Short Term Memory, Short Term Memory, Perception, Sensation, Recall, Repetition, Rehearsal, Long Term Memory

1a) What did you find interesting?
I found the section on bottom-up versus top-down processing.
1b) Why was it interesting to you?
I like this section because it is interesting to think about. Do we see the pieces of a face first and know it is a face or do we see a face and then know the pieces that come along with it? I also thought the part about children seeing familiar items and thinking they know the person was interesting. This section was easy to relate to because I can relate to going into a room, such as a kitchen or an office and expecting to see a fridge or a desk.
2a) What did you find interesting?
I also thought the concept of Pseudomemory was interesting.
2b) Why was it interesting to you?
Pseudomemory is when a prototype is formed on the basis of frequently experienced features. I think it is interesting that certain features of something get stored in your memory and then once you see those features again, they help you recognize an object. I also thought this section was interesting because of how they tied it into police work and what it takes to identify a witness. It got me thinking of what it takes to sketch a witness just from what somebody else can recall about them.
3a) What did you find interesting?
Lastly, I thought that the idea of a grandmother cell was interesting.
3b) Why was it interesting to you?
It is cool to think that a single neuron may fire when it receives visual signals constituting someone familiar to them. I liked this idea and thought it was interesting because it was the whole basis for the chapter. I also think it is interesting to think about how we know someone looks familiar. Is there a template in our mind that only a certain person fits? Is there a generalized prototype allowing us to recognize that certain person under certain circumstances?
4a) What one (1) thing did you find the least interesting?
The one thing I found least interesting in this chapter was the section on the Geon Theory.
4b) Why wasn't it interesting to you?
I did not like this section because it bored me and I kept losing focus. I don’t really remember what the Geon Theory was because I got bored with reading the section. This theory seems too confusing and too elaborate as well. I am also still unsure of what a geon is.
5) What did you read in the chapter that you think will be most useful to in understanding Cognitive Psychology?
I think the thing that I read in this chapter that will be the most useful to me in my understanding of Cognitive Psychology is the information on visual pattern recognition. I think this will be the most useful information to me because this is what most of the chapter was about and it was mentioned that this will come up later in the book so this is obviously an important concept to understand in Cognitive Psychology.
6) How, in what ways, does this chapter relate (build on) to the previous chapters?
This chapter built very well on the last chapter because it talked about visual perception. The last chapter focused heavily on visual perception, such as the discussion on selective attention. The last chapter also expanded on auditory and this chapter expanded on the visual side of things.
7a) What topic would you like to learn more about?
I would like to learn more about how we process if someone looks familiar to us.
7b) Why?
I am interested to know if we use bottom-up processing or top-down processing.
8) What ideas related to what you were reading (what did you think about) did you have while reading the chapter?
This chapter got me thinking about how I see things. When I go into a certain room, I expect to see a specific item or when I look at something, it is easier for me to identify it if I am looking at it from an angle I am used to looking at it from. Little things like that made it easy for me to relate to the information in this chapter.
9) Once you are done with your post make list of the terms and terminology you used in your post.
Bottom-up processing, top-down processing, Pseudomemory, grandmother cell, neuron, Geon theory, visual pattern recognition, selective attention

1. One thing that I found interesting in this chapter was the case of H.M. and how it impacted our understanding of memory. After the surgery which removed part HM's temporal lobe there were noticeable differences in his memory abilities that led to the understanding structures involved with the memory processing and forming system. I thought it was really interesting that HM was able to recall old memories prior to his surgery but he was unable to create any new long term memories. His short term memory and ability to learn new tasks seemed to be unaffected after his surgery. Though he could learn new tasks he could not report knowing the new tasks or ever learning them. This led to the understanding that different areas of the brain are involved with the different memory processes and that there are different memory storage areas. From this study it was concluded that the hippocampus was one of the major structures involved with forming new long term memories.

2. Another thing that I found interesting from this chapter was that our short term memory has a storage capacity of about 7 items plus or minus two. Many of the models that were presented in the book included the idea of primary memory or our short term memory only being able to hold a certain amount of information. Some models argue that the reason that information is lost from short term memory is because it is pushed out by new information and was not processed into long term memory, also referred to as decay. I think that is amazing that though seven seems like a small number of items to be stored the process of chunking allows for the great amount of information that goes through and is processed in short term memory. Chunking occurs when a unit is created by putting together individual incoming data together. That unit therefore only takes up one of the seven available units of short term memory even though it holds more than one piece of data. This explains all of the data that our short term memory takes in and holds with the limited slots for units. This chunking cannot occur without the help of the long term memory. The long term memory uses stored meaning and information to chunk the meaningful data together. Chunking only has a significant effect if the chunking is done in a meaningful way.

3. I found it interesting that our short term memory uses three types of coding for the information stored in it. I thought it was really interesting that out of the three coding types, the auditory coding is the most common form used. It took a little while to get my brain wrapped around the fact that this coding is often used even when it is not auditory stimuli coming in to be coded. It is possible to use multiple codes for a task. A majority of the time it is the auditory code being paired with another code. This is because though you may use one of the other two types of code in your memory to retrieve the information, it is still necessary to use auditory code to complete the task in a way that you are able to convey the information. Visual codes and semantic codes are the other two ways that information is coded in short term memory. Semantic codes are codes of information that relate to the meaning of that information.

4. The thing that I found the least interesting in this chapter was the Atkinson and Shiffrin model for short term memory. I found this the least interesting mostly because there seemed as though there was much more that goes into the mode that wasn't discussed in the text. The section left me confused on exactly how their model worked and the different aspects of it. I would have liked for the section to go into more details about what the different control processors are and how they work within this model. The figure that showed the picture of the model left me with more questions than answers as to how this model worked for short term memory processing. I understood the basic framework of having the sensory register and the different memory stores but exactly how those all worked together I was left confused about.

5. I think that the understanding that there is a difference between short term and long term memory processing and storage is important for cognitive psychology. Understanding the basic framework and base of what short term memory contains and how things come and go from it will be extremely important for understanding the next chapter on long term memory. Memories are such a major part of cognitive psychology and come into play for a variety of different areas of study such as learning. It is good to understand how our brains takes in all of the stimuli that is does and organizes it so that we may perceive and function in the world around us. Our memories allow for those perceptions to be used. With all of the information that we are constantly getting, without the use of memory we would not be able to function as smoothly as we do.

6. The idea that memory is processed and stored in different areas of the brain and the ways that they study this build onto the neuroscience chapter as well as the idea that the brain in not generalized for all activities. The idea of coding in short term memory also builds onto the knowledge that we have about perception, knowing that what stimuli we get coming in from the world does not stay in that exact form when it goes through the processes of the brain. The idea of chunking ties into the perception theories that our brains have mechanisms which search for order and group like things and known things together such as in the gestalt theory.

7. I would like to learn more about the case of HM and what it brought to the field of psychology. I have learned about this case before in my biopsychology course and remember there being a lot more tests that were done to interpret exactly what types of memory were preserved and what types of memories were no longer able to function properly. I am interested in the functions of different brain areas and would like to know exactly what different areas are involved with the different aspects of the memory process. I would also like to know how the overall change affected HM's life overall and what changes he had to make in order to cope with his new impairments.

8. While reading this chapter it made me think about how our brains work for studying and cramming for tests and classes like many college students tend to do, including myself. When cramming for tests students may have found ways to effectively get the information into their short term memory in order to do well on the exam, but later on it is common that they do nor remember any of the knowledge that they were supposed to have had for the test. The chapter made me think about what needs to be done in order to take that information from the short term memory and transfer it to the long term memory in order to get the best use out of that information.

9.Terms Used- memory, long term memory, short term memory, primary memory, chunking, storage capacity, decay, auditory coding, visual coding, semantic coding, store, perception, gestalt theory

Please read chapter 5. After reading the chapter, please respond to the following questions:
Next you will be asked what three things from the chapter that you found interesting?
1) I liked the section where short and long term memory was explained. I found this interesting, because I am also taking Memory and Language this semester, so I could relate it to that class, and it also helped my understanding a little bit better. We did a study to see what the cultural view on memory was, and a couple of the questions in there were about short term and long term memory, it was kind of shocking to see the explanations some people gave about what they though these memories were. I feel like it was easier for me to understand, because I was able to associate it with what I had learned in my other class. I can understand why short term memory was considered to be the primary memory, because you use your short term memory for so much every day, such as to do lists, grocery lists, ect.
2) I thought the H.M. case was interesting, because I find it interesting how people can have damaged or parts of their brain removed, yet still be able to function. Brain damages or removal of certain parts of the brain can affect a person’s memory, and it depends on the person. Sometimes the short term memory can be affected or lost, and other times the long term memory is lost. It reminds me of those who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease, because they can become very forgetful, because the brain is deteratering. Working in care centers I have seen people who can’t remember a conversation that just happened so they will tell the exact thing over again, I have also seen this with my family members. I have heard stories about when they were children over and over sometimes it happens right after they get done telling it. Some don’t know where they are or understand why they are there, and that is really hard to see.
3) Another topic I found to be interesting was the Peterson study. I found this interesting, because I have experienced it. In my memory and language class this semester we just went through this and our teacher made us count back by 3’s, and gave us a set of letters to remember then erased them from the board and had us count backwards, after he told us to stop he would ask us what the 3 letters were that were in order, to see if we could remember. After the weekend was over, today we talked about what we seen last time, and he wrote letters on the board and asked us to pick out all of the ones that were in any of the series of letters from last week. From what we found for some reason these letters had been stored in our long term memory from the previous week.
4 ) There was not one section that I didn’t find interesting. This chapter was very interesting to me, because I was able to relate it to what I have been learning in Memory and Language class, and I feel like it helped me understand it better, and it was a good review.
5) I think one thing is short and long term memory, because we use these on a daily basis for grocery lists, to do lists, in school, studying for tests, and so much more.
6) I think it goes along with the recognition, because a lot of times those memories get stored, and this kind of explain what goes on and people storing things in their long and short term memory.
7) I would like to learn more about cases where people have had parts of their brain removed, to see the different effects that it has had on other people.
8) I had so many ideas while reading this chapter. I was able to relate so much of it to my Memory and Language class, and it really helped me understand, because I was able to make associations with what I had already learned. It also made me think about how when we try to remember things, our brain works out strategies to retain the information, such as by using, repetition, associations, categorizing, ect.
9) Short and long term memory, Brown-Peterson study, recognition, memories,

1) Working memory model, as I was reading the chapter, seemed to draw my attention. The working memory topic in this chapter puts an emphasis on long and short term memory. I have heard some of the terms that are within the topic of working memory, but a few of them I had very little knowledge of. The term phonological loop has been mentioned in a previous class before, but I had no knowledge that it was about sounds. After reading the topic of the working memory model I feel as if I did not have as much knowledge as I believed I had about it.

2) The second topic I found to be interesting was short term memory its capacity limit. Miller mentions that our short term memory can hold only seven items. Sir William Hamilton inspired to work on a field of expertise in short term memory. Over the several years of taking psychology classes I have been very fond of how short term memory research studies have been developed to test our brains capacity. One thing that always seems to peak my interest when learning of our short term memory capacity is the number of things that our brain can store at a time. Hopefully after those average seven things are rehearsed over and over then those short term memories can eventually be placed into our long term memory.

3) I found that the last topic to be the most interesting was the story of H.M., and how his surgery changed his life. After reading about H.M. And his surgery this sort of reminded me of the movie 50 first dates. The two stories have some similarities, but Drew Barrymore would just almost magically lose her short term memory when she fell asleep. After H.M.'s surgery only his long term memories before the surgery were intact, but all the long term memories after the surgery were never able to be processed by H.M.'s brain. I thought that H.M. believing he was 27 years old, and it was the day of the surgery there after also fascinated me.

4) It was fairly difficult for me to really find anything that I did not find interesting, but the one thing that I found to have been mentioned in so many of my psychology classes would be the topic of chunking. I feel that this has been mentioned so many times in my classes it is also so basic that it is not as interesting as a more complex topic.

5) The one thing I find could be the most useful in understanding Cognitive Psychology because how short and long term memories are such a big part of our lives. If we did not have either of the two types of memory then pretty much we would have to relearn everything just to lose it again shortly after. We as humans would not have advanced so far if our brains could not handle storing information.

6) Chapter 5 relates to the previous chapters that have to do with our brains ability to use recognition, focusing attention, and so on which help us to then being able to process information which later is then stored into our brains.

7) One thing that I would like to learn more about would be of similar cases like the H.M. Case and how a person can lose the ability to store memories into their long term storage.

8) While reading the chapter I thought about our brain's abilities to store information, and I tried to remember previously learned of some tricks to help our brains store information more readily. I also thought of the movie 50 first dates, because the movie could be related so well with what we are currently learning in Cognitive Psychology.

Terms: Working memory model, short term memory, long term memory, phonological loop, H.M. case, chunking.

1a. I found the primacy-recency effect to be interesting. The primacy-recency effect is the well-established phenomena that when given a list to memorize people generally recall items at the beginning of the list (primacy) and items at the end of the list (recency) better than those in the middle. This is because the items in the beginning of the list are rehearsed over and over, allowing for better recall, and the items at the end you just heard, which also makes it easier to recall. The one exception to this is called the von Resteroff effect, which if given a list of all numbers and I put a letter in the middle, the letter will be easily recalled because it sticks out to us qualitatively.
2a. I found this interesting because I am taking the class Memory and Language and just the other day we conducted this exact experiment to prove that this effect in fact exists. I find that things are more interesting and stick out more if I actually get to experience it, versus reading or hearing about it.
1b. I also found the Brown-Peterson technique interesting. In this technique participants were given a cluster of letters to remember (JQZ) and then are immediately told to count down by 3’s from a large number. It was found out that if the letters were not allowed to be rehearsed right after hearing them than they could scarcely be recalled at all. It is interesting to relate this to decay and Interference effects. This technique not only helped establish STM as its own memory system but also proved that that interference is the main reason items were forgotten. On the first few trials of this technique participants were fairly accurate at recalling the letters, it wasn’t until after several trials that people started doing poorly. This is because of interference. The letters and information from the previous trials started to interfere with new information trying to be stored.
2b. I am interested in this because I had to research it in some depth for my Memory and Language class. I know a more about it than other subjects in this chapter so I was able to understand it better and fully synthesize what this technique means to memory studies.
3a. The mirror reversal task is another topic I found interesting. The topic relates to a famous case study on patient H.M. who had a procedure done to relive his epilepsy that required part of his hippocampus to be removed. After the surgery patient H.M. was unable to form new memories in the LTM but his STM capacity remained intact. Interestingly it was found out that after repeated trials of doing the mirror reversal task, which requires tracing an image while looking in a mirror, patient H.M. became more skillful at the task. Although he had no memory of learning the task he was able to perform the acquisitioned skill successfully.
3b. I found this topic interesting because it related to a famous study I remember hearing about in another class. It is pretty amazing how this patient’s injuries helped develop important concepts in memory functioning.
4a. I found the Atkinson-Shriffrin model to be the least interesting topic.
4b. I found the model itself hard to follow. It was not quite clear from the reading just how the model would work in real life situation. I would have like a little more elaboration on each step of the model.
5. I believe the most useful thing to understand are the properties of the STM system. Properties such as how things are coded in the STM, which can code things visually, acoustically, and semantically. Interestingly visual images often produce auditory or acoustic codes in our STM; Seeing a picture of a bottle of soda might be recorded as the words “soda bottle” in STM instead of a visual picture. Semantic codes refer to things with meaning. In an experiment it was shown that participants could recall very easily a list that included all fruits, but after several trials with different fruits that accuracy dropped greatly. This showed that the semantic information in the STM ran interference between what fruit was actually called and on what trial.
6. This chapter continues to expand our ideas of cognition by elaborating on the important concept of STM and the different memory models that have presented over the history of memory studies.
7a. I would like to look more into the Milner’s experiment with patient H.M..
7b. I found this to be a very profound study that brought up interesting concepts. The fact that the patient, even though her ability to create new memories was extremely impaired, was able to acquire new skills implicitly has some very interesting implications that I would like to look into.
8. While reading the chapter I thought about my own memory and tried to relate what I was reading to my own experiences with STM. I have taken part in many of the memory experiments mentioned so it was useful to think back on that when reading about it in depth.
9.Primacy-recency effect, Von Resteroff effect, Brown-Peterson technique, decay and interference effects, the mirror reversal task, Atkinson-Shiffrin model, Acoustic, semantic, and visual codes.

1. The first thing that I found interesting in this chapter was one of the first things discussed: William James' dualistic model of memory. I found this interesting because it has been brought up in many of my classes and memory is one of the topics that I have been looking forward to the most in this class. I had heard of short-term memory and long term-memory but not James' terms for those concepts, which he referred to as immediate/primary memory and indirect/secondary memory.

2. The second thing that I found interesting was the discussion of the case of H.M. and the mirror reversal task. I had heard of H.M. briefly before reading this and it was nice to read more in depth on the topic. The removal of his hippocampus and its effects on his long-term memory are very interesting and help to understand how memory and amnesia work. The reverse mirror task is also interesting because it also shows how memory works and how a person with amnesia can still learn a new task, yet have no memory of acquiring this new ability.

3. The third thing that I found interesting in the chapter was the working memory model. The concept that new and old information are constantly interacting and influencing our short-term and long-term memory is very interesting. The idea of the phonological loop and its challenge of the traditional "7 items in short-term memory" model is also very interesting and something that I have never seen addressed in other classes. The concept that both the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are regulated by a central executive is also interesting. It's an interesting take on how certain stimuli are ranked in importance of receiving attention and being processed in the short-term memory.

4. If I had to pick something that was the least interesting in the chapter it would probably be the basic discussion of short-term and long-term memory. These parts were only uninteresting to me because they have been discussed to death in many of my other psychology classes, so I didn't learn anything new from those parts of the chapter. This was quickly remedied by the chapter's expansion the subjects though.

5. I think that all of the information from the chapter will be important, as short-term memory is a very important and interesting subject in cognitive psychology. Some of the models and other topics will be more useful than others, such as chunking and the various codes for information in STM.

6. This chapter builds on the information from chapter 3 fairly well, as it adressed storage of information in the brain more in depth. It also expanded a bit on information from chapter 2 regarding cognitive neuroscience and some of the structures in the brain related to short-term and long-term memory, such as the hippocampus in the case of H.M.

7. I would like to learn more about case studies like the one about H.M. involving memory and amnesia. The subject has always been fairly interesting to me and it would be nice to know of other experiments like the mirror reversal task that have been used to study the effect of amnesia on the functioning of people's ability to retain skills.

8. The main thing that I thought about while reading the chapter was how amnesia might effect the various concepts of memory function that were explained. I'm looking forward to reading the chapter next week as I'm hoping that it will discuss the topic in more depth since it will be about long-term memory.

Terms: William James, dualistic model, STM, LTM, immediate/primary memory, indirect/secondary memory, mirror reversal task, hippocampus, amnesia, working memory model, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, central executive

1. One of the things that I found interesting was the primacy-recency effect. It makes perfect sense that the things that you would remember the best are the things that you hear first, because they actually may be committed to you long term memory (LTM), while the things that you hear last are still in your short term memory (STM). It’s one of those things that is perfectly logical, but in science you can’t make those assumptions, so it has to be tested. They test these with a really simple method of just giving people a list of words and having them write down the ones they remember. To explain this idea in intro psych, I remember our teacher doing this experiment and seeing who remembered the most then showing the list of words she had and comparing the two. The person who had the most had the top three or four, and the last six, demonstrating the primacy-recency effect perfectly.
2. Another thing that was interesting was the idea of a working memory. I’ve always thought that it was the magic seven capacity, and that the STM could only hold about seven items. I thought it was really cool to learn about Baddeley’s theory of the phonological loop, and how it isn’t the number of items, but the length of those items. Specifically, the amount of time that it would take to actually say the word out loud, or like most people when they rehearse, the amount of time it takes them to say the words over in their heads as if they were saying them out loud. I found this really cool because I think it explains a common misconception about our memories, and specifically the role of our STM.
3. The final thing in this chapter that has always interested me is the idea of chunking. The best example of this is of course area codes in phone numbers. The area code of a place is three numbers (319 for Cedar Falls, 712 for Council Bluffs where I’m from), however the brain treats it like one. Usually if you are given a list of random numbers or letters then you have to try and remember each individual digit or letter. However, when the brain chunks information, it takes those individuals digits of 7 and 1 and 2, and treats it as one piece of information 712. This is really interesting when you talk about the STM capacity, and how your ability to remember things is greatly increased the less time and more meaning it has while it is still in the working memory.
4. One of the things I found very boring to read about was coding. It was technical, and the process of discovering how it works was arduous and quite honestly too mathematical and monotonous for me to understand or stay focused on.
5. The most useful thing in this chapter relating to overall cognitive psychology I think is retrieval or how we actually use the information in our STM or LTM in our conscious activities. This is one of the most important things because if we understood how memory is stored, and only how it was stored, we would lose so much of our understanding of the human experience by not being able to comprehend how we experience memories. It would also not allow us to study diseases in which individuals lose their ability to either make new memories or retrieve old ones, and we would also most likely not know about decay of memories and so many other valuable ideas about the way the brain is set up.
6. This chapter is all about memory, and although none of the other chapters come right out and say it, almost everything in cognitive psychology relies on our remembering how to perform a certain task like reading, so that we may study the language process. Another big concept that memory is related to is top-down processing, because if we had no capacity to learn and remember then we would have no top-down processing.
7. Something I would like to learn more about is the retrieval process and what problems could arise within that process.
8. One of the major questions I had was how do we know all of this? This text is really good at explaining what we know, but often only briefly tells who discovered the idea and how they went about it. I would really like to understand what kinds of empirical research went into everything that we know about memory.
9. primacy-recency effect, long term memory (LTM), short term memory (STM), working memory, Baddeley’s, phonological loop, rehearse, chunking, coding, retrieval, cognitive psychology, top-down processing

1)William James was the first topic I found interesting in Chapter 5. James made the dualistic model of memory popular when he distinguished between immediate memory and indirect memory. Immediate would also be called primary memory and indirect is secondary memory. Short-term memory (primary memory) is memories only left in the brain for a little while and is not meant to hold on too for a long time. Long-term memory (secondary memory) this is thought of as paths etched into the brain tissue. Waugh and Norman described the relationship as an item entering the primary memory and may be help by rehearsal or forgotten. If rehearsal, it enters secondary memory and becomes part of the permanent memory. We all use our STM and LTM memory everyday. If it’s driving somewhere that you’ve known since you were little or just needing to go pick up milk from a store. This is interesting because everyone has it and it is always nice to learn about a topic that is involved in everyday life.
2)Waugh and Norman’s experiment on primary memory is the next topic I liked. Waugh and Norman wanted to find out if new numbers interfered with old numbers or the time given for the presentation of the lists. The participants were given a list and then a tone given at the end of the list and asked to recall it. They did not know which number would be recalled so there was no chance of studying. They hypothesized the items could decay from memory or replaced. They also presented the numbers every second of quarter second to see if it could be due to the time. In their hypothesis they decided participants should remember more items in the four second as opposed to the one second. In the end the results were about the same for both types saying that decay is more of a cause. I think this is interesting because I would have thought it would be the amount of time you got for these lists as opposed to decay of memory.
3)H.M. and cognitive neuroscience support was a very intriguing case. H.M. had epilepsy who had a bilateral surgical excision. They removed parts of his temporal lobe, this did improve his epilepsy. After the surgery his LTM became nonexistent and his STM was just fine. He could remember everything before the surgery but couldn’t store anything new in his LTM. This is interesting because he could not store anything in his LTM memory but he could improve on the mirror reversal task. Which would be a LTM task to improving you would have to remember doing it many times before. He can learn motor skills but not information.
4)There wasn’t really anything in the chapter that I really didn’t mind. The beginning discussion about STM and LTM were pretty basic. We have heard these things many times before so it wasn’t something that really needed to work on or read a lot about.
5)Everything in this chapter would be useful in cognitive psychology because it is part of everyday life. Thinking about what you are doing during day to day activities. It deals with the brain and thoughts that are kept to store or just for a short period of time.
6)A lot of things we do relies on having to remember how to do it or what we are doing. Every chapter in the book that we have done so far has to do with some sort of remembering something.
7) I would like to learn more about cognitive neuroscience support. I think the case of H.M. was really interesting. It was intriguing that he had no LTM but he could improve on certain tasks.
8)While reading this chapter I thought about not being able to have a LTM memory. I also thought about my own memory and having a LTM and STM. I wanted to know how they know what they know about the brain storing information.
9) dualistic model of memory, short-term memory, long-term memory, bilateral surgical excision, decay, interference

1)William James was the first topic I found interesting in Chapter 5. James made the dualistic model of memory popular when he distinguished between immediate memory and indirect memory. Immediate would also be called primary memory and indirect is secondary memory. Short-term memory (primary memory) is memories only left in the brain for a little while and is not meant to hold on too for a long time. Long-term memory (secondary memory) this is thought of as paths etched into the brain tissue. Waugh and Norman described the relationship as an item entering the primary memory and may be help by rehearsal or forgotten. If rehearsal, it enters secondary memory and becomes part of the permanent memory. We all use our STM and LTM memory everyday. If it’s driving somewhere that you’ve known since you were little or just needing to go pick up milk from a store. This is interesting because everyone has it and it is always nice to learn about a topic that is involved in everyday life.
2)Waugh and Norman’s experiment on primary memory is the next topic I liked. Waugh and Norman wanted to find out if new numbers interfered with old numbers or the time given for the presentation of the lists. The participants were given a list and then a tone given at the end of the list and asked to recall it. They did not know which number would be recalled so there was no chance of studying. They hypothesized the items could decay from memory or replaced. They also presented the numbers every second of quarter second to see if it could be due to the time. In their hypothesis they decided participants should remember more items in the four second as opposed to the one second. In the end the results were about the same for both types saying that decay is more of a cause. I think this is interesting because I would have thought it would be the amount of time you got for these lists as opposed to decay of memory.
3)H.M. and cognitive neuroscience support was a very intriguing case. H.M. had epilepsy who had a bilateral surgical excision. They removed parts of his temporal lobe, this did improve his epilepsy. After the surgery his LTM became nonexistent and his STM was just fine. He could remember everything before the surgery but couldn’t store anything new in his LTM. This is interesting because he could not store anything in his LTM memory but he could improve on the mirror reversal task. Which would be a LTM task to improving you would have to remember doing it many times before. He can learn motor skills but not information.
4)There wasn’t really anything in the chapter that I really didn’t mind. The beginning discussion about STM and LTM were pretty basic. We have heard these things many times before so it wasn’t something that really needed to work on or read a lot about.
5)Everything in this chapter would be useful in cognitive psychology because it is part of everyday life. Thinking about what you are doing during day to day activities. It deals with the brain and thoughts that are kept to store or just for a short period of time.
6)A lot of things we do relies on having to remember how to do it or what we are doing. Every chapter in the book that we have done so far has to do with some sort of remembering something.
7) I would like to learn more about cognitive neuroscience support. I think the case of H.M. was really interesting. It was intriguing that he had no LTM but he could improve on certain tasks.
8)While reading this chapter I thought about not being able to have a LTM memory. I also thought about my own memory and having a LTM and STM. I wanted to know how they know what they know about the brain storing information.
9) dualistic model of memory, short-term memory, long-term memory, bilateral surgical excision, decay, interference

1.A. Brown-Peterson Technique.
1.B. The Brown-Peterson Technique was a method of evaluating how long something could be contained in short term memory. Participants were asked to recall a combination of three letters. However, participants were unable to ‘practice’ or rehearse the letters as a method of prolonging how long they would remember the three letter combination. This was because they would be asked to count backwards from a number immediately afterwards and then latter be asked to recall the letter combination. At the time it would have taken keen knowledge of the area to be able to both hypothesize that rehearsal plays a significant role with respect to memory and invent the methodology to prove it.

2.A. Working Memory Model.
2.B. Working memory is a part of memory where previously stored and novel information can be combined and updated. This model introduces the idea of a phonological loop or area of memory where humans rehearse information. Another facet of the working memory model is the visuospatial sketchpad. As the name may apply the visuospatial sketchpad allows us to remember visual information. Lastly there is the central executive which prioritizes what deserves the most attention between the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad. The text goes on to list references and studies that have showed a neurological/biological basis for this model. I think it’s interesting they have found support for the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop and I would be interested to know if there is similar supporting evidence for the central executive.

3.A. Chunking.
3B. Chunking is most commonly thought of as our brain’s grouping together letters to remember them as one unit instead of many different individual units. For example ROFL is something our brain is likely to chunk since we have previously processed ROFL before. As a result our memory will recognize the letters as a single whole instead of R, O, F and L. I thought this was interesting because it made me wonder what role chunking has to play in making implicit associations and developing stereotypes.

4.A. William James
4.B. William James is noted for conceptualizing memory as existing in two forms, primary and secondary memory. Introspection was instrumental in providing a foundation on which he would theorize primary and secondary memory. I understand this constitutes early academic thinking and postulating about the nature of memory. However, I find that this part of memory’s history is not very interesting. What I found more interesting was reading the methodology that other researchers interested in memory have used.

5. I think the most important thing to remember about the chapter related to understanding cognitive science is rehearsal. It is one factor that influences how long something stays in short term memory. It is an example of one factor likely among many that can influence how and what we remember. As we continue learning about cognitive science it will be important to think of what variables could influence any given model of cognition.

6. Most of the past chapters have focused on how our brain processes the inputs it receives. So for example visual or auditory stimuli being processed in different regions of the brain. Another example is how it is our brain recognizes/interprets objects we see. While past chapters have focused on processing inputs in the context of our senses this one focuses more on how we store and remember what we process.

7. I would like to learn more about the central executive. I would also like to learn more about other cognitive constructs that fulfill a managerial role like the central executive. I find that to be interesting because it seems to be our brains version of the proverbial man behind the curtain, dictating what information needs to be processed when.

8. This chapter made me curious about whether or not the same mechanisms that underlie chunking also play a role in developing stereotypes. It made me curious about what actually happens to information that we do not remember but had in our working memory at one point. It also made me think about where Baddeley & Hitch’s working memory model fits into broader models of cognition.

9.Cognition, memory, working memory, central executive, phonological loop, visuospatial sketchpad, stimuli, inputs, model, chunking, primary memory, secondary memory, rehearse, Brown-Peterson technique

1a) the part about attention and memory
1b) for me i think that it is very important. in my life it is really hard for me to pay attention and with that i don't remember anything. i find that most of the stuff that i remember is through incidental learning

2a) Chunking i thought was pretty neat.
2b) Chunking is when you group things together. its interesting that if you are presented with a list of letters it is harder to remember them than if you were given a list of words. another thing is that if you read a list of letters that have no meaning it is harder to remember than a list of letters that have meaning, like lol ibm csi mtv.
3a) semantic codes
3b) i thought that it was interesting that if you are given on list of things to remember it was easy then if you were given another list of related things it got harder to remember because you mixed the two list together
4a) i liked it all

5) all of it ( if i can remember it all)

6) with visual rec. in the chapter 4 your short term memory works with that.
7a)Chunking i would like to learn more about that other things is how to overcome some retrieval problems
8) just reading about all the ways that we recall things and how we store them in to memory. the thing that i really thought about was how PTSD effects your memory.

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