Chapter 7: Memory
Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary
Here are some more American idioms, words used with figurative meanings, and other vocabulary items that you may not be familiar with. Match each item in column A with the appropriate meaning given in column B. If you are unsure, look at the sentence context given below. Remember that words may have different meanings in different contexts. The meanings given here are appropriate for the contexts from your textbook, but in different contexts the words in question might have different meanings. Answers are given in the answer key on pages 55-56.
COLUMN A / COLUMN Ba. time warp / 1. to disappear slowly
b. to tiptoe / 2. to arrive in a large amount or quantity
c. to slip away / 3. to walk on the balls of the feet and the toes, with the heels raised
d. fuzzy / 4. a police photograph of a suspect’s face or profile
e. to dredge up / 5. to be close to remembering something
f. to blank out / 6. to have a temporary memory failure
g. pioneer / 7. unclear or imprecise
h. to cram / 8. to attempt to learn a large amount of material in a short amount of time
i. to have something on the tip of one’s tongue / 9. to discover or recover something by deep searching
j. makeup / 10. composition; organization; the way parts of something are put together
k. to tie something in with / 11. to relate something to (something else)
l. to make up / 12. one of the first people to do something
m. staged / 13. artificially arranged; not real or actual
n. mug shot / 14. a discontinuity in time or a suspension of the passage of time
o. lineup / 15. a line of persons arranged especially for identification by police
p. to flood / 16. to invent; to create
Sentence context
a. He remains trapped in his own personal time warp. (p. 235)
b. The details surrounding the death were always rather vague for Elizabeth, but she did remember her mother’s tiptoed visit the evening before her death, the quick hug and whispered “I love you.” (p. 235)
c. Participants generally recalled only 4 or 5 letters but insisted they had seen more letters before the memory slipped away. (p. 238)
d. However, later research suggests that sensory memory does have its limits and that the stored images are fuzzier than was once thought. (p. 238)
e. The questions provide only relatively general cues that ask you to dredge up and organize your memories on a particular topic. (p. 249)
f. If you’ve ever become so anxious that you “blanked out” during an exam or public speech, you understand that emotions can also interfere with both the formation and retrieval of memories. (p. 252)
g. These questions have been important issues in psychology ever since Hermann Ebbinghaus, a pioneer memory researcher who often used himself as his only subject, first introduced the experimental study of learning and forgetting in 1885. (p. 254)
h. In addition to studying in noisy places where attention is easily diverted and interference is maximized, they often try to memorize too much at one time by “cramming” the night before an exam. (p. 255)
i. One of the most common experiences of retrieval failure is called the tip-of-the-tongue (TOT) phenomenon¾ the feeling that at any second, a word or event you are trying to remember will pop out from the “tip of your tongue.”. (p. 260)
j. Some experts believe the cause of AD is primarily genetic, but others suggest genetic makeup may make some people more susceptible to environmental triggers. (pp. 261-262)
k. You summarized, augmented, and tied it in with related memories you have in LTM. (p. 263)
l. She had made up the whole story, faking the scratches. (p. 264)
m. For example, in an experiment at the University of Nebraska, participants watched people committing a staged crime. (p. 264)
n. About an hour later they were asked to pick out suspects from mug shots, and a week later, from a lineup. (p. 264)
o. About an hour later they were asked to pick out suspects from mug shots, and a week later, from a lineup. (p. 264)
p. Do additional memories come flooding back when triggered by others’ recollections? (p. 266)
Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar
In English, we generally distinguish two types of questions -- yes/no questions and information or “wh-questions.” In this chapter, we will review yes/no questions, which have this name because they can generally be answered with either a simple “yes” or “no.” To see how these questions are formed, study the following three groups of questions.
1. Questions with a form of the verb be as a main verb.
Is anyone really born with a good or bad memory?
Aren’t eyewitnesses reliable?
Was the memory repressed?
2. Questions with a modal or auxiliary verb
Can all people improve their memories?
Is eyewitness testimony given much credit?
Shouldn’t courts of law discredit eyewitness testimony?
Have you ever suddenly remembered something you had forgotten?
3. Questions which require a form of the do auxiliary
Doesn’t the seven-digit capacity limit our short-term memory?
Do you remember only unusual occurrences?
Did your memory change over time?
Notice that in the first two categories, the question is formed by placing the verb be or the modal/auxiliary verb first. The modal and auxiliary verbs are followed by the infinitive or the past participle. All other verbs require a do-auxiliary, as we see in the third set of examples. This do-auxiliary is followed by the infinitive form of a verb, without the “to”.
Read the following account of an eyewitness experiment which Elizabeth Loftus performed. For each sentence in the account, write a yes/no question which you could ask the people who participated in the experiment. When you are finished, you can check your answers in the answer key section.
(1) A red car was driving down the street. (2) It approached an intersection. (3) At the intersection there was a yield sign. (4) No other car was at the scene. (5) The red car didn’t slow down at the sign. (6) The driver should have yielded. (7) The driver made a right-hand turn. (8) She wasn’t paying attention. (9) She hit a pedestrian. (10) The pedestrian was badly injured.
MODEL: This experiment deals with eyewitness observations.
Does this experiment deal with eyewitness observations?
1. ______
2. ______
3. ______
4. ______
5. ______
6. ______
7. ______
8. ______
9. ______
10. ______
Finding key information
Throughout this textbook, the authors describe psychological experiments which have been carried out by researchers in the field. For each experiment reported, you should be able to identify four key elements: the research question, the experimental conditions, the results of each condition, and the researcher’s answer to this question. Reread the section on page 264 in which Elizabeth Loftus’ classic experiment on eyewitness reliability is recounted. Study the following pattern which shows the four key elements of this experiment:
RESEARCH QUESTION: Is eyewitness testimony reliable?EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #1
Subjects were asked how fast the car was going when it passed the barn. / EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #2
Subjects were asked how fast the car was going; no mention was made of a barn.
RESULT OF CONDITION #1
Six times as many subjects reported seeing a barn. / RESULT OF CONDITION #2
Six times fewer subjects reported seeing a barn.
ANSWER TO THE RESEARCH QUESTION: Memories can be easily altered. Eyewitness testimony is not highly reliable.
Reread the section in your textbook on page 241 which discusses learning new skills while asleep. Study it to locate the four key elements of the experiment. Then fill in the chart which follows with the relevant information in the answer key section.
RESEARCH QUESTION:EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #1 / EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #2 / EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #3
RESULT OF CONDITION #1 / RESULT OF CONDITION #2 / RESULT OF CONDITION #3
ANSWER TO THE RESEARCH QUESTION:
Examining structural clues
Authors of academic textbooks often organize information by describing a process or sequence. It is easy to recognize this type of organization within a text since there are clues in the language which alert you to the fact that a process is being described. Study the following clues:
One clue to initially identifying a process or sequence is the use of time adverbials such as first, then, next, second, third, fourth, finally, later, or eventually. These same adverbials not only signal that a process or sequence is being described, but they can also mark steps in that sequence or process.
Information first enters through sensory memory then passes into short-term memory.
Herman Ebbinghaus calculated the amount of time it took him to learn and then later relearn a list containing nonsense syllables.
After Ebbinghaus memorized lists of nonsense syllables until he knew them perfectly, he retested his memory at regular intervals.
He found that 1 hour after he knew a list perfectly, he remembered only 44 percent of the syllables. A day later, he recalled 35 percent, and a week later only 21 percent.
The brain will eventually find a solution to an unfinished problem.
Another clue is the use of adverbial clauses which are introduced by a time adverbial such as when, before, after, or once:
Sperling rapidly flashed this three-letter-by-four-letter matrix on a screen. Immediately after the letters flashed off, he asked the participants to recall the letters.
Once information has been stored in long-term memory, it must be transferred to short-term memory before it can be used again.
When memories move from STM to LTM, they become less fragile.
Locate 5 sentences in this chapter which indicate a sequence in time and write them below. Study them to see which of the above patterns they illustrate. (Hint: you can look at Jean Piaget’s account of his first memory, on pages 263-264, for some examples.)
1. ______
______
2. ______
______
3. ______
______
4. ______
______
5. ______
______
Answer key
Testing your knowledge of idioms and other vocabulary
a. 14; / b. 3; / c. 1; / d. 7; / e. 9; / f. 6; / g. 12; / h. 8; / i. 5; / j. 10; / k. 11; / l. 16;m. 13; / n. 4; / o. 15; / p. 2
Reviewing your knowledge of English grammar
1. Was a red car driving down the street?
2. Did it approach an intersection?
3. Was there a yield sign at the intersection?
4. Was there another car at the scene?
5. Did the red car slow down at the sign?
6. Should the driver have yielded?
7. Did the driver make a right-hand turn?
8. Wasn’t she paying attention? OR Was she paying attention?
9. Did she hit a pedestrian?
10. Was the pedestrian badly injured?
Finding key information
Can you learn new skills while you sleep?
EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #1
The subjects were in a drowsy state. / EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #2
The subjects were in a transitional state. / EXPERIMENTAL CONDITION #3
The subjects were asleep.
RESULT OF CONDITION #1
The subjects could remember 50% of the material. / RESULT OF CONDITION #2
The subjects could remember 5% of the material. / RESULT OF CONDITION #3
The subjects could not remember any of the material.
ANSWER TO THE RESEARCH QUESTION:
You cannot learn while asleep. Proper transfer and storage of information requires an alert, attentive mind
Examining structural clues
Answers will vary.
Handbook for Non-Native Speakers -48-