Psych 230 finals prep-Questions and Answers
2025/2026 Update | 100% Correct
Howard Eichenbaum
Odors and memory are strongly associated w/ nostalgia
Memory
Ability to learn and form memories to improve our future performance.
-Improves fitness, but not always in case of disorders
PTSD
Develops from traumatic event. Symptoms: flashbacks, bad dreams, avoidance of places, easily
startled, difficulty sleeping.
Proves memory is not always beneficial. Understanding can help us treat PTSD + other memory
related diseases
Studying memory in Human vs. Animal models
Humans: Clinical Cases (injuries, stroke, tumor), Psychophysics (measure reactions), fMRI &
EEG (imaging brain activity)
Animals: behavorial tasks, lesions (can inflict them), interrupting and modeling brain activity
Memory Subcategories
Short-term Memory
Capacity for storage of information in an accessible state for a short period of time (seconds)
Working Memory
,Involves temporary storage of information in order to manipulate it. Storage and processing.
Ex) remembering partial results while calculating an addition problem; remembering
intermediate arguments that combine into a lengthy one
Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
-1956 article by George A. Miller
-Claimed number of objects humans can hold in short term memory is 7 +/- 2.
-Later research reveled memory span is not constant, varies for digits, letters, words, etc. Lower
for longer words vs. shorter words.
Intermediate free recall task
Participants presented w/ sequence of items, then asked to report all items in any order.
Recency effect: final few items are reported w/ higher probability due to items still in the short-
term memory.
Delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task
Monkey views an object on the monitor, then item goes away. Another item is presented. If new
object matches the old, the monkey presses a lever. If different it does not press.
-Common behavioral test in animal models.
Delayed-not-match-to-sample (DNMS) task
Animal reports if objects are different by pressing the lever. If they are the same, does not press.
Long-Term Memory
,-Lasting storage of information
- Encoding > Storage > Retrieval
consolidation reconsolidation, extinction
Consolidation: forming of new memories
Reconsolidation: memories altered after formed
Extinction: memories fade out/away
Declarative (explicit)
A memory you can consciously recall, or "declare"
Non-declarative (implicit)
A memory that is expressed through action, not recollection.
-Procedural memory
-Conditioning (associative learning)
-Classical Conditioning, Fear Conditioning
-Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditoning)
Procedural Memory
Knowledge of how to do something
Ex) riding a bike
Conditioning (associative learning)
Association between items
Ex) when driving, red light means stop and green means go
Classical Conditioning
, Pavlov, Russian physiologist, originally studied how the nervous system controls digestion.
-Found that dogs salivate in response to the sight of food, and started salivating to sound of
footsteps. Eventually started salivating to bell sound.
-Initially: Bell (CS) > Food (US) > Salivation (UR)
-After: Bell (CS) > Salivation (CR)
Pavlov's Dogs Experiment
Fear Conditioning
Mouse placed inside cage. A sound occurs before a mild foot shock on the floor. After a few
times, the sound exhibits freezing behavior (fear) from mouse.
-US: electric foot shock
-CS: Tone (sound)
-UCR: freeze/jump to the shock
-CR: Freezing/jump to the tone
*Common paradigm of classical conditioning
Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
Learning through reward and punishment.
-A mouse is put until enclosure that leads to 2 rooms, one with food and the other that shocks
them. Learns to go to the food room more by positive reinforcement (the food) then the other
room which has shocks.
Classical vs. Instrumental Conditioning
2025/2026 Update | 100% Correct
Howard Eichenbaum
Odors and memory are strongly associated w/ nostalgia
Memory
Ability to learn and form memories to improve our future performance.
-Improves fitness, but not always in case of disorders
PTSD
Develops from traumatic event. Symptoms: flashbacks, bad dreams, avoidance of places, easily
startled, difficulty sleeping.
Proves memory is not always beneficial. Understanding can help us treat PTSD + other memory
related diseases
Studying memory in Human vs. Animal models
Humans: Clinical Cases (injuries, stroke, tumor), Psychophysics (measure reactions), fMRI &
EEG (imaging brain activity)
Animals: behavorial tasks, lesions (can inflict them), interrupting and modeling brain activity
Memory Subcategories
Short-term Memory
Capacity for storage of information in an accessible state for a short period of time (seconds)
Working Memory
,Involves temporary storage of information in order to manipulate it. Storage and processing.
Ex) remembering partial results while calculating an addition problem; remembering
intermediate arguments that combine into a lengthy one
Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two
-1956 article by George A. Miller
-Claimed number of objects humans can hold in short term memory is 7 +/- 2.
-Later research reveled memory span is not constant, varies for digits, letters, words, etc. Lower
for longer words vs. shorter words.
Intermediate free recall task
Participants presented w/ sequence of items, then asked to report all items in any order.
Recency effect: final few items are reported w/ higher probability due to items still in the short-
term memory.
Delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task
Monkey views an object on the monitor, then item goes away. Another item is presented. If new
object matches the old, the monkey presses a lever. If different it does not press.
-Common behavioral test in animal models.
Delayed-not-match-to-sample (DNMS) task
Animal reports if objects are different by pressing the lever. If they are the same, does not press.
Long-Term Memory
,-Lasting storage of information
- Encoding > Storage > Retrieval
consolidation reconsolidation, extinction
Consolidation: forming of new memories
Reconsolidation: memories altered after formed
Extinction: memories fade out/away
Declarative (explicit)
A memory you can consciously recall, or "declare"
Non-declarative (implicit)
A memory that is expressed through action, not recollection.
-Procedural memory
-Conditioning (associative learning)
-Classical Conditioning, Fear Conditioning
-Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditoning)
Procedural Memory
Knowledge of how to do something
Ex) riding a bike
Conditioning (associative learning)
Association between items
Ex) when driving, red light means stop and green means go
Classical Conditioning
, Pavlov, Russian physiologist, originally studied how the nervous system controls digestion.
-Found that dogs salivate in response to the sight of food, and started salivating to sound of
footsteps. Eventually started salivating to bell sound.
-Initially: Bell (CS) > Food (US) > Salivation (UR)
-After: Bell (CS) > Salivation (CR)
Pavlov's Dogs Experiment
Fear Conditioning
Mouse placed inside cage. A sound occurs before a mild foot shock on the floor. After a few
times, the sound exhibits freezing behavior (fear) from mouse.
-US: electric foot shock
-CS: Tone (sound)
-UCR: freeze/jump to the shock
-CR: Freezing/jump to the tone
*Common paradigm of classical conditioning
Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
Learning through reward and punishment.
-A mouse is put until enclosure that leads to 2 rooms, one with food and the other that shocks
them. Learns to go to the food room more by positive reinforcement (the food) then the other
room which has shocks.
Classical vs. Instrumental Conditioning
