Psych 230 Final Exam-Questions and Answers
2025/2026 Update | 100% Correct
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
mental health condition that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or
dangerous event
Memory
Retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action or modifying the
structure of behavior
PTSD symptoms
Symptoms: flashbacks, bad dreams, frightening thoughts, avoiding places, events or objects
associated with the traumatic event, and being easily startled, tense, or having difficulty sleeping
Does memory always increase fitness?
No, disorders such as PTSD involve recollection of memories in a way that is not beneficial
Memory research models in humans
Clinical cases, psychophysics, fMRI, EEG
Memory research models in animals
behavioral tasks, lesions, interrupting brain activity, recording brain activity
Short-term memory
,-The capacity for storage of small amounts of information in an accessible state for a short period
of time (seconds)
-Eg, remembering a phone number until writing it down)
What are the different types of memory (memory map)?
Short-term
Long-term: Declarative (episodic, semantic) and Non-declarative (procedural, conditioning)
Miller 1956 Article
Claimed the number of objects a human can hold in short-term memory is 7 土 2
In reality, memory span is not constant and varies for digits, letters, words, etc
Immediate free recall task
Participants were presented with a sequence of items, and after presentation of the final item,
asked to report all items in any order
Finds that the final items are recalled at higher rates, due to the recency effect
Recency effect
Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
Distractor Task
A memory task in which participants are presented briefly with a sequence of items, but
immediately after, the participants are asked to perform a distraction task (e.g., counting down)
before recalling the information.
,By the end of the distraction task, the recent items have been deleted from ST memory,
eliminating the recency effect
working memory
A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves the temporary storage of information
in order to manipulate it (storage + processing)
Examples of working memory
1. Remembering partial results while calculating an addition problem
2. Remembering intermediate argument points that combine into a larger argument
Delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task
A common behavioral test in animal models that measures memory based on objects and
location of the objects
long-term memory
The long-lasting, relatively permanent storage of information, including knowledge, skills, and
experiences
Three stages are encoding, storage, and retrieval
Declarative (explicit) memory
A type of long-term memory you can consciously recall or "declare"
Either episodic "events" or semantic "facts"
episodic memory
A type of long-term declarative memory for past experiences/events
, semantic memory
A type of long-term declarative memory for knowledge and facts
Non-declarative (implicit) memory
A form of long-term memory that is expressed through action, not recollection
Either procedural (how to do something) or conditional (associative learning)
procedural memory
A type of long-term non-declarative memory for the knowledge of how to do something
E.g., Riding a bike
Conditioning memory (associative learning)
A type of long-term non-declarative memory for the association between items
Includes classical and operant conditioning
E.g., green light -> drive, red light -> stop
classical conditioning
Learning through association of stimuli
-Before: Unconditioned stimulus (food presentation) + conditioned stimulus (bell) →
unconditioned response (salivation)
- After: Conditioned stimulus (bell) → conditioned response (salivation)
Who discovered classical conditioning?
Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, who found that dogs salivate in response to the sight of food,
or the approaching person bringing food, or the sound of a bell associated with food
2025/2026 Update | 100% Correct
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
mental health condition that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or
dangerous event
Memory
Retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action or modifying the
structure of behavior
PTSD symptoms
Symptoms: flashbacks, bad dreams, frightening thoughts, avoiding places, events or objects
associated with the traumatic event, and being easily startled, tense, or having difficulty sleeping
Does memory always increase fitness?
No, disorders such as PTSD involve recollection of memories in a way that is not beneficial
Memory research models in humans
Clinical cases, psychophysics, fMRI, EEG
Memory research models in animals
behavioral tasks, lesions, interrupting brain activity, recording brain activity
Short-term memory
,-The capacity for storage of small amounts of information in an accessible state for a short period
of time (seconds)
-Eg, remembering a phone number until writing it down)
What are the different types of memory (memory map)?
Short-term
Long-term: Declarative (episodic, semantic) and Non-declarative (procedural, conditioning)
Miller 1956 Article
Claimed the number of objects a human can hold in short-term memory is 7 土 2
In reality, memory span is not constant and varies for digits, letters, words, etc
Immediate free recall task
Participants were presented with a sequence of items, and after presentation of the final item,
asked to report all items in any order
Finds that the final items are recalled at higher rates, due to the recency effect
Recency effect
Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
Distractor Task
A memory task in which participants are presented briefly with a sequence of items, but
immediately after, the participants are asked to perform a distraction task (e.g., counting down)
before recalling the information.
,By the end of the distraction task, the recent items have been deleted from ST memory,
eliminating the recency effect
working memory
A newer understanding of short-term memory that involves the temporary storage of information
in order to manipulate it (storage + processing)
Examples of working memory
1. Remembering partial results while calculating an addition problem
2. Remembering intermediate argument points that combine into a larger argument
Delayed-match-to-sample (DMS) task
A common behavioral test in animal models that measures memory based on objects and
location of the objects
long-term memory
The long-lasting, relatively permanent storage of information, including knowledge, skills, and
experiences
Three stages are encoding, storage, and retrieval
Declarative (explicit) memory
A type of long-term memory you can consciously recall or "declare"
Either episodic "events" or semantic "facts"
episodic memory
A type of long-term declarative memory for past experiences/events
, semantic memory
A type of long-term declarative memory for knowledge and facts
Non-declarative (implicit) memory
A form of long-term memory that is expressed through action, not recollection
Either procedural (how to do something) or conditional (associative learning)
procedural memory
A type of long-term non-declarative memory for the knowledge of how to do something
E.g., Riding a bike
Conditioning memory (associative learning)
A type of long-term non-declarative memory for the association between items
Includes classical and operant conditioning
E.g., green light -> drive, red light -> stop
classical conditioning
Learning through association of stimuli
-Before: Unconditioned stimulus (food presentation) + conditioned stimulus (bell) →
unconditioned response (salivation)
- After: Conditioned stimulus (bell) → conditioned response (salivation)
Who discovered classical conditioning?
Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov, who found that dogs salivate in response to the sight of food,
or the approaching person bringing food, or the sound of a bell associated with food
