PSYC100 Workbook: Week 10 Activity Sem 1, 2023

Name:___________________________________________
Class (day/time):__________________________________
Thursday; 4:00 pm

Week 10 Activity
This activity relates to Memory and Sensation and Perception. Refer to Lectures 6,
7 and 9 and
Bernstein et al. Chapters 4 and 7

Task 1: Memory - complete all questions prior to your tutorial.

1. Reflection task: Imagine what life would be like if humans had no memory. How different

would life be and why?

Memory plays a vital role in many aspects of our mental processes, including learning, perception, attention, and
decision-making. If humans had no memory, life as we know it would have drastically different and challenging
experiences.

Without memory, our ability to learn and acquire new skills would be severely limited, making it difficult to adapt to
new situations or environments.
Our ability to perceive the world around us would also be affected, as we rely on past experiences to interpret and
make sense of new information.

Memory also plays a crucial role in decision-making, as we draw on past experiences to guide our choices and
evaluate potential outcomes. Without this ability, our decision-making would be based purely on instinct or
guesswork, which could lead to dangerous situations.

From a social and emotional perspective, life without memory would be extremely isolating. Our ability to form and
maintain relationships is closely tied to our ability to remember past interactions and experiences. Without
memory, we would struggle to recognise friends and family, and our sense of identity and connection to others
would be greatly diminished.
2. Explain how information can be “forgotten”.

Forgetting refers to the inability to retrieve or recall previously learned information. There are several psychological theories
and mechanisms that explain how information can be forgotten. Some theories include:
1. Decay Theory: Memory leads to changes in synaptic connections. If these connections are activated, they will trigger the
memory. However, these changes fade when not used which results in forgetting. According to this theory, memories that
are not used or retrieved on a regular basis gradually become weaker and less accessible, eventually leading to forgetting.

2. Interference Theory: When storage or retrieval of information is impaired by the presence of other information. This theory
proposes that forgetting occurs due to interference from other memories that compete for the same mental resources. This
can be a result of proactive interference (when previously learned information interferes with new learning), or retroactive
interference (when newly learned information interferes with previously learned information.)

3. Motivated Forgetting: This theory suggests that people forget information that is emotionally or psychologically painful or
threatening. This can occur through repression, which is the unconscious blocking of unwanted memories, or suppression,
which is the conscious effort to push unwanted memories out of consciousness. This may occur implicitly (unintentionally)
or explicitly (intentionally

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PSYC100 Workbook: Week 10 Activity Sem 1, 2023
3. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate term from the list of terms below.

Short Term Memory

Anterograde amnesia

Prospective Memory

Episodic Memory

Schema

Semantic networks

Procedural knowledge

Proactive inhibition

Proactive Inhibition
a. _____________________________occurs when information previously learnt reduces the
recall of subsequently learned material.

b. Procedural Knowledge
Our learned actions and skills form our_________________________________________.

Semantic Networks
c. __________________________________are comprised of networks of associations among
concepts.

Anterograde Amnesia
d. __________________________________involves the loss of memories for events that occur
after the onset of amnesia.

Episodic Memory
e. ________________________________ is used when explaining to a friend what happened last
night.
Short-Term Memory
f. ___________________________________ is used to store a phone number that you that you just
heard before entering it into your mobile phone.

Shema
g. ______________________________ are organized clusters of knowledge about a particular
object or event abstracted from previous experience.

Prospetive Memory
h. _______________________________ allows us to remember to buy a loaf of bread on the way
home from uni.

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PSYC100 Workbook: Week 10 Activity Sem 1, 2023

Task 2: Sensation and Perception - complete all questions prior to your tutorial.
1. Explain the difference between sensation and perception.
Sensation and perception are two terms that are closely related to each other, but they are
not the same thing.

- Sensation refers to the initial detection of sensory information from the environment.

- Perception, refers to the process of organising and interpreting input .

Sensation is the first step in the perceptual process, in which our sensory receptors and
nervous system receive and detect stimuli from the environment, such as light, sound,
taste, or touch

Perception, on the other hand, is the higher-level cognitive process that allows us to make
sense of the world around us. It is the way that our brain takes the raw sensory input and
translates it into meaningful experiences, such as recognising an object or identifying a
sound

2. Explain why the man in the right image looks much larger than the man in the left image, despite
being the same size.

https://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/gif/per2.gif

This is a result of perceptual constancy: the phenomenon in which our brain

maintains a stable perception of an object's properties, such as its shape, size,
colour and brightness, despite changes in the retinal image (Bernstein, 2021).

Size constancy is a type of perceptual constancy that refers to our ability to

perceive an object as maintaining its size. This is achieved through a combination
of sensory information and cognitive processing.

Size constancy occurs when the brain perceives a change in the distance of an
object and automatically adjusts its perception of size

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PSYC100 Workbook: Week 10 Activity Sem 1, 2023
3. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate term from the list of terms below.

Synaesthesia
Top-down
Cones
Retinal disparity
Bottom-up
Rods

top-down
a. We are using ___________________ processing when higher level cognitive processes and expectations

guide recognition of objects.

rods
b. Each found with the retina, _____________ cones
are much more sensitive to light than _____________.

bottom-up
c. We are using ____________________processing when the recognition of objects first depends on the

stimulus received from sensations.

d. Julie says that she “sees” colours when she experiences a touch on her skin. Julie is experiencing

synaesthesia
__________________.

retinal disparity
e. The depth cues that comes from the different view each eye has of the world is known as __________.

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 PSYC100 Workbook: Week 10 Activity Sem 1, 2023
Mark (out of 2)
Criteria 0 1 2
Content All questions have been attempted but the answers All or almost all questions have been correctly
Limited or no response to questions
are too brief and/or incomplete answered

Answers are vague

Some questions have been adequately addressed,
whilst answers to others are missing or incomplete

Answers are incorrect

Written expression
Inappropriate language Expression is generally adequate Expression is clear and concise

Spelling mistakes Answers may lack clarity at times Answers have a logical structure

Use of incomplete sentences Answers may be poorly structured

Collusion / plagiarism