2:3 Memory Flashcards
Describe Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of Memory (1968).
It involved a route into long-term memory:
- Different senses enter sensory-specific stores for a brief time.
- - Vision, audition. - Sense then enter the short-term store (STS), where they might be rehearsed.
- - Rehearsal, coding, decisions. - They are transferred into long-term stores (LTS) or we lose them or they become displaced if we fail to practice them enough.
- - Permanent memory.
** Modal Model: The route to the long-term memory is always through the short-term memory
What two findings did Shallice and Warrington make on memory?
- Short-term and long-term memory do not use the same neural structures as each other.
- There can’t be a sequential route from short to long-term memory. Otherwise, any impairment in short-term memory would prevent somebody possessing a normal long-term memory store.
Who developed the model of working memory?
Baddeley and Hitch (1974).
Give an example of a dual-task study of a central executive.
Studying two independent short-term stores:
- Verbal information.
Eg. the phonological store or loop. - Visuo-spatial info.
Eg. material on sketch pad.
The central executive organizes the correct type of material into the correct store.
- If two tasks use the same parts of the working memory, they cannot be carried out well at the same time.
- If two tasks use different parts, they should be successfully completed accurately.
What’s another term for our phonological store?
Verbal working memory (VWM).
In which brain area is verbal memory stored?
Left parietal.
In which brain area are neural correlates of articulatory loops stored?
Left frontal.
Is also Broca’s area, involved in speech production.
Holding a location in spatial working memory involves priming visual activity in parts of the cortex that correspond to:
- The item’s location in the world.
- Also overlaps with the attention process.
Eg: Right-hemisphere parietal regions are required for spatial working memory and for spatial attention.
Describe three Central Executive functions:
- Decides what information should go into the different stores.
- Organizes which store the information should go to.
- Used to inspect, transform, or manipulate the information being held in the stores.
What are two distinct processes of long-term memory?
Explicit (declarative) memory.
- Can consciously access and explain.
Implicit (non-declarative) memory.
- Cannot describe or define.
Skills we’ve learned, like catching a ball or priming, are examples of which type of long-term memory?
Implicit.
They are not accessed through any conscious recollection.
What is retrograde amnesia?
A loss of memory before the event that caused amnesia.
Rare.
What is anterograde amnesia?
Loss of ability to create new memories.
But able to remember people and events from before the operation or event that caused amnesia.
More common.
Removal of which parts of the brain would cause anterograde amnesia?
Medial temporal lobes and hippocampus.
Eg. Famous study of patient HM but Brenda Milner –> HM’s working memory was normal but long-term memory could not be improved and no new explicit memories could be made.
What two types of memories fall under long-term explicit memories?
- Episodic (events and experiences).
2. Semantic (facts).
