2. memoria Flashcards
how can we determine any underlying structure to the human memory system
in cognitive psychology, this is done by the study of:
-normal controls
-patients with memory impairments
what is the case of clive wearing
he does not remember writing something earlier the same day
but he can remember how to play the piano/organ
what did the free recall task demonstrate
S is presented with a list of words at a fixed pace
either immediately or after a set of delay, S is asked to recall the words in any order
recall can be plotted as a function of a word’s position in the original learning list
classic U-shaped serial position curve with three elements to it
what are the 3 elements
primacy effect
asymptote
recency effect
what have the findings suggested
primacy and asymptote reflect retrieval from a long-term memory
recency reflects an effortless retrieval from short-term memory
what is the modal model of memory
Atkinson and Shiffrin developed the influential Modal Model of memory due to the mounting evidence for a distinction between long and short-term memory
sensory information comes in from the environment and is sent to short term store and information reaches long term store through rehearsal
how was the distinction between LTS and STS hypothesised
distinction was supported by evidence regarding:
-differences in duration of trace
-differences in capacity
-differences in coding
-neuropsychological evidence from amnesia
what is neuropsychological evidence
HM - a 19 year old American man underwent surgery removing bilaterally his medial temporal lobes
anterograde amnesia - problems in laying down new long-term memories
how was HM’s performance on tests
on digit probe and digit span tasks he was normal
intact recency indistinguishable from that of normal controls
but primacy effect is worse
why is the modal model wrong
modal model would suggest that any problems in STM would result in difficulties in transferring information to LTM
what is neuropsychological evidence against the Modal model
KF suffered head injury
KF had bad STM but intact LTM
so what is the double dissociation in memory
HM - ok STM, bad LTM
KF - bad STM, ok LTM
what is the difference between procedural memory and declarative memory
procedural memory - skill based memory
declarative memory - fact based memory
how can be procedural memory
skill based memory can be assessed by a large range of tasks:
-closure pictures
-mirror drawing
-tower of Hanoi
what was HM’s performance on the mirror drawing task
on 1st attempt he made 30 errors
on 10th attempt 5 errors
by the 30th attempt he was making little to no errors
what was found about procedural memory
skills learnt before onset of amnesia are intact as is the ability to learn new skills
so procedural memory is intact in amnesia
since patients have no memory of learning these skills, their declarative memory must therefore be impaired
is all declarative memory impaired
no. there is selective parts f declarative memory that have been lost in amnesia
this can be in terms of:
- from which points in time memory loss has occurred
-what forms of knowledge are inacessible
from which points in time memory loss has occurred
retrograde amnesia - memory loss for events experienced before the onset of amnesia
anterograde amnesia - impairment in learning/retaining info following the onset of amnesia
what is medial temporal lobe amnesia
anterograde amensia - inability to form new explicit (declarative) memories after the damahe
retrograde amnesia - memory for events closer to the time of injury is often impaired, while older memories (from years before the injury) are relatively preserved
procedural learning, like skills remains intact since these rely on other brain areas
example HM
what is focal retrograde amnesia
retrograde amnesia - patients lose access to memories from their past
no anterograde amnesia - ability to form new memories is intact
what are distinctions within declarative memory
episodic memory - memory for events
semantic memory - memory for facts
what is evidence for semantic and episodic memory
good performance by amensics on tests of intellgience such as the Wechsler adult intelligence test
e.g. NA scored 103 on this 3 years after his brain injury - good semantic memory
bad episodic memory (patterns of retrograde and anterograde amnesia)
is there a valid distinction between episodic and semantic memory
the idea that the semantic system seems to be intact comes from seeing normal performance on general intelligence tests
however, much of this info is acquired early on in life - even if amnesics have retrograde amnesia, it tends to spare the early year of life
how intact is an amnesic’s stored semantic memory
studied PZ, a professor who had become amnesic as a result of Korsakoff’s Syndrome - severe chronic alcoholism that results in brain damage
had written an autobiography before the onset of amnesia - a record exists of what the patient knew up to that point
knowledge of famous scientists (semantic memory) that PZ is known to have been familiar with is very impaired
