6: Memory 2 Flashcards
What are the two types of long term memory?
Declarative: (What) Conscious and explicit
Split into episodic and semantic
Non-declarative: (How) Unconscious and procedural
What is declarative memory?
Knowing what
Conscious and explicit
Split into episodic and semantic
What can declarative memory be split into?
Episodic: Events
Semantic: Facts
What is non-declarative memory?
Knowing how
Procedural skills such as riding a bike
Once learnt, they require few cogntiive recourses
No flexability
What is semantic memory?
Part of our declarative memory
Knowledge relating to facts and concepts
Includes chunks of information about objects
Not related to specific experiances
What are cores of schemas?
The constant information on a subject
What are the slots of schemas?
Variable information about a subject such as the fact that rooms can have a variable number of windows
What is a script?
A situational schema which allows us to fill in the blanks of what we expect to happen in certain situations
What is episodic memory?
A type of declariative memory involved with remembering specific events
Develops later, deteriorates easily
What are semantic networks
Our schemas are in a pyramid/web where they inherit traits from the heading before. The more complex the specific item, the longer retreival time
(If animals was the catergory, it would be at the top of the pyramid)
What are the issues with semantic networks?
Familiarity effect: Familiar terms are verifyed faster, no matter where they are in the higherarchy
Typicality effect: Some objects are more typical of a catergory so are recalled faster
What is habituation?
The progressive extinction of behaviour in response to repeated, harmless stimulation
What is sensation?
The magnification of behaviour in response to meaningful stimulation
Such as when a loud noise wakes us up, we’re more alert to other stimuli
What is priming?
Something that makes a person sensative or more likely to behave a certain way
Often processed unconsciously
What is amnesia?
A deficit in memory either psychological or phsiological
Declarative memory is impaired but not non-declarative
What is retrograde amnesia?
When past knowledge is lost
What is anterograde amnesia?
When we lose the ability to form new memories
Who is Clive Wearing?
Has severe reterograde and anterograde amnesia but an intact procedural memory
The only person he recognises is his wife
What did Hamann and Squire find about patients with amnesia?
They were impaired on declarative tasks but not procedural which shows a double dissociation between the two memory systems
What is the role of the hippocampus in memory?
Consolidation of information from short to long term memory
The more consolidated a memory is, the less it relies on the hippocampus
What is the role of the amygdala in memory?
Involved in emotion processing and fear conditioning which affects the strength of memories
What is synaptic consolidation?
Synaptic connections become stronger after learning something new
What is systems consolidation?
Storage of the memory moves from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex
What is the effect of hippocampal damage on memory?
They can’t remember recent events but can still remember older things
How long can it take for a memory to move from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex?
Weeks to years
How is sleep linked to the consolidation of new memories?
Synaptic connections are strengthened during sleep
Sleep deprivation decreases memory performance
What are some criticisms of studies of sleep and memory consolidation?
Timing between recall and learning differs between experimental groups
We don’t know if the effects are due to sleep or time
It could be changes in hormone levels during sleep
