6 - Memory Flashcards
define acquisition
gaining new info and placing into memory, and what we learn depends on what we already know
define working memory
active store using attention and manipulating and organising thoughts whilst maintaining LTM items related to the current task
what does the STM do
pays attention to info in sensory stores
studies on KF found what
verbal STM poor visual fine, LTM unaffected so STM isn’t one unit and STM and LTM have different neural structures
what is LTM encoding
creating memory representations semantically
what is LTM consolidation
making memory representations stable through elaborative rehearsal
define retrieval
reactivating stored and stable memory traces
what are features of working memory
active, limited in size, easy to get info in/out, contents displaced easily when thinking of new topic
what is working memory’s capacity
7 +/-2 but uses phonological loop and central executive
what is working memory operation span
measuring working memory when it’s active through reading span which is # of sentences the last words of can be recalled
what are concurrent articulation tasks
repeating sounds aloud, preventing speech production including subvocalisation
what happens in concurrent articulation tasks
only phonological loop used and span drops to 3-4
what lobe is responsible for artic loop
left parietal
what lobe is responsible for the phon loop
left frontal
what does the artic loop involve
rehearsing in our head what we want to say
what is the phonological similarity effect
recall of characters is harder if there is more phonological similarity
what is a phonological store
passive storage for holding a representation/internal echo of recently heard and self produced sounds which lasts for 1-2 secs
what is subvocalization’s role in the phon store
silent speech maintaining auditory image
describe the visuo-spatial sketchpad
visual cache, inner scribe recreating spatial relationships and creating mental images of new images or items from LTM
what is the episodic buffer’s role
helping central executive organise ingo chronologically
what does the central executive do with info in each stores
organises info into correct stores and determines what’s done with each stores info
how is the central exec linked to LTM
brings items from LTM into consciousness
list 4 other roles of the central exec
cog control
online manipulations
decision making and reasoning
making/implementing plans to reach goals
what did Robbins et al find out about when people were playing chess at the same time as other stuff
random # gen using central exec had worse quality
tapping clockwise using VSS - worse quality
repeating see-saw - no diff compared to control
in the primacy effect, why are we more likely to remember info we’re first exposed to
use rehearsal so transferred to LTM but as more info arrives, attention is split to memorise so so later info rehearsed less
what increases the primacy effect
familiar and common words
why do we remember things better with the recency effect
because it’s already in working memory and are thinking about it
why is information in working memory readily available
no more info incoming to displace it
how do nonsense trigrams reflect the serial position effect
backwards counting eliminates recency effect so found that earliest words had highest recall when counting and earli/latest words had highest recall when not counting
what effect would slowing down the list of presentation have
WM unaffected as it’s about capacity not duration so words exposed to earlier are recalled less
3 types of memory
episodic, semantic, implicit
4 types of implicit memory
procedural, priming, perceptual learning, classical conditioning
what is perceptual learning
perceptual systems recalibrating due to new experiences
what is priming
changes in perceptions and belief due to previous experiences
describe lexical-decision task
being shown words then given string of letters to decide if word or not
RT faster if related to previously presented words, showing memorisation without awareness
describe what HM’s memory was like
normal WM but couldn’t make new episodic/semantic memories but could learn new implicit ones
how is Corsi block tapping used to measure visuo-spatial memory
repeating sequence of taps of blocks without numbers
normal span 5-7
describe mirror drawing and HM
reduced errors over days he practiced when doing drawing only being able to see hand in mirror reflection
describe fragmented pictures and HM
fragmented pictures recognised better after practice and made few errors for each block but remembered task done before
what is dysexecutive syndrome
damage to PFC leading to cog control and central exec processing abilities to be lost
what regions are responsible for encoding as shown by a study
medial temporal lobes, including hippocampi/amygdale as more activity for remembered words at encoding
what study was used to test consolidation
presenting famous faces from recent to old decades found more neural activity in MTL for recent decade faces as less consolidated
what is the hippocampus important for
holding spatial/temporal context for episodic memories
in amnesiacs, what type of memory is damaged
explicit as hippocampus damaged since patients feared blue light associated w loud sound as felt fear but couldn’t recall the light’s colour
what brain structure is important for implicit memory
amygdala as patients with this damage had no fear response to blue light but recalled light’s colour
results from visuo-spatial sketchpad research where a probe appeared after a delay and parts asked if it was in the same place as the target
visual cortex activity during delay and early visual activity enhanced when holding location in spatial WM on brain side corresponding to the side
define amnesia
specific loss/impairment in LTM without loss in general intelligence or other cog function, usually after a stroke, accident, or neurological disease
what type of amnesia is most common
anterograde w varying degrees of retrograde
what does brain damage affect
learning/encoding of some memory types but not others
in anterograde amnesia, what is affected
explicit not implicit
what is the temporal gradient of retrograde amnesia
most recent memories most easily forgotten, and this is measured using famous faces task
focal retrograde amnesia is what
retrograde amnesia without anterograde amnesia
what happened to KC’s memory
had antero and retro but confined to episodic memories shown by learning new terminology but not remembering people or events during the time learning it
why is there a distinction between the episodic and semantic memory typrs
different processes for learning these memory types which we know isn’t due to time and exposure
