9: Memory Part 1 Flashcards
What is the relationship between memory and learning?
- Learning: acquires new info, makes new synaptic connections
- Memory: outcome of learning, how new info is stored in brain and reactivated
- CAN’T be separated
Describe the Atkinson and Shiffrin model of memory.
sensory inputs –> sensory register –>with attention becomes short term storage –> with rehearsal becomes long term storage
iconic memory
- visual
- < 1 sec
- a flash on retina
- if we close our eyes, we can sort of see it
echoic memory
- auditory
- about 3 sec
- we stored what was say at the beginning for a few secs
sensory memory duration, capacity
- brief transient
- 1 second
- Duration: iconic and echoic
- capacity: high
STM duration and capacity
- seconds to minutes
- capacity: limited ; 7 +/- 2
LTM duration and capacity
- 1 hr to lifetime
- capacity: high
What is working memory? Describe a lateralization theory of working memory.
- A limited capacity store for retaining information over the short term (Maintenance) and for performing mental operations on the contents of this store (Manipulation)
- More active form of short term memory
-May have hemispheric specialization:
○ Left hemisphere = Phonological loop
○ Right hemisphere = Visuospatial sketchpad
Describe a lateralization theory of working memory.
- Working memory tends to happen in left hemisphere (verbal memory)
- Right hemisphere = maintain orientation of something (spatial memory)
How many pieces of information can be held in short-term memory?
- 7 +/- 2
- 7 numbers, 7 words, 7 pics
- Meaning we can remember 5 to 9 things at once
what is chunking
EX: 9168076528
- 916 is a common area code so we group things into groups of three
- Turning it into 3 chunks instead of numbers
- grouping things together to remember better
LTM subdivisions
- explicit (declarative)
- implicit (nondeclarative)
explicit
-memories we are conscious about and can talk/ explain
- declarative
- intentional
implicit
- memories we are unconscious about and can’t explain
- nondeclarative
implicit is ______ (declaritve; nondeclarativez) while explicit is _____ (declaritve; nondeclarative)
nondeclarative; declarative
explicit subdivisions
- semantic
- episodic
semantic
- facts
- Ex: remembering what foods are breakfast foods
episodic
- events
- remembering the actual episode of the event happening
- Ex: remembering what we had this morning for breakfast
encoding …2 steps
- Forming a memory’s representation in the brain
1. Acquisition = Sensory stimuli make the cut into STM
2. Consolidation = Changes in the brain stabilize a memory over time resulting in LTM - Turning a short term memory into a long term memory
storage
maintaining information
retrieval
- Process of accessing stored memories
- Pulling a LTM into our active working memory
recollection/ Recall
- Retrieving information out of storage into your conscious awareness
- Example: Fill in the blank on a test
- Pulling that information out w/out a cue
○ More difficult
familiarity/ recognition
- Identifying items you previously learned
- Example: Multiple-choice questions on a test
- recognizing an answer
relearning
- Learning something more quickly when you learn it a second or later time
- Example: Studying for a final will be faster than studying the material the first time
- Re-updating information much faster than we did the first time
What is the serial position effect? Give an example.
- We are much more likely to remember the 1st and last words on the list
- Words in the middle = more harder to remember
EX: Better chance at remembering what happened as a child or young adult or last week , but harder to remember middle life events
Describe the case study of HM. Was his short-term or long-term memory impaired? How about his declarative or nondeclarative memory? What did he teach us about memory and the MTL? What are some confounds with the study of HM?
- remove medial temporal lobes (hippocampus, amygdala, some cortex)
- HM was unable to make new long-term episodic memories, but remembered life events ~2 years prior to surgery (short-term memory was intact)
HM :Was his short-term or long-term memory impaired? How about his declarative or nondeclarative memory? What did he teach us about memory and the MTL? What are some confounds with the study of HM?
- long term memory impaired
- nondeclarative intact, declarative impaired
- medial temporal lobe is not involve in nondeclarative memory
retrograde amnesia
The inability to remember events before, especially just before, the surgery or trauma
anterograde amnesia
Short term memory is intact but can’t store any new long-term memories
-more common
infantile amnesia ….nature vs nurture explanations
- Inability of adults to retrieve episodic memories before the age of 2–4 years
- nature: Associated with progressive brain development, maybe brain hasn’t develop ability to stored memories, language is not yet developed
- nurture: Cultural difference in the age at first memory, parenting style
What structures in the brain are involved in declarative memory?
- Medial temporal lobe
- hippocampus
What structures in the brain are involved in nondeclarative memory?
- cerebellum
- basal ganglia
- motor areas
dementia
- A loss of cognitive abilities such as memory, perception, verbal ability, and judgment
- Multiple types: Alzheimer’s; cerebrovascular; fronto-temporal; Lewy body; semantic
Describe the cause, symptoms for Alzheimer’s Disease.
-cause: Genetics, aging, education level, cerebrovascular, TBI, Alzheimer’s pathology builds over time
○ The higher education level = less likely
○ TBI = traumatic brain injury
- Symptoms: Slowly progressive memory loss, motor deficits, and eventual death
- Takes 10-15 years for body to fully shut down
brain changes, and treatments for Alzheimer’s Disease.
- Brain changes: Amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles, atrophy (especially in hippocampus)
- Amyloid plaques build up= suffocate neurons and kill them off
- Causes cell death starting in hippocampus, and then the whole brain
-Treatment: No cure, drugs to slow progression
○ Need to get treatment very early on
PIB Imaging
- There is a marker now called PIB for amyloid
- We all have amyloid in our brain, but builds faster in Alzheimer’s patients
how does episodic memory change with age
- Young people better at coming up with strategies to remember, HIGHER episodic memories storage
- Damaging white matter = do more poorly on this task
