Ch. 9 Flashcards
________ is the process of acquiring new information, whereas ________ is the trace that results from this process and can be revealed at a later time.
learning ; memory
________ refers to the processing of incoming information to be stored.
Encoding
The encoding of information to be stored involves two stages: ________, in which inputs in sensory buffers and sensory analysis stages are registered, and then ________, in which a stronger representation for storage is created.
acquisition ; consolidation
Research using the mismatch field (MMF), which is the magnetic equivalent of the mismatch
negativity (MMN), has suggested that auditory sensory memory has a duration of about
10 seconds.
George Miller and other investigators found that humans can hold about ________ items in short-term memory at a time.
Seven
Organizing individual bits of information into higher-order units can increase the amount of
information that can be held in short-term memory. This strategy is called
chunking.
Visual sensory memory is to ________ as auditory sensory memory is to ________.
iconic memory ; echoic memory
One major difference between the visual icon and the auditory echo is that the
auditory echo lasts longer than the visual icon.
According to the modal model of memory, information that is currently held within short-term memory originates from
sensory memory
Which of the following best describes the flow of information in the Atkinson and Shiffrin
(1968) modal model of memory?
sensory memory → short-term storage → long-term storage
Which of the following statements concerning types of memory in the modal model of memory is FALSE?
Some contents of sensory memory are selected via attention and next processed in long- term memory.
You learn of an experiment conducted in 1942 by a researcher named Malmo. Malmo discovered that monkeys with certain lesions were impaired in a delayed-response task, but not when the lights were turned off. Malmo hypothesized that switching off the lights removed potential interference. Which of the following theories incorporates this kind of short-term interference?
the modal model of memory
A patient visits a neurologist and complains of memory problems like remembering telephone numbers. After a few tests, the neurologist determines that there is a large impairment in the digit span, but no impairment in remembering the past or in forming new memories. Which brain area is the most likely to be impaired?
the left perisylvian cortex
The term ________ refers to a limited-capacity store that not only retains information over the short term (maintenance) but also permits the performance of mental operations with the contents of this store (manipulation).
working memory
One property of the central executive mechanism proposed by Baddeley and Hitch is that
it is not linked to a single modality.
The component that is responsible for acoustically coding information in working memory is
the
phonological loop.
One finding that supports the idea that information in working memory is represented by an acoustic (auditory) code rather than a semantic (meaning-based) code is that when participants are given a list of words to learn and then are immediately tested for recall,
performance is worse when the list contains items that are similar in sound.
Of the following choices, damage to the ________ is most likely to result in impairment to the visuospatial sketch pad, or visual working memory.
parietal–occipital cortex
Declarative or explicit memory is knowledge that
one can access consciously.
Implicit memory is to ________ as explicit memory is to ________.
priming ; episodic memory
Barbara remembers that Madrid is the capital of Spain, but she has no idea when or where she acquired this knowledge. Her ________ memory is accurate, but her ________ memory is incomplete.
semantic ; episodic
Classical conditioning is an example of a specific type of ________ memory.
nondeclarative
________ does NOT affect behavior consciously.
Nondeclarative memory
Deficits in memory as a function of brain damage, disease, or psychological trauma are known collectively as
amnesia.
A 1957 study of patients who had undergone removal of the medial temporal lobe for the
treatment of epilepsy suggested that
profound amnesia is associated only with bilateral medial temporal lobe removal.
Which of the following would be the most difficult for the famous patient H.M. and other patients with medial temporal lobe removal?
learning the words for numbers in a foreign language
Your favorite cartoon character has been struck over the head and can no longer remember
his name or where he lives. This is an example of
retrograde amnesia.
After suffering a severe head injury, a patient demonstrates a dense anterograde amnesia. She
cannot remember events that occurred after the injury.
Which brain structure is located in the medial temporal lobe and is of particular importance in the formation of new long-term memories?
the hippocampus
Which of the following is NOT an area of cortex in the medial temporal lobe that interacts
with the hippocampus in the formation of new long-term memories?
cingulate
Patient H.M. is to the ________ as patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome are to the ________.
medial temporal lobes ; diencephalon
Following a case of encephalitis, a person has developed lesions in his anterior temporal lobes, but his medial temporal structures are intact. Which of the following is most likely to be true of this person?
The person has isolated retrograde amnesia.
After a brain injury, a person is found to have isolated retrograde amnesia. Which of the
following brain regions is probably damaged?
the anterior temporal lobes
Which of the following statements is true of the kind of amnesia demonstrated by people with bilateral hippocampal damage (like patients H.M. and R.B.) or people with diencephalon injury (like people with Korsakoff’s syndrome)?
They can still learn new skills, such as the serial reaction time task, after the injury.
The memory performance of patients K.F. and E.E., when compared to the memory performance of people with amnesia, such as patient H.M, demonstrates a double dissociation between two types of memory. Which of the following statements best describes these results?
H.M. has a deficit limited to long-term memory, whereas K.F. and E.E. have deficits limited to short-term memory.
It appears that the medial temporal lobes and the diencephalon are important in consolidating explicit long-term memories but are not themselves the storage sites for this knowledge because
most episodic and semantic memories acquired before injury to these structures will remain intact.
In the delayed nonmatching to sample task, animals are taught in a single trial that a specific object is associated with a food reward. When this object is shown again in a subsequent trial in the presence of a new object, the animal
must select the new item to receive a food reward.
Neuroimaging work has suggested that during the retrieval of a list of studied items, the
hippocampus is most active
for items that are correctly recollected as old items.
Recent neuroimaging and neuropsychological work in memory has attempted to disentangle ________, which seems to implicate the hippocampus and the posterior parahippocampal cortex, from ________, which seems to implicate the perirhinal cortex.
recollection ; familiarity
Neuroimaging studies of the left and right hemispheres in memory function indicate that
encoding and retrieval processes in long-term memory may be lateralized to different hemispheres.
When individuals encode information that relates to themselves, which of following regions is particularly likely to be active?
retrosplenial cortex
Under the standard consolidation theory, the involvement of the hippocampus in accessing
memories is best described as
temporary.
Under the multiple trace theory, the neocortex is to semantic memory as the hippocampus is to
episodic memory.
Herpes simplex encephalitis shares which characteristic with semantic dementia?
viral transmission
Hebbian learning occurs when
a synapse is strengthened by the synchronous activity of the presynaptic and postsynaptic neurons.
Long-term potentiation does NOT occur unless the neurotransmitter ________ is present in the synapse to bind to postsynaptic NMDA receptors.
glutamate
Imagine that a new drug is discovered that acts by depleting the brain of free magnesium
ions. How would this drug affect long-term potentiation (LTP)?
The amount of LTP would increase.
Which of the following statements is true regarding the role of NMDA receptors in mediating LTP in the brain?
NMDA receptors are critical to inducing LTP but not to maintaining LTP.
