Chapter 7 Flashcards
Medial temporal lobe?
The inner surfaces of the temporal lobes, containing the hippocampus and other cortical areas.
Episodic memory?
A memory for a specific autobiographical event. Where and when something occurred.
Semantic memory?
Memories for facts or general knowledge as well as personal information.
Semantic memory can be strengthened by ____.
Repetition.
Episodic and semantic memories share what 2 key features?
Can be communicated flexibly, consciously accessible.
Skill memories are generally not easy to ____ unlike semantic and episodic memories.
Communicate flexibly.
Metamemory?
Our knowledge of, and ability to think about our own memories. (If someone asks you for the weight of a boron atom, you right away know that you don’t know the answer.
Declarative VS non declarative memory?
Declarative can be verbalized/communicated, whilst the latter (including skill memories and other types or learning that don’t include semantic/episodic memory) that are not easy to verbalize/communicate.
Explicit memory?
Can be consciously recalled. (Memory of falling off your bike)
Implicit memory?
Can’t be consciously recalled. (How to ride a bike or balance)
Episodic memory is acquired when/how?
In a single exposure; the event itself.
How can you weaken episodic memory?
Repeated exposures of similar events (big parking lott)
Endel Tulving argued what about episodic memory?
He said episodic memory grows out of semantic memory… this means that an organism has to have a certain amount of semantic information before episodic memories can be built on that framework (i.e., you need to know what a graduation is before you can have an episodic memory for any specific graduation)
Are episodic and semantic memories independent?
Yes. They can affect one another.
HM’s story?
Had frequent epileptic seizures. Doctors knew the seizures started in either the right or left hemisphere, but his were so severe they couldn’t locate it. So they removed both temporal lobes. Had anterograde amnesia.
Radial arm maze?
a maze with a central area from which several arms branch off like the spokes of a wheel. The top of the maze is open so a rat placed in the maze can see out and use landmarks in the room, such as the placement of windows or posters, to help navigate.
Episodic memory requires a…?
Mental time travel, a re-experience of the event
Does mere exposure to information guarantee memory?
No.
Memory is better for information that ____ to prior knowledge.
Relates.
____ processing at encoding improved recognition later.
Deeper (the more deeply you analyze information)
Depth of processing effect?
Deeper processing at encoding of new information improved the ability to remember that information later on.
Experiments show that people are more likely to remember words if they are forced to think about their ____ content.
Semantic.
Criticism of depth of processing effect?
It is vague. How can we be sure it is deep processing?
Participants recognize more words from an image condition than from a pronounce condition.
fMRI scans show that during encoding phase the image condition showed more activity.
Tip of the tongue phenomenon?
When information temporarily inaccessible. You try to remember the name of something but can’t remember the word.
Transfer appropriate processing?
Refers to the finding that retrieval is more likely to be successful if the cues available at recall are similar to those that were available at encoding
Free recall? Cued recall? Recognition?
Free Recall → in which you are simply asked an open-ended question and you supply the answer from memory (What is the Latin word for “arch”?)
Cued Recall → in which you are given some kind of prompt or clue to the correct answer (What is the Latin word for “arch”? f_____)
Recognition → in which you pick out the correct answer from a list of possible options (What is the Latin word for “arch”? A = fenestra, B = fornix, or C = fundus)
In general free recall is harder than cued recall, which is harder than recognition.
Passive forgetting?
Older information is more likely to be forgotten than recently acquired information. Hermann Ebbinghaus concluded most forgetting occurs first few days/hours after learning. Larry Squire noticed people forgot shows that were old.
Directed forgetting?
Occurs when we intentionally try to suppress a memory.
Interference?
When two memories overlap in content, the strength of either or both memories may be reduced.
Proactive interference: when old information can disrupt new learning
oE.g. When you change to a new computer password and type the old one by mistake for the first few times
— Retroactive interference: when new information can disrupt old learning
oE.g. Once you master the new password, you may have some trouble remembering your old one
— A tip for remembering the difference:
oPRoactive interference = PReviously acquired information is at fault
oREtroactive interference = REcently acquired information is at fault
Memory misattribution?
When we remember information but mistakenly associate it with an incorrect source.
Source amnesia?
When we remember information but cannot remember the source at all.
Cryptomnesia?
When someone thinks their thoughts are original but they actually learned it from someone else. Participants got letters and had to make words from them and they played against the computer. They came up with 10% of the same words that the computer came up with.
False memories?
Memories of events that never actually happened. Scientists came up with stories about participants’ pasts and the participants (25%) believed it actually happened to them.
Consolidation period?
A time window during which new memories are vulnerable and easily lost. If you can still remember something in a month, you’ll probably remember it for even longer.
Duncan (1949)
— Trained rats to make a simple conditioned response
— Then gave the rats electroconvulsive shock: a brief pulse of electricity passed through the brain via electrodes on each side of the head
— If shock given 20 seconds after end of training → rats’ memory of the conditioned response was severely disrupted
— If shock given an hour+ after training → little disruption
Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
Electroconvulsive shock administered to humans as a temporary relief from certain mental illnesses, particularly severe depression.
Semantic memories are stored in the ____.
Cerebral cortex.
Sensory cortex?
Cortical areas that specialized in one kind of sensory information (auditory, visual, somatosensory)
Association cortex?
Cortical areas involved in associating information within and across modalities. I.e. Linking the word dog with the visual image of a dog with semantic information about what dogs are like.
Agnosia?
Selective disruption of the ability to process a particular kind of semantic information.
Auditory agnosia?
Can hear sounds and echo them but not understand their meaning.
Associative visual agnosia?
Difficulty recognizing and naming objects, even though they can see them.
