chapter 7: memory part 2 Flashcards
how is information typically stored in long-term memory?
a. in terms of its sound
b. in terms of its meaning
c. in terms of its visual appearance
d. in terms of its emotional content
b. in terms of its meaning
amnesia is defined as having …
severely imparied long-term memory capacities due to trauma, or brain damage
define retrograde amnesia
common following a traumatic brain injury, in which events taking place leading up to an incident (car crash) are often forgotten
define anterograde amnesia
difficulty remembering any new information that the person encounters
Henry Gustav Molaison had his hippocampus removed to cure his epilepsy, which caused him to have anterograde amnesia. Describe his case
- intelligence and cognition still functional
- unable to form long-term memories
- short-term memory intact
evidence that STM and LTM rely on different brain mechanisms
Would Henry Gustav Molaison be able to imagine the future
no, imagining the future depends on episodic memory
- requires same structure as remembering past
True or false? LTM has limited capacity but no quantified limit of duration
false, LTM lacks duration and capacity limit
define maintenance rehearsal
repeating information over and over, without any additional thought about the information
define elaborative rehearsal
technique for storing info in LTM that involves elaborating on the meaning of info
explain Clive Wearing’s condition, the patient with retrograde AND anterograde amnesia
retrograde:
- speaks as if he has been waking up from a long black void without experiences from past years
anterograde:
- unable to form LTM
STM intact
why do patients with Alzheimer’s disease perform worse at match-to-sample task
less connectivity between prefrontal lobe and hippocampal regions
- impaired STM capacities
define the serial position effect
recall of long words in which words at the beginning and end of the list are remembered better than those in the middle of the list
name and explain the two effects in the serial position effect
primacy effect: first items can be rehearsed
recency effect: last items still in STM
how would you be able to remove the recency effect
adding a 30sec delay and recalling after
- go over capacity of STM
define the level of processing theory
theory of LTM encoding that holds that depth of meaning during processing determines how likely an item it to be recalled
explain the experiment used to explain the level processing theory
- 3 conditions: case, rhyming, sentence completion
- free-recall task
- recall better when there is deeper processing
even if some information is stored in the brain, it is not truly remembered until…
it can be retrieved from memory to produce a behavioral response
what are some methods used to improve memory
mnemonic devices
chunking
define transfer-appropriate processing
account for which info is remembered in LTM that emphasizes a match in form between when the info is initially encoded and when it is retrieved
what is the encoding specificity hypothesis
memory retrieval is better when there is overlap with encoding context
- internal state (state-dependent learning)
- external env
in addition to the depth of encoding and encoding specificity, what are 3 other factors that affect memory
elaboration and organization
spacing effect
testing effect
define explicit memory (declarative memory)
memory for all information that can be verbally reported
what are the two subdivision of explicit memory
episodic: memory of events that have happened directly to us in our lives that we’re able to recall in sequence
semantic: info is recalled as a set of facts without mental time travel
what are the neurological differences (lobes) between semantic and episodic memory
semantic: frontal and parietal lobe (executive function and decision-making)
episodic: occipital and temporal lobes (sensory info)
define implicit memory
form of LTM in which the individual does not have explicit awareness of knowing the info but where the info has indirect effects on behavior
what are the two subdivision of implicit memory
procedural: knowledge on how to perform a task
priming: prior exposure facilitates info processing without awareness
which brain regions are important for procedural memory
basal ganglia: process motor sequence
prefrontal cortex: organization
explain the word-fragment completion test
- Ps shown list of words
- asked to complete word fragments
- results: likely to use prior words to complete fragments
explain the two types of implicit bias called
- familiarity effect
- propaganda effect
familiarity: tend to rate smt more favorably if they have encountered it before than if they haven’t
propaganda: tend to rate statements they’ve heard before more likely to be true compared to statements they have never heard
patient S.M. does not experience fear because she has bilateral damage to what part of her brain?
amygdala
between explicit and implicit memory, which tends to be more susceptible to forgetting
explicit memory
define consolidation
process of making memories durable and permanent
name and explain the two types of consolidation
synaptic consolidation: changes at the synapses between neurons that lead to LTM storage
systems consolidation: connections between cortical areas, orchestrated by hippocampus
explain what is long-term potentiation (LTP)
occurs when receiving neuron becomes more likely to fire over time
define hippocampal replay
sequence of brain activity that has been observed during behavioral activity is repeated or “replayed” after the initial encoding event
explain the process of hippocampal replay
- hippocampus records cortical regions co-activated during a task
- during replay, co-activation regenerated by hippocampus
- after consolidation, mature connections set in place, hippocampus no longer needed
why is the impairment of memory reduced further as we go further back in time?
because events that happened right before an incident have not had time to consolidate like memories that happened further back
what is the forgetting curve
memory loss is exponential
- largest early on and slows down
name and explain two ways for deep encoding
- self-reference effect
- generation effect
describe patient KC’s case, the patient with impaired episodic memory
- recognized his writing, remembered his job, general knowledge
- did not have day-to-day memory
in Vargha-Khadem’s research (1997), how was the memory of children born with hippocampal damage affected
episodic memory impaired: can’t copy image after delay
semantic memory preserved
episodic depends on hippocampus
according to Tulving, LTM could be divided into three levels of consciousness. name and differentiate them
anoetic: no awareness or personal engagement
noetic: awareness but no personal engagement
autonoetic: awareness and personal engagement
- mental time travel
what are personal semantics?
general events from their personal past. like a mix between semantic and episodic
- autobiographical facts
- repeated events
True or false? The neural pattern of semantic and episodic memory are completely different
false, they overlap
What is the reappearance hypothesis of episodic memory
episodic memory is recalled the same way at each retrieval
- reproduced, not reconstructed
what are flashbulb memories
vivid memories of significant events
- emotionally arousing or shocking events
- retrieve specific details abt time and place when hearing abt event
True or false, unlike everyday memories flashbulb memories do not change in details contained in the recollection
false, they change just like everyday memories
- confidence level in intact recollection ↑ w flashbulbs memories
how can memories be distort during memory reconstruction
- infer the way things “must have been” based on our schemas (interplay with semantic memory)
- may include new or false info
why would schemas distort memories
- organize and categorize info
- provide expectations abt how things should occur
explain Bartlett’s (1932) the ‘War of Ghosts’ experiment and its findings
Ps read unfamiliar Native American folk story
- lose details over time
- memories changed to match schemas
- Ps omit strange things and alter story to match schema
What were the conclusions drawn from the experiment where you had to recall if a word appeared in a list previously shown
- Ps tend to falsely remember semantically related lure words more than unrelated words
- semantic memory influences episodic memory
name and explain 3 false memories effects
- misattribution effect: retrieving familiar info from wrong source
- misinformation effect: when details are added
- leading questions cause false memory formation - implanting memories
what are some virtues of reconstructive memory
- can reconstruct and form novel hypothetical mental simulations in our minds
- help us imagine the future
- neural overlap between thinking abt past event and imagining future
define memory integration
related memories become interconnected via prefrontal cortex
- hippocampal processes to form generalized knowledge
how are habits developed, how do deliberate actions become routine
- initially rely on explicit memory
- w training/exposure, will rely on implicit
explain Smith&Graybiel’s (2013) experiment on the rats in the T-shaped maze
- one tone→left end: choc milk
- another tone→right end: sugar water
rely on the striatum
break habit: must change habit-beh to get wanted reward
what are conditioned emotional responses
automatic responses to smt scary (snakes, dark, etc)
what is dissociative amnesia
- retrograde amnesia for episodic memories & autobiographical knowledge
- shifts lifestyle (moving, new identity)
- response to psych/physical trauma
what are the neurological effects of dissociative amnesia
- hypometabolism in lateral prefrontal cortex
- impaired executive processes
- retrieval deficit, not storage deficit issue
what are some causes of Alzheimer’s disease
- 63% of all dementia cases
- earliest symptom is deficit in episodic memory (cell death begins in MTL)
- genetics, alcoholism, depression, sleep apnea
what are 2 things you could do to prevent Alzheimer’s disease
- sleep
- engage brain in variety of activities
explain the Alzheimer’s disease trajectory linked to the brain
- hippocampus & entorhinal cortex (MTL): memory loss
- lateral temporal and parietal lobes: reading prob, ↓ object recog, ↓ direction sense
- frontal lobe: ↓ judgment, impulsivity, short attention
- widespread brain atrophy: loss of language, basic motor skill, function prob
how can music help with AD
- spared pathway can help reopen the past
- improves mood, reduces stress = ↑ cognition
- created alternate procedural memory pathway
how does the brain change with aging? which type of memory is affected
- volume loss: ~5% per decade after 40y/o
- not all regions affected equally
- implicit and semantic intact
- episodic is impaired (starts ↓ at 20y/o)
what is the associative deficit hypothesis
older adults have problems encoding and retrieving associations in memory due to hippocampal atrophy
- familiarity good
- recollection bad
explain Cabeza et al’s (2002) experiment on adaptive cognitive aging
3 groups: young adults, old-high, old-low
- YA & old-low used right PFC
- old-high used bilateral PFC
proof of neural compensation
