Chapter 9: Memory

Question 1

Acquisition

Answer 1

The first step of memory encoding in which sensory stimuli are acquired by short-term memory.

Question 2

Amnesia

Answer 2

Deficits in learning and memory ability following brain damage or disease.

Question 3

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 3

The loss of ability to form new memories.

Question 4

Classical conditioning

Answer 4

Also called Pavlovian conditioning. A type of associative learning in which a conditioned stimulus (an otherwise neutral stimulus to the organism) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (one that elicits an established response from the organism) and becomes associated with it.

The conditioned stimulus will then evoke a conditioned response similar to that typically evoked by the unconditioned stimulus (the unconditioned response).

Question 5

Consolidation

Answer 5

The process by which memory representations become stronger over time. Consolidation is believed to include changes in the brain system participating in the storage of information.

Question 6

Declarative memory

Answer 6

Also called explicit memory. Knowledge to which we have conscious access, including personal and world knowledge (events and facts).

The term declarative signals the idea that declarations can be made about this knowledge and that, for the most part, we are aware that we possess the information.

Question 7

Dementia

Answer 7

A loss of cognitive function in different domains (including memory) beyond what is expected in normal aging.

Question 8

Encoding

Answer 8

The processing of incoming information to be stored. Encoding exists of two stages:
1. Acquisition
2. consolidation

Question 9

Episodic memory

Answer 9

A form of declarative memory that stores autobiographical information about events in one’s life, including contextual information about those with whom they happened, and when, where, and why they happened.

Question 10

Hebbian learning

Answer 10

Donald Hebb’s theory of learning, which proposes that the mechanism underlying learning is the strengthening of synaptic connections that results when a weak input and a strong input act on a cell at the same time.

Question 11

Hippocampus

Answer 11

A layered structure in the medial temporal lobe that receives inputs from wide regions of the cortex via inputs from the surrounding regions of the temporal lobe and sends projections out to subcortical targets.

The hippocampus is involved in learning and memory, particularly memory for spatial locations in mammals and episodic memory in humans.

Question 12

Learning

Answer 12

The process of acquiring new information.

Question 13

Long-term memory

Answer 13

The retention of information over the long term, from hours to days and years.

Question 14

Memory

Answer 14

The persistence of learning in a state that can be revealed later.

Question 14

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 14

A process by which synaptic connections are strengthened when certain types of synaptic stimulation, such as prolonged high-frequency input, result in a long-lasting increase in the strength of synaptic transmission.

Question 15

Nonassociative learning

Answer 15

A type of learning that does not involve the association of two stimuli to elicit a behavioral change. It consists of simple forms of learning such as habituation and sensitization.

Question 16

Nondeclarative memory

Answer 16

Also called implicit memory. Knowledge to which we typically have no conscious access, such as motor and cognitive skills (procedural knowledge).

For example, the ability to ride a bicycle is a nondeclarative form of knowledge. Although we can describe the action itself, the actual information one needs to ride a bicycle is not easy to describe.

Question 17

Perceptual representation system (PRS)

Answer 17

A form of nondeclarative memory, acting within the perceptual system, in which the structure and form of objects and words can be primed by prior experience and can be revealed later through implicit memory tests.

Question 18

Priming

Answer 18

A form of learning in which behavior or a physiological response is altered because of a recent stimulus or state.

Priming usually refers to changes that occur over a short timescale; for example, hearing the word “river” primes the word “water”.

Question 18

Procedural memory

Answer 18

A form of nondeclarative memory that involves the learning of a variety of motor skills and cognitive skills.

Question 19

Retrieval

Answer 19

The utilization of stored information to create a conscious representation or to execute a learned behavior like a motor act.

Question 19

Relational memory

Answer 19

Memory that relates the individual pieces of information relevant to a particular memory and that supports episodic memories.

Question 20

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 20

The loss of memory for events that happened in the past.

Question 21

Ribot’s law

Answer 21

Also called temporal gradient. The effect in which some cases of retrograde amnesia tend to be greatest for the most recent events.

Question 22

Semantic memory

Answer 22

A form of declarative memory that stores knowledge that is based on facts one has learned, but not knowledge of the context in which the learning occurred.

Question 23

Sensory memory

Answer 23

The short-lived retention of sensory information, measurable in milliseconds to seconds, as when we recover what was said to us a moment earlier when we were not paying close attention to the speaker.

Sensory memory for audition is called echoic memory; for vision is called iconic memory.

Question 24

Short-term memory

Answer 24

The retention of information over seconds to minutes.

Question 25

Storage

Answer 25

The permanent record resulting from the acquisition (creation) and consolidation (maintenance) of information.

Question 26

Temporal gradient

Answer 26

Also called Ribot’s law. The effect in which some cases of retrograde amnesia tend to be greatest for the most recent events.

Question 27

Temporally limited amnesia

Answer 27

Retrograde amnesia following brain damage that extends backward from the time of the damage but does not include the entire life of the individual.

Question 28

Transient global amnesia (TGA)

Answer 28

A sudden, dramatic, but transient (lasting only hours) amnesia that is both anterograde and retrograde.

Question 29

Working memory

Answer 29

A limited-capacity store for retaining information over the short term (maintenance) and for performing mental operations on the contents of this store (manipulation).