Chapter 9: Memory Flashcards
Acquisition
Book definition: “The registration of inputs in sensory buffers and sensory analysis stages. (p. 381)”
Amnesia
Book definition: “Deficits in learning and memory ability following brain damage or disease. (p. 382)”
In retrograde amnesia, memories that happened prior to the event that caused the amnesia are affected.
Amnesia can take on several different forms depending on both severity and effects of the memory loss.
In anterograde amnesia, both memories that happened after the event as well as the ability to form new memories are affected. In transient global amnesia, both prior and future memories are affected, with patients only being able to recall the last few moments of consciousness, as well as deeply encoded facts such as their own name. As the name suggests, however, this state is only temporary.
Anterograde amnesia
Book definition: “The loss of the ability to form new memories. Compare retrograde amnesia. (p. 382)”
In addition to affecting the formation of new memories, anterograde amnesia also affects memories that happened after the event that caused the amnesia. An all-too-well known form of anterograde amnesia is the ‘blackout’ following alcohol intoxication, which can impair or completely block the brain’s ability to transfer information from short-term memory to long-term memory storage.
Amnesia can take on several other forms depending on both severity and effects of the memory loss.
In retrograde amnesia, memories that happened prior to the event that caused the amnesia are affected. In transient global amnesia, both prior and future memories are affected, with patients only being able to recall the last few moments of consciousness, as well as deeply encoded facts such as their own name. As the name suggests, however, this state is only temporary.
Consolidation
Book definition: “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. (p. 381)”
Declarative memory
Book definition: “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. Compare nondeclarative memory. (p. 390)”
Distributed representation
Book definition: “The idea that information may be stored in large populations of neurons located in relatively widespread regions of the brain. This idea is in contrast to the idea that the representations of some items in memory are stored in a discrete, highly localized set of neurons. (p. 415)”
Encoding
Book definition: “The processing of incoming information to be stored. Encoding consists of two stages: acquisition and consolidation. Compare retrieval. (p. 381)”
Episodic memory
Book definition: “Stored information about events in one’s life, including information about when they happened and what happened. Episodic memory is a form of declarative memory. (p. 390)”
Familiarity
Book definition: “A memory that does not contain episodic awareness of the prior event but is recognized by the feeling that the item was seen before – that is, by its feeling familiar. (p. 406)”
Henry Molaison (H.M.), a famous case in memory research, lost all ability to form long-term memories after a bilateral removal of the hippocampus. Even though he could form no memories of the staff taking care of him, he still showed a sense of familiarity with people he had met before. He also had virtually no episodic memories, indicating that this type of memory is facilitated by the hippocampi, while memories invoking a sense of familiarity are not.
Hebbian learning
Book definition: “The theory that, if a weak and a strong input act on a cell at the same time, the weak synapse becomes stronger. The theory is named for Donald Hebb, who postulated this mechanism as a means for the connectional strength between neurons to change in order to store information. (p. 416)”
This type of learning can be summed up simply as: “Cells that fire together, wire together”.
Learning
Book definition: “The process of acquiring new information. (p. 380)”
…well, duh!
Long-term memory
Book definition: “The retention of information over the long term, from hours to days and years. Compare sensory memory and short-term memory. (p. 380)”
Memory
Book definition: “The persistence of learning in a state that can be revealed later. (p. 380)”
Nondeclarative memory
Book definition: “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. Compare declarative memory. (p. 390)”
Perceptual representation system (PRS)
Book definition: “A form of non-declarative 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. (p. 392)”
Priming
Book definition: “A form of learning in which behavior or a physiological response is altered because of some recent stimulus or state. Priming usually refers to changes that occur over a short-time scale; for example, hearing the word “river” primes the word “water”. (p. 392)”
Procedural memory
Book definition: “A form of nondeclarative memory that involves the learning of a variety of motor skills (e.g., knowledge of how to ride a bike) and cognitive skills (e.g., knowledge of how to read). (p. 390)”
Retrograde amnesia
Book definition: “The loss of memory for events that happened in the past. Compare anterograde amnesia. (p. 382)”
Amnesia can take on several different forms depending on both severity and effects of the memory loss.
In retrograde amnesia, memories that happened prior to the event that caused the amnesia are affected; in anterograde, both memories that happened after the event as well as the ability to form new memories are affected.
In transient global amnesia, both prior and future memories are affected, with patients only being able to recall the last few moments of consciousness, as well as deeply encoded facts such as their own name. As the name suggests, however, this state is only temporary.
Semantic memory
Book definition: “Knowledge that is based on facts one has learned, but does not include knowledge of the context in which the learning occurred. A form of declarative memory. Contrast with episodic memory. (p. 390)”
Temporally limited amnesia
Book definition: “Retrograde amnesia following brain damage that extends backwards from the time of the damage, but does not include the entire life of the individual. (p. 382)”
