Chapter Six - Long Term Memory (Structure) Flashcards
What is long term memory?
- “archive” of information about past events + knowledge learned
- works closely with WM
How long does storage of LTM stretch?
-few moments ago to as far back as one can remember
What did Murdoch study?
-distinction between STM and LTM using serial position curve
What is the primacy effect?
- better at remembering words at beginning of list
- rehearsal
- transfer to LTM
- less rehearsal for later words
What is the recency effect?
- better at remembering words at end of list
- lack of interference
- words still in STM
How was the recency effect tested?
- second experimental group counted backwards for 30 seconds
- prevented rehearsal, info lost from STM
What is another way to distinguish between LTM + STM?
-compare the way info is coded by the two systems
What is coding?
-form in which stimuli are represented
What is the physiological approach to coding?
-how a stimulus represented by firing of neurons
What is the mental approach to coding?
-how stimulus is represented in the mind
What is visual coding? Compare STM and LTM
-visual image
STM: “recalling visual patterns”
LTM: when visualizing person from the past
What is auditory coding? Compare STM and LTM
-form of a sound
STM: “phonological similarity effect”
LTM: “hearing” beginning of next song on a playlist
How was semantic encoding in STM tested? (Wickens)
- subjects presented with either words from a or b
- listen to 3 words
- counted backwards for 15 s.
- recalled
What is proactive interference?
-interference enhanced by meaning of words
What did the second group do in the Wickens ex?
- on Trial 4, words from other category were presented to them
- release form proactive interference
What does the Wickens ex. tell us about coding in STM?
- release from proactive interference depnds on words’ categories
- categories involves meaning of words
- semantic coding in STM
What is recognition memory?
identification of a previously encountered stimulus
What did Sachs study?
- subjects listened to tape recording of a passage
- recognition memory then measured
- Did they remember exact wording or general meaning?
What is recognition?
-the to-be-remembered info presented along with distractors
-subject must distinguish new form old
EX: MC questions
What is recall?
-information from experimenter
-experimenter simply says “remember”
EX: fill in the blank exam questions
What are 4 findings of the Sachs’s passage experiment?
- good at detecting changes in meaning
- not good at detecting changes in sentence form
- ability to detect any change declines over time
- decline is more for syntactic changes
What is the hippocampus responsible for?
-one’s ability to encode new long-term memories
Who are 3 case studies important in the neuropsychology of memory?
- HM (no hippocampus)
- Clive Wearing (parts of temporal lobe destroyed)
- KF (damage to parietal lobe)
What are lesion studies?
- patient HM + other dense amnesiacs have symptom profile
- suggesting that STM + LTM are independent
What did lesion studies reveal impairments in?
- acquiring new episodic + semantic memories (explicit LTM encoding)
- primacy in free recall (explicit LTM encoding)
What were spared abilities from lesion studies?
- recall events prior to resection
- learn new motor skills
- digit span
- peterson task
- recency in free recall
What did patient KF show?
- opposite pattern of memory problems
- double dissociation between STM and LTM
What did KF show impairments in? spared ability?
- peterson task
- recency in free recall
- reduced digit span
spared ability: LTM
Double Dissociation summary of KF and HM
KF: impaired STM, normal LTM
HM: normal STM, impaired LTM
What did the Ranganath + D’Esposito experiment show about faces/memory?
- larger brain activity in novel faces (WM)
- familiar faces also activate hippocampus bc LTM
- proves LTM is only LTM
- Hippocampus is both LTM and WM
What did Tulving propose about episodic + semantic memory?
handled different types of information
What are 3 characteristics of episodic memory?
- memory for specific instance or episode
- involves mental time travel
- no guarantee of accuracy
What are 2 characteristics of semantic memory?
- memory for conceptual information
2. does not involve mental time travel
Why are autobiographical memories often slow?
they have to be reconstructed
How did Barclay + Wellman study autobiographical memories?
- grad students record everyday events for 4 months
- recognition test (5 times over 2.5 yrs)
- used originals + foils
What were the results of Barclay + Wellman’s study?
- recognition of duplications 94%
- accepted 50% of foils that changed info + 23% of novel foils
- got worse over time
What does semantic memory include?
- general world knowledge
2. memory for facts
Semantic memory does not require ____ or ____
time or place
Initially new facts may contain____, but will eventually become _____ over time
episodic content, sourceless
How did Damasio study how info is organized in the semantic memory?
-object naming task given to healthy subjects
What were the results of Damasio’s study?
- PET data
- different areas active if objects were famous faces, animals, or tools
- people with damage in spec. areas had problems naming associated categories of items
Who was patient KC?
- no episodic memory (no longer relive any past events)
- functional semantic memory (aware brother died 2 yrs ago, no personal experiences with him)
Who was the Italian Woman case study?
- intact episodic memory (able to remember events in her life)
- no semantic memory (trouble remembering meaning of words)
What was wrong with the Italian Woman?
- attack of encephalitis
- impaired semantic memory
- diagnosed via the clock test
What is evidence that there is a distinction between episodic + semantic memories?
-brain-imaging shows retrieving episodic + semantic memories activate different areas of the brain
What 2 tasks show the comparison between the pattern of brain activation between episodic + semantic memory?
- listening to their own audio-taped diaries
2. facts drawn from their semantic knowledge
What brain region is activated when listening to one’s own audio-taped diaries?
-more frontal regions
What brain region is activated when hearing facts drawn from their semantic knowledge?
-more posterior regions (considerable overlap)
How does knowledge affect experience?
-semantic memory guides experience by influencing episodic memories
How can episodic memories be lost?
- acquiring knowledge may start as episodic
- fade to semantic
semantic memory can be enhanced if associated with ______
episodic
What is autobiographical memory?
- memory of specific experiences
- includes semantic + episodic
What is personal semantic memory?
-semantic memories that have personal significance
How can we influence what we experience(episodic)?
by determining what we attend to
What is familiarity?
- associated with semantic memory
- not associated with circumstances under which memory was acquired
What is recollection?
- associated with episodic memory
- details about what was happening when knowledge was acquired
What is the effect of time on encoding?
-forgetting increases with longer intervals from the original encoding
What is the remember/know procedure?
- remember: if stimulus is familiar + circumstance which it was encountered (episodic)
- know: if stimulus if familiar but don’t remembering experiencing it earlier (semantic)
- Don’t: remember the stimulus at all
How is knowledge that makes up semantic memories initially attained?
- through personal experiences
- basis of episodic experiences
- memory of these experiences fade, semantic memories remain
What is the case study evidence of a connection between ability to remember past + ability to create future scenarios?
- KC not able to describe personal events that might happen in future
- DB couldn’t recall past events or events that had to do with him (could imagine what might happen in politics)
What is brain imaging evidence of the connection between ability to remember past + create future scenarios?
-activation of same areas in brain when subjects ask to think about past + imagine future
What is the constructive episodic stimulation hypothesis?
- episodic memories are extracted + recombined
- construct simulations of future events
What is implicit/non-declaritive memory?
- memory that unconsciously influences behavior
- when learning from ex. is not accompanied by conscious remembering
- procedural
What is priming?
when previous experience changes response without conscious awareness
What is explicit/declarative memory?
-conscious memory
episodic: personal
events/episodes
semantic: facts, knowledge
What is skill memory?
- memory for actions
- no memory of where/when learned
- perform procedures without being consciously aware of how to do them
Can people who cannot form new LTMs still learn new skills?
-yes
What are case study examples of people who cannot form new LTMs learning new skills?
- Clive Wearing
- HM
- KC
What is repetition priming?
presentation of one stimulus affects performance on that stimulus when it is presented again
What was the Graf and coworkers experiment?
- tested patients with amnesia
- ensure that people don’t remember presentation of priming stimulus
What are the 3 test groups in the Graf/coworkers experiment?
- amensia patients with Korsakof’s syndrome
- Patients without amnesia being treated for alcoholism - Patients without amnesia who had no history of alcoholism
What were the 2 ways in which the participants were tested in the Graf/coworkers experiment?
- asked to recall words they had read
2. word completion test, test of implicit memory
What is the Perfect + Askew experiment?
- subjects asked to scan several magazines
- test of implicit memory in everyday experience
What was the result of the Perfect + Askew test?
- more likely to rate advertisement they had seen in passing higher
- implications for advertisements
What is the propaganda effect
- more likely to rate statements read/heard before as being true
- simply because of previous exposure
How is classical conditioning related to implicit memory?
-pairing a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response
EX: not remembering name of familiar person, but having pos/neg feelings about them
