Cognition Chapter 5 (Long-Term Memory) Flashcards
What is special about working memory in the brain
It appears to be everywhere in the brain, not in one location like most other memory aspects.
It is more related to the number of lesions instead of the location of it.
What are the two principles of the location of the long term memory
- Equipotentiality (All parts of the cortex contribute equally to complex behaviour)
- Mass action (the more cortex is untouched, the better the LTM)
What is the case of patient H.M.
Because of epilepsy doctors removed the medial temporal cortex
This resulted in that he had no memories from after the operation (couldn’t develop new memories) –> amnesia
What is anterograde amnesia
Impairment of memory for events that occured after the onset of the amnesia
What is retrograde amnesia and ribots law
Retrogate Amnesia is amnesia where events BEFORE the damage cannot be recalled
Ribots law says that the probability of the remembering of events in these patients is worst for more recently events before the brain damage
What can Amnesia be caused by
It is not only related to damage to the hippocampus but also the neocortex and thamalus.
Other diseases like vitamin deficiency, alcohol abuse or Viral infecetions may be the cause
Explain the case report of Clive wearing
He has the worst case of amnesia due to viral infection
What is a mirror tracing task and what it shows
When amnesia patients do a task which they later don’t remember doing, but learn like a normal person
Patient with amnesia still learn new stuff
Explain the structure of long term memory
It is divided into
1. Declarative (events, facts and places (explicit))
Which is divided into
1.1 Semantic memory (facts)
1.2 Episodic memory (events)
2. Non declarative (things we cannot report verbally like skills (implicit))
Which is divided into
2.1 Procedural memory (skills and habits)
2.2 Priming and perceptual memory (
2.3 simple classical conditioning
2.4 non associative memory
What is Semantic memory
FUNCTION: Memory for facts and knowledge about the world
KIND: It is part of the Declarative Memory, which means it is explicit and can be reported
LOCATION: Medial temporal lobe
What is Episodic memory
PURPOSE: memory for events, experiences and episodes
KIND: It is part of the Declarative Memory, which means it is explicit and can be reported
LOCATION: Medial temportal lobe
What is Procedural memory
PURPOSE: It is involved in skill and habit learning
KIND: It is part of the Non-declarative memory, which means it is implicit and cannot be expressed verbally
LOCATION: Striatum
What is priming and perceptual learning
PURPOSE: Priming is when an exposure to a stimulus affects a later response
KIND: It is part of the non-declarative memory, which means it is implicit and cannot be expressed verbally.
LOCATION: Neocortex
It can be tested when amnesiacs learn words and then have to recall then with or without cues, or even with cues but no connection to the task (implicit)
In the last group the amnesiacs are even better than normal person
Explain potential mechanisms in priming
Mental representations (Schemas) that are often activated at the same time will have strong connections between them (used in Behavioural economics)
Explain specialties episodic memory, like prospective and autobiographic memory
It is structured as schemas
This helps in recognition, but can distort sometimes
Prospective memory is part of episodic memory, which is the memory for future events. It is often self activated, and lost in amnesia.
It is different from action slips (error in routines)
Autobiographic memory is episodic memory of experienced events. This is also reconstructive and can be false
