Episodic and semantic memory Flashcards

1
Q

What is episodic memory?

A
  • Memory for specific events located at a specific point in time
  • ‘mental time travel’
  • Backward to relive earlier episodes
    Look forward to anticipate and plan future events (e.g. you would imagine what a Sunday meal with your family looks like based on previous memory)
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2
Q

What is Semantic memory?

A
  • Memory for fact
  • No mental time travel
  • E.g. word knowledge, vocabulary, rules etc.
  • Short delay: information is recalled in episodes
    Long delay: the same information is integrated into semantic memory
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3
Q

How are episodic and semantic memory functionally different?

A
  • Different types of information

- Different experiences

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4
Q

What is neuropsychological evidence for the difference between semantic and episodic memory

A

147 cases of amnesia

  • Substantial or even dramatic loss of episodic memory
  • Semantic memory effects more variable and generally smaller
  • Damage to the hippocampus (and the MTL) affects episodic memory far more than semantic memory
  • BUT: hippocampal amnesia may affect acquisition of new semantic memories more than retrieval of old ones.
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5
Q

What are the different brain regions associated with episodic and semantic memory?

A
  • Semantic memory: anterior frontal lobe, anterior temporal lobe
  • Episodic deficit: amygdala, hippocampus
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6
Q

What is the difference between Bartlett’s approach compared to Ebbinghaus?

A

he stressed participants’ effort after meaning

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7
Q

What are Bartlett’s Schemas?

A
  • Structured representation of knowledge about the world, events, people or actions
  • Can be used to make sense of new material, to store and later recall them
  • Are influenced/ determined by social and cultural factors
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8
Q

What are scripts?

A

knowledge about events and sequence of events/ actions e.g. actions in a coffee shop

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9
Q

What are frames?

A

fixed structural information e.g., how a coffee shop looks (organisation of the physical environment)

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10
Q

What do schemas appear to be universal to

A

people of a similar background

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11
Q

What was Bartlett’s ‘the war of the ghosts’ experiment?

A
  • Native American folk tales shown to Western people
  • People committed many errors and distortions when they asked to recall these
  • In their recall they made the story more coherent and omitted details
  • These distortions were more consistent with their own semantic knowledge
  • Recalled stores were ‘westernised’
  • Criticism: vague instructions
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12
Q

What is the role of meaning in memory?

A
  • Ascribing meaning to stimuli affects encoding and storage
  • Carmichael et al. (1932)
    § Shown the same pictures but with different labels
    § When asked to draw it later they drew something that looks more like their label
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13
Q

What is Paivio’s Dual-coding hypothesis?

A
  • More imageable words (e.g. concrete nouns) are more memorable
  • High imageability (church, beggar) have two routes of encoding:
    § Visual appearance
    § Verbal meaning
  • Low imageability (virtue ect.) only has one route of encoding
    § Verbal meaning
  • Multiple encoding routes improve the chance of successful recall
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14
Q

What is levels of processing theory (LOP)

A
  • Input is processed in a variety of levels going from most shallow to deepest:
    § Visual (structure)
    § Phonological (acoustic)
    § Semantic (meaning)
  • Most information into long-term storage with deepest level of processing (semantic)
  • deeper coding is better for memory
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15
Q

What are the Levels of Processing pros?

A
  • Replicated in numerous studies (various encoding tasks)
  • Affects both recognition and recall
  • Incidental or not memory test
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16
Q

What are the Levels of Processing criticisms?

A
  • Difficult to define and measure
    § Processing speed?
  • Levels of processing (features) are not processed in a serial order but simultaneously
  • Other studies have found deeper processing is not always more memorable
17
Q

What is the Transfer appropriate processing theory?

A

Memory retrieval is best when the cues available at testing are similar to those available at encoding

18
Q

Can the LOP effect be explained in terms of the transfer appropriate processing (TAP_ theory?

A

Yes: deep encoding is more similar to the way the memory is tested

19
Q

What is maintenance rehearsal and what is elaborative rehearsal?

A
  • Maintenance rehearsal: as something was learned vs

Elaborative rehearsal: linking it to other material

20
Q

Why is elaborative rehearsal better for memory?

A

Richer and more elaborate encoding leads to better memory

- Elaborative rehearsal enhances delayed long-term learning more than maintenance rehearsal

21
Q

What is the hierarchical organisation theory?

A

Recall is better when words are organised rather than put in a random order

22
Q

When are items often chunked together?

A

§ Linked to a common associate (e.g. syringe, point, knitting are all linked to needle)
§ Come from the same semantic category
§ Form a logical hierarchical structure or matrix

23
Q

What are factors that aid encoding?

A

§ Create Connections (imagery, meaning)
§ Organisation (recall by groups, present in an organised way)
§ LOP/TAP (deeper processing, similar encoding – retrieval procedures)
Active creation (generate, test)

24
Q

What are concepts?

A

mental representations and the fundamental units of thought e.g., concept of bird, animal ect.

25
What is the hierarchical network model and what is support for it?
- Semantic memory organised into a series of hierarchical networks § Major concepts are represented as nodes § Properties/ features are associated with each concept - Cognitive economy: properties are stored higher up to minimise redundancy - Support: sentence verification task § Ps presented with sentences and asked whether sentence is true or false (e.g. a canary is yellow, a canary can fly, a canary has skin, a canary is a fish) § The property ‘yellow’ Ps are quicker to identify as T because it is on the same hierarchy § Time taken to identify concepts as T/F became progressively slower as concept is further away in the hierarchy The more inferences we have to make in our thinking the slower the answer
26
What are problems with the hierarchical model?
§ ‘A canary has skin’ is not a familiar sentence § When familiarity controlled the hierarchical distance effect is greatly reduced - Typicality: § Verification is faster for more representative member categories, independent of hierarchical/ semantic distance § A penguin is a bird takes more time than a canary is a bird because we come across penguins being birds less often
27
What is the spreading activation model?
- Semantic memory is organised by semantic relatedness/ distance - Length of links indicates the degree of semantic relatedness - Activity at one node causes activation at other nodes via links - Spreading activation decreases as it gets further away from the original point of activation - A PENGUIN is a bird (slow activation) - A CANARY is a bird (strong activation)
28
The spreading activation model is more flexible than the hierarchical network model. What are the pros and cons of this?
- Pros of flexibility: § The spreading activation model can account for more empirical findings - Cons of flexibility: § The flexibility also reduces the specificity of the model’s predictions § More difficult to test
29
What are the limitations of the spreading activation model?
§ The notion that each concept is represented by a single node is oversimplified § What about abstract concepts such as ‘justice’ § Does each concept have a fixed mental representation? Ø Situation/ context in which we encounter concepts changes the way we process them Ø Do different people have similar representations of any given concept § No consensus on the most appropriate way to measure semantic difference.
30
What is the situated simulation theory?
- Concepts are processed in different settings - Their processing is influenced by the current context/ setting - Concepts incorporate perceptual properties and motor or action-related properties § Processing of concepts depends on the situation and the perceptual + motor processes in a given task
31
What are the limitations of the situated simulation theory?
§ How variable are concepts across situations? Ø Concepts = stable core + context-dependent elements § Are these properties secondary – after concept meaning has been accessed? · Concepts and the brain
32
What is the Grandmother cell hypothesis?
§ Semantic memories are represented in the brain as whole objects § Each object/ concept has its own node or neuron § E.g. there is a special neuron representing your grandmother § Types of nodes are grouped together (e.g. all living things) § Most evidence suggests that this is not the case
33
What is the feature based approach?
§ Different kinds of information about a given object are stored in separate brain regions § E.g. visual information is stored in one part of the brain, while the auditory linked with that object is stored in another § This view is becoming increasingly popular
34
What is the hub and spoke model?
§ Hub: modality-independent conceptual representations (general representation) § Spokes: Modality-specific brain areas. Sensory and motor (perceptual features). Distributed across the cortical areas of the brain
35
What is neuropsychological evidence for the hub and spokes model?
§ Semantic dementia: § General semantic deficits e.g. naming objects, sorting objects in categories ect § Category-specific deficits: § Greater difficulty identifying/ naming living than non-living objects § The fact that you can get different types of semantic amnesia shows that category specific is stored in the spokes (the cortical areas)
36
What is the evaluation for the hub and spoke model including it's limitations?
- Increasing evidence that concepts are organised in the hub (core) + spokes (modality-specific) - Limitations (open issues) § The role of anterior temporal love may be more complex § Does familiarity with concepts affect their organisation in the hub? § How many ‘spokes?’ How is information integrated between the spokes and the hub?
37
Give a summary of semantic memory
· The distinction between episodic and semantic memory is supported by neuropsychological evidence · Information within semantic memory is organised in various ways · The hierarchical model suggests that concepts are organised in a hierarchical way with nodes and features along a hierarchy · Spreading activation model stresses semantic relatedness and distance between concepts · According to Barsalou concepts incorporate perceptual and motor features and their processing is affected by the context in which they are encountered · Hub-and-spoke model provides a neurobiological way that concepts are organised incorporating modality-general (hub) and modality-specific (spokes) features.