Episodic & Semantic (Exam 2) Flashcards
Retrograde amnesia
loss of the ability to recall memories from before the event (past, episodic) before a brain injury or disruption
* Memory loss is usually time graded, with more recent memories devastated and older ones being spared*
Anterograde amnesia
loss of ability to create new memories (future), declarative memories (Hippocampus)
Clive Wearing
Damage to the hippocampus from encephalitis resulting in retrograde and anterograde amnesia (Total Amnesia)
H.M. Henry Molaison
He had a head injury from a bicycle crash, causing sudden epilepsies. He ended up going through surgery to remove both sides of the medial temporal lobes causing learning and memory issues
Amnesia
severe memory impairment
Episodic
memory for personal experience of specific autobiographical events includes information about the spatial and temporal contexts in which the event occurred.
Semantic
memory for facts or general knowledge about the world, including general personal information (name)
Declarative memory
include both semantic and episodic memory, and that can be typically verbalized (“‘declared”) or explicitly communicated in some other way
Nondeclarative memory
a broad class of memory includes skill memory and other types of learning that do not fall under the episodic or semantic categories and are not always consciously accessible or easy to verbalize.
[Classical or Operant Conidtioning]
Explicit memory
a category of memory that includes semantic and episodic memory and consists of memories of which the person is aware.
You now know that you know the information
Implicit memory
memory that occurs without the learner’s awareness
Encoding new memories
Not just exposure …but repetitive rehearsal
Desirable Difficulties
struggling to learn information generally promotes better long-term retention
Fornix
“Arc” or “arch” in Latin
memory is better if it relates to prior knowledge
Deeper Processing at the level of Encoding
improved recall later
Levels of Processing
the finding that, in general, deeper processing (such as thinking about the semantic meaning of a word) leads to better recall of the information than shallow processing (e.g., thinking about the spelling or pronunciation of a word)
Encoding specificity effect
the principle that retrieval is likely to be more successful is the cues and contextual conditions present at recall are similar to those that were present at encoding
Transfer-Appropriate Processing (TAP) Effect
the principle that memory retrieval will be best when the way that information is processed at encoding matches how it will be processed at retrieval
Free recall
memory test involving generating requested info
Cued recall
memory test involving a prompt like a cue to aid recall
Recognition
memory test involving picking out (or recognizing) a studied item from a set of options
The testing effect
way to further encode for later on by retrieving what we have learned
Tip-of-tongue (ToT)
a temporary failure in memory, not able to readily retrieve
Direct forgetting
a procedure in which participants are first asked to learn information and later asked to remember or forget specific items; typically, memory is worse for items that the person was directed to forget
Interference
Reduction in the strength of memory due to overlap with the content of other memories
Proactive interferences
disruption of new learning by previously stored information
Retroactive interferences
disruption of old (previously stored) information by more recent learning
Source monitoring errors
remembering information but being mistaken about the specific episode that is the source of that memory
False memory
memory for events that never actually happened
Consolidation Period
a length of time during which new episodic and semantic memories are vulnerable and easily lost or altered; each time a memory is recalled, it may become vulnerable again until it has been “reconsolidated”
Electroconvulsive Shock (ECT)
a brief pulse of electricity that is passed through the brain and can severely disrupt newly formed memories
[older memories are harder to disrupt, but new memories are vulnerable]
Reconsolidation
process whereby each time an old memory is recalled or reactivated, it may become vulnerable to modification [reconstructing]
can be modified upon reconsolidation with your present sense or knowledge
Metamemory
knowledge of, and ability to think about, our own memories, including both feelings of knowing and judgment of learning
Feeling of Knowing (FOK)
ability to predict whether or not we can retrieve a specific piece of information is asked
Judgement of Learning (JOL)
a judgment during learning of whether the information has been successfully acquired
Confabulation
a behavior in which individuals, when asked to remember past events, respond with highly detailed but false memories associated with some forms of amnesia
unintentional, brain way of trying to come up with some details
Korsakoffs Syndrome
Degeneration of the mammillary bodies, caused by
a.) Thiamine deficiency (nutrition deficit or disordered eating)
b.) Alcohol abuse causing deficiency
Both are in the medial temporal lobe
Anterograde and retrograde amnesia
confabulation
Wernicke Encephalopathy
Degenerative tissue in that area of the brain
- confusion & loss of mental activity (possibly leading to violent behavior)
- loss of muscle coordination (ataxia)
- affected vision such as abnormal eye movements, double vision, and upper eyelid drooping
Frontal cortex and memory
helps determine what information is stored
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
a phase of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under closed lids
Non-REM sleep
category of sleep that includes both light sleep and slow-wave sleep (SWS)
Slow-wave sleep
phase of sleep characterized by large, slow oscillations in the brain that are highly synchronized over wide brain areas.
[neurons in the hippocampus and cortex “replay” in the same sequence in which they fired when learning]
Transient Global amnesia (TGA)
transient or temporary disruption of memory, typically including elements of both anterograde & retrograde amnesia
[possibly from vigorous amounts of exercise or crazy amounts of stress]
Functional amnesia
a sudden retrograde memory loss that seems to result from psychological causes rather than physical causes such as a brain injury, [also called psychogenic amnesia]
