Exam #3 Flashcards
(1) Memory is the brain’s ability to engage in 3 interrelated processes. Name and define those 3 processes.
– Take in information (knowledge
and skills) from the outside
world (ENCODING)
– Retain the information
(STORAGE)
– Retrieve the information for
later use (RETRIEVAL)
(2) Name, define, and provide an example of the 2 types of amnesia that we have discussed in this course.
Retrograde amnesia:
– Inability to remember things from before the
precipitating event
– e.g., People waking up from comas and having to find out who they are
Anterograde amnesia:
– Inability to remember things that happened after the
precipitating event
– e.g., Dory has anterograde amnesia because she forgets information immediately even if she just learned it, like meeting Marlin.
(3) Provide a 1-sentence description of the following 2 memory systems. It should be clear from these 1-sentence descriptions alone how the 2 memory systems differ from each other: sensory memory, and short-term memory.
Sensory Memory
* Contains everything we can sense at a given time
* But, information not used within ~1 second is lost
– “Used” = attended to, and therefore passed to short-
term memory
Short-Term Memory
* The ability to:
– Hold information in our minds for a brief time
(20-30 seconds)
– Work with that information -> working memory
(4)
- Define and provide an example of the following 3 rehearsal strategies: elaborative rehearsal, maintenance rehearsal, and chunking.
- Indicate which of these 3 strategies is the most effective at helping people form durable long-term memories, and explain why that strategy is especially effective.
Maintenance rehearsal: repeating information to yourself to keep information in your short term memory
* it is not as effective because short term memory span is 7 (+/-) 2 units of information
Chunking: grouping cohesive information together into fewer, but larger units
* good for short term memory but not for long term memory
elaborative
* thinking about the meaning of the information and connecting it to other information already stored in memory, (helps bring it into long-term memory by creating deeper neural connections in the brain that make it easier to retrieve the information later on)
(5) In class, we discussed a memory study involving which chess players of various ability levels. Describe, in detail:
- How this study was conducted (e.g., who were the participants, what did the participants do or what was done to them, etc.);
- The results of the study, and;
- A concluding sentence that indicates which memory concept this study demonstrates, and explains how this study represents a demonstration of this memory concepts.
The participants range from beginners and chess to experts in chess. The participants were told to memorize a Chess board and as a result the participants that were experts in chess were able to memorize much more than the beginners. This is the beginners used maintenance rehearsal to remember the pieces but the experts could connect the placement of pieces that they were seeing during the experiment to pieces from games that they have actually played (elaborative rehearsal). To prove this, there was a second study where the were forced to memorize Random placements on the chessboard that could never occur in a real game and as a result the expert had memorized around the same amount as the beginners proving elaborative rehearsal.
(6)
* Name and define each of the 3 types of long-term memory that we have discussed in this course.
* For each of these 3 types of long-term memory, provide an example from H.M.’s case that demonstrates whether he was or was not able to form new memories of that kind after his surgery.
*episodic and semantic can be declared while procedural is a skill like tying shoes.
Episodic
* Personal life events
- Example: H.M. could not form new episodic memories post-surgery once events had ended
- could not remember his doctor of 43 years
Semantic
* Facts/concepts
-H.M. retained pre-surgery facts but couldn’t learn new ones.
- He could remember that the stock market crashed in 1929 (fact)
Procedural
*skills and procedure
-H.M. could learn new motor tasks like mirror tracing. But he can’t remember learning the skill because he has no episodic memory
(7) Dr. Brenda Milner and Dr. Suzanne Corkin—the two primary researchers who investigated H.M.’s case—conducted a single study on him which demonstrated both that he could learn new skills after his surgery and that he could not form new memories of personal events after his surgery. Describe, in detail:
- How this study was conducted (e.g., what H.M. did or what was done to him, etc.);
- The results of the study, and;
- A concluding sentence that makes it clear how the results of this study demonstrate that Patient H.M. both could learn new skills after his surgery but could not form new memories of personal events after his surgery.
H.M. was instructed to trace the lines of a star through a mirror 10 times on 3 separate days. His number of mistakes was tracked. On the second day, although he could not recall ever doing this exercise, he made significantly fewer mistakes than on his first attempt. He could remember the procedure of tracing the star, so he had procedural memory; however, he could not remember his experience doing it because he did not have episodic memory.
- What is Hebb’s rule of learning?
- Let’s say that you have heard the following fact many times: “In 1776, America declared its independence.” According to Hebb’s rule of learning, what happens when you repeated hear about these 3 separate concepts (the number 1776, the country of America, and the concept of independence) discussed together in this way, and how does that affect what comes to mind when you are later reminded of only 1 of the concepts (e.g., the number 1776)?
Hebb’s rule of learning: “Neurons that fire together, wire together.”
Overtime you build an association between the words and when you hear one of the three words the neurons for the others Will fire at the same time and they are connected.
(9) Which areas of the brain are responsible for (a) holding visual, auditory, and touch-related sensory memories
touch: primary sensory cortex, parietal lobe
the visual primary visual cortex, occipital lobe
primary auditory cortex, temporal lobe
olfactory/smell cortex, on the border of the frontal lobe and the temporal lobe
Primary gustatory or taste cortex, parietal lobe.
(9) Which areas of the brain are responsible for (b) holding short-term memory, and (c) consolidating (not storing) episodic memories, semantic memories, and procedural memories?
short-term memory - prefrontal cortex
episodic memory - hippocampus
semantic - hippocampus
procedural -basal ganglia
(10) Define and provide an example of the encoding-specificity principle.
The place environment center smell while encoding information is a cue when recalling and can make the recalling process easier and faster. An example of this would be if we practice and study for our chemistry exam sitting in the lecture hall and in the same seats where we will take the exam the day after.
* eventually you learn to associate aspects of the environment that you learned the information (smell etc) with the information.
(11) The Radiolab podcast “Forgetting and Memory” discussed how research has concluded that the most “uncontaminated” memory is one that is stored in the brain of a person who cannot retrieve that memory. Explain what is meant by this claim. https://radiolab.org/podcast/91569-memory-and-forgetting/transcript
The Radiolab claim suggests that memories are most accurate when never retrieved, as retrieval can alter or distort them.
Every time you remember something you’re changing the memory a little bit. We’re always changing the memory slightly.
What that really means is that every time you are remembering something, you’re actually recreating it. That’s the only reason the drug works. And so if you’re recreating it each time, then each time you’re remembering something it’s a brand new memory.
(12)
* Define the misinformation effect.
* Explain why the existence of the misinformation effect is relevant to the question of whether it is appropriate for the legal system to rely heavily on eyewitness testimony.
Post-event information reduces the accuracy of your
memory of an event
It is relevant because leading questions asked to witnesses in court can cause them to remember events that happened differently
This is highly relevant to the legal system because eyewitness testimony, often seen as reliable, can easily be influenced by suggestive questioning, media coverage, or other witnesses. Such distortions can lead to wrongful convictions, as witnesses may confidently recall inaccurate details.
(13) The Radiolab podcast “Forgetting and Memory” describes a study conducted on rats by Dr. Kareem Nader. Describe, in detail:
- How the study was conducted (e.g., what was done to the rats in the study)
- The results of the study, and;
- What this study implies about what can potentially happen to our memories each time we remember them.
The rats would get shocked after the tone. They learned to be scared and anticipate the shock when they heard the tone.
They put rats back in the experiment environment. They played the tone again and then shot them with a drug that interferes with memory consolidation. Then, they continued with delivering the sound but with no shock, and it seemed as if the rats had unlearned the situation and not remember that the tone had any meaning to them. This shows that our memories are impermanent and they can change. This means we can add things to memories and/or take things away. Everytime we remember, we reconsolidate, and if we don’t reconsolidate exactly the same way as before, our memories could be altered.
(14) Define the concepts of classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning: Learning via association of two stimuli (Pavlov’s dogs).
Operant Conditioning: Learning via consequences (Skinner’s pigeons).
Classical conditioning is a type of learning where an organism associates two stimuli, such that one predicts the other, resulting in a learned response. It was famously demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov, who conditioned dogs to salivate (response) at the sound of a bell (neutral stimulus) by pairing it with food (unconditioned stimulus). Over time, the neutral stimulus (bell) became a conditioned stimulus that triggered salivation (conditioned response).
- Unconditioned stimulus (US): stimulus that naturally (i.e., without learning ) elicits a specific reaction
- Unconditioned response (UR): a specific reaction that is naturally (i.e., without learning ) elicited by a specific US
- Conditioned stimulus (CS): initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a specific response after being paired with a specific US (i.e., a learned association )
- Conditioned response (CR): a reaction that resembles a UR but is produced by a CS, rather than a US (i.e., a learned reaction )
Operant conditioning, on the other hand, involves learning through consequences, where behavior is shaped by reinforcement (you want them to continue the behavior) or punishments (you want them to stop the behavior). B.F. Skinner demonstrated this by training animals to perform behaviors like pressing a lever using reinforcement (positive or negative) to increase the behavior or punishment to decrease it. While classical conditioning focuses on involuntary, automatic responses, operant conditioning deals with voluntary behaviors influenced by external outcomes.
