Higher Cognitive Function: Memory. Flashcards
What are the 3 stages of memory?
- Encoding - processing of info ready for storage.
- Maintenance of a permanent record.
- Retrieval - bringing to mind of a stored representation.
What are the 3 types of memory?
- Sensory memory
- Short term memory
- Long term memory.
Describe sensory memory.
Duration of ms-secs. Echoic and iconic sensory traces. 12 items, fade too fast for verbal report. Shift to STM via attention.
Describe STM.
Capacity of 7 +/- 2 items, maintained by rehearsal (repetition). Items move to LTM via rehearsal.
Describe LTM.
Unlimited store, hours - years. Info lost by interference of new material on old. Alcohol and sleep deprivation interfere with the transfer of info from STM to LTM.
What is amnesia?
Impairment in the recall and recognition of facts and events experienced before (retrograde) and after (anterograde) the onset of brain damage.
In amnesia what remains unimpaired?
STM and intelligence remain relatively unimpaired.
What is an example of an organic cause of amnesia?
Brain damage, result of trauma, disease or drugs.
What is an example of a functional cause of amnesia?
Result of psychological factors.
What are the 4 different types of selected memory systems? Describe each.
Episodic memory - mins –> years, explicit, declarative, eg: remembering a short story, remembering what you had for dinner, your birthday.
Semantic memory - mins –> years, explicit, declarative, eg: knowing PMs during the war, colour of an elephant.
Procedural Memory - mins –> years, explicit/implicit, declarative/ non-declarative eg: driving a car, learning sequence of numbers on mobile without trying.
Working memory - secs –> mins, explicit, declarative eg: phonologic - keeping number in your head. spatial - remembering a route in your mind.
Where is each selected memory systems in the brain?
Episodic - prefrontal cortex, hippocampal formation, amygdala, thalamus, cingulate gyrus.
Semantic - inferolateral temporal lobe.
Procedural memory - cerebellum, basal ganglia, supplementary motor cortex.
Working memory - prefrontal cortex.
What is the definition of working memory?
Collection of structures and processes used for temporarily storing and manipulation info.
What is the Baddeley and Hitch model of working memory?
Central processor coordinating activity of 2 subsystems. The 2 subsystems being - 1. Phonological memory loop (acoustic and linguistic). 2. Visual and spatial sketch pad (mental images).
