Human Memory Flashcards
Anterograde amnesia
The inability to form long-term memories. Depicted in the movie “Memento” from the year 2000.
Neural plasticity
Capability of neurons and neural networks in the brain to change their connections and behavior in response to new experiences. Fundamental for memory.
Auditory sensory store
A Memory system that briefly stores auditory information for up to 10 seconds (echoic memory)
Visual sensory store
A memory system, that briefly stores visual information, that is discarded if not quickly attended to.
Also called Iconic memory.
Laterality
The development of specialized functioning in each hemisphere of the brain or in the side of the body which each controls a functionality (e.g. handedness).
Partial-report procedure
Participants are prompted to remember only certain rows of letters out of a whole array right after the visual stimulus has been switched off. The participant gets a cue, in form of a tone. First pioneered by Sperling (1960).
Methodological variation of whole-report procedure.
Whole-report procedure
Participants are asked to recite all items in the array after the visual stimulus has been switched off.
ERP
An acronym for Event Related Potential. It is a precise moment in the measurement of brain activity.
Mismatch-negativity (MMN)
An Event Related Potential (ERP) measure, which happens after a person hears a very different sound from recently heard sounds. (E.g. There is an increase in their ERP negativity about 150-200 ms after the very different sound is played; Näätänen 1992).
Memory span
Describes short-term Memory-capacity. Defined as: The number of elements one can immediately repeat back in correct order after hearing a list. Theorized to be at capacity around 7 elements.
Adaptive Control of thought (ACT)
A theory that provides an explanation for why some words and not others are retrieved from long-term memory into working memory is because the words have different activations / associations in the brain. Proposed by Anderson in 2009.
Long Term Potentiation (LTP)
Increased sensitivity of neural pathways that have been recently stimulated by a high frequency electrical current
PET
Positron Emission Tomography (Procedure to scan radioactive traces in the body)
Flashbulb Memory
Very good memory about really impactful events. “Burns themselves permanently into our minds”
Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory
Working Memory contains: Visuospatial sketchpad and Phonological loop (“slave systems”) controlled by the Central executive. Proposed in 1986.
Visuospatial Sketch
A part of “Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory” that holds our visual part of working through a problem. E.g. You may visualize a written multiplication problem like 32x8. This image is held in the Visuospatial sketchpad.
Phonological Loop
Part of “Baddeley’s Theory of Working Memory”. Holds information, e.g. partial products of a multiplication like 24, when trying to multiply 4x6x2. (4x6 = 24).
Subdivision: Articulatory loop and Phonological store
Articulatory Loop
Part of the Phonological Loop (Baddeley). Helps you hold and work with verbal and auditory information by repeating words or sounds mentally over and over to remember them for a short time. (Here the articulatory process happens)
Phonological Store
Part of the Phonological Loop. “Inner ear” that listens to your “inner voice”.
Delayed match-to-sample task
A task used in studies of monkeys to study their Working Memory in coordination with their Frontal Lobe.
(E.g. Food is placed in one of two containers with lids. Monkeys look away for more than 10 seconds. Need to remember which container the food was in. Human infants aren’t able to do this task until they are about 1 year old).
Brodmann area 46 / Dorsolateral prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)
An area of the Frontal Lobe that is involved in the delayed match-to-sample tasks, when remembering where an item is placed. Keeps the information active while there is a delay, but not in the execution of a task.
Spreading Activation
A term used to refer to the process by which currently attended items can make associated memories more readily available. E.g: Like seeing the pythagoras theorem written on a toilet wall will make it more readily available as a solution in your next math problem.
Strength / Baseline Activation
A term for how easily we can retrieve a concept from our memory. The strength of a memory increases gradually every time it is recalled.
The Power law of Learning
All learning/memory is increased by practice. This can generally be formulated:T = a*P^-b
T = response time.
P = amount of practice.
a & b = coefficients from study.
Lag
Amount of intervening items in a list between repeated items you try to retrieve in the short-term- working- memory (e.g. Shepard &Teghtsoonian 1961).
(E.g. in list: 1, 2, 3, 5, 1. Lag = 3 items)
Brodmann area 47 / ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC)
Adjacent to Brodmann area 46
Area in the prefrontal Cortex that is involved in the “What”-pathway.
Articulatory process
“Inner Voice” that rehearses verbal information e.g retrieving a phone number. Process happening in articulatory loop.
Elaborative Processing
Thinking of information that is related to and expands the information provided. Elaborating further on information to make deeper connections and retain them better (For further research on this topic, see Pressley, McDaniel, Turnure, Wood, & Ahmad, 1987)
Method of Loci
Memory Technique: Attaching things to remember to a spatial loci (location) on a known route. Also known as “Memory Palace”.
Depth of processing Theory
Rehearsal only improves memory if the material is processed in a deep way (e.g. assigning meaning to it). A theory proposed by Craik and Lockhart in 1972.
Encoding-specifity principle
The probability of recalling an item at test depends on the similarity of the context during decoding at test to the context during encoding at study
False-memory syndrome
A kind of memory confusion where people remember things that did not happen to them, but instead where suggested to them (it produced a great deal of controversy in cases where individuals claim to have recovered previously suppressed memories of childhood sexual assault)
Explicit memory
What we can consciously recall
Fan effect
The increase in reaction time related to an increase in the number of memory structures associated with a concept
Implicit memory
What our actions imply we remember in the absence of conscious memory
Amnesia
Loss of memory
Korsakoff syndrome
An amnesia resulting from chronic alcoholism and nutritional deficit.
Interference theory
The theory that forgetting is caused by interference among memories.
Decay theory
A theory that forgetting is caused by spontaneous decay of memories over time.
Power law of forgetting
The concept that describes how memory performance declines over time in a manner consistent with a power function of the duration of the delay interval.
Declarative memory
Knowledge we can consciously recall, for example, which year the French revolution started. Synonymous to explicit memory.
Priming
Priming refers to the improvement in the way a stimulus is processed, which occurs due to previous exposure to that stimulus.
Procedural knowledge
The understanding of how to execute a specific task or skill, often acquired through practical experience and practice.
It stands in contrast to explicit memory, which involves consciously recalling facts or information.
Mood congruence
A match between the mood associated with the content of a memory and the person’s mood when recalling the memory. Such a match is associated with better memory
Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm
A paradigm for creating false memories of words. This is done by presenting new words that are closely associated with the original words.
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory for things that occurred before an injury. Contrast with anterograde amnesia.
State-dependent learning
The principle that it is easier to recall information when one is in the same emotional and physical state as when one learned the information.
Dissociations
A demonstration that a manipulation in an experiment has an effect on the performance of one task, but not on another.
Nonassociative memory
A type of nondeclarative memory (implicit memory), nonassociative memory is split into two categories: Habituation and sensitization. This type of memory has been demonstrated in a variety of species, ranging from sea slugs to humans.
Nondeclarative memory
Synonymous to implicit memory, knowledge implied by our actions but inaccessible to consciously recall.
