L23 - Declarative memory Flashcards
What are the 4 stages of memory?
Encoding (learning)
Consolidation
Storage
Retrieval
For learning that takes minutes-hours, where is this occurring in the brain.
Synaptic level
(cellular level)
For learning that takes days to years, where is this occurring in the brain.
At the system level
(reorganisation of related brain regions, slow dynamic process)
What are the two types of declarative memory (explicit memory)?
Episodic memory (events)
Semantic memory (facts)
What are the 4 types of memory?
Sensory
Short-Term and Working
Long-Term Nondeclarative
Long-Term Declarative
What is the capacity of short-term and working memory?
7 +/- 2
Which types of memory are conscious
Short-Term and Working
Long-Term Declarative
Which types of memory are unconscious?
Long-Term Nondeclarative
Sensory
Which types of memory gets lost primarily through decay?
Sensory
Short-Term and Working
Which type of memory gets lost primarily through interference?
Long-Term Nondeclarative
Long-Term Declarative
What is encoding in regards to memory?
The first stage of memory: the processing of incoming information that creates memory traces.
What is the term used to describe the information transfer from a sensory buffer to STM?
Acquisition
What is the term used for the stabilisation of a memory representation (transition to LTM)?
Consolidation
What is (memory) storage?
The result of acquisition and consolidation. Storing of memories for later retrieval.
What is retrieval?
Accessing stored information
(i.e. conscious representation or execution of a learned behaviour)
What part of H.M’s brain did surgeons remove?
Why?
Most of his hippocampus
To prevent life-threatening seizures
What disorder did H.M. suffer from following his procedure?
What did this do to him?
Heavy anterograde amnesia
Temporally graded retrograde amnesia (1-2 years before can’t remember)
He was unable to form new explicit memories.
What part of the brain plays a crucial role in the formation of new declarative memories?
hippocampus
Explain in three steps the Standard Consolidation Theory of how we form long term memories
- Hippocampus rapidly encodes information
- Transferred slowly to cortex over repeated trials.
- Direct connections in cortex replace indirect connections via hippocampus until a unified representation is held.
(red = necessary connections, grey = unnecessary connections)
Where is all LTM information stored?
In the cortex
You see activation in the hippocampus when retrieving true LTM.
True or False
False
The brain eventually adapts to become independent of the hippocampus when it is stored in LTM
What does this image represent?
The declarative memory process
Everything to the right of the entorhinal cortex is part of the ____
hippocampus
What two regions of the brain in this image are most important for encoding?
CA3 and CA1
Where does retrieval occur in this image?
Typically occurs within CA3
then driving through CA1
then feeds it back into the cortex to activate those areas of the cortex where memory is stored.
What is the process that the hippocampus uses to learn?
An error learning process.
(differentiating the situation relevant information and how the information differs from current inputs)
Encoding and retrieval are unique and independent from one another within the hippocampus
True or False
False
Both regions are connected and dynamic
What is the old/new effect test?
Participants see a series of images, then they are shown a different series of images and asked to identify which images they saw previously.
For ERP in memory, do you get early or late differences and are they negative or positive effects?
Late positivity affects
What are some problems with the standard model of memory?
It does not treat different forms of declarative memory differently
Research suggests the hippocampus is always involved in the recollection of episodic memory regardless of age.
Clinical cases suggest that episodic and semantic memory are organised differently for LTM
What does Multiple Trace Theory say about how memories are stored?
Memories are stored in the hippocampus and the extra-hippocampal circuits.
Memories are encoded in these hippocampal-cortical networks and reactivation leads to multiple traces in the hippocampus.
According to Multiple Trace Theory (MTT), what is the difference that memory traces in the cortex have compared to memory traces in the hippocampus?
Memory traces in the hippocampus have temporal context.
Traces in the cortex are context-free and become more semantic.
(We tend to have a gist of what happened in older memories as they become more semantic)
How is the standard model of memory and multiple trace theory similar?
Both say that the reactivation of memories lead to a process of reorganization.
Where does the standard models of memory and multiple trace theory (MTT) differ?
Where the reactivation and reorganization of memories happen.
MTT believes it is the hippocampus
Standard believes it is the cortex
Why does MTT believe that episodic memory is in the hippocampus and extra-hippocampal circuits?
Because as memories turn into LTM in the cortex they become more semantic.
Semantic memories can be independent of the hippocampus circuits (like standard model)
What does MTT think should happen if a hippocampus is removed?
All traces of episodic should be gone.
But semantic memories should be spared.
What are some of the problems with Multiple Trace Theory (MTT)?
- Fear conditioning in rats shows the size of the lesion is unrelated to retrograde memory gradient.
- While the hippocampus is always involved in the recollection of memories, this may be in connection with other cortical areas.
