Learning and remembering

Question 1

What are 2 key cognitive processes?

Answer 1

Learning and memory

Question 2

What is learning?

Answer 2

A process by which information is acquired and which is observable in an organism’s behaviour

Question 3

What is memory?

Answer 3

Encoding, storage, and retrieval of the learned information or, more broadly, previous experiences

Question 4

What are neurobiological bases of learning and memory?

Answer 4

Changes in molecular, cellular and broader brain areas

Question 5

What happened to patient K.F. (Shallice & Warrington, 1969) + how did this affect his short term and long term stores?

Answer 5

Left parieto-occipital lesion due to
a motorcycle accident

• Short-term storage impairment indicated by digit span of 2
• Long-term recall of words / stories was unimpaired

Question 6

In what way was K.Fs damage to his short-term storage not general?

Answer 6

• short-term memory for visual stimuli was much better than for auditory letters or digits (Warrington & Shallice, 1972)

His deficit was limited to verbal stimuli and he performed at typical levels for non-verbal stimuli (Shallice & Warrington, 1974)

Question 7

How did K.Fs brain damage challenge the modal model?

Answer 7

Suggested that the STS is not unitary, therefore supporting the working memory model (phonological loop and visuo-spatial sketchpad)

Question 8

What are the 3 types of long term memory?

Answer 8

Declarative
Non-declarative
Emotional (conscious and unconscious)

Question 9

What are 2 types of declarative memory?

Answer 9

episodic and semantic

Question 10

What is episodic memory?

Answer 10

personal/autobiographical memory of events eg. going to school

Question 11

What is semantic memory?

Answer 11

Facts/Knowledge eg. Paris is the capital of France

Question 12

What is an example of non-declarative memory

Answer 12

Procedural memory

Question 13

What is procedural memory?

Answer 13

Skills
Habits
Priming
Conditioning

Question 14

What happened to patient H.M? (Scoville & Milner, 1957)

Answer 14

Bilateral hippocampus removed for treatment for epilepsy caused anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories)

Question 15

What did Maguire et al (1997) find in their experiment with 11 London Taxi Drivers?

Answer 15

Ppts recalled under PET:
- shortest legal route between 2 places
- famous London landmarks
- famous film sequences
Significant activation of the right hippocampus with legal routes

Question 16

What did Maguire et al (2000) say about the hippocampus in relation to experience as a taxi driver?

Answer 16

Posterior hippocampus size correlated with amount of experience as taxi driver

Question 17

What is Korsakoff syndrome? (Korsakoff, 1889)

Answer 17

Alcohol-use related thiamine (vitamin B1) deficiency
Damage to thalamus and hypothalamus (mammillary bodies)
Results in severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia
No insight in their memory problems
Due to damage to frontal cortex

Question 18

How was H.Ms long-term memory affected?

Answer 18

Impaired explicit/declarative long-term memory, but not non-declarative long-term memory - was able to learn the skill of mirror tracing (trace between 2 outlines of a star while looking at only his hand in the mirror)

Question 19

What happened to patient K.C?

Answer 19

Age 30: motorcycle accident & head injury with extensive brain lesions in multiple locations (incl. medial temporal lobes, frontal lobes, occipital lobes, hippocampal loss)
Intact cognitive capabilities
Short-term memory intact
Knows many objective facts related to history, geography, and other general knowledge
Impaired autobiographic episodic memory: cannot recollect any personally experienced events from birth to present

Question 20

How are memories formed in terms of encoding, storage and retrieval?

Answer 20

• initial encoding reflects specific properties of the stimuli and is reflected in the activation of related neocortical regions (neocortex)
• consolidation (long-term storage) is dependent on the hippocampus and adjacent regions
• retrieval will vary depending on whether the memory was consolidated or not, with less dependence on hippocampus for consolidated memories