Learning & Memory

Question 1

Phonological loop (Baddeley)

Answer 1

Repository for verbally encoded items combined with rehearsal mechanism which recycles verbal material to refresh memory tract

Question 1

Medial temporal lobe amnesia

Answer 1

Historically described as having preserved insight, increased rates of forgetting, limited RA, lack of confabulation Causes: axonia, limbic encephalitis, stroke, probably AD

Question 1

Damage to what structure can lead to impaired implicit memory?

Answer 1

Basal ganglia

Question 2

Dual code theory

Answer 2

Concrete words can be represented by an imaginal code & verbal code whereas abstract words give rise only to a verbal code

Question 3

Lateral limbic circuit

Answer 3

Amygdala => dorsomedial nucleus of thalamus => orbitofrontal cortex => uncus => amygdala

Question 4

Release from proactive interference

Answer 4

Improved memory performance for stimulus words following a shift in semantic category

Question 5

Very poor encoding, delayed recall & recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 5

Impaired encoding & consolidation; B frontal lesions affecting orbitofrontal & medial frontal structures, medial diencephalic lesions, or B mesial temporal damage found in pts with severe TBIs or severe AD

Question 6

Episodic buffer (Baddeley)

Answer 6

Temporary & limited capacity storage system that holds & integrates info of different modalities through linkage with LTM

Question 7

Consolidation theory (Squire & Bayley)

Answer 7

Role of hippocampus is to consolidate new memories; newer memories are lost b/c they are still in the hippocampus, older memories have been consolidated

Question 7

Transient global amnesia

Answer 7

Profound AA problems & variable profiles of RA, perhaps b/c of retrieval problems No obvious cause Assoc. w/ decreased perfusion to medial temporal or diencephalic regions

Question 8

Organic amnesia

Answer 8

AA is severe; RA usu. temporally grade Causes include temporal lobe surgery, chronic alcohol abuse, brain injuries, anoxia/ischemia, encephalitis, epilepsy, tumor, CVA

Question 10

Visuo-spatial sketchpad (Baddeley)

Answer 10

Retains visuospatial material in STM

Question 11

How does the amygdala function in memory?

Answer 11

Believed to be involved in association a stimulus with a reward

Question 11

Normal encoding, normal recall, impaired recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 11

Inattention/variable motivation, non-neurological memory impairment

Question 12

Associative long-term potentiation

Answer 12

When weak & strong synapses to a single neuron are stimulated at approximately the same time, the weak synapses become strengthened

Question 13

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 13

Impaired in conscious, deliberate recall of info initially learned after illness onset

Question 14

Ribot’s law (of regression)

Answer 14

Vulnerability of memory loss to neurological insult is an inverse function of the age of the memories

Question 15

According to Moscovitch, the following CNS structures mediate what aspects of memory performance? 1) Nonfrontal neocortical 2) Basal ganglia 3) Medial temporal/hippocampal 4) Central-system frontal lobe

Answer 15

1) perceptual & semantic modules maintaining performance on item-specific, implicit memory 2) performance on sensorimotor procedural tests 3) encoding, storage, retrieval on explicit episodic memory (things that are associative/cue dependent) 4) performance on strategic explicit & rule-based tests

Question 16

Poor encoding, severe delayed recall impairment, & mildly impaired recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 16

Deficits of consolidation & rapid forgetting; initial stages of AD, B mesial temporal dysfx

Question 17

Information-processing model of memory

Answer 17

1) Attention 2) Encoding 3) Storage 4) Consolidation (integrate new memories into cognitive/linguistic schema) 5) Retrieval

Question 18

Multiple-trace theory (Nadel & Moscovitch)

Answer 18

3 kinds of memory: autobiographic memories, factual semantic memory, general somatic memory All are differentially susceptible to medial-temporal lobe injury Memories change w/ passage of time as they are recalled, reevaluated, & restored

Question 19

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 19

Severe anterograde amnesia, extensive impairment of remote memory, visuospatial & sensory processing deficits, lack of insight, apathy, intact incidental, semantic, or procedural memory B damage along the diencephalon midline, generalized cerebral atrophy

Question 20

Elaboration

Answer 20

Memory process in which the products of initial encoding are enriched by further processing

Question 21

3 patterns of retrograde amensia

Answer 21

Temporally limited: involves few yrs prior to onset of amnesia w/ relative sparing of more remote time periods Temporally-graded: affects all time periods, w/ greater impairment of memories in more recent past Nonspecific or pervasive: affects all time periods equally

Question 22

3 components of Baddeley’s working memory model

Answer 22

Phonological loop, visualspatial sketchpad, central executive (and episodic buffer)

Question 23

Normal encoding, poor recall, good recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 23

Deficits in retrieval; subcortical or vascular dementias

Question 24

Poor initial encoding with appropriate improvement across repeated trials, variable recall, normal recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 24

Severe depression or anxiety

Question 25

Implicit learning engages brain circuits involving

Answer 25

BG, prefrontal cortex, amygdala

Question 26

Long-term potentiation

Answer 26

Strengthening of a synaptic connection that results when a synapse of one neuron repeatedly fires and excites another neuron, there is a permanent change in the recieving neuron, the excitatory neuron, or both

Question 27

Bilateral diencephalic damage leads to

Answer 27

Global anterograde amnesia

Question 28

Variable encoding, variable recall, good recognition - this memory pattern is associated with

Answer 28

Inefficient encoding w/ intact consolidation; dementias affecting the frontal lobes or etiologies affecting attention such as TBI

Question 30

Diencephalic amnesia

Answer 30

Deficits in initial processing stages of memory; confabulation; sensitivity to proactive interference; lack of insight Causes: infarcts of the thalamic arteries, trauma, diencephalic tumors, Korsakoff’s

Question 32

Explicit learning occurs largely in which structures?

Answer 32

Diencephalic, hippocampus & surrounding structures

Question 33

Frontally-related amnesia

Answer 33

Attentional deficits, retrieval may be normal, unawareness of memory problems & tendency to confabulate are common

Question 34

What is the role of the basal forebrain in memory

Answer 34

Nucleus basalis of Meynert sends fibers to various regions including the hippocampus, cerebral cortex; functions are disrupted in ACoA strokes & AD

Question 36

Differences between temporal lobe amnesia & Korsakoff’s

Answer 36

TL: normal release from proactive interference Korsakoff’s: extensive loss of remote memory

Question 37

Functional amnesia

Answer 37

Typically arises after psychological trauma AA does not usually occur, RA is extensive & frequently includes loss of personal identity

Question 38

Encoding specificity principle

Answer 38

Retrieval of an event is a function of the overlap between the context of learning & that of the retrieval

Question 39

Basic forms of learning

Answer 39

Perceptual, stimulus-response, motor, relational

Question 40

Ecphory

Answer 40

Process by which retrieval cues interact with stored info during the reconstruction of info into memory

Question 41

Equipotentiality

Answer 41

Lashley posits that memory impairment does not depend on localization of a lesion but on the amount of tissue damaged; any part of the cortex is equally able to perform tasks

Question 42

Reconsolidation theory (Tronson & Taylor)

Answer 42

Proposes that memories will rarely consist of a single trace or neural substrate; each time a memory is used, it is reconsolidated

Question 43

Central executive (Baddeley)

Answer 43

Acts as a supervisory system & controls flow of info from & to slave systems Capacity is limited, performance begins to break down as demands increase Proposed to be located in prefrontal cortex

Question 44

Hebb Rule

Answer 44

If a synapse repeatedly becomes active at about the same time the postsynaptic neurons fires, changes will take place in the structure or chemistry of the synapse that will strengthen it. neurons that fire together wire together.

Question 45

Atkinson & Shiffrin’s 3-stage model of declarative memory

Answer 45

1) sensory memory - holds memory for 1-2 sec 2) short-term memory - immediate memory, rehearsal, longer impermanent memories 3) long-term memory - relatively permanent storage of memory; requires alterations in neuron, synapse, elaboration of dendrite, etc.

Question 46

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome

Answer 46

Classic triad of gait ataxia, oculomotor problems (nystagmus), confusion