lecture 1 - LTM 1 Flashcards
declarative memory
remembering ‘that’ rather than ‘how’
unlimited capacity
episodic and semantic memory
medial temporal lobe & diencephalon
LTM (James: ‘memory proper’ or ‘secondary memory’)
knowledge of an event or fact with additional consciousness that we have experienced it before
these have since been reclassified as forms of LTM
memory and consciousness (Tulving, 1985)
‘remembering is a conscious experience - early mem research ignored this (not concerned with ‘where’ and ‘when’ juts concerned with ‘what’ could be remembered
e.g. Ebbinghaus: nonsense syllables - juts concerned with what people remembered not the context of memories
episodic memory allows… (Tulving)
access and re-experience of events located in space (where) and time (when)
semantic knowledge
generalised knowledge of self and world abstracted from specific experience
different forms of consciousness (Tulving, 1985)
episodic = autonoetic semantic = noetic procedural = anoetic
autonoetic consciousness
allows us to be aware of subjective time in which events happened
Spiers et al (2001)
cases with MTL (hippocampal) damage: all had episodic mem impairments, most had minor semantic mem impairments
none had STM impairments
(anterograde amnesia)
anterograde amnesia
can’t create new memories after event that caused amnesia
Vargha-Khadem et al (1997): patient Jon (anterograde)
severe episodic mem impairment
damage was bilateral
poor spatial, temporal, episodic mem
other patients with more wide spread damage
V-K et al - neighbouring areas are responsible for semantic mem
Verfaellie et al (2000): patient PS (anterograde)
hippocampus-selective damage
episodic mem impaired
intact ability to acquire new semantic mems
Verfaellie et al (2000): patient SS (anterograde)
wider MTL damage
impaired episodic and semantic mem
retrograde amnesia
can’t access mems from before event
often selective deficit in episodic or semantic mem
Tulving (2002): patient KC (retrograde)
damage to MTL and hippocampus
good sematic mem before accident but…
anterograde amnesia for semantic and episodic mem (not pure retrograde amnesia)
severe episodic mem impairment: no EMs before or since injury
semantic dementia
progressive loss of conceptual knowledge with relatively in tact EM
Westamacott et al (2001): patient EL
semantic mem loss
atrophy in left anterior temporal lobe but spared hippocampus
50 photos: impaired at naming (could only name wife and children); demonstrated sense of re-experiencing autobiographical events in nearly every photo regardless of recency
Familiarity
Sense of knowing without contextual details
Fast, automatic
semantic mem - noetic awareness
Recollection
Remember contextual details
slower, effortful, demanding
Episodic mem - autonoetic awareness
Spontaneous recollection can occur through retrieval cues
Proustian moments
Brain areas involved in recollection but not familiarity
Hippocampus
Brain areas involved in familiarity/recognition/knowing
Other areas in temporal lobes (perihinal and parahippocampal cortices)
EM over long term
Hippocampus is involved in EMs over long term but not for mems that become semanticised
Gradual strengthening of cortical connections without dampening contribution of the hippocampus
support for ‘multiple trace theories’
But mems that become semantic/familiar over time…
Consolidate through strengthening of cortico-cortical connections and progressive disengagement of the hippocampus
EMs being repeated become semantic knowledge of certain behaviours (scripts) = link between EM & SM
Remember/know and OCD
Obsessions checking can lead to R to k shift
Remember/know and OCD
Obsessions checking can lead to R to k shift
Remember/know and OCD
Obsessions checking can lead to R to k shift
Link between SM and EM
Relation is process-specific - operate serially at encoding (info enters EM through SM)
Schema facilitating effects (Bransford & Johnson)
Title given before reading description = better recall
