Lecture 20: Memory and learning 1

Question 1

What are implicit memories?

Answer 1

memories not consciously recalled

Question 2

What are examples of implicit memory?

Answer 2

habituation, sensitisation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning and procedural

Question 3

What are explicit memories?

Answer 3

memories that are consciously recalled

Question 4

What are examples of explicit memories?

Answer 4

memory of facts

if short term, sometimes called working memory

Question 5

When does habituation occur?

Answer 5

when a non-threatening stimulus is repeated regularly

stimulus ultimately is not perceived

Question 6

What is sensitisation produced by?

Answer 6

alarming stimuli

Question 7

What happens during sensitisation?

Answer 7

become more sensitive to all sensory modalities

extinguishes habituation -> needs to be re-established

Question 8

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 8

pairing an extraneous stimulus with a reward (or punishment) leads to the extraneous stimulus causing the unconscious behaviours normally produced by the reward

Question 9

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 9

rewarding particular behaviours ultimately causes those behaviours to become habitual -> also applies to punishment

Question 10

What is procedural memory?

Answer 10

memory of how things are done

unconscious motor memory

Question 11

What are the limitations of procedural memory?

Answer 11

can consciously initiate the action, but cannot describe the specifics of how the action is implemented

Question 12

What is procedural memory laid down by? What can procedural memory be modified by?

Answer 12

continuous repetition of an action or activity

can be modified by consciously controlling the action e.g. improving golf swing or batting technique

Question 13

What is explicit memory also called?

Answer 13

declarative memory and is divided into semantic and episodic memory

Question 14

What is semantic memory?

Answer 14

content, meanings of words, sights, sounds, etc.

Question 15

What is episodic memory?

Answer 15

spatial and temporal relationships between different semantic memories

Question 16

What is semantic and episodic memory important for?

Answer 16

language

Question 17

What is the role of working memory?

Answer 17

stores newly acquired information and retrieved memories (traces last seconds to minutes)

Question 18

What does working memory depend on?

Answer 18

the prefrontal cortex

also lateral intraparietal cortex

Question 19

What are the several subdivisions of working memory?

Answer 19

central executive, phonological loop and spatiotemporal sketchpad

Question 20

How is each component of working memory distributed?

Answer 20

distributed across a different set of brain regions

Question 21

What does explicit memory require for transfer from working to long term memory?

Answer 21

hippocampal formation

Question 22

What does transfer of information into long term memory depend on?

Answer 22

repetition

Question 23

What enhances a long term memory?

Answer 23

recall into working memory

form of repetition

Question 24

What does repetition alter?

Answer 24

strength of active synapses, laying down an activity pattern that can be recalled (Hebb’s theory)

Question 25

What has a role in some memories?

Answer 25

neurogenesis in dentate gyrus of hippocampus

Question 26

What is the hippocampus?

Answer 26

primitive cerebral cortex located medially in temporal lobe

Question 27

What is the role of the hippocampus?

Answer 27

initial site of explicit memory storage and active during explicit memory consolidation

Question 28

What does damage to the hippocampus prevent?

Answer 28

new long term explicit memories but does not alter consolidated memories -> implicit memories still form

Question 29

Where is explicit memory stored?

Answer 29

primarily stored in the neocortex once consolidated -> often involves “reliving” original stimulus

Question 30

What does it mean if a memory is associative?

Answer 30

related information is recalled together

Question 31

What does recall of stored memory of an event activate?

Answer 31

parts of cortex active when event was experienced (event is partially relived)

Question 32

What happens during long term memory formation?

Answer 32

continual interaction between neocortex and hippocampus