Lecture 3- Cognitive Theories Of Memory Flashcards
Explicit memory?
Tests depend on conscious recollection of learning event
Tests enquire about some specific study episode/ learning event
Definition of memory?
The mental process of acquiring and retaining information for later retrieval
Implicit memory
- no reference to initial encoding episode and no associated awareness of engaging in recall is necessary
- tests depend on a processing task and then measuring extent to which previous exposure affects speed/ accuracy
Explicit memory continued
- death of processing during encoding influences level of performance
- level of performance not affected by perceptual characteristics (e.g font type)
- amnesia is described as explicit memory deficit
Implicit memory continued
-often insensitive to level of encoding
- sensitive to physical characteristics of stimuli
Classical ‘amnesia’ does not affect implicit memory
Problem with implicit vs. explicit dichotomy
There are subtle difference with procedural and declarative memory
The term explicit and implicit relates to performance on particular memory tests
Procedural and declarative focused on cognitive processes and is more meaningful as literature was informed by amnesia patients
Procedural memory
- storage of skills an procedures
- very important in motor performance
Supported by memory systems that are independent of hippocampus system ( cerebellum, basal ganglia do play a role)
Declarative memory
- accumulation of facts/ data derived from learning experiences
- due to the relational nature of hippocampus system, declarative memory is relational- system outcome of processing from many systems.
- activation of declarative memory causes activation of related memories
- memory activation can be independent of environment
Models of memory
4 models Serial models -Atkinson-shiffrin model -tulvings model Parallel model -parallel distributed processing model
Atkinson-shiffrin model
Sensory memory- iconic and ecoic
Working memory- contains new info and info extracted from ltm and you can operate on those bits of info
Long term memory- info needs to be rehearsed in working memory to be remembered
Levels of processing
Crack and Lockhart
- info retained according to level of processing it has undergone
Shallow- fragile memory trade that is easily lost
Maintenance- repeat/ route learning without thinking about it
Elaborative- much more likely to end up with durable memory trace and operate it on existing knowledge
Tulvings model of memory
STM to LTM LTM - procedural -episodic -semantic
Unlike previous models this was based on people with dysfunctional memories
Patella distributed processing
- memory is activation of connections in different areas ( distribution) simultaneously ( parallel)
-learning- strength of connections between relevant sites is changed
Memory activation just about distribution of network of systems
Comparison of models of memory
None of the models fully account for all research data in isolation
Serial models are most useful for study of amnesia
Tulvings view on Episodic memory
- allowing re- experience though autonoetic awareness, previous experiences and to project similar experiences into the future.
- conscious recollection of ones past
Autonoetic awareness
Highly personalised feeling of (re) experiencing oneself in the autobiographical past or present
Tulvings view on episodic memory continued
- opearations depend on semantic and other forms of memory
- shares neural mechanisms and cognitive processes with other systems
- is additionally subserved by specific mechanisms and processes that are not components of any other system
- unique system with different cognitive competencies
Semantic memory
’ knowledge memory’
Memory system that makes possible acquisition, retention, and use of factual information in the broadest sense’
Not purely concerned with language of ver info
No autonoetic awareness of personal past ( don’t need to remember where you learnt fact)
Can start as episodic and become semantic
Semantic- episodic dissociation
Controversy over how independent episodic and semantic memory are
Squire and Zola- entirely independent (parallel) within declarative memory but both dependent on same biological system- you can damage one without effecting the other
Tulvings- episodic memory and semantic memory share many features but are not parallel systems
Squire and Zola
Declarative memory is dependent on hippocampal system
Damage results in equal impairment to episodic and semantic memories
Amnesia patients have equal difficulties with event and fact memory e.g. HM
Tulving
Serial parallel independent (SPI) hypothesis
- encoding into episodic memory relies on semantic system
- episodic memory unique extension of semantic memory
- retrieval is independent, can be supported by either system or both
- both rely on each other
- episodic encoding relies on semantic
- damage to semantic will effect episodic
Vargha- khadem
Seminal study examining special group of children
Investigated 3 patients who had suffered very bilateral medial temporal lobe injury
Vargha- khadem continued
neuropathology
- assessed with MRI and spectroscopy
- all 3 have abnormally small bilateral hippocampi
All have 3 relatively intact extra- hippocampal temporal lobes
- all have significantly impaired memory function, relative to intellectual capacity
- could not function independently but acquiring info on a normal level
Vargah khadem 3
Everyday memory deficits included - spatial - temporal - episodic Semantic meme it patient poor semantic memory but intact episodic- which goes against Tulvings model
