lecture 4 Flashcards
amnesia
profound loss of memory -loss of previously learned info or inability to learn new info
2 types of amnesia
retrograde and anterograde
retrograde amnesia
loss of previously learned info
anterograde info
inability to learn new info
childhood amnesia
general inability to remember very early experiences
freud
children suppress unsuitable impressions or emotional trauma in order to reduce internal conflicts
difficult to evaluate freud theory
remembered info may not be independently verifiable and even if it is might be remembering someone else later description
sheingold and tenney 1982
asked adults about the birth of a sibling - did you visit your mother in hospital. subjects younger than 3 years old recalled no information
Winograd and killinger
few people younger than 3 years when JFK was assassinated could recall where they were r
but before age of 3-4 children can
recall info about events occurred earlier in their lives - Myers - found 3 yo could remember a visit to the psych lab two years earlier
as young children grow
they develop language , consciousness and sense of self
as language develops information begins to
be processed differently
biological development
brain structures have not developed fully enough to support the memory , particularly hippocampus
psychogenic amnesia example
Gordon Wilson lost his daughter. but didn’t remember the death due to psychological causes
aka functional /hysteria amnesia
fugue state
individuals forget their past and identities - extremely rare
dissociative identity disorder
having at least one alter ego that controls behaviour- often originates from childhood trauma or abuse
organic amnesia
loss of memory due to physical damage to the brain
organic amnesia effects
severe and permanent anterograde amnesia, little conscious knowledge , perform badly on direct tests of memory
Korsakoffs syndrome
prolonged alcohol abuse leads to thiamine deficiency and subsequent brain damage
brain damage can arise in several different ways
korsakoffs syndrome, viral encephalitis- infection of brain , surgical lesions, closed head injury , lack of oxygen, stroke/ tumour
location of damage
amnesic syndrome can arise from lesions in many different areas of the brain either alone of in combination
amnesic syndrome is usually associated with
bilateral damage to media temporal lives - part of the limbic system
consolidation - failure hypothesis
retrieval of long term memories in intact info can be kept in mind for a short period. but after a short delay , performance is poor
formation of new long term memories is impaired
in order for STM to become LTM it must go through a
consolidation process . it its disrupted - STM cannon be consolidated. hence RA or AA
avoidance learning
when shaking hands with a Korsakoff patient he jabbed her with a pin.next day she refused to hake hands but could NOT explain her reluctance
motor learning
HM could learn simple motor tasks - mirror drawing but could not remember previously doing the task
perceptual learning
presented word and pictures - amnesic patients did poorly on memory tests but when asked to identify degraded versions , amnesics benefited as much as controls
amnesic patients were shown hidden figure pictures
measured time to locate figure. shown again the next day - took less time to locate hidden figure
Schacter
amnesic patients perform badly id tested explicitly but much better if tested implicitly
implicit memory is preserved
in amnesia- reason why patients can perform avoidance learning, motor learning and perceptual learning
explicit memory tests
free and cued recall
implicit memory tests
stem completion
differences among amnesics
some patients confabulate - make up stories - fill in the gaps
confabulation
associated with damage to the frontal areas
normal ageing
impaired explicit memory
spared implicit memory
abnormal ageing
both impaired in Alzheimers but explicit impaired more than implicit
