Lecture 7 (final)

Question 1

what is a modern misleading metaphor of the brain

Answer 1

BRAIN AS A COMPUTER

Information-processing perspective: “Brain (and so memory) is like a digital computer.”
Processes (how are memories created, maintained, revived?) Encoding, Storage, Retrieval, Recall
Representations: What is stored, retrieved, recalled?
A memory representation (memory trace, memory record) is a unit of information, that can be processed.
Structures: Where are memories stored, retrieved from/to, recalled from/to?
Short-term store: like RAM of computer – restricted capacity; holds information for a short time.
Long-term store: like the hard disk of a computer – nearly infinite capacity; holds information almost forever.

Question 2

what is the POINT OF ORIGIN OF MODERN MEMORY RESEARCH

Answer 2

HENRY MOLAISON (HM)

Question 3

who was HM

Answer 3

had hippocampus removed to stop seizures and this resulted in a big case study on the hippocampus and its use

Question 4

what was concluded from the HM hippocampy

Answer 4

Bilateral hippocampectomy to treat epilepsy led to temporally graded retrograde and dense anterograde amnesia for episodic memory (memory for events). Other forms of memory, however, remained unaffected (e.g., semantic memory [memory for facts], procedural memory [memory for motor sequences]).

Question 5

what was impaired from the hippocampy

Answer 5

Episodic memory

Recognition Memory for recent objects/places Explicit memory tasks

Question 6

what was sparred from the hippocampy

Answer 6

Semantic memory Priming
Procedural memories Conditioning
Implicit memory tasks

Question 7

what are the two types of memory

Answer 7

declarative and nondeclaritive

Question 8

what is under declarative memory

Answer 8

episodic and semantic

Question 9

where is episodic and semantic memory

Answer 9

hippocampus– medial temporal lobe

Question 10

what is under non declarative memory

Answer 10

procedural, priming, classical conditioning, non-associative learning

Question 11

what is the WORKING DEFINITION OF MEMORY

Answer 11

Memory is the ability to use or revive information that was previously encoded or processed

Question 12

is memory directly observed

Answer 12

Memory is never directly observed. In humans, awareness of its influence on behavior probably not always present

Question 13

how is memory indirectly observed

Answer 13

Memory is indirectly observed (problem of measurement): its existence is inferred from behavior (e.g., a change in level of performance).

Question 14

what counts as memory

Answer 14

No agreement as to what counts as memory. From a biological perspective, every change in neural connectivity reflects memory. Chronic pain, for example, is memory in the sense as it depends on long-lasting changes in synaptic morphology.
Some classification systems attempt to assign memory types to discrete brain areas (e.g., spatial memory and hippocampus

Question 15

does memory exist physically

Answer 15

Memory does not exist physically. It is an experience arising from brain activity patterns

Question 16

what is the great challenge with understanding memory

Answer 16

MEMORY AS A FUNDAMENTALLY DYNAMIC PROCESS
Understanding memory requires a holistic perspective that integrates molecular- cellular, circuit, brain/memory systems, cognitive and behavioral phenomena and their interactions into a comprehensive, systemic perspective based on the idea that dynamic, well-regulated biological processes underpin all memory phenomena.
Understanding memory remains one of the great human challenges.
Memory
Understanding memory will provide the basis for finding answers to the really big questions, such as about the nature of consciousness, or, more philosophically speaking, about the human condition

Question 17

what is the Law of Regression

Answer 17

“The progressive destruction of the memory […] descends progressively from the instable to the stable. It begins with the recent recollections which, being but faintly impressed on the nerve elements, seldom repeated, and consequently but feebly associated with other recollections […].
[…] the progress of amnesia […] follows the line of least resistance, that is, of least organization.”

aka memory is meant to be forgotten

Question 18

what is the CONSOLIDATION HYPOTHESIS

Answer 18

preservation-Consolidation hypothesis: the tendency to preserve might serve to consolidate the associations among (the syllables)

Question 19

what is the Current consolidation “dogma”

Answer 19

Memories are labile after acquisition and are fixed, i.e., permanently stored (consolidated) over time.
Consolidated memories are stable and can persist long-term
Consolidation is a transient, unidirectional process that occurs after acquisition.
Disrupting consolidation impairs memory retention

Question 20

what PROMOTES LONG-TERM MEMORY STORAGE

Answer 20

consolidation (basically, the memory gets stronger with time)

Question 21

what is the first postulate in HEBB’S DUAL PROCESS MEMORY MODEL

Answer 21

principle of associative learning:
“Whenever an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth process or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased.”
‣ After a while, recurrent activity leads to changes in the synapses of the cell assembly. As a consequence, the pattern can be recreated at a later time. These structural modification support “long-term memory”.
Experience is represented in a pattern of activity in a set of connected neurons (cell assembly).
This pattern can stay active on its own for a while after the experience. Recurrent connections among neurons of the cell assembly keep the pattern activated. This supports “short term memory”.
“Neurons that fire together, wire together

Question 22

what are DENDRITIC SPINES

Answer 22

Small membranous compartments protruding from dendrites that house the essential postsynaptic components (post-synaptic density, cytoskeleton and supporting organelles) and receive synaptic contacts from glutamate-releasing axons

Question 23

is there physical evidence of learning

Answer 23

yes, the spines on dendrites appear/become larger with learning

Question 24

What are LTP ad LTD considered

Answer 24

LTP and LTD are experimental phenomena which can be used to demonstrate the repertoire of long-lasting modifications of which individual
synapses are capable.

Question 25

what is ltp

Answer 25

long term potential

Question 26

what does LTP lead to

Answer 26

LEADS TO CHANGES TO SYNAPSE MORPHOLOGY

Question 27

what are the SIGNALLING MECHANISMS INVOLVED IN LTP INDUCTION

Answer 27

If post-synaptic cell sufficiently depolarized, glutamate binding to NMDAR removes Mg-block and NMDAR channel opens.
Ca2+ can enter the post- synaptic neuron, activating protein kinases, such as CaMKII and PKC.
Kinases phosphorylate substrates, leading to the production of new proteins and synaptic remodelling, such as insertion of AMPARs into PSD

Question 28

LTP LEADS TO INCREASE IN what

Answer 28

GluA2-AMPARs

Question 29

what is SCHEMATA

Answer 29

“‘Schema’ refers to an active organisation of past reactions, […]. That is, whenever there is any order or regularity of behaviour, a particular response is possible only because it is related to other similar responses which […]. Determination by schemata is the most fundamental of all the ways in which we can be influenced by reactions and experiences which occurred some time in the past.”

Question 30

what is BARTLETT’S SEMINAL STUDIES

Answer 30

when you are told a story, you remember less and less each time you are told to recall it (with time in between)

Question 31

what theory comes out of semantic event memory

Answer 31

frame theory

Question 32

what is frame theory

Answer 32

when one encounters a new situations one selects from memory a structure called a frame. This is a remembered framework to be adopted to fit reality by changing details as necessary

a frame is a data-structure or representing a stereotyped situation, like being in a certain kind of living room, or going to a child’s birthday party. Attached to each frame are several kinds of information. Some of this info is about how to se the frame, Some is about that can expect to happen next. Some is about what to do if those expectations are no confirmed

Question 33

what is a script

Answer 33

A memory structure for encoding general knowledge of a certain situation-
action routine

Question 34

DIFFERENT RESULTS FROM REPEATED TESTING

of STABILITY OF LONG-TERM MEMORY

Answer 34

reminiscence
hypermnesia
schematization

Question 35

what is Reminiscence.

Answer 35

When subjects are asked to retrieve a specific memory several times (e.g., word list), recall performance can improve over time although there was no interjected training session: items not recalled on earlier retrieval attempts can be remembered on subsequent retrieval attempts

Question 36

what s hypermnesia

Answer 36

an overall increase in the number of remembered items as a function of repeated memory tests, which this differs from reminiscence, I.e., the recall f items on later tests that were not recalled on earlier ones

Question 37

what is Schematization.

Answer 37

Repeated testing induces schema-consistent memory distortions

Question 38

Time between tests (ITI, Inter-Trial Interval) determines outcome of what and what are the outcomes

Answer 38

repeated tests

Short ITI: memory improvements.
Long ITI: schematization

Question 39

what are POST-EVENT MEMORY MODIFICATIONS

Answer 39

sometime the questions asked can lead the person to believe something that didn’t happen.. this is why leading questions are not allowed in court rooms

Question 40

explain HINDSIGHT BIAS AS A MEMORY EFFECT (the concept)

Answer 40

Length of connection represents “relatedness” of “concepts”.
The closer the connection, the faster activation spreads from an activated node to linked nodes.
Activation spreads from node to node.
Principal idea of knowledge representation used in many computational models of memory (e.g., SAM).

Question 41

what are Flashbulb memories

Answer 41

memory for the circumstances in which one learned of a public event, such as 9/11, Death of Diana, Columbia Shuttle Explosion, etc. These memories are not about the event itself, but about the reception event, in which one hears news about
a public event

Question 42

what are THE MAIN REASONS FOR FORGETTING

Answer 42

Erasure/storage failure
Retrieval failure
Memory disruption

Question 43

what is the NEW THEORY OF DISUSE

Answer 43

To understand performance failure, i.e., the inability to reproduce a memorised item, two probabilities need to be considered:
Storage strength: indicates how well an item was learned.
Retrieval strength: indicates how well an item can currently be accessed.
The theory assumes that storage strength will not be reduced, i.e., that no item will actually ever be lost from memory.
Retrieval strength changes, over time, and as a function of retrieval, i.e., activating retrieval cues.
Increased adaptability? Over time, old memories can become less accessible because they are retrieved less often, as newer, more relevant, recently learned “similar” memory is retrieved instead

Question 44

MEMORIES ARE MADE BY CHANGING THE STRUCTURE OF what

Answer 44

synapses`

Question 45

is forgetting an active process

Answer 45

I think so, yeah

Question 46

what might forgetting be due to

Answer 46

decay or interference