Lecture 7- Memory

Question 1

What are the different types of memory according to temporal divisions?

Answer 1

Memory is divided into sensory memory (milliseconds to seconds), short-term/working memory (seconds to minutes), and long-term memory (minutes to years).

Question 2

What are the different types of memory according to content divisions?

Answer 2

Memory includes semantic (general knowledge), episodic (personal memories), and skills (procedural knowledge).

Question 3

What are the two main types of long-term memory?

Answer 3

The two main types of long-term memory are declarative (explicit) memory and procedural (implicit) memory.

Question 4

What is declarative memory and what are its subtypes?

Answer 4

Declarative memory (explicit memory) refers to memories that can be consciously recalled, such as facts and events.
- Subtypes:
1. Episodic memory (specific personal experiences from a particular time and place) 2. Semantic memory (world knowledge, object knowledge, language knowledge, conceptual priming).

Question 5

What is non-declarative memory (implicit)? What are its subtypes?

Answer 5

Refers to the unconscious recall of skills and habits.
1. Procedural memory (riding a bike),
2. Perceptual representation systems refers to the unconscious memory of sensory information that allows perceptual priming, where past experiences influence the perception of new stimuli.
3. Classical conditioning (learning through association)
4. Nonassociative learning- learning through repeition (which includes: Habituation: Getting used to a stimulus.
Sensitization: Increasing sensitivity to a stimulus.)

Question 6

What are the key processes involved in memory according to the memory processes slide?(rabbits eat carrots so remember rabbits)

Answer 6

The key memory processes include registration, encoding, consolidation, storage, retrieval, and re-encoding (updating or modifying stored information).

Question 7

What are the common causes of amnesia? (Happy koalara sing very h dorky tunes)

Answer 7

1. Herpes encephalitis
2. Korsakoff’s syndrome
3. Severe hypoxia
4. Vascular disorders
5. Head injury
6. Dementia
7. Transient global amnesia: A sudden, temporary episode of memory loss.

Question 8

What are the two temporal types of amnesia and what do they affect?

Answer 8

1. Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory for events before the onset of amnesia
2. Anterograde amnesia: The inability to form new long-term memories after the onset of amnesia.

Question 9

What is the temporal gradient in amnesia and which concept explains the preservation of older memories?

Answer 9

The temporal gradient in amnesia is when recent memories are more affected than older ones. Ribot’s Law explains that older memories are more resistant to being forgotten.

Question 10

Who was Patient HM? What memory impairments did he experience before and after surgery?

Answer 10

Patient HM had surgery to remove the medial temporal lobe (bilateral) to treat epilepsy. He had Graded retrograde amnesia before his surgery (difficulty remembering recent events) and then global anterograde amnesia after (inability to form new long term memories

Question 11

What is double disassociation and which patients illustrate this concept?

Answer 11

Double dissociation is when two related mental processes are shown to function independently of each other.
Patient HM had intact STM but impaired LTM due to medial temporal lobe damage, while Patient EE had the opposite pattern due to left angular gyrus damage.

Question 12

Which memory abilities were spared in Patient HM?

Answer 12

Patient HM had spared short-term memory, motor learning, and priming abilities.

Question 13

Explain the case of Clive Wearing, what memory impairments did he experience, what caused this?

Answer 13

His memory issues were a result of herpes simplex encephalitis, which caused bilateral temporal lobe degeneration and dense anterograde amnesia (which is an extreme form of memory loss where new events are not transferred to long-term memory)

Question 14

What are the two types of short-term memories? What are each of its components?

Answer 14

1. Sensory Memory
   - iconic memory: brief visual sensory memory (last fraction of a second)
   -echoic memory: brief auditory sensory (last 3-4 seconds)
2. Short-term/Working Memory
   -Visuospatial sketchpad for visual information
   - The phonological loop for verbal information
   - The central executive which coordinates attention and the other components.

Question 15

What does it suggest if a patient can recognize but not recall information?

Answer 15

If a patient can recognize information, it implies that the memory is stored, but there might be damage to the processes involved in retrieving it.

Question 16

What does it suggest if a patient cannot recall information?

Answer 16

If a patient can’t recall information, it might mean they are unable to retrieve it, or that there was an issue with how the memory was encoded or stored.

Question 17

What is the Autobiographical Interview used to test, and what type of memories does it target?

Answer 17

The Autobiographical Interview is used to test long term episodic memory. It targets personal past events that are specific to time and place.

Question 18

What is implicit memory, and what remains intact in classical amnesia? What brain area does it involve?

Answer 18

Memory without awareness, influencing our behavior without conscious knowledge. It includes skills and habits, and it’s often spared in classical amnesia.
-The primary sensory cortex and striate areas of the brain.

Question 19

What is priming in the context of implicit memory?

Answer 19

Priming in implicit memory is when exposure to a stimulus affects your response to a later stimulus without conscious guidance. For example, completing a word fragment based on an earlier exposure.

Question 20

How might procedural memory be assessed?

Answer 20

It can be assessed through tasks like mirror writing, where individuals demonstrate learned skills without consciously remembering the learning process.

Question 21

Which brain regions are involved in the neural circuit for explicit memories? (Here Are Eleven Precious Parts)

Answer 21

The neural circuit for explicit memories involves the medial temporal region, including the hippocampus, amygdala, entorhinal cortex, parahippocampal cortex, and perirhinal cortex

Question 22

What effects do hippocampal lesions have on memory, and how does fMRI reveal hippocampal activity during encoding?

Answer 22

Hippocampal lesions can cause material-specific memory disorders, with left-side damage affecting verbal memory and right-side damage affecting nonverbal memory. fMRI shows material-dependent hippocampal activity during encoding, with verbal activity on the left and nonverbal on the right.

Question 23

What is the role of the hippocampus in memory according to the consolidation theory?

Answer 23

According to the consolidation theory, the hippocampus’s role is to consolidate new memories which are then stored somewhere else in the brain

Question 24

How does the Multiple Trace Theory explain the role of the hippocampus in memory retrieval?

Answer 24

According to the Multiple Trace Theory, the hippocampus is crucial for retrieving all truly episodic memories and serves as a guide to the neocortex, where detailed memories are stored.

Question 25

What does the Multiple Trace Theory suggest about the recoding of episodic memories over time?

Answer 25

The Multiple Trace Theory suggests that episodic memories are recoded across the hippocampus over time as they are remembered, supporting the idea of a temporal gradient where more remote memories require more extensive hippocampal damage to be affected.

Question 26

Why is the hippocampus important for contextual learning?

Answer 26

The hippocampus is key for contextual learning because it helps to form and retrieve memories that are tied to specific contexts or situations.

Question 27

Differentiate between Explicit and Implicit Memory

Answer 27

Explicit (Conscious)
* Intentional recollection of
previous experience
* Declarative
* Fact
* Memory
* Knowing what

Implicit (Unconscious)
* Non-intentional form of
memory
* Non-declarative
* Skill
* Habit
* Knowing how

Question 28

How does the consolidation theory explain the preservation of older memories despite hippocampal damage, and what challenge does retrograde amnesia pose to this theory?

Answer 28

The consolidation theory suggests older memories are preserved because they’ve been transferred out of the hippocampus, but retrograde amnesia, which can affect memories from decades ago, challenges the theory by suggesting the consolidation process may take much longer than once believed.