Lecture 8 Flashcards
What is consolidation?
Cognitive processes that transforms new memories from a fragile state to a more permanent state.
sleeping and taking breaks assists in this
Long-term potentiation (LTP)?
Enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation due to
structural changes at the synapse.
Reactivation?
Hippocampus replaying a memory when consolidation is happening.
Retrograde amnesia?
memory loss prior to head injury.
Explicit memory subcategory of LTM(ES)
Memories that can be consciously accessed and that you can describe, is made up of episodic and semantic memories.
Episodic Memories:
Personal events, episodes
(time i met Gypsy the cat with teia)
Semantic memories:
Things you know about the world (how to ride a bike)
Difference between recall and recognition
Recall: Have observers try to
reproduce their representation
Recognition: Have observers
report whether or not they’ve
seen the stimulus before
Recollection and familiarity + brain areas
Recollection: “Yes, I remember this” (Hippocampus)
* High confidence, needs the source memory
Familiarity: “I think I saw this” (Rhinal Cortex)
* Variable confidence. NO source memory
where source memory is information about how and when you got the information
Implicit memory subcategory of LTM(PPC)
Memories that cannot be consciously accessed
Procedural Memories:
How to do a task (driving, walking, riding a bike, playing sports)
Priming:
More efficient information processing after previous exposure
Conditioning:
An automatic response to a stimulus
Contextual cueing effect vs. Statistical learning effect
Contextual cueing effect:
Visual search for targets in repeated arrays become faster without explicit memory for the repeated arrays (you don’t remember you’ve seen the exact array before).
Statistical learning effect:
Statistical regularities (e.g., tendencies for certain sequences of events to occur) can be learned without explicit awareness of learning.
Anterograde Amnesia
unable to store and retrieve new episodic memories show and show (relatively) preserved implicit memory
Graf et al. 1984 experiment(FCW)
*Control and amnesic participants studied a word list
Cheese, Carrot, Tulip
Free recall: Recall the words on the list
Cued recall: Complete the word using words on the list Ch_ _ _ _
Word stem completion: Complete the word stem in any way you like. Ch_ _ _ _
What is autobiographical memory?
Memory for specific experiences from life, which can include
both episodic and semantic components.
Often multidimensional; has sensory (visual, olfactory), semantic, as well as emotional aspects
i.e. some big event like graduation or wedding or winning a tourney
What are the components of AB(autobiographical) memory what effect does damage to them have?(SSE)
Sensory component:
Damage to visual areas of brain has a greater impact on autobiographical memory (by causing retrograde amnesia) than damage to other sensory cortices!
Semantic component:
Semantic memories serve as building blocks of autobiographical memory. If semantic memories are lost, so are the autobiographical memories built with them
Emotional Component:
We attend to and retrieve emotional events more!
Positive autobiographical memories contain more sensory and contextual details than negative and neutral memories.
Positive memories appear to be more resistant to forgetting than negative memories (this is fading affect bias).
Cabeza et al. 2004 experiment
While in the fMRI scanner, participants viewed:
* Observer took photos (O-pictures)
* Someone else took photos (L-pictures)
greater activity in hippocamp when looking at O pics which highlights priority for experiential memory
Flashbulb Memory?
a special case of AB memory, surrounding shocking or emotionally charged events
- You’re likely to not just remember the event but even where you were and what you were doing
- Highly emotional, often detailed, we’re confident in our
recollections of these memories in ways we aren’t for others
but they’re not any more detailed even tho we’re more confident in them
What is the Reminiscence Bump and why does it happen? (SCC)
We tend to have better memory of recent events and of events which occurred in adolescence and early adulthood (between 10-30 years of age)
Self-image hypothesis:
* Memory is enhanced for events that occur as a person’s self-image (identity) is formed.
* Self-image is largely established in adolescence and early adulthood.
Cognitive hypothesis:
* Encoding is better during periods of rapid change that are followed by stability
* The Reminiscence bump is shifted for those who experienced a major life change (i.e., immigration) after young
adulthood.
Cultural life-script hypothesis
* Individuals share an understanding of culturally expected events.
* These events are talked about often within the culture.
* Therefore, personal events that fit the cultural life expectation become easier to recall.
Source Monitoring and source memory
Source monitoring: a cognitive process of keeping
track of what’s coming in
Source memory: What do we know about the specifics of
when, where and how we know
Source loss and source misattribution
Source loss: “Where did I leave my phone?”
Where you no longer know where the information came from
Source misattribution: “I think I left it at home.” “Oh it’s in my car.” “Is my phone under my cat?”
Where you’re confused about what you think you recall
Schema and script
- Schema: what you know (from your life experience) about
the environment you’re in - Script: what typically happens in a given environment
Brewer & Treyens 1981 experiment
Participants stood in an office for a short while, then taken to another room and asked about what they saw in the office
- Almost all participants remembered the desk and the chair.
- 8 out of 30 remembered the skull (strongly violating the schema)
- A few remembered the bottle of wine or the coffee pot (an item that could either conform to or violate the schema)
- 9 remembered “books” which were not there (items strongly conforming to the schema)
Missinformation and gaslighting
Misinformation effect:
Misleading information presented after a person witnesses an event can change how that person describes the event.
Gaslighting: a form of (memory) abuse based on misinformation
