Long Term Memory Flashcards
The archive of information about PAST events and LEARNED knowledge; the brain’s hard drive
long term memory
They type of memory that works closely with short term/working memory, but is more focused on past events, stretching from a few moments ago to as far back as one can remember; more recent memories tend to be more detailed
long term memory
Memories are not created equally. The distinction between short-term and long-term memories and how likely people are to remember certain things can be measured by the _____________ (3).
serial position curve
Two effects found on the serial position curve:
primacy effect, recency effect
Memory better for stimuli presented at the beginning
occurs because participants have more time to rehearse the earlier items, and experienced less interference encoding them, making it more likely to enter LTM
(like how I can only remember the first part of Ebenezer Bleezer’s Ice Cream Store poem; I rehearsed the first part more)
primacy effect
Serial position effect; less rehearsal nearing the ends of a list because:
too much interference
Memory better for stimuli at the end of the list
Occurs because stimuli was still active in the short-term memory at the point the participants’ memory was tested; introducing a delay can eliminate this effect
recency effect
Form in which stimuli is represented in memory
coding
Most common form of coding in short term memory
auditory
Most common form of coding in long term memory:
semantic coding
visual coding STM vs. LTM example:
STM: closing my eyes and picturing the flowers in front of me
LTM: picturing the beach and pool in Mexico from my trip in August
Auditory coding STM vs. LTM example:
STM: Recreating the melody I just heard in the song I’m listening to right now in my head (Plastic Beach - Gorillaz)
LTM: Recreating the melody of a song I’ve listened to many times before that’s now stuck in my head (Love Story - Taylor Swift; I’ve listened to it since I was 5)
STM vs. LTM semantic coding example:
STM: thinking about what the conversation I’m having means; analyzing the person’s words
LTM: recalling the plot of sleeping beauty or demon slayer or bojack horseman or literally any show I’ve watched in the past
when information learned previously interferes with learning new information
proactive interference (past messes you up)
(Like how I would put “le” in Chinese when I wasn’t supposed to in Chinese school in elementary because I was learning French at the same time.)
When new learning interferes with remembering past/old learning.
retroactive interference
(New info rewrites past learning oops)
Study had participants encode words from various categories; items were chunked in the same category in the controlled condition (eg: apple, banana, pear -> all fruits; next trial would be peach, mango, raspberry)
Reduction in performance for successive items from the same category could be interpreted as proactive interference.
It’s easier to mix up fruits with fruits and fruits with non-fruits because there’s less of that clear distinction in a way.
What study is this?
The Wickens Semantic Encoding Experiment
What did the Wickens Semantic Encoding Experiment Study?
The effects of Proactive interference and how to remove it
In the Wickens experiment there was a condition in which items from distinctly different categories were presented. The first group would be items of fruits, the next group would be items of professions, etc.
Having clear distinctions in the groups of items boosted memory performance and allowed for less mix up with items from previous categories, showing that:
proactive interference can be reduced
If a distinction of your memory of some knowledge isn’t sharp in your mind and your memory isn’t organized, susceptible to what type of interference
proactive
Wickens experiment sandwiching two groups of professions between two groups of fruits (the fruit groups are separated by the professions in the middle)
Which was more accurate, fruit recalling or profession recalling and why?
Fruit recalling was more accurate because since they were seen as more distinct separated categories of fruit, people could recall them more accurately.
However, the profession groups were presented consecutively, making the participants more susceptible to proactive interference and mixing the trials up since all the professions might blur together.
Using neuroscience and brain functions/activity to understand psychology
neuropsychological approach
The ________ in the brain is essential for encoding new long-term memories.
hippocampus
_______ (2) are evident between STM and LTM but they do interact at times; not completely separate
double dissociations
Henry Molaison had his hippocampus removed and he couldn’t form new __________ (3).
Long-term memories
KF on the other hand, had impaired _______ but intact ______. He was able to retrieve previously encoded information, but not newly encoded information.
impaired short term memory, intact long term memory
2 branches of long term memory:
explicit and implicit
Two types of explicit (conscious) memory
episodic (personal events) - I ate eggs today
Semantic (facts, knowledge) - 2 + 2 = 4
3 ways implicit (unconscious) memory is activated:
procedural memory
priming
conditioning
(PPC)
Conscious memory for personal events; involves mental time travel, not guaranteed to be super accurate, and multidimensional in nature - those were the days…
episodic memory
memory that includes sensory, emotional, and contextual details, etc. would be considered __________ in nature.
multi-dimensional
memory for facts and general knowledge
semantic memory
(No mental time travel because you didn’t experience the thing, it’s just general knowledge)
An autobiography would be an example of people COMBINING the explicit memory subtypes; ________ memory to recall facts from their life (“eg: I grew up in Edmonton in a large house with a park down the street”), and _________ memory to reminisce and reflect on those events (“I felt like it was a comfortable city to live it, but I always wanted to explore more.”)
semantic memory - recall facts
episodic memory - recall personal events, experiences, emotions (multidimensional mental time travelling)
Episodic and semantic memory can be combined but separated they show a ____________.
double dissociation
(there can be overlap but retrieving semantic memories and episodic memories generally use different areas of the brain)
Acquiring knowledge may start as episodic but then fade to just facts or _________.
Semantic memory can be enhanced by _________ details.
semantic
episodic
Memory of specific experiences, including both semantic and episodic aspects
autobiographical memory
Semantic memories that have personal significance; facts from our own lives
Personal semantic memory
(really creative name)
________ (2) memory can influence what we experience by determining what we attend to and then what we decide to do.
personal semantic
Forgetting _________ with longer intervals from the original encoding
(Increases or decreases)
increases
- longer time ago, more likely to forget
the procedure used to measure familiarity and recollection; implicit gut feelings
remember/know procedure
3 possible responses/outcomes of the remember know procedure + describe:
- remember response: stimulus familiar, remember encounter (remember everything)
- know response: stimulus familiar (you know the fact), don’t remember encounter
- don’t know response: don’t remember stimulus at all
remember/know procedure response: remember response
recognize stimulus, remember where you encountered it
remember/know procedure response: know response
stimulus familiar and recognized but you don’t know where you encountered/learned it from
remember/know procedure response: don’t know response
don’t know stimulus, don’t know where you were supposed to have encountered it
Loss of episodic details for remote memories
Semanticization
- basically getting over stuff
memories of long-ago events
remote memories
Unconscious memory
implicit memory
Non-declarative memory
memory for actions/skills
procedural memory
prior exposure to a stimuli changes a subsequent response
priming
pairing a neutral stimulus with a reflexive response (to make that response unnatural or “_______”)
conditioning
conditioned
Memory for actions; no memory of where or when it was learned, perform procedures without being consciously aware of how to do them, just natural now (like walking)
Procedural memory
Henry Molaison could not form new long term memories due to the removal of his hippocampus, but he could still learn new skills without explicitly remembering how or where he learned the skill due to:
procedural memory
Unconscious, automatic nature of doing an action
automaticity
Expertise in a skill may results in it being carried out with such a degree of automaticity that the individual performing the action doesn’t even remember doing it / no recollection of what actually happened.
expertise-induced amnesia
(being so good at doing something that doing it is like breathing to you)
the presentation of a stimulus affects performance when it is presented again
Repetition priming
processing something without trying to memorize it
incidental processing
incidental processing first - rate how much they liked this list of words; after a delay, test participants on either how much they recall (explicit memory assessment) or on word stem completion (implicit memory assessment)
What study is this?
Graf’s Repetition Priming Implicit Memory Study
Graf’s implicit procedural memory tested on 3 groups:
Findings?
amnesiacs
- explicit memory impairment but not implicit impairment
regular inpatients (no amnesia or alcoholism)
alcoholics
- could recall stuff
- *amnesiac patients did as well as the other patients on the implicit memory test (completing three letter word stems)
completing word stems would be an example of an _________ memory test and example of __________
implicit
PRIMING
What did Graf’s study on amnesiacs, average inpatients, and alcoholics find?
implicit memory can remain intact even when explicit memory is compromised
Incidental processing is used in the process of
priming
the tendency to like things we have already been exposed to
mere exposure effect
we tend to deem statements as true if we’ve read or heard them before
propaganda effect
(low key me on tests except that’s because of studying, the propaganda effect is due to incidental processing)
Incidental processing effects (2):
mere exposure effect
propaganda effect
Behaviour that is mediated by a procedural memory has undergone _____________ (2).
Snoopy example:
classical conditioning
The sound of the can opening has conditioned Snoopy’s stomach to feel hungry.
____________ conditioned responses can affect behaviour without conscious awareness.
classically
Activation/retrieval of conditioned responses may also lead to activity in explicit memory systems
implicit memory may lead to explicit memories
Example?
- feeling hungry after seeing a commercial for a restaurant for some reason, then realizing you’ve eaten there before
- hearing a song and not realizing why you feel uneasy, then realizing and remembering it was your ex’s favourite song
Acquiring information and transforming it into memory
encoding
transferring long term memory to short-term for actively thinking about it
Retrieval
Processes acting on/affecting information in short term memory/working memory
control processes
repetition of stimuli that maintains information but does not transfer it to LTM
maintenance rehearsal
using meanings and connections to help transfer information to LTM
elaboration rehearsal
(like i did with Douma and the condition of alexithymia)
Encoding -> Retrieving -> Consolidating
This process gets information into:
long term memory (LTM)
Levels of processing theory (2 levels) + describe
Shallow processing - little attention to meaning, superficial, poor memory (eg: skimming over textbook)
Deep processing - close attention to meaning, better memory (eg: listening and connecting to an engaging lecture
Assuming whatever method produces better memory performance must have done so because it involved deeper levels of processing; explaining memory based on levels of processing where levels of processing is based purely on memory performance
- this MUST be because of this because of this
circular reasoning in levels of processing
3 cool ways to benefit encoding (not necessarily just deep levels of processing, but effective):
- Linking words to yourself, making it personal
- Visual imagery
- Generating information
MORE beneficial factors found to benefit encoding (3):
- organizing information
- relating words to survival value
- Retrieval practice
All cool encoding techniques (6):
- Making it personal - linking words to self
- Visual Imagery
- Generating Information
- Organizing information
- Relating words to survival value
- Retrieval practice
MVGORR
3 general categories for the 6 encoding techniques:
- Making connections
- Active creation
- Organization (imagery, recall, repetition - mental framework)
Testing yourself while studying rather than rereading helps you do better. This is called the:
Testing Effect
Many memory failures have to do more with _______ failures than encoding failures
retrieval
__________ is better than free-recall, and is most effective when created by the person using them
cued-recall
(wow look at me making cue cards)
Retrieval is better when the encoding is ___________ and contextual
specific
If learning is associated with a particular internal state, better memory if state at encoding matches state during retrieval.
If you study happy you’re more likely to retrieve what you studied if you’re happy while doing the test.
This is called (3):
state dependent learning
Phenomenon where the results of a memory task will be better if the type of processing used during encoding is the same as the type during retrieval. (3)
transfer-appropriate processing
Better performance on a rhyming test when words were encoded in the study phase based on the way they sound rather than their meaning was due to ____________ (3).
Transfer-appropriate processing
Rereading can result in greater fluency and greater feelings of familiarity, but this doesn’t necessarily translate to better memory. this is called the:
illusion of learning
Distributed practice more effective than massed practice take breaks don’t cram well I’m cramming now so whatever
Testing yourself after a break is better than testing right after because it eliminates the recency effect.
Transforming new memories from a fragile state to a more permanent one
consolidation
Consolidation happening at synapses, happens rapidly
synaptic consolidation
gradual reorganization of circuits in the brain, happens slowly
systems consolidation
studying in chunks may make you perform better because within those breaks, you are _________ new memories
consolidating
Learning and memory is represented in the brain by physiological changes at the synapse. This is called
synaptic consolidation
Enhanced firing of neurons after repeated stimulation - produces structural changes and enhanced responding within the process of synaptic consolidation
“Neurons that fire together wire together”
This is called:
Long-Term Potentiation (LTP)
In the ________ model of consolidation, retrieval initially depends on the hippocampus
standard
The hippocampus REPLAYS neural activity associated with memory during INITIAL RETRIEVALS, assisting with shaping connections associated with memory. This is known as what model?
standard model of consolidation
According to the standard model of consolidation, the hippocampus is no longer needed to retrieve __________ memories
crystallized
Loss of memory for events prior to trauma (head trauma)
retrograde amnesia
(think retro; before)
loss of memory for events after trauma (head trauma)
anterograde amnesia
Memory for recent events is more fragile than for more distant events (presumably relates to consolidation). This is known as ________ amnesia.
graded amnesia
Model of consolidation proposing that the hippocampus REMAINS INVOLVED int he retrieval of memories from the distant past
Multiple-trace model of consolidation
Multiple-trace model of consolidation - involvement of __________ in retrieving distant (episodic) memories
hippocampus
When retrieving recent AND remote memories the ___________ and the ___________ is activated.
prefrontal cortex and hippocampus
Sleeping after you study helps ________ the information
consolidate
Expecting that you will revisit a task/information later results in more effective __________ because you’re mentally prioritizing that information
consolidation
Since we interrupt the formation of new memories after head trauma, can we artificially modulate traumatic memories so that people forget them?
To test this, Brunnet et. All administered _________ which:
propranolol (pro-pra-no-lol), a beta blocker that reduces activity in epinephrine and norepinephrine, therefore reducing and regulating the stress response
In Brunnet’s modulation of traumatic memories and consoildation experiment, he made PTSD patients listen to a description of their traumatic experience (dudes a menace) to reactivate the memory, and were given either _________ or a placebo.
What were the results of this experiment when the participants came back a week later to have their traumatic memory reactivated?
propranolol (pro-pra-no-lol)
propranolol group had less of a physiological response (reduced heart rate + galvanic skin response), compared to the placebo group
Memory reactivated -> changed -> reconsolidated
- overwriting memory
