Long Term Memory Flashcards
How do long term memory and working memory differ?
Working memory:
limited capacity
limited duration
little variation between people’s working memory
Long term memory:
vast capacity
spans many years
lots of individual differences
What are the two types of long term memory?
Declarative
Non-declarative
What are the types of declarative memory?
Semantic - knowledge and facts about the world
Episodic - memory for events and experiences we have been involved in
Medial and lateral temporal lobe
What are the types of non-declarative memory?
Procedural memory - how to do things, striatum
Priming - prior exposure to something means it is later more easily activated, cortex
Associative learning - responses to 2 stimuli being paired, amygdala and cerebellum
Non-associative learning - reflex responses
What is declarative memory>
Long term memory for facts and events that can be measured and verbalised
conscious recollection
impaired in amnesia
What is non declarative memory?
Typically observed using indirect measures of effects on performance
no conscious recollection
preserved in amnesia
What is episodic memory?
storage and retrieval of specific events
linked to a specific place and time
associated with conscious recollection
autonoetic - associated with self-knowing
recently evolved, late developing and early deteriorating
What is semantic memory?
general knowledge of:
objects
word meanings
facts
people
lacks connection to a particular time or place
Noetic - associated with knowing awareness
Is there a dissociation of semantic and episodic memory?
There is strong neuro psychological evidence that there are distinct systems
medial temporal lobe damage patient - impaired episodic memory and intact semantic memory
semantic dementia patient (neocortex) - intact episodic memory but impaired semantic
Evidence that episodic and semantic memory depend on one another
Semantic knowledge can facilitate episodic memory performance
Participants ability to identify previously presented food prices was better when prices were consistent with semantic knowledge (real world knowledge)
MTL patients with intact semantic knowledge showed same patients as healthy controls, MTL patients with impaired semantic price knowledge shown no benefit of consistent semantic prices
Impaired episodic memory impacts acquisition of new semantic memories - acquisition of new semantic knowledge in MTL patients is impaired or much slower
Theories that episodic and semantic memory depend on one another
Episodic memory is embedded in semantic memory - however, episodic memory influences semantic memory
semantic memories are abstracted from episodic memory when contextual information is lost
episodic memories are semantic memories which are bonded to contextual information
constructive episodic simulation hypothesis - episodic memories can be combined constructively and flexibly to image future scenarios, drawing on semantic knowledge
What is the constructive episodic simulation hypothesis?
episodic memories can be combined constructively and flexibly to image future scenarios, drawing on semantic knowledge
Remember/know task - what does remember refer too?
recollection remembering contextual details about a memory slower and more attention demanding lost over time episodic memory
Remember/know task - what does know refer too?
familiarity a sense of knowing something without being able to remember the context fast and automatic endures over time semantic memory
What is the remember to know shift?
Students were given remember/know task based on selection of exam questions, immediately following exam, after 5 weeks and after 3 years
Remember (episodic) responses declined over 3 years but know (semantic) responses remained constant - consistent with theories that view semantic memory as an abstraction of episodic memory where contextual details are lost
Semantic memory - network model
semantic knowledge is underpinned by a set of nodes, each representing a specific feature or concept, which are all connected to one another. Nodes that related in some way, such as often coincident in time, are more strongly connected
Semantic memory - spreading activation model
Collins and Loftus - closely related concepts are connected, activating a concept will lead to activation of closely related concepts - explains the typicality effect
What is procedural memory?
habits and skill learning: motor skill learning sequence learning mirror tracing perceptual skill learning mirror reading probabilistic classification learning artificial grammar learning
Types of priming
Repetition priming
Perceptual priming
Conceptual priming
What is repetition priming?
Prior exposure to stimuli will facilitate retrieval of those stimuli and influence performance on an indirect measure
What is perceptual priming?
Priming in tasks requiring the processing of surface or perceptual information
What is conceptual priming?
Priming in tasks requiring the processing of semantic information
Perceptual implicit memory tasks
Word fragment completion - given some letters and have to work out the rest
Word-stem completion
Anagram solution
Word identification - identify rapidly presented words, repetition priming facilitates identification
Lexical decision task - ppts must decide if a stimulus is a word or no word, shorter reaction times with more familiar words, repetition priming reduced pots reaction times to less familiar words
Conceptual implicit memory tasks
Word association - given a word and asked to give a word associated, ppts more likely to suggest previously seen words from word pairs
Category instance - given a category and asked to give an example, more like to give previously seen examples
General knowledge questions
Priming and amnesia
Amnesic patients with impaired explicit memory performance have performed well on implicit tests: impaired free recall, cued recall and recognition but good at stem completion
Found no difference between conceptual and perceptual implicit memory performance in patients with impaired explicit memory
However, some researchers found impaired word assocition
Consideration
Much of the research has focused on memory structures and brain locations as opposed to the processes
Memory processes are not clearly defined to allow falsifiable predictions
There is a lack of agreement on long term memory systems and sub-systems
