long-term memory: Everyday memory and applications Flashcards
consolidation of memory
changes happening at two levels
synaptic consolidation:
* repeated experience causes changes at the level of the synapse
* changes occur quickly, over a matter of minutes
* changes how efficiently the relevant synapses are exchanging signals
systems consolidation:
* repeated retrievals cause changes in the organization of neural circuits that represent memories
* changes occur gradually, over days, months or even years
systems consolidation
all areas plus the hippocampus are activated
- initial burst of activity
- consolidation: as you retrieve info, the hippocampus is initially connected to all the areas and drives the retrieval
- when they are repeatedly activated they start connecting to each other and the connection to the hippocampus weakens
- so at the start the hippocampus is essential but overtime, the regions of the brain activated that are connected to the event or experience are linked to each other
- fresh memoy is established, they can be recalled from any cue to one of those areas
hippocampus becomes less and less involved until it’s not at all
standard model of consolidation
once memories move away from the hippocampus, they are more stable and consolidated
hippocampus responsible for anterograde and graded amnesia
Hypoxia: lack of O2 to brain and hippocampus is most vulnerable to that
consolidation & reconsolidation
- when a memory is retrieved, it is vulnerable to change
- after retrieval of a memory, it is necessary to store the memory again (reconsolidate) to return it to a permanent state
consolidation and reconsolidation are referred together as consolidation
consolidation & sleep
role of sleep in consolidation is not fully understood, but there seems to be significant relationship between sleep and consolidation
testing in rats show the same areas used for learning a maze are reactivated during sleep
- brain consolidates a lot of info while sleeping
- sleep = form the largest amount of synaptic links
- you get a reactivation of what you experienced during the day but while sleeping
consolidation & Sleep (OLD)
- memory loss increases with age and is connected to sleep
- found that memory is most disrupted when sleep is most disruptive
memory performance
* young adults > Older adults
slow-wave activity during sleep
* young adults > Older adults
regardless of age
* reduces refrontal cortex (PFC) volume associated with lower slow-wave activity
for consolidation
* younger adults relied more of Prefrontal Cortex
* Older adults relied more on Hippocampus
the way you retrieve info is structurally different as you age
false memories
recalling how often a theme word is recalled – it actually isn’t presented
people remember seeing a ‘theme’ word
evidence for false memories
false memory in real world
idea that memory recall is failable
- confusion about where information came from
memory retrieval
elizabeth loftus
* students viewed films depicting vehicle accidents
* how fast were the cars going when they ___ each other?
expectations influence what we remember
* DRM paradigm: recalling theme word from a list, when that word wasn’t presented
*
* Schemas: expected sequence of events
eyewitness memory
- eyewitness testimony is as unreliable as it is convincing
possible reasons
1. weak encoding (limited exposure)
- selective encoding (weapon focus)
* under a stressful event, you’re attentive to different things and it all depends on what you’re focusing on that you’ll remember - distortion during storage (source amnesia/source misattribution)
eyewitness misidentification is the leading cause of wrongful convictions
weapon focus
tested bank employees’ memories for details of a training film
- film 1: bank holdup, kid shot in the face
- film 2: bank holdup, manager says “stay calm”
memory for first film was worse than control because there is motor processing that is focused on one thing
eyewitness testimony misidentification
source misattribution and source amnesia
- confusing or forgetting the encoding context
- people remember the person but not where they remember them from
the misinformation effect
misleading information presented after a person witnesses an even can change how the person describes that event later
experimenter’s suggestion can influence people’s memory reports for recently presented events
demonstration of experimenter suggestion
* situations in which suggestion causes people to remember events that occured early in their lives even though these events never happened
legal implications of false memory
- repressed childhood memory
- memories pushed out of consciousness
- can cause psychological problems
- bad because patients with problems are convinced by therapist that is it because of childhood abuse of sexual assault
- suggestion creates false memories
misidentification due to familiarity
bystanders in a crime can be mistakenly identified as a perpetrator because of familiarity from some other context
source monitoring error
* thinking a source of familiarity was him being the perpatrator but he is actually familiar from something else
errors due to suggestion
suggesting who the perpatrator is increases the chances that the witness will pick someone
post-identification feedback effect
* creates a problem in the criminal justice system because jurrors are strongly influenced by how confident eyewitnesses are about their judgments
memories can be susceptible to suggestion during questioning
how to improve eyewitness testimony
lineup procedures
* tell person that perpatrator might not be in the lineup which creates a 42% decrease in false identification of innocent people
another suggestion: using fillers who are similar to the suspect
use a blind lineup administrator - someone who doesn’t know who the suspect is
have witness rate their confidence immediately
interview techniques: making suggestions to witness can cause errors
* let witness talk with minimal interruption
making inferences
memory influences by inferences that people make based on their experience and knowledge
pragmatic inference:
* occurs when reading a sentence leads a person to expect something that is not stated or implied by the sentence
* inferences are based on knowledge gained through experience
reading that a baby stayed awake all night might lead someone to infer that the baby was crying
memory and emotion
emotion associated with special events
- better memory for arousing words
- amygdala: activity here is higher for emotional words
- damage to amygdala: no enhancement for emotional parts of stories
emotions may trigger mechanisms in amygdala that help us remember events associated with emotion
source monitoring errors
misidentifying the source of the memory
cryptomnesia: unconscious plagiarism of the work of others
* making a song that is actually using someone else’s tune
determining if a name is famous
illusory truth effect
* demonstration of familiarity causing errors
* believing something is true after repeated expso
illusory truth effect
enhanced probability of evaluating a statement as being true upon repeated presentation
repetition increases perceived truth even if the person knew the correct answer
why does repetition increase perceived truthfulness?
* fluency
* the ease with which a statement can be remembered influences judgement
* similar to the familiarity effect
* knowledge stored in memory is important but fluency can affect the judgments as well
