LTM Flashcards
What is organic amnesia?
a memory loss caused by biological factors such as brain damage or strokes
organic amnesias tend to have bigger impairments in episodic than semantic
What is semantic dementia?
damage to anterior temporal lobes
widespread forgetting of meanings of words and concepts
What is some support for independent episodic and semantic memory?
the idea that there is a double dissociation between amnesia (worse episodic than semantic) and semantic dementia (worse semantic than episodic)
Case of HM
suffered from epilepsy, main issue was in temporal lobes
Scoville’s approach was to cut portions of right and left medial temporal lobes
seizures stopped but he developed severe memory problems
couldn’t retain any new info
Where is the hippocampus located?
in the medial temporal lobes
Milner: what is the left medial temporal lobe responsible for?
verbal memories
Milner: what is the right medial temporal lobe responsible for?
non-verbal (e.g pictural and spatial) memories
What are the 4 main areas of damage In amnesia?
medial temporal lobes
thalamus
basal forebrain
fornix and mammillary bodies
What is anterograde amnesia?
impaired memory for events and facts experienced after onset of amnesia
What is retrograde amnesia?
impaired memory for events and facts learned before onset of amnesia
What is preserved in organic amnesia?
STM
working memory
intelligence
attention
language
Is LTM unitary store?
No, 2 classifications:
explicit and implicit LTM
What are declarative memories (explicit)?
involves conscious retrieval of information
What are some explicit memory tests?
- free recall
- cued recall
- forced choice recognition
- yes/no recognition
What are 2 examples of declarative memory?
semantic and episodic memories
According to Tulving, what is episodic memory?
specific events linked to place and time
ownership of the memory
emerges later than semantic during development
Binding-of-item-and-context model (Diana, 2007)
perirhinal cortex (receives information about specific items “what” info)
parahippocampal cortex (receives info about context “where info”)
Hippocampus (binds “what” and “where” info)
Bowles et al (2011): patients with damage to perirhinal cortex have…
greater impairment to familiarity than recollection judgements
According to Tulving, what is semantic memory?
general knowledge
Semantic memory is accompanied by noetic consciousness, what does this mean?
when you know something but without the personal, intimate feeling
What are the 2 ways to retrieve episodic memories?
- recollection (mentally travel back to event)
- familiarity
What are remote memories?
memoires that occurred in the past
What is Ribot’s law of memory?
in cases of memory damage, the older the memory the less likely to be affected
What is the Multiple trace theory?
argues hippocampus is essential for autobiographical memory retrieval
hippocampal damage should affect all remote memories
