M&L Flashcards
What is declarative (explicit) memory, what is it made up of?
Memory where you can put it into words, pin point what exactly occurred:
Long term: (episodic and semantic)
Short term/working memory
What is episodic memory?
Memory of experiences you have had
What is non-declarative (implicit memory), what is it made up of?
Memory where it cannot be defined:
Conditioning, motor skills, priming
What did Tulving (1972) outline in his fundamental theory of memory?
Different types of memory - episodic and semantic memory.
What did Tulving (1985) outline?
Different memory systems:
Episodic - semantic - procedural
Defined by different levels of consciousness:
Autonoetic - Noetic - Anoetic
What are the examples of evidence for the existence of episodic memory and semantic memory in anterograde amnesic patients?
Spiers et al (2001) reviewed 147 cases with Hippocampal damage - in anterograde amnesic patients found deficits in episodic memory but only minor deficits in semantic memory.
What evidence is there concerning retrograde amnesia and the effect this has on memory?
Tulving (2002) and his patient KC:
Had severe anterograde amnesia and temporally graded retrograde amnesia
Very bad episodic memory, but okay semantic memory
Evidence for different types of memory regarding median temporal lobe damage?
Median temporal lobe is area surrounding (and including) hippocampus. deficits are seen in both semantic and episodic memory in patients with MTL damage
Verfaellie et al (2000)
Evidence for differences in memory for Temporal lobe epilepsy?
Viscontas et al (2000)
Bad episodic memory
Fairly intact semantic memory
Evidence for specific semantic memory loss?
Patient EL - left anterior temporal lobe atrophy
Semantic loss but no episodic loss
What did Prince et al (2007) show through imaging studies about different areas of the brain being used for different types of memory?
Hippocampus activated for episodic
Posterior temporal for semantic
Posterior frontal cortex for both
Difference in familiarity and recollection?
familiarity is a sense of knowing without context (semantic?)
Recollection is remembering contextual details - episodic memory
- More effortful and attention demanding, the hippocampus may play a role
What may Deja vu represent?
A difference between recognition and familiarity
What did Knowlton and Squire (1995) show about recollection and familiarity?
In Jon - a patient with amnesia, he struggled with long term recollection but not with familiarity.
What did Harand et al., (2012) show about hippocampus in episodic memory?
Hippocampus is involved in long-term episodic memories
However episodic that is repeated can become ‘semanticised’ and the hippocampus is not associated with this.
Evidence of remembering and knowing in OCD?
Obsessional checking itself may cause remembering and knowing to shift - this may exacerbate issues
e.g. after checking lots of times the shift has gone to familiarity rather than remembering (can’t remember whether the light is off for example)
What is the proposed role of the hippocampus in ‘what and ‘where’ distinctions of memories?
The hippocampus appears to have a role in binding the two distinctions together - Diana (2007)
What is the evidence (no study) for source memory and hippocampus
Hippocampus damage leads to worse source memory e.g. male or female voice.
How do episodic memory and semantic memory relate?
semantic memory is built up by episodic repetitions of experiences, episodic relies on semantic memory as it allows us to make sense of the meaning of episodes.
What did Moscovitch et al., (2006) show about the role of the hippocampus in semantic memory?
The hippocampus may be involved in the initial encoding of semantic memories. Semantic knowledge is dependent on episodic memory as well.
Evidence for the combination and non-distinction of episodic and semantic memory?
Burianova et al., (2010) evidence for a single neural network containing episodic, semantic and autobiographical memory.
Two types of consolidation?
Synaptic consolidation - structural changes in synaptic connections.
Systemic consolidation - gradual independence from the hippocampus
Evidence for consolidation?
Retrograde amnesia is temporarily graded - dependent on time Bayley et al., (2006)
What is consolidation?
Baddeley et al., 2009: Time-dependent process by which a new memory is gradually woven into the fabric of memory
What are the multiple trace theory/transformation hypotheses in terms of consolidation?
Moscovitch et al (2006) and Winocur et al (2010) suggested that semantic memory does have gradual development and independence from the hippocampus (Sytemic consolidation) but that episodic memory relies on the hippocampus forever.
What evidence is there regarding reconsolidation, what has it shown?
Chan & LaPaglia (2013) showed that re-actovating memories will make them more vulnerable to distortion - make them more malleable.
What are retrieval cues? What types are there?
Information utilised at the time of recall that affects the performance of recall:
Environmental context
Semantic links
State and mood
What is encoding specificity, what evidence is there regarding it?
The fact that memory improves when information available at encoding is also available at recall (Thompson and Tulving 1973)
Same paper provided evidence that semantic context improves performance at recall and recognition
Evidence regarding multiple cues?
Rubin and Wallace (1989) showed that multiple cues improved performance.
Why is it useful that memory is not an exact reproduction of events?
Retain overall meaning rather than trivial details (efficiency)
Utilise past memories to imagine the future Schacter and Addis (2007)
Is memory reproductive or constructive?
Constructive. Schacter and Addis (2007). not an exact replication but open to distortion
Evidence for the fact that memories allow us to predict the future?
Amnesic patients struggle to predict the future.
Race et al., (2011), 20 ptps. and Tulving (1985) one patient
What is different about implicit memory?
Different neural structures from declarative memory. Corkin 1984
They are characterised by what they are not: Not, declaritive/episodic/do not rely on MTL
Follow a general principle of plasticity - adaptive improvement of function by experience Reber 2013
What is procedural memory? Two subsets?
Perceptual motor abilities: Typing, athletic skill, musical skill
Cognitive: Computer programming, chess, reading, language.
Initially effortful but then shift to automatic
Often non-declarative.
What did spiers et al., (2001) show in terms of procedural memory and Amnesic patients?
Amnesic patients had no difficulty learning new procedural tasks
What is priming?
When the exposure to one stimulus influences the response to another. Repetition priming for example is when an encountered previous stimulus will speed the rate at which a ptp will recognise the same stimulus. Lasts a long time.
What is perceptual priming?
Form of repetition priming - Visual or Audio similarity between primer and target
What is meant by the fact that there is a porous distinction between implicit and explicit memory?
The boundary is not so solid, declaritive memory may contribute to implicit tasks, Kessler and Moscovitch (2013) showed there is an explicit element to some lexical decision and word stem completion tasks.
What is an alternative view of implicit/explicit memory?
It may be that the classic distinctions are too simplistic, the distinction may come down to things such as the speed of encoding, flexibility of learning and degree of relational processing.
What is working memory?
A temporary storage system, that contributes to attentional control. Baddeley (2007)
memory that is short term that allows us to underpin the tasks we are doing as we go about our normal business. Martin Farrell (2016)
What kind of things does Working memory affect?
Prose writing
Reading ability
Academic attainment
Mathematical ability
To name a few.
Conditions in which WM deficits are associated?
ADHD
DCD
Dyslexia
Normal ageing declines
The multicomponent model of WM?
Central executive (contributing to the episodic buffer)
Visuospatial sketchpad (contribute to Visual semantics)
Episodic buffer (Contribute to episodic LTM, and visuospatial sketchpad/phonological loop)
Phonological loop (Contribute to language)
What is the phonological loop component of WM?
The verbal-auditory WM component
Has a capacity of about 2s (afterwards memory decays)
What is articulatory suppression?
The phenomena of the decay of memory when the phonological loop is being used in another way (it cannot go into the phonological store)
Evidence for the phonological loop?
Classic evidence: word-length effect - words that take longer (more syllables or long vowels) are not recalled as well Baddeley et al., (1975). Similar sounding words that sound alike are remembered less effectively - the same parts of the brain (for articulatory movements) is involved in remembering, and therefore greater confusion (phonological similarity effect) only through visual presentation (inwardly articulate).
Neuropsychologial evidence: Patient PV (baddeley and Vallar 1984) - phonological store damaged (verbal WM), articulatory fine, LTM fine, Visuospatial fine
How does LTM affect the Verbal STM (WM)?
Performance recall is better with real words so there must be some affect of LTM on verbal STM.
What may be the functional use of the phonological loop?
May be used to learn language as the sounds are unfamiliar.
PV (who does not have verbal WM) struggled to learn new languages.
What is visual-verbal fractionation?
Evidence?
A differentiation between verbal and visual WM.
Patient PV verbal not intact but visuospatial is okay.
Smith and Jonides 1997 - different pattern of neural activation (left/right hemispheres) in visuospatial and verbal tasks
Structural components of the visuosptial sketchpad?
Visual chache - passive store of form and colour
Inner scribe: active spatial rehearsal process
Similar to phonological store and loop.
What functional real-world applications is visuospatial memory related to?
Route finding, map reading, driving and even body image (Darling et al.,)
What is change blindness, what kind of evidence is there for it?
There is only a small capacity of WM, this means that changes seen that are not the focus of your attention are often not noticed (gorilla/card trick) change blindness Rensink et al., (1997)
What is the role of the central executive?
Controls our attention and allocates resources to the different components of the WM model, planning and control. Particularly important to non-automatised tasks.
What ways can you test the central executive
I.e. can be used for inhibition, shifting, updating.
Inhibition - stroop effect
Shifting - shifting rules
Updating - have to stop remembering some things and then pick up new things to remember.
What is the role of the episodic buffer?
binding of information between sub-systems (phonological and visuospatial systems) distinct from the central executive Allen baddeley and hitch (2011/2006), may bind info to LTM as well
Involved in the integration of visuospatial and phonological Wang et al., (2015)
May be the component that leads to conscious experience - leads to the binding of all the aspects of the memory system.
What is autobiographical memory?
The memory that defines us, the memory of the events of our own life, stretches across the lifetime (not not equally)
What are the four functions of autobiographical memory?
Directive
Social
Self-representational
Adaptive
What is the directive function of autobiographical memory? What are schemas?
Using past-experiences being used to shape future and present decisions and directions
Memories of personal experiences can be used to develop successful schemas. Schemas are clusters of memories around a certain activity i.e. all the memories of driving a car.
What is the social function of autobiographical memories?
Helps the maintenance and development of social bonds by providing material for people to converse about. People with impairments in AM, have trouble forming and maintaining relationships
What is the self-representative function of AM?
Personal memories are used to create and maintain a coherent self-identity over time. A stable self-identity can allow for reflection of past experiences and can lead to self-insight and growth
What is the adaptive function of AM?
Recalling past experiences can help to modulate our mood. This can contribute to the development of emotional resilience. Depression can alter this function - so that the depressed person does not recall positive memories
Two main ways to study AM?
Diary method
- keep a diary of self-judged important memories and these are then presented in a recognition task.
Problems: Sampling bias, practice effects - act of recording may alter memory
Memory probe task
- Use cues (list of words) to recall AMs, then asked to describe them in as much detail as possible. recent research has used visual and olfactory cues.
What are the three distinct periods of AM across lifespan?
Childhood Amnesia - Forget early memories, not accountable by forgetting in normal age.
Reminiscence bump (late teens - early thirties)
Recency
Evidence for the effect of language on memory?
Morrison and Conway (2010), recalled memories with a cue word - showed that first memory associated with a word was a few months after the word was first learned.
Why is there a reminiscent bump in AM?
This is when people start to form a sense of self (self-representation function of AM)- there is a lot of firsts e.g. graduation, relationships, moving in with someone (rubin et al (1998). It is a period of transition.
What is the evidence regarding cross-lifespan differences in distinct cultures?
the three distinct periods of large numbers of memories remain but the content of the memories are different.
How is autobiographical knowledge organised?
Lifetime periods - e.g. when you studied psychology at Leeds
General Events - Repeated events e.g. my trip to the new forest, or a single event - trip to paris
Event specific knowledge - more specific than the others - adds to memory vividness, a specific event.
What is the working self?
Similar to the working memory - acts as a central control process, controlling access to the autobiographical knowledge base. Leads to emotional resilience.
It has a reciprocal relationship.
The working self controls access to the autobiographical memory which controls access to its components - episodic memory and long term self (made up of autobiographical knowledge base - lifetime periods etc., and the conceptual self - personal scripts, self-guides and beliefs.
Evidence, and quick description showed from Charlesworth et al., (2015)
Two groups, one first presented with a past event that has personal meaning, the other talked about solar system.
Then given a fluency task, 1 min to write as many statements I am statements as they can
The experimental group produced significantly more than the control. They also produced more psychological than social or physical ‘I am’ statements.
Shows Self-concept and episodic AM knowledge interact. Shows ‘the self’ is dynamic and responds to our needs of the moment.
We use AM to increase access to self concepts
AM is most closely associated with psychological selves.
What did Wang and Conway (2004) show about bicultural individuals on AM retrieval?
Did a study on American/Chinese individuals, when American self primed: more individual self concepts accessed, when Chinese primed: more social interaction memories retrieved.
What did Marian and Kaushanskaya (2004) show about cross culture differences and the effect on self concepts, in relation to language.
English bilinguals who emigrated to US, interveiew of two parts, one in Russian and one in english, - two groups with the order reversed
More self-orientated narratives produced in the English language
Emotional intensity was higher when the language at encoding was matched to retrieval, regardless of the language used.
Concluded that language influences cognitive styles in bilinguals.
Effect of first-person third-person recall of traumatic events in PTSD?
In PTSD traumatic events are often recalled in third-person observer perspective which may offer short term relief as patient can remove oneself from the memory, but may impede long-term recovery.
