Memory Flashcards
What is a key factor in Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of memory (1968)?
The route to long-term memory is always through short-term memory
Sensory stores -> Short-term store (STS) -> Long-term store (LTS)
How did Shallice and Warrington (1970) demonstrate that the Modal Model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1978) was inaccurate?
Neurological patient showing severe ST memory impairment in verbal tasks
BUT no impairment in verbal LT memory
- ST and LT memory do not use the same neurological structures
- There can’t be a sequential route from ST memory to LT memory
- otherwise any impairment in ST memory would prevent somebody possessing normal LT memory
What is working memory for Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?
Separate short-term stores for different types of information
How did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) develop the influential model of working memory?
> Digit span task and Spatial learning task
- keeping digits in mind (correctly recalled trials) did not modulate reasoning accuracy
-> Both tasks need short-term memory -> so they don’t rely on the same resources
=> Working memory (replaced the idea of ST memory)
What are the two key assumptions of the Model of Working Memory of Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?
Visuo-spatial sketch pad ; Central executive ; Phonological store
- If two tasks use the same part of working memory they cannot be carried out well
- If the two tasks are using different parts, they should be completed accurately
How did Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993) find about the neurological correlates of verbal working memory (phonological store)?
> Authors thought English-speaking participants would
- use phonological store for keeping in mind English letters
- and use visuo-spatial store for Korean characters (not verbally rehearsible)
> Participants isolated recall of English letters, not Korean characters, to 2 areas of left hemisphere:
- one more frontal
- the other more parietal
> Phonological store vs. articulatory loop (PET scan)
- memory task: storing in mind 6 letters
- rhyming task
What were the neurological correlates of verbal working memory found by Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993)?
> Left parietal: Verbal memory
> Left frontal: Neural correlate of articulatory loop
- overlaps with Broca’s area (speech production)
How did Postle and colleagues (2004) founded the concept of spatial working memory?
Task in fMRI
- initial fixation -> Target -> Delay (V1 stimulation) -> Probe -> Intertrial interval
- respond to whether the target participants had seen before delay period, was to the left or right or same position as to where the probe items were now presented
- > they had to maintain the target’s position in their spatial working memory over the delay period
=> Spatial working memory used for creating visual mental images
What are the regions associated with verbal working memory, and spatial working memory (Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak, 1993; Postle et al., 2004)?
> Left parietal regions: Verbal working memory
> Right parietal regions: Spatial working memory
just as for spatial attention
How does inhibited spatial working memory impact patients with neglects, in neglect tasks?
Lower performance:
- cancellation task without being able to see where he/she has cancelled items
- > when he/she has to keep locations in mind, it adds spatial working memory element to the task
- > performance is much worse
What are the three principal functions of the Central Executive in the the Model of Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)?
- Decides what information should go into the different stores
- Organises which store the information should go to
- It is also used to inspect, transform, manipulate the information being held in the stores
What are the two processes of long-term memory?
- Explicit (declarative) memory
- can consciously access and explain (e.g. skills) - Implicit (non-declarative) memory
- cannot describe or define
- no access through conscious recollection
What is priming and which process of long term memory does it reflect?
Exposure to some stimuli may alter participant’s responses to later stimuli
- without them recalling the first (priming) stimuli or knowing its affecting their responses
-> implicit (non-declarative) memory
What is amnesia?
Specific problem in long-term memory, without decline of other cognitive functions
What are the two types of amnesia?
- Retrograde amnesia
2. Anterograde amnesia
What is retrograde amnesia?
Loss of memory before the event that caused amnesia
What is anterograde amnesia?
Loss of ability to create new memories
What is the prevalence of retrograde and anterograde amnesia?
> Brain injuries resulting in amnesia don’t usually lead to any severe loss of previously acquired memories from long-term storage
-> retrograde amnesia is rare
> Anterograde amnesia is more common
What is focal retrograde amnesia?
Retrograde amnesia without the learning deficits of anterograde impairments
Which film best depicts amnesia?
‘Finding Nemo’
- anterograde amnesia
Which patient lead to the distinction between implicit and explicit long-term memory (Scoville and Milner, 1957)?
H.M.
- mild anterograde amnesia after removal of parts of his medial temporal lobes and hippocampal formations bilaterally (he was suffering of severe epilepsy)
- able to remember people and events from before the operation
- no new memories
What were HM’s performances to working memory and learning tasks? What were the conclusions of Scoville and Milner (1957)?
> HM’s verbal and spatial working memory was in normal range
> His long term memory could not be improved
> Mirror drawing task:
- he couldn’t consciously remember even having completed task just before -> no new explicit memories
- BUT retained brand new procedural memories, without awareness of learning
> Fragmented pictures task:
- he was better able to identify figures on second occasion without remembering having done the task
What were the conclusions of Scoville and Milner (1957) from the patient HM’s task results?
- Parts of the medial temporal lobes removed in HM are not necessary for implicit memory formation
- BUT necessary for explicit long-term memory formation
(he had procedural implicit memory) - The absence of profound retrograde impairment in HM also shows that medial temporal lobes are unlikely to be the site of LT storage of old memories
What does evidence suggest on the effect of medial temporal lobe and hippocampal damage to episodic and semantic memory?
Episodic memory is much more affected by medial temporal lobe and hippocampal damage than semantic memory
What did the patient K.C. teach us about episodic and semantic memory (Tulving, 2002)?
KC’s brain showed severe damage to medial temporal lobes and hippocampi
> Impaired episodic memory BUT intact semantic
- he took mechanics course after his injury and learned semantic words without remembering people from his course or events in this period
- no sense of experiencing family type events
What did Vargna-Khadem (1997) find out about the learning differences in the explanation of why episodic memory is more impaired in amnesia?
> Episodic -> singular occurence learning
Semantic -> repetition
> Early age hippocampal and medial temporal lobe damage (in adolescents)
- the 3 patients , compared to healthy controls, forget almost all words (task) after short period
- they have remembered little at all from the image (delayed recall)
- However, these 3 patients attended mainstream school, had IQ and knowledge within normal range for their age group
=> There’s no semantic impairment in these children, results show clear episodic-semantic distinction
- they were impaired in every episodic task
- BUT at normal range in semantic tasks
What makes episodic memory a reconstructive process?
> Episodic memories are biased, change over time, are susceptible to false pieces of information
> Episodic memory can be inaccurate from first recall
- e.g. work by Loftus on eyewitness testimony: falsely recalling details of crime scene when wording of questions was altered
What may cause the loss of accuracy in episodic memories?
- Recalling memories in company
- Incorporating recollections of others
How did Dennis Hassabis and Eleanor Maguire demonstrate the constructive nature of episodic memory?
The network used for recalling real episodic memories (brain regions including medial temporal love and hippocampus) is also used when participants in fMRI create imaginary event
