Memory Flashcards
Are memories stored in the hippocampus?
No
What are the stages of memory?
- Sensory memory
- Short-term memory
- Long-term memory
What ensures that the information stays in short term memory(STM)?
Repetition, rehearsal
What ensures that info stays in long term memory(LTM)?
Recall
Which memory is the iconic memory?
Visual sensory memory
Which memory is the echoic memory?
Auditory sensory memory
What effects happen in a serial recall?
A primacy and recency effect
Items at the beginning or end of a list are remembered better than the items in the middle
What is the Modality effect?
The recency effect is bigger for auditory than for visual items
How do you get better recall?
With repetition
What are the 4 components of Working memory by Allan Baddeley?
- A phonological loop
- A visuo-spatial scratchpad
- Central executive
- An episodic buffer
What is the central executive for?
Coordination
What is the episodic buffer for?
Integration STM/LTM
Dual task interference can be explained by the distinction of which systems?
Verbal and spatial
In which 3 codes is the long-term memory stored?
- Verbal: semantic level
- Visual: mental images
- Motor
What stages involve remembering?
- Encoding
- Storage
- Retrieval
What is chuncking?
Recording material into the smallest number of memory elements
Elaborative encoding?
Verbal memory improves with depth of processing
To which part of the brain is the semantic encoding related?
Lower left frontal lobe
Dual-coding theory of Paivio?
Better memorization if the information is stored in a verbal and pictorial code
Retrieval cues?
Successful retrieval of a memory depends on the presence of an appropriate cue that brings the memory into consciousness
Transfer specific processing?
Easier to remember semantic coding than phonemic coding. It depends on the task.
Von-Restorff-effect?
2 3 4 5 2 A 6 7 4 3 -> The A pops up
Flashbulb memories?
Vivid details are memorized during a dramatic event
What is interference?
An obstruction in the retrieval of a memory event that is stored in LTM
Retrograde amnesia?
Amnesia for events that took place prior to the accident
Anterograde amnesia?
Amnesia for events that follow accident= learning problem
Transient transglobal amnesia?
Amnesia that lasts for a short time, often after a stroke.
Functional amnesia?
Multiple personality disorder in which a patient is unaware of any events occurring while the ‘other’ person was prominent
Organic amnesia?
Caused by brain damage in contrast with functional amnesia
Childhood amnesia?
Earliest episodic memories starts around 3 years. In rats, this also happens because their hippocampus isn’t developed fully
Penfield?
The first one to perform surgery on patients with epilepsy
Karl Lashley?
Studied the engram and concluded there was no single structure solely responsible for memory
Does the hippocampus play a crucial role in memory?
Yes
Where is the long-term potentiation located?
Hippocampus
How do you initiate the LTP?
Presynaptic glutamate must be attached to the post- synaptic NMDA receptors
Why are emotional experiences better remembered?
Because of the amygdala, located next to the hippocampus
What is the Korsakoff syndrome?
Due to chronic vitamin B1 deficiency. The patients appear normal but can barely remember recent events
What is the implicit memory?
Information stored in the absence of a conscious memory
What brain structures are active in behaviors that produce pleasure?
The nucleus accumbens, medial forebrain bundle, and hypothalamus
Operant conditioning?
Skinner, rewarding learning
Clasiical conditioning?
Pavlov, conditioned vs unconditioned stimulus
Acquisition?
Multiple CS-US are usually necessary in order to make a CS evoke a CR
Extinction?
CS are presented without the US; the CR will weaken after a while. Sometimes however, recovery occurs
Positive reinforcer?
When a reward is given, it increases the chance that the behavior will be repeated in the future?
Negative reinforcer?
Increases the chances that the behavior will. be repeated in the future due to removal of an unpleasant stimulus
Mirror neurons?
Implicit learning and the
understanding of others. The neuron responds to the
execution of a grasp and to the observation of a
grasp. The understanding of the meaning of the
observed actions that determined the discharge in the hidden condition
Morpheme?
The smallest word component that has its own meaning. Dog is 2 morphemes, dog + ‘s’. Syllables are grouped into morphemes
Examples of primary or unconditioned reinforces?
Food, electric shocks
Examples of secondary or conditioned reinforces?
Money, airmiles
What is a phoneme?
Smallest difference between
two sounds that indicates a difference in meaning
Semantics?
Meaning expressed by the language
Prosodic qualities?
Rhythm, duration, intonation and loudness
When phonemes are combined, they produce….
morphemes
Broca?
Deficit in production
Wernicke?
Perception deficit
When is the indirect phonological route used?
Used for low-frequency words, slower that the direct route. It’s required for non-existing pseudo-words like mave
When is the direct or lexical route used?
For high frequency words
Surface dyslexia?
Patient can read normal & pseudo words, but exception words a regularised (pint is pronounced as if it rhymes with mint) damage to the direct route
Phonological dyslexia?
Patient can read normal and exception words, but not pseudowords; damage to the phonological route
Deep dyslexia?
Similar to phonological dyslexia, but the patient also makes semantic mistakes; reads ‘chair’ instead of ‘table’; A severe damage to the phonological route with semantic problems. They can only read through a lexical àsemantic route
What problems have dyslexic people?
Visual stimuli in general(V5), or basic problems in auditory perception of short-term stimuli
What is a classic view?
A person learns to recognise objects and
discovers a rule that defines the members of a category. This is often very artificial
What are prototypes and natural categories?
Members of a category have a family resemblance in the absence of defining characteristics (e.g. what is a “game”)
What are semantic network models?
contain concepts that are interconnected. When reading/hearing a word, information flows through the whole network and there is a spreading of activation.
Selective deficit?
A patient had problems when asked to name pictures from just one semantic category
Availability bias?
Information that is easy to access, has a large impact on our decision: For example, your decision to drive (or not) after drinking alcohol will depend on whether you recently had an accident or a fine involving alcohol
Statistical misconceptions( gambler’s fallacy)?
A coin or a roulette is ‘fair’, and after 6 balls on red, the next ball should fall on black)
Confirmation tendency?
More value is attributed to information that supports a presumption than information that disproves it (E.g., people believe that ‘German cars are reliable’, although they spend more time in the garage than Japanese cars)
What is an algorythm?
A procedure that always leads to the correct solution (finding the shortest route by checking ALL possible routes)
Heuristic?
‘rule of thumb’ —> not always produce the correct answer, but is often practical ( only take routes that decrease the Euclidean distance between A & B)
- one way is to decompose the problem into sub-goals (means-end analysis)—> why does the engine not start? gas, power
Deductive reasoning?
Narrowing down from general to specific (if…then..) —> valid reasoning
Inductive reasoning?
Narrowing from specific to general
What is a treatment option for patients with epilepsy?
Dissection of the corpus callosum
Split brain patients?
Left hemisphere does not know what is going on in the right hemisphere, word that is projected in the left visual field/right hemisphere cannot be named because speech
production is normally located in the left hemisphere.
Which part of the brain represents the conscious?
Left hemisphere
Which part of the brain represents the unconscious?
Right hemisphere
Problem of the homunculus?
Illusion that there’s a person in us that feels, sees, controls
Intentionality?
Conciousness is about objects or events that need attention
Unity?
Only one object can be attended at a time
Selectivity?
At the expense of other stuff that could enter the mind
Qualia?
Subjective experience
Transient?
The content changes all the time. The content of consciousness changes all the time, event if the object is constant.
What are the four basic properties of consciousness?
Intentionality, unity, selectivity, transience of consciousness
Selective attention?
Subject focuses on one aspect; cocktail party effect, stroop task
Divided attention?
Subject divides attention over multiple tasks; talking while driving a car
Spatial attention?
How do subjects shift attention in space. Visual attention is often in the fovea, but not always
Attention as glue?
Attention is needed to bind different features of an object into a unified whole
Sustained attention?
Subject has to mantain focus for a longer period of time; process controller
Early selection theory?
There is an all-or none filter that is tuned to specific physical characteristics such as location, loudness or pitch.
Late selection?
The unattended signal is processed up to high levels. Only at the final level of consciousness, selection occurs on the basis of semantic characteristics
Subliminal processing?
A shorty presented stimulus stays under the threshold of consciousness because it is presented too fast, but this unnoticed stimulus is nevertheless processed up to a semantic level
Semantic priming?
A target word is recognized faster if precede by a semantically related prime than in an unrelated prime
Endogenous cues?(Posner)
Free will.
A central arrow points towards the probable location of the target.
Endogenous shifts are slow.
Exogenous cues?(Posner)
Automatically.
A sudden flash or sound from a location out of fovea can attract attention in an exogenous way.
Exogenous cueing is fast.
Feature Integration Theory of Attention?
Focused attention is required to bind separate features of an object like colour, form or motion together (Anne Treisman)
Unilateral visual neglect?
Is an attention deficit:patient focuses his/her attention on the ipsilateral field, pathologically neglecting the other side (often right-parietal damage, neglect of the left side). Also possible for auditory or haptic modalities
Extinction?
Milder variant of neglect.
The patient perceives a single object on their left, but if there are 2, then only the right object is perceived.
Balint’s syndrome?
A rare disease (bilateral posterior parietal lesions) where the patient can only see one object at a time and cannot voluntarily shift attention to new location
Blindsight?
Patients suffer from dissociation between conscious perception and behaviour.Stimuli presented in the right visual field are not perceived
consciously. However, when the patient is asked to guess, he is able to detect stimuli, as well as discriminate and localise them
What part of the brain is damaged in patients with blindsight?
V1(primary visual cortex)
Insomnia?
Person experiences trouble falling asleep
Apnea?
Pauses in breathing during which a person suddenly awakes to breath
Narcolepsy?
Person suddenly falls asleep, often at times when aroused
Sleepwalking?
Happens during phase 4( not during REM)
Arhythmical sleplessness?
Due to nightshifts or jet-lag
When does Stage-4 sleep occur?
Beginning of the night
What does fMRI-data during REM-sleep show?
- More (in red) activation of amygdala (emotional), visual (association) areas, motor cortex and brain stem
- Less (in blue) activation in the prefrontal cortex
Hypnosis?
State of heightened suggestibility. Induction through focus on an object and relaxation. You cannot be hypnotized against your will
Hypnotherapy?
Therapy that can help you to recover forgotten memory from your childhood (turned out to be false)
