Memory Flashcards
•What is memory? •Types of memory •Influences on memory and specific forms of memory •Memory in a medical context
What is Memory?
‘I think of memory as a general capacity to acquire, retain and use information.’(Tulving, 1999)
What are the types of memory?
Sensory
•e.g. visual memory after images
Short-term memory (STM)
•Remembering a telephone number for the time it takes to dial it
Long-term memory (LTM)
•Remembering your own telephone number
How memory can be forgotten
If information is not attended to, perceived (sensory), or rehearsed/processed (short-term & long-term) for some time it may be forgotten
- This would be more quickly forgotten in sensory register and short-term memory
What is short term memory?
(= Working memory)
- active neural nodes and processes
- limited capacity of 7(±2) items
- attention is crucial
What is long-term memory?
Depends on the formation of associations between nodes when they have been activated in working memory.
- Can be split into declarative memory and non-declarative memory
What is the difference between declarative memory and non-declarative memory?
Declarative memory allows us to consciously recall and recollect events and facts. Nondeclarative memory, in contrast, is accessed without consciousness or implicitly through performance rather than recollection.
How are memories created, kept, and used?
- encoding, storage and retrieval
Encoding
•How does information get ‘in’ to long-term memory?
Rehearsal and Level of Processing
Level of processing thought to be key (e.g. thinking of meaning behind facts / information, more important than repeating facts)
How are memories affected by emotions?
- At low arousal- we take in less detail, but have a more broad focus
- At higher arousal
- we take in more detail, but within a narrow range
- “flashlight” analogy
- Negative emotions narrow range of attention
Flashbulb memories
- FBMs triggered by surprise and consequentiality
- ‘Special’ memories
- Highly surprising, impactful, sometimes traumatic events •Rehearsal important for maintenance & elaboration
- Flashbulb memories can be vivid and there is high perceived confidence in accuracy (rather than actual accuracy)
Why are FBMs relevant in medical contexts?
- Patients might receive surprising diagnoses
* Practitioners might be put in surprising / emotional situations
“Flashbulb” memory at higher arousal
•we may direct our narrowed attention to emotions rather than facts
Patients respond to doctors’ anxiety (Shapiro et al., 1992)
- think the situation is more severe
- become more anxious (self-report and HR)
- remember fewer facts
Patients may “rehearse” emotions more than facts
- Drs who are emotionally supportive and reassuring can alleviate anxiety and boost recall (van Osch et al., 2014)
