Memory Flashcards
SINGLE DISSOCIATIONS
- damage to brain area 1 = disrupted function A; intact related function B
- indicates both functions = partially dif BUT function A could be harder so got more damaged
DOUBLE DISSOCIATIONS
- need to find patients who show exact opposite pattern; area 2 brain damage leaves function A intact but disrupts function B
- indicates functions A/B = independent
- rules out generic difficulty account
HM
- “… everything looks clear to me, but what happened just before… like waking from a dream…”
NEURO PARTS ASSOCIATED W/MEMORY
- olfactory bulb
- mammillary body
- amygdala
- hippocampus
- massa intermedia of thalamus
- cingulate gyrus
- corpus callosum
- fornix
DOUBLE DISSOCIATION OF WM/LTM IN BRAIN DAMAGE
AMNESIAC SYNDROME
- normal working memory; little/no ability to convert new facts/events to permanent memory (anterograde amnesia))
- HM; normal memory span (7 digits) but couldn’t learn 8 -> normal recency effect in free recall (last items still WM); poor earlier recall = didn’t react LTM
STM PATIENTS; SELECTIVE IMPAIRMENTS OF WM
- WARRINGTON & SHALLICE (1969); KF; poor immediate repetition of short word sequences; able to learn such sequences if presented slowly (LTM intact)
ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA
- patients (ie. HM) have drastically impaired ability to form new memories for experienced events/facts (ie. can’t form new declarative memories)
- but normal learning rates exhibited in acquisition of:
- perceptual skills (ie. recognition of incomplete figures)
- problem solving skills (inducing riles/Tower of Hanoi)
DOUBLE DISSOCIATION AMNESIA
- impaired procedural memory combined w/unimpaired declarative memory = NOT amnesia
- brain damage also causes procedural memory deficits w/o impairing declarative memory ie.
- APRAXIA (problems coordinating movement)
- APHASIA (problems w/speech)
- ACALCULIA (problems w/simple maths)
- PROSOPAGNOSIA (difficulty recognising faces)
DECLARATIVE MEMORY
TULVING (1972)
- EPISODIC = memory for individual autobiographical experiences; aka. mental time travel
- SEMANTIC = general/conceptual knowledge abstracted from experience (ie. famous people/whose related to who/item names etc.)
DECLARATIVE DOUBLE DISSOCIATION
TULVING (2001)
- amnesiac patients tend to have anterograde amnesia for both new personal episodes/new knowledge
- KC (Clive Wearing); can’t recollect episodically since birth (dense retrograde amnesia); but pre-trauma semantic = perfect
EPISODIC MEMORY IN SEMANTIC DEMENTIA
ADLAM et al (2009)
- semantic dementia = progressive semantic loss combined w/well preserved episodic memory
- 1-2D; semantic memory tests:
a) object/sound knowledge (pick object from tray)
b) iconic European buildings in several dif rooms - 2D; what/where/when questions (ie. was I wearing a hair clip, which one?)
SUMMARY I
- WM = limited capacity
- large info intake to sensory memory stores
- only attention receivers maintain
- what receives attention = past experiences of importance/rewarding meaning we’re not always perceiving/storing accurate image of world; attentional filters determine maintenance
- dif past experiences = dif attentional filters
