Memory

Question 1

What are the four types of memory?

Answer 1

Episodic, semantic, autobiographical and emotional memory

Question 2

What is episodic memory?

Answer 2

Memory of personal life experiences, contextualised.

Question 3

What is semantic memory?

Answer 3

Recollection of facts, ideas and concepts.

Question 4

What is autobiographical memory?

Answer 4

A combination of semantic and episodic memory, and a memory for your personal history.

Question 5

What is emotional memory?

Answer 5

It is often important in episodic memory, emotion-memory interactions.

Question 6

How is memory processed?

Answer 6

Encoding, storage, consolidation and retrieval.

Question 7

What is encoding in memory?

Answer 7

Conversion of information into a form capable of being stored in memory.

Question 8

What is storage in memory?

Answer 8

Creation of a trace of information within the nervous system.

Question 9

What is consolidation in memory?

Answer 9

Strengthening of this trace over time, to convert it from a labile form to a more damage-resistant form.

Question 10

What is retrieval in memory?

Answer 10

Attempt to recover a memory trace.

Question 11

What is the unitary model of memory? Is it an accurate representation of memory? Why / why not?

Answer 11

The idea that STM and LTM are one mechanism, with retention for decades and unlimited capacity. It is inaccurate as our memory decays (15 - 20s)and has limited storage.

Question 12

What is Atkinson & Shiffrin’s multi-store model of memory?

Answer 12

Comprised of sensory, ST and LT memories, information is first registered from the environment by sensory organs. If attended to, this information is stored ST, which is transformed into LT if it is rehearsed by being given meaning.

Question 13

What is the serial position effect?

Answer 13

Tendency to remember the first or last thing learned, with poorer memory recall for middle words learned.

Question 14

What is Baddeley & Hitch’s working memory model?

Answer 14

Emphasises that STM is a mental workbench, not a storage platform. Active manipulation of information through the central executive that engages the episodic buffer, phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad

Question 15

What is Craik & Watkins’ maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 15

It is the idea that information is stored better when you repeat it for a short time. However, it failed to improve memory performance.

Question 16

What is Stein & Bransford’s elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 16

Organisation and relation of new information to material already held in LTM.

Question 17

What is Craik & Tulving’s depth of processing?

Answer 17

Indicates that information processing has different levels, depending on the type of information (rhyme, semantics, case)

Question 18

What did Bransford & Johnson realise about giving a sentence to summarise a paragraph before reading the entire paragraph?

Answer 18

Elaborative encoding improves comprehension and memory, as participants provided prior knowledge about the paragraph remembered it better.

Question 19

What is a schema?

Answer 19

An organised mental framework with an idea of certain concepts.

Question 20

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 20

Amnesia that prevents your ability to remember events post-trauma.

Question 21

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 21

Inability to remember events pre-trauma.

Question 22

What is Dresler et al.’s method of loci?

Answer 22

Visualising items you want to remember in specific, familiar places, in order to improve memory.

Question 23

What is Godden & Baddeley’s encoding-retrieval context experiment about?

Answer 23

Divers recalled information presented better underwater, compared to on land, meaning that emulating similar environments for both learning and recollection improves memory.

Question 24

What does temporal lobe amnesia affect, and what types of memory are spared?

Answer 24

Episodic and declarative memories are impaired, whilst semantic and procedural memories (skills, habits, priming, conditioning) are spared.

Question 25

What are the four sins of memory / forgetting?

Answer 25

Transience (reduced memory over time), blocking (inability to remember needed information), absentmindedness (encoding failure, didn’t pay attention), persistence (resurgence of unwanted memories).

Question 26

What is retroactive interference?

Answer 26

New learning interferes with the old, such as learning a new language.

Question 27

What is proactive interference?

Answer 27

Old learning interferes with the new, such as ditching old habits.

Question 28

What are the four lobes of the cerebral cortex?

Answer 28

Parietal, occipital, temporal and frontal.

Question 29

What does the parietal lobe do?

Answer 29

Helps in registering sensory and spatial information.

Question 30

What does the occipital lobe do?

Answer 30

Registers visual information.

Question 31

What does the temporal lobe do?

Answer 31

Manages emotions and stores memories.

Question 32

What does the frontal lobe do?

Answer 32

Registers speech and language, personality, motor skills.

Question 33

What are neurons and what are the main components of one?

Answer 33

Neurons are the brain’s processing units, and are comprised of dendrites, nucleus, axon and the presynaptic terminal.

Question 34

What is the resting membrane potential?

Answer 34

The difference in electric charge between electrically inactive neurones, which is -70mhV.

Question 35

Explain how information is integrated in the dendrite using spatial summations.

Answer 35

Spatial / temporal summations of graded potentials occur within the dendrites, leading to a “pulse” known as an action potential (within the axon) if the threshold level of intensity at the initial segment is reached.

Question 36

How is information transmitted within a neuron?

Answer 36

Information flows from the dendrites to the axon and the presynaptic terminal. This occurs when there is a change in the neuron’s membrane potential, which is done through the contraction and expansion of ion channels.

Question 37

How does tetrodotoxin impact neurons?

Answer 37

It blocks the ion flow through channels, impairing the generation of action potentials.

Question 38

How do neurons communicate with each other?

Answer 38

Neurotransmitters are synthesised within the axon terminal where they are released into the synaptic cleft and bind to the dendrites of another neuron, creating graded potentials before reuptaking.

Question 39

In what ways can drugs affect neurotransmission?

Answer 39

They can influence the synthesis, storage, release, binding and reuptake of neurotransmitters.

Question 40

What are agonists?

Answer 40

Agonists are drugs that often mimic the action of a naturally occurring substance, binding to a receptor cell and triggering a response. Indirect agonists act as catalysts, enhancing synthesis / release of neurotransmitters.

Question 41

What are antagonists?

Answer 41

Antagonists are drugs that block or suppress agonist-mediated responses.

Question 42

What are the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease?

Answer 42

Tremors, muscular rigidity, shuffling wide-based gait leading to festination, bradykinesia (slowness of movement) and involuntary posture shifts

Question 43

What is often used to treat Parkinson’s?

Answer 43

Deep brain stimulation, where electrode probes are inserted in the brain and connected to pulse generators. The electrical stimulation mitigates cognitive and motor decay.

Question 44

What are the symptoms of schizophrenia?

Answer 44

Positive symptoms: hallucinations, delusions and disorganised thinking.

Negative symptoms: loss of empathy, poverty of speech & thought.

Cognitive symptoms: poor memory, impaired executive function

Question 45

How are schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease related?

Answer 45

They both depend on dopamine levels. Dopamine antagonists are used to treat schizophrenia, but may result in Parkinsonian symptoms. Dopamine agonists (amphetamine, L-Dopa, cocaine) meant to treat Parkinson’s can produce schizophrenic episodes.

Question 46

What is J Olds & P Milner’s experiment about, and how does it relate to dopamine?

Answer 46

Involves starved rats who were given the option to push the lever for electrical stimulation (increased dopamine) or food, yet still chose the lever. This is known as intracranial self-stimulation, which activates dopaminergic pathways in the brain, including the nucleus accumbens (NA) and the ventral tegmental area (VTA).

Question 47

What is the human reward system? How is it activated?

Answer 47

It consists of the nucleus accumbens and ventral tegmental area (VTA). 50% of neurons in the VTA are dopaminergic, and projects to the NA and prefrontal cortex. It is activated by reinforcers such as sex, food, money, beauty, humour & drugs.

Question 48

How is complex behaviour produced?

Answer 48

The nervous system relies on the operation of networks of neurons to produce complex behaviour.

Question 49

What is the simplest behaviour-producing network?

Answer 49

The reflex, which includes simple automatic responses to stimuli, such as blinking, swallowing, pupil dilation.

Question 50

What is the difference between monosynaptic and polysynaptic reflex?

Answer 50

Monosynaptic reflex (knee-jerk) involves a singular synapse connected by the sensory and motor neurons. On the other hand, the polysynaptic reflex (withdrawal) involves multiple synapses, where the afferent neuron engages with the interneuron in the spinal cord, the inhibitory neuron and also neurons in the brain before the motor neuron.

Question 51

What is the vestibulo-ocular reflex? (VOR)

Answer 51

This reflex stabilises the gaze during head movement by focusing images on the retinas of the eyes.