Memory Flashcards
Learning
Acquiring of new information
Memory
Persistence of learning over time; then taking that information and storing it for later
Computer model to memory
1.) Input
2.) Storage of information/consolidate information
3.) Output/retrieval
Every part of memory has to be fully intact because if disconnect anywhere along the way…
Problems with overall memory
Input
Putting information in properly so you can remember later
What is input heavily influenced by?
Attentional ability
Storage of information/consolidate information
Good sleep allows you to consolidate/store information properly
Major player in storage of information?
Hippocampus
Dementia
Hippocampus is destroyed/shrinking in the brain so maybe they can get information in, but can’t store it anymore
Output/retrieval
Really positive or negative information is stored and more readily accessible (pulled out of brain better/easier)
-information in the brain but you have to be able to find it and pull it out
What affects attentional ability?
1.) Sounds/environmental stimuli
2.) Mental health symptoms
3.) Maintenance needs
4.) Stress
5.) Substance use and medications
6.) Medical history/diagnoses
Sounds/environmental stimuli
Really hot or cold in a room, sound noises outside, lighting, etc.
Mental health symptoms
Ex. anxiety, ADHD, PTSD, depression, etc.
Ex. Test next period (so can’t be fully present in the moment)
Can humans actually multitask?
NO! Can’t be in different spots of the brain at the same time!
Maintenance needs
Hunger, thirsty, sleep, etc.
What is the number one/first spot of the brain affected by poor sleep?
Attention!
Stress
Something as small as forgetting your keys to something as big as a life or death experience
Substance abuse and medications
Only difference between substance and medications is whether they legal or illegal
-SAME FAMILY
And in both cases, brain can’t work properly to input information let alone store it
Alcohol loves the hippocampus
true
Medical history/diagnoses
Ex. traumatic brain injury can cause problems with memory
Encoding
Getting information in (and processing it)
The two different kinds of memory
1.) Explicit memory
2.) Implicit memory
Explicit memory
Declarative memory
- declare and talk about this information; memory for facts and events
Examples of explicit memory
Facts
Dates
Names
Events
(actively retrieve)
Major player in explicit memory?
Hippocampus
- requires you to effortfully encode
Implicit memory
Non-declarative memory
- gets input into our brain automatically
- can’t actively say you have this memory
- Classically conditioned information (such as fear of blue jays because of trauma)
- Conditioned, learned skills (ex. typing, writing, “riding a bike,” throwing/kicking a ball, and driving)
- happening without you conscious awareness
Major player in implicit memory?
Basal ganglia
- automatic
In Alzheimer’s…
Poor input, impaired consolidation, impaired output
“Short-term” memory (encoding)
Our capacity to store brief information is very limited/fades away
“Magic number” for set capacity to take information in (short-term)
Miller in the 50s proposed roughly 7+/- 2 (SEVEN PLUS OR MINUS TWO; so 5-9 units of information)
Even with a phone number, you are over the set capacity to take things in (7+/- 2)…
But we chop off first three based on area code and then you are down to seven
- have to work with it (repeat it) to send it to storage or else it fades away
Effortful processing strategies
HIPPOCAMPUS
1.) chunking
2.) mnemonics
3.) distributed spacing/practice
4.) goofy story
Chunking
(brain loves and wants structures; uses shortcuts)
- take larger units of information and “chunk”/break them down into meaningful units
Examples of chunking
(814) 425-1264
- chunk into three meaningful units of 3, 3, 4
Social security
- chunk into 3, 2, 4
Sequence of numbers that are over our capacity so we chunk to make it less information at a time; it is a strategy
Mnemonics
Taking an abbreviation where each letter stands for something
- ex. PEMDAS and HOMES (Great Lakes)
Condensing multiple words into one word to force information into hippocampus
Distributed spacing/practice over cramming… why?
Cramming is not effective for long-term because ton of information being forced into hippocampus in a small amount of time (but capacity is limited) so even if you memorize it for a test, you won’t remember for like a final exam if you never look at it again because works sometimes for short-term but not long-term)
- take information in over time
Goofy story
Information becomes personally relevant/weird or important to you so you are more likely to remember it
Storage
Most believe it is a limitless warehouse (every interaction, every sense you experienced, etc) but the problem is the retrieval of those memories
Savant Syndrome
Somebody has the extraordinary ability to remember and retrieve information
Are IQ and intelligence the same thing?
NO
What structure(s) are involved in storage?
Hippocampus and association areas (areas outside of big, main structures; connections between big structures)
2 conscious (explicit) storage systems
1.) Semantic memory
2.) Episodic memory
Semantic memory
Facts that I know, knowledge that I have
ex. car fact
Episodic memory
Personally relevant information (about you), personally experienced
ex. when you first started driving a car (who taught you, descriptive about that day)
What does the hippocampus do with episodic memories?
converts information into long-term memory storage (consolidation)
- this happens during deep sleep
Implicit systems (automatic stuff)
Basal ganglia
CEREBELLUM (mostly known for gait and walking, but…) ALSO INVOLVED IN PROCEDURAL LEARNING
- motor movements are fluid
- All of this is being done without conscious awareness
- skill acquired over time becomes automatic/fluid
Amygdala
Duo with hippocampus
- What is stored has a lot to do with amygdala deeming them important
- part of emotional processing
- Have to be positively or negatively significant to be stored and sent to Hippocampus
ex. Getting proposed to on a certain date and place
What is the problem with the amygdala?
Amygdala can’t only pick positive events (but trauma is important too)
- bad could be adaptive since could theoretically happen again (already have that experience so could be adaptive)
Flashbulb memory
So emotionally significant, image or sequence shot straight to hippocampus (seared in as strong as possible)
Where does the name flashbulb memory come from?
Camera with a giant flash takes a picture and captures a moment in time
What happens during a flashbulb memory?
Massive flood of chemicals, hormones, etc. than normal
What is the problem with a flashbulb memory?
You can’t remember it all even if highly significant because….
1.) Can only take in so much information at one time (partly true)
2.) *The FLOODING of chemicals and hormones is so massive that it blocks ability to hold a ton of information at one time (so grabs the most brief, intense moment of time and takes snippet(s)
Retrieval
output of information
- held together by “web” of associations
Retrieval structures in the brain
NOT well known
(received by association like spider web fibers close together)
“Web” of associations
retrieval is better at time/place/with person (at time) of memory
- some similarity in which memory was formed
- CUEING
with just a sliver of information, we can grab information beside it through web of associations
Associations
allow you to put that information out (it’s all coming back to me now)
- important in trying to recall memory
2 types of memory
1.) Context-dependent memory
2.) State-dependent memory
Context-dependent memory
Tend to recall/retrieve information better if same or similar context in which you learned it/when it was encoded
Ex. taking the test for this class in this classroom where we learned it
State-dependent memory
Emotional/state you are in during an event become cues
- tend to learn more if you can put yourself in the same state in which you learned the information
Forgetting
1.) Anterograde amnesia
2.) Retrograde amnesia
Anterograde amnesia
Inability to form NEW memories
- usually the result of injury or insult to brain (more of a medical disease basis; less likely seen in mental health cases)
- living the same day every day on repeat (movie)
Patient HM: Severe epilepsy/seizures
Seizures starting in temporal lobes (where hippocampus and amygdala live)
- did not have corpus callous severed
- Temporal lobes on each side… removed the majority of both of them (origin points)
- BILATERAL: took both sides of brain (MEDIAL TEMPORAL)
Lobectomy
Removal of part of a lobe
Medial Temporal Lobe
Houses the limbic system
- Hippocampus
- Amygdala
- Hypothalamus
Damage to the medial temporal lobe (HM)
Can NOT process and store emotion properly
- in Patient HM, BOTH sides of temporal lobe damaged, so could not form new memories (couldn’t remember meeting people five seconds later)
- NOT all memory is housed here (keep in mind basal ganglia and cerebellum)
HM can’t remember people or doing a task but is getting better at doing that specific task so other parts of the brain are learning to process that information)
Is memory stored in one place? (using HM example)
NO; procedural memory still intact in HM: basal ganglia and cerebellum were not touched so those systems were still working, so could kick butt doing a task but couldn’t remember doing the task
- still able to learn in some capacity; some room for error (brain has a bit of a fail safe in having flexibility with memory)
Retrograde amnesia
Inability to retrieve information from the past
- dementia-like process (pieces)
- can be caused by traumatic brain injuries but also traumatizing events
Where can forgetting occur?
Anywhere, anytime
Why so many difficulties for retrieval?
1.) Encoding failure
2.) Storage decay
3.) Retrieval failure
Storage decay
Information in storage will decay over time (not explicit all the time)
Ex. As you age, your storage center begin to decay; mental health issues, poor sleep, etc.
Retrieval failure
Interference happens a lot to disrupt the retrieval of information
Interference
When information disrupts learning or retrieval of old or new information
Two types of interference
1.) Proactive
2.) Retroactive
Proactive
When this occurs, PRIOR learning (already done) disrupts the recall of NEW information
- Ex. changing passwords (keep putting old password in lol)
Retroactive
NEW learning disrupts recall of OLD information
- Ex. Chapter 1 is not on exam 2, but we start learning it before the exam
- In this case, new learning disrupts recall on exam; interferes with you being able to pull that information out on an exam
Motivated forgetting
Usually related to trauma
- We repress bad information (we don’t want to think about trauma so brain tries to forget on purpose)
- but triggers can quickly bring you back to trauma
Misremembering/misinformation effect
Ex. faulty testimonies
- people latch onto little lies
- Elizabeth LOFTUS
- with exposure to subtle misinformation, people will confidently misremember
Mendella Effect
Ex. Movie quotes that are actually incorrect
Ex. Application/implications to legal system
- Can make an innocent person look guilty
- Planting misinformation
- Making a murderer documentary example: Planting seeds of information in intellectually disabled to make conviction
