memory Flashcards
What is memory?
- mental capacity to store and later recall or recognise events that were previously experienced
- active mental system that receives, encodes, modifies and retrieves information
What are the stages of memory?
endoding
storage
retrieval
What is recall of something?
reproducing information to which you were previously exposed without linked stimulus
What is recognition?
uses a stimulus to retrieve something you have seen or heard before
What is the primacy and recency effect?
1st and last things in list are remembered the most
What is a schemas?
organised knowledge and expectations about familiar events or objects
What is the multi-store model?
stimuli –> sensory memory –> (attention) short term memory –> (rehearsal) long term memory
tell me about sensory memory (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)
- lasts about 0.1-0.5 seconds
- quite an accurate/complete representation
- sense specific
tell me about short term memory (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)
- lasts seconds to minutes
- frontal and parietal lobes involved
- capacity limited to 7+/-2 info (can improve with chunking of info)
- encoding mainly used with acoustic engram (auditory)
Tell me about long term memory? (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)
- duration potentially unlimited
- greater capacity
- encoding mainly semantic (but can be visual and auditory)
- areas: most of brain but hippocampus essential to consolidate learning + amygdala for emotional processing
- sleep essential for learning
What is working memory and what does it involve?
elaboration of short term memory comprised of
- phonological loop
- visuo-spatial sketchpad
- episodic buffer
- -> all linked to central executive
What is the phonological loop?
stores auditory information by silently rehearsing sounds/words in a continuous look: the articulatory process
What is the visa-spatial sketchpad?
- stores visual and spatial information
- engaged when performing spatial or visual tasks
What is an episodic buffer?
dedicated to linking information across domains to form integrated units of visual, spatial and verbal information and chronological ordering
What is central executive?
-allocates limited attention resources to the other components of working memory
performs cognitive tasks such as problem solving
What is the levels of processing model?
memory is a function of processing activity (superficial vs deep: stronger memories through elaborative rehearsal)
What is explicit memory?
memories of which you have conscious awareness?
What is implicit memory?
knowledge without awareness
What is procedural memory?
memory for actions, skills
What is declarative memory?
memories for facts
- semantic memory: meanings of words and concepts
- episodic memory: involves autobiographical events
What are the different theories of forgetting?
- superficial processing (lack of context, cues)
- decay (natural process lost over time)
- interference (new material interferes with memory before retrieval)
- motivated forgetting (mental escape route)
What are the different interference (in forgetting)?
- retroactive interference (learn A, learn B, test A)
- proactive interference (learn B, learn A, test A)
how do you improve your memory?
- use more senses
- external memory aids
- match between learning and recall (in conditions, context etc)
- elaborate, distinctive encoding of meaning
What is emotion?
-a mental state that arises spontaneously rather than through conscious effort and is often accompanied by physiological changes
OR
-a couple state of feeling that results in physical and psychological changes that influence thought and behaviour
What are the 5 components of the emotional system?
- expression changes
- physiological arousal
- behaviour
- subjective affect: knowing that it has changed
- cognitive appraisal: knowing whether it is appropriate or not
What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome (in animals)?
bilateral amygdala + temporal lobe lesion
no fear, inappropriate approach behaviour, excess curiosity
What happens in humans if there is bilateral amygdala lesion?
curiosity overcoming fea
impaired recognition of emotional expressions
impaired recognition of fear from movie stills
generalised to other other (especially negative) emotions
What are the different types of memory?
short term long term autobiographical semantic sensory spacial procedural
What are different types of long term memories?
declarative (explicit)
- -> episodic (events)
- -> semantic (facts)
implicit
- -> procedural (skills)
- -> priming
- -> conditioning
What are the different types of short term memory?
sensory
working memory
What do you use to study short term memory?
memory for ‘nonsense syllables’
memory for number strings (digit span, normally remember 7+/-2)
What is long term potentiation?
in hippocampus: recent activity strengthens synapses and causes long term increase in signal transmission between neurone –> major cellular mechanism of learning and memory:
EPSP
Which part of the amygdala is responsible for fear?
central nuleus
