memory

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

• mental capacity to store and later recall or recognise events that were previously experienced
• active mental system that receives, encodes, modifies and retrieves information

Question 2

What are the stages of memory?

Answer 2

endoding
storage
retrieval

Question 3

What is recall of something?

Answer 3

reproducing information to which you were previously exposed without linked stimulus

Question 4

What is recognition?

Answer 4

uses a stimulus to retrieve something you have seen or heard before

Question 5

What is the primacy and recency effect?

Answer 5

1st and last things in list are remembered the most

Question 6

What is a schemas?

Answer 6

organised knowledge and expectations about familiar events or objects

Question 7

What is the multi-store model?

Answer 7

stimuli –> sensory memory –> (attention) short term memory –> (rehearsal) long term memory

Question 8

tell me about sensory memory (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)

Answer 8

• lasts about 0.1-0.5 seconds
• quite an accurate/complete representation
• sense specific

Question 9

tell me about short term memory (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)

Answer 9

• 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)

Question 10

Tell me about long term memory? (how long it lasts, what is involved etc)

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

What is working memory and what does it involve?

Answer 11

elaboration of short term memory comprised of

• phonological loop
• visuo-spatial sketchpad
• episodic buffer
• -> all linked to central executive

Question 12

What is the phonological loop?

Answer 12

stores auditory information by silently rehearsing sounds/words in a continuous look: the articulatory process

Question 13

What is the visa-spatial sketchpad?

Answer 13

• stores visual and spatial information

- engaged when performing spatial or visual tasks

Question 14

What is an episodic buffer?

Answer 14

dedicated to linking information across domains to form integrated units of visual, spatial and verbal information and chronological ordering

Question 15

What is central executive?

Answer 15

-allocates limited attention resources to the other components of working memory
performs cognitive tasks such as problem solving

Question 16

What is the levels of processing model?

Answer 16

memory is a function of processing activity (superficial vs deep: stronger memories through elaborative rehearsal)

Question 17

What is explicit memory?

Answer 17

memories of which you have conscious awareness?

Question 18

What is implicit memory?

Answer 18

knowledge without awareness

Question 19

What is procedural memory?

Answer 19

memory for actions, skills

Question 20

What is declarative memory?

Answer 20

memories for facts

• semantic memory: meanings of words and concepts
• episodic memory: involves autobiographical events

Question 21

What are the different theories of forgetting?

Answer 21

• 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)

Question 22

What are the different interference (in forgetting)?

Answer 22

• retroactive interference (learn A, learn B, test A)

- proactive interference (learn B, learn A, test A)

Question 23

how do you improve your memory?

Answer 23

• use more senses
• external memory aids
• match between learning and recall (in conditions, context etc)
• elaborate, distinctive encoding of meaning

Question 24

What is emotion?

Answer 24

-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

Question 25

What are the 5 components of the emotional system?

Answer 25

• expression changes
• physiological arousal
• behaviour
• subjective affect: knowing that it has changed
• cognitive appraisal: knowing whether it is appropriate or not

Question 26

What is Kluver-Bucy syndrome (in animals)?

Answer 26

bilateral amygdala + temporal lobe lesion

no fear, inappropriate approach behaviour, excess curiosity

Question 27

What happens in humans if there is bilateral amygdala lesion?

Answer 27

curiosity overcoming fea
impaired recognition of emotional expressions
impaired recognition of fear from movie stills
generalised to other other (especially negative) emotions

Question 28

What are the different types of memory?

Answer 28

short term
long term
autobiographical
semantic
sensory
spacial
procedural

Question 29

What are different types of long term memories?

Answer 29

declarative (explicit)

• -> episodic (events)
• -> semantic (facts)

implicit

• -> procedural (skills)
• -> priming
• -> conditioning

Question 30

What are the different types of short term memory?

Answer 30

sensory

working memory

Question 31

What do you use to study short term memory?

Answer 31

memory for ‘nonsense syllables’

memory for number strings (digit span, normally remember 7+/-2)

Question 32

What is long term potentiation?

Answer 32

in hippocampus: recent activity strengthens synapses and causes long term increase in signal transmission between neurone –> major cellular mechanism of learning and memory:
EPSP

Question 33

Which part of the amygdala is responsible for fear?

Answer 33

central nuleus