Memory Flashcards
Modal Model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin)
- Perception
- Sensoric Memory
Through attention gets put into - Short term (working) memory
Encoding happens - Long term memory
Retrieval loops Info back into - Short term memory
And so on
Describe the sensoric memory
Has a large capacity, but decays in a very short amount of time. If it is paid attention to, it goes into short term memory.
Iconic memory (what we see) lasts up to 1000ms.
Echoing memory (what we hear) lasts slightly longer.
Describe the short term/working memory, and its old name
Old name: Storage
Much of what we are exposed to never enters our WM.
We have a limited working memory span. The more information we hold in our WM, the longer it takes to retrieve something.
Interference can also disturb WM retrieval.
What are the 4 components of Working memory, according to Baddeley?
- The central executive (allocates data to the following subsystems)
- Visuospatial sketchpad (imagining)
- Episodic buffer (creates a sense of time, or episodes to remember Info better. Like making up a story for example)
- Phonological Loop (articulatory rehearsal. But also interference. The closer the interfering speech is with what one tries to remember, the more it interferes.)
Describe 2 theories about how information gets into the Long term memory
Consolidation Hypothesis (Hebb): Repetition through time is enough to encode info into long term memory
Levels of processing Hypothesis (Craik and Lockhart):
A combination of maintenance rehearsal (repeating information) and elaborative rehearsal (giving it meaning, such as through mnemonics) will do the job.
What are mnemonics?
A strategy to effectively remember things (eg through the method of loci/placing info in familiar or funny context, or narrative stories)
Episodic vs semantic long-term memory
Episodic: Autobiographical memory
Semantic: Conceptual memory/facts
THEY ARE BOTH DECLARATIVE!
Declarative/explicit vs procedural/implicit LTM
Explicit: Consciously learned and retrieved info (eg. the times table)
Implicit: Subconsciously learned and retrieved info (eg. riding a bike). Motor and perceptual procedures.
How accurate are our memories?
Memories can be constructed/implanted. For example, when words are to be remembered from a long list of words emphasizing the same emotion, or when we are told about an event involving us that never happened (especially with children).
Often happens during confessions/eye-witness testimonies. (Strength of the words used can also change our perceptions and therefore our statement (eg. how fast did the cars bump/crash into each other)?
Retrograde vs Anterograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia: We can’t remember anything from before amnesia happened. This can be hours, days, weeks, or even years. Caused through accident/stroke.
Anterograde amnesia: Cannot learn new things, events. Caused by lesions in hippocampus and nearby limbic system (temporal lobe). Korsakoff’s syndrome (lack of Vitamin B1). H.M was a patient who had surgery to minimize epilepsy, which caused anterograde amnesia.
Can H.M still learn anything?
He can still learn things, through conditioning for example/repeated exposure. He just has no memory of ever doing these things before. This way, his body knows what it is doing, like a reflex. (Like with the metal star shape!)
What is Korsakoff’s amnesia?
Caused through alcoholism. In an experiment to read a mirrored word, patients’ reaction times improves over time, just as normal patients. But if they are later asked if they have seen these words before (explicit memory), there is no recall. The patients have access to their implicit, but not their explicit memories.
What is a single dissociation?
Damage to area “a” causes deficit in behaviour A, but not in behaviour B.
What is a double dissociation?
Damage to area “a” causes deficit in behaviour A, not B, AND damage to area “b” causes deficit in behaviour B and not A.
Give two examples for double dissociation
1: Amnesiacs, with damage to hippocampus.
Bad at declarative memories, good at procedural memories.
2: Parkinson’s patients, with damage to the substantia nigra. Good at declarative memories, bad at procedural memories.
