Memory

Question 1

Define memory

Answer 1

The ability to recall or recognise previous experience

Question 2

What is a memory trace?

Answer 2

A mental representation of a previous experience.

Question 3

What are the three types of long-term memory?

Answer 3

Explicit (conscious)
Implicit (unconscious)
Emotional (conscious & unconscious)

Question 4

Describe explicit memory.

Answer 4

Subjects can demonstrate knowledge, such as a skill, conditioned response, or recalling events on prompting, but cannot explicitly retrieve the information.

Question 5

Describe implicit memory.

Answer 5

Subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know that the retrieved item is the correct item.

Question 6

What does explicit memory consists of?

Answer 6

Episodic (personal, autobiographical)

Semantic (facts, knowledge)

Question 7

What does implicit memory consist of?

Answer 7

Skills
Habits
Priming
Conditioning

Question 8

What does emotional memory consist of?

Answer 8

Attraction
Avoidance
Fear

Question 9

What are the two categories of memory?

Answer 9

Declarative memory (explicit)
Procedural memory (implicit)

Question 10

What is declarative memory?

Answer 10

Ability to recount facts, to detail the time, place and circumstances of an event.
Often lost in amnesia.

Question 11

What is procedural memory?

Answer 11

Ability to recall a movement sequences or how to perform some act or behaviour.

Question 12

How does the brain encode implicit information?

Answer 12

Encoded in a “bottom-up” or data-driven manner
Information is encoded in the same way it was perceived.
Individual has a passive role in learning

Question 13

How does the brain encode explicit information?

Answer 13

Encoded in a “top-down” or conceptually-driven manner
Subject reorganises the information before it is encoded
Person has an active role in learning
Very easily biased

Question 14

How does the brain process ST memories?

Answer 14

In the frontal lobes

Usually takes a few minutes in duration

Question 15

How does the brain process LT memories?

Answer 15

In the temporal lobes

Indefinite duration

Question 16

What are the findings of the Martin et al. (1995) study?

Answer 16

Recall of colours activated a region in the ventral temporal lobe.
Recall of action words activated a region in the middle temporal lobe.
Indicates that information from different sensory modalities is processed and stored in different neural areas.

Question 17

What does autobiographical memory contain?

Answer 17

This episodic memory not only stores a record of events that took place (episodes), but also a record of our own presence and role in the event.

Question 18

What is a symptom of episodic amnesia?

Answer 18

Inability to recall any personally experienced events.

Question 19

What parts of the brain are associated with losing personal memories?

Answer 19

Frontal lobes - may allow us to mentally travel through our past
Could be due to injury or reduced blood flow to frontal lobes.

Question 20

What prime structures of the brain are involved in neural circuit for explicit memory?

Answer 20

Medial temporal region 
- hippocampus
- amygdala
- entorhinal cortex
- parahippocampal cortex
- perirhinal cortex
Frontal cortex

Question 21

What is the role of the hippocampus in explicit memory?

Answer 21

Visuospatial memory

- using visual information to identify an object’s location in space

Question 22

What is the monkey case study?

Answer 22

During tasks in which monkeys must keep information in short-term memory over a delay, certain cells in the frontal cortex will fire throughout the delay.
Indicates the role of the frontal lobes in STM of explicit information.

Question 23

What prime structures of the brain are involves in the neural circuit for implicit memory?

Answer 23

Basal ganglia
Ventral thalamus
Substantia nigra
Premotor cortex

Question 24

What is Mishkin’s theory about the unconscious nature of implicit memory?

Answer 24

Believes that implicit memories are unconscious because the connections between the basal ganglia and cortex are unidirectional. For memories to be conscious, there must be feedback to the cortex.

Question 25

Describe the connections between the basal ganglia and cortex in implicit memory.

Answer 25

Basal ganglia receives information from the cortex, but does not project back to the cortex.

Question 26

Describe the connections between the medial temporal lobe and cortex in explicit memory.

Answer 26

Medial temporal lobe projects back to the cortex, explaining why explicit memories are conscious.

Question 27

Describe emotional memory.

Answer 27

Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events.

Can be implicit or explicit

Question 28

What is the role of the amygdala in emotional memory?

Answer 28

Amygdala is crucial for emotional memory.

Damage to amygdala abolishes emotional memory but has little effect on implicit or explicit memory.

Question 29

What was Scoville’s (1952) surgery?

Answer 29

Performed a bilateral medial-temporal-lobe resection to treat severe epilepsy on patient H.M.

Question 30

Where was patient H.M.’s brain lesion located?

Answer 30

Hippocampus, amygdala and surrounding subcortical structures.

Question 31

What was the impact on patient H.M. following the surgery?

Answer 31

Severe amnesia

• no explicit memory (could not recall anything that had happened after the surgery).
• still had an above average IQ (perceptually) and could still recall events from childhood
• no effect on implicit memory

Question 32

Describe the case study of patient J.K.

Answer 32

Impaired implicit memory (explicit in tact)
Developed Parkinson’s disease and started to have memory problems (damage to basal ganglia)
Impaired ability to perform tasks that he done all his life
Could still recall explicit events.

Question 33

What are some brain abnormalities experienced in Alzheimer’s?

Answer 33

Loss of neurons in frontal/temporal lobes (brain atrophy)
Extensive structural damage to hippocampus
Microscopic neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic (amyloid) plaques.

Question 34

What are symptoms of Alzheimer’s during the early stage?

Answer 34

Episodic memory complaints

Word finding difficulties

Question 35

What are symptoms of Alzheimer’s during the middle stage?

Answer 35

Difficulty with planning and organisation
Impaired reasoning
May become withdrawn

Question 36

What are symptoms of Alzheimer’s during the later stage?

Answer 36

Changes in personality and behaviour

Dependent on others for activities of daily living