Memory

Question 1

What can long term memory be divided into?

Answer 1

Explicit memory and implicit memory

Question 2

What can explicit memory be divided into?

Answer 2

Semantic memory and episodic memory

Question 3

What is explicit memory?

Answer 3

Requires conscious recall

Question 4

What is implicit memory?

Answer 4

Doesn’t require conscious recall

Question 5

What is semantic memory?

Answer 5

Describes facts and general knowledge

Question 6

What is episodic memory?

Answer 6

Describes personally experienced events

Question 7

What are two types of implicit memory?

Answer 7

Procedural and priming

Question 8

What is procedural memory?

Answer 8

Motor and cognitive skills we ‘remember’

Question 9

What is priming?

Answer 9

Enhanced identification of objects or words (i.e. degraded information)

Question 10

What is short term memory?

Answer 10

Short-term memory is the capacity for holding, but not manipulating, a small amount of information in mind in an active, readily available state for a short period of time

Question 11

What is working memory (compared with STM)?

Answer 11

Not just to storage but also manipulation of STM contents.

Question 12

How short is short term memory?

Answer 12

Very short, 5-18 seconds, decays rapidly

Question 13

Why does STM decay?

Answer 13

Decays rapidly if material cannot be rehearsed such as by subvocal repetition - much easier when not multitasking.

Question 14

How is STM memory tested?

Answer 14

Measure the span of STM

Question 15

What are two branches of STM?

Answer 15

Verbal and visuospatial

Question 16

Verbal span of STM tested by

Answer 16

Number of digits recalled (>9)

Question 17

Visuospatial span of STM tested by

Answer 17

Corsi test - how many locations can you tap

Question 18

Where is verbal STM stored?

Answer 18

Left parietal

Question 19

Where is visuospatial STM stored?

Answer 19

Right hemisphere

Question 20

What is a central feature of working memory?

Answer 20

Executive control mechanisms manipulate contents of STM

Question 21

What areas are crucial for working memory?

Answer 21

Frontoparietal networks

Question 22

Current anatomical model of working memory?

Answer 22

Parietal cortex maintenance / storage (slave systems)

(BUT now clear that even early sensory areas may play some role in STM storage)

Prefrontal cortex manipulation & monitoring information in STM

Question 23

What improves STM?

Answer 23

Development and maturation of frontoparietal networks

Question 24

What happens to STM and LTM with age?

Answer 24

Declines

Question 25

What did patient HM show?

Answer 25

Bilateral medial temporal lesions involving the hippocampus show severe deficits in long-term memory (LTM) but intact STM capacity Severe anterograde amnesia, recent retrograde amnesia

Question 26

What does Ribot's law state?

Answer 26

Old memories are more resistant to disruption or loss than new ones. Temporal gradient in retrograde amnesia (First in, last out: earliest memories survive best)

Question 27

What causes Korsakoff's syndrome?

Answer 27

Severe thiamine deficiency

Question 28

How does memory consolidation occur over time?

Answer 28

Initially hippocampal-cortical but eventually transfers to cortex. So lesions of hippocampus won’t erase old memories which are consolidated and robustly represented in the cortex.

Question 29

What do primacy and recency effects mean?

Answer 29

We remember more from the beginning and end of a list

Question 30

Why is primacy and recency clinically relevant?

Answer 30

Patients recall best the information you give them at the beginning and end of the consultation.

Question 31

How can recency be lost?

Answer 31

Filled delay after list (i.e counting backwards from 30 in 3s)

Question 32

Why does a period of distraction (filled delay) reduce recency effect?

Answer 32

Prevents rehearsal and retention of words in STM.

Question 33

Recency effect is thought to be mediated by...

Answer 33

STM

Question 34

Amnesic patients show...

Answer 34

Intact recency but impaired primacy

Question 35

Primacy effect may be mediated by

Answer 35

LTM

Question 36

What is implied by the constructive nature of memory?

Answer 36

We reconstruct the past, sometimes based on previous knowledge, not always based on STM.

Question 37

Why is memory constructive?

Answer 37

Remembering is an imaginative reconstruction built out of past reactions or experience and a little outstanding detail. Memories can be modified or even created by the power of suggestion using misleading post-event information

Question 38

What is confabulation?

Answer 38

False memories without conscious knowledge of their falsehood.

Question 39

What is a likely cause of confabulation?

Answer 39

After orbitofrontal cortex damage and in Korsakoff’s syndrome

Question 40

How does loss of semantic memory occur?

Answer 40

Shrinkage/ loss of left temporal pole (speech area)