Memory & Amensia

Question 1

What is Capers Syndrome?

Answer 1

1. delusions of imposters –> associated with psychoses
2. freudian view –> oedipal complex
3. familiarity and Mood

Question 2

What is amnesia?

Answer 2

partial or total loss of memory –> resulting from brain lesions

Question 3

What is multiple memory systems?

Answer 3

different kids of learning and memory use independent neural processes

Question 4

what are three different types of long term memory?

Answer 4

1. declarative memory/ explicit memory
   - episodic (autobiographical) or semantic (facts or knowledge)
2. implicit (unconscious memory) –> procedural memory
3. emotional memory –> includes both episodic and implicit memory (attraction, avoidance and fear)

Question 5

What was larry squire’s declarative vs. non-decalartive memory?

Answer 5

he said declarative memory was for facts and events and involved the medial temporal lobe

• nondeclarative memory (implicit)
• for skills and habits –> striatum
• for priming –> neocortex
• simple classical conditioning of emotional response –> amygdala
• simple classical conditioning of skeletal musculature –> cerebellum
• non associative learning –> reflex pathways

Question 6

what is memory classification by process?

Answer 6

encoding –> retrieval –> free call (without cues) –> cued recall (with cues –> recognition (stimulus triggering remembering)

we can measure free recall, cued recall and recognition

Question 7

what is memory classification by time?

Answer 7

short and long term memory refer to temporal stages of memory
- Sensory memory (less than a second) –> STM (less than 15 seconds) –> LTM (infinite)

working memory is the special case of STM requiring active manipulation of STM contents

Question 8

what is mudcok’s Big Three?

Answer 8

these exist WITHIN EPISODIC memory:

1. memory for items: what words did you see: like recognition, free recall, brain: non hippocampal areas incl. entorihinal cortex and various neocortical areas [not hippocmapus]
2. memory for associations: if salt and pepper were seen together… includes classical paired associate learning (cued recall).. uses hippocampus unless its viewed as both an object
3. memory for order: if salt was presented before per: serial recall, recency, includes hippocampus and prefrontal cortex

Question 9

What are the three stages that memory function relies on?

Answer 9

1. encoding learning/study processes
2. storage consolidation/rehersal/re-encoding
3. retrieval memory problem processes/memory search (memory probe is searching contents of memory with cues and concepts)

Question 10

What is global anterograde amnesia?

Answer 10

impairment in the ability to form new memories across a variety of areas

Question 11

What are 5 varieties of amnesia?

Answer 11

1. infantile amnesia: loss of memory for early years of life
2. fugue state: no knowledge of previous life
3. transient global amnesia: non permanent –> sudden onset, acute and short… loss of old memories and inability to form new memories through concussion epilepsy migrant or hypoglycaemia
4. ECT –> treats depression but can produce transient amnesia
5. restricted brain damage can produce specific amnesia: amnesia for verbs, nouns or animals

Question 12

What does the study by Squire and Cohen show?

Answer 12

uses ECT to show that before ECT people remembered new shows more and then began decreasing after shows get older
but after ECT, people did not recall new shows, and remembered a bit in the middle but overall had a large decrease in memory recall for recent shows

temporally limited retrograde amnesia in 20 patients (RETROGRADE–> forgetting recent memories)

Question 13

what is Ribot’s Law?

Answer 13

basically says that the most oldest memories are the ones that are more robust and less susceptible to be forgotten in hippocampal damage compared to new memories

Question 14

what are some characterizations of Korsakoff’s syndrome?

Answer 14

• anterograde amnesia
• retrograde amnesia
• confabulation (distorting memory)
• merger (lacking in content) in conversation
• lack of insight (lack of deep understanding)
• apathetic (lack of interest …)

Question 15

What is the result of the recognizing famous faces over time experiment with normal people, alcoholics and korsakoff’s?

Answer 15

korsakoff’s lack serial position curve (recency and primacy effects with memory)
- korsakoffs show overall decrease in recognition process and a larger deficit in memory for recent events than older

Question 16

What is auditory verbal working memory and what are 3 things that it is composed of?

Answer 16

1. phonological store
2. input buffer
3. output buffer

• this is temp auditory storage

Question 17

what is visual nonverbal working memory?

Answer 17

visuospatial scratchpad –> holds temp visual memory

Question 18

what area of the brain is shown to be central executive? and what is it thought to do? what is the experiment that supports this?

Answer 18

the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) –> allows us to have conscious awareness of whats being stored

research shows that its related to maintenance of info into working memory therefore its similar to process of central executive

the delayed response paradigm shows that in monkeys whens heir DLPFC is lesioned, they can’t maintain the memory of which well had the food therefore they forget it within a few seconds

Question 19

what does the ventral lateral prefrontal cortex code for compared to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex?

Answer 19

the dorsal LPFC codes for objects in spatial location maintenance (where something is in space) and the ventral LPFC codes for object type maintaince like remembering an object

there is a “what” vs. “where” ventral vs. dorsal pathway within the central executive as well

Question 20

What were some tasks that were spared in H.M and people with anterograde amnesia?

Answer 20

• spared ability to hold small amounts of information over brief periods of time
  i. e. digit span task (give them 7#’s and then asking them to recall it)

and delayed non-match-to-sample test
- show monkeys an object and then show them another object beside the object they’ve seen before after a delay.. the monkeys pick the one they’ve seen before after delay of 10s

Question 21

what is a task that is difficult for H.M to do?

Answer 21

the extended digit span which is presenting the 7 numbers but then adding onto it a number each time

Question 22

what is Sternberg Memory scanning: varied Set (STM)? experiment

Answer 22

one of it tests 5 digits in memory set, and then a delay and then a cue (a digit form the set or not) and asks if the digit has been seen before or not.. they have to say they’ve seen it or not by pressing a button

Reaction time is a linear function of number of digits in memory set, the more the digits the higher the reaction time to pick if the probe was within the memory set or not

Question 23

What was Sternberg’s fixed set LTM experiment?

Answer 23

he presented those numbers but made sure they were stored in LTM so there was a long long delay before he presented an Asterisk which they would start recalling the LTM and then 300ms delay and then gave a problem and seen if RT is different…

in LTM the overall RT is slower than STM and the more the digits, the longer the RT

HM would not do this task

Question 24

what are two types of implicit memory tasks (spared skilled learning)?

Answer 24

1. mirror tracing –> tracing words or pictures through a mirror and overtime learning how to do it
2. rotary pursuit: learning to follow item closely with mouse or finger (initially theres a delay between the item and the mouse, but overtime they learn and can do this perfectly)

Question 25

what is the mirror reading task?

Answer 25

learning how to read words backwards acquiring long term skills without LTM formation
- individuals with amnesia, korsakoff’s and ECT all showed same type of learning as Intact people

Question 26

what is an example of repetition priming task and gollin incomplete pictures task?

Answer 26

when shown the figures again after delay, intact people recognize the objects at a less complete stage than initially, indicating that prior exposure influences performance… amnesia patients show the same effect even though they don’t recall ever seeing the picture

they benefit from previous exposure

Question 27

What is the word-stem completion task?

Answer 27

presenting word list: like motor and cyclone
- then in condition one: recalling the worst that start with the same letters as (MOT AND CYC) which is an explicit task and harder for amnesic to do

in the second condition: first word that comes to mind –> when seeing MOT and CYC and presenting two similar words and seeing which one the amnesic pic.. they pic the ones that were previously seen before … implicit task which is easier for them to do

Question 28

what is the relational manipulation effect/implicit test for eye movements?

Answer 28

you show a scene to people and then you change something in the scene and have people look at it days or weeks later, the eye movements of intact people go directly to the missing or changed area but in amnesiacs it doesn’t and it goes everywhere showing the they don’t recall anything

this is an example of how not all implicit tests result in amnesiacs preforming the same as intact individuasl

Question 29

What does hippocampal damage and semantic memory do?

Answer 29

it shows deficits in learning new words … in intact people, it took a few trials to learn the words but in amnesiacs it took 20 trials max with a lot of errors, shows association between hippocampus and semantic memory