Memory and Amnesia Flashcards
What is the first step in remembering something?
Attention
What are three main parts of the memory process?
Encoding → Processing of information into the memory system
Storage → Retention of encoded material over time
Retrieval → Process of getting the information out of memory storage
What is meant by tip of the tongue retrieval?
Use of a cue can aid retrieval
Effort required for retrieval
Memories have to be above a certain threshold to be retrieved
What is neurogenesis?
Process by which new neurons are formed in the brain
How is neurogenesis important in how we define memory?
Hippocampus is especially ‘plastic’ and vulnerable brain region = Possibly explains reconstruction as new cells don’t have connection to previous learning
What are two common misconceptions about memory and the brain?
- Memory can be full
- We only use 10% of the brain
What is forgetting?
Forgetting is not the opposite of remembering - it’s functional to remembering (as we don’t need to remember every detail) unless it becomes pathological
What adaptive reasonings for forgetting?
Not useful to maintain detailed information in the memory permanently
Loss of access to information via disuse - adaptive feature (neurogenesis) that allows updating rather than a failure of the system (Bjork, 1978)
- Memories of childhood become less accessible to make room for relevant information
Impossible to live at all without forgetting
What are metaphors of memory? (any examples)
Metaphors of memory change depending on time and context - Memory doesn’t work like any of the metaphors proposed
E.g.
Wax tablet
Parchment
Papyrus
Warehouse
Computers
How do we approach memory being reliable?
Need to define normality within imperfect systems to diagnose memory deficit (e.g. EWT)
How does eyewitness testimony show the unreliability of memory? What does it demonstrate about the brain?
Eyewitness testimony - Brain reconstructs events (organ of representation) in accordance of their own perspective and experience
Memory is somewhat subjective
Leading questions in context can be easier to trick our memory
What is the information deficit model? Why is it criticised?
Information deficit model:
Memory isn’t exactly what occurred in the first place - Idea that a lack of information causes lack of memory = Not a good model to inform people!
In reality:
System developed so we make mistakes as it is functional for survival
E.g. Make mistake that grass moving automatically means danger of a tiger so we survive
What did Bartlett (1932) say about memory and what research did he undertake?
Memory reconstructs our experiences rather than play back our experiences
‘War of ghosts’ Study
Aim → Investigate how memory of a story is affected by previous knowledge
Does cultural background and unfamiliarity with a text lead to distortion of memory?
Hypothesis → Memory is reconstructive and people store & retrieve information according to expectations formed by cultural schemas
People witness the same event yet when asked to recall have different descriptions or when asked to recall a story to their peers, each describes it differently
Individuals remember in terms of what they know and understand about the world
How does expectation influence our perception?
Process what we expect to process (guided by expectation)
E.g. Man from Kentucky developed a thought screen helmet that protected from alien abduction - since he believed it did that, in essence it did that purpose
What are some example of failures in memory? (only failures if they become pathological)
Not notice something
Notice but don’t encode in memory
Encoding but not consolidating
Consolidating but not retrieving
Retrieving but wrongly
Retrieving rightly but fast forgetting
Why do we need our brain to be an organ of re-presentation?
Need system of representation rather than recordings of events to plan the future
What is a cost of having the brain as an organ of re-presentation?
Cost is that our memory system is fallacious and prone to errors
What is change blindness?
Failure to detect that a visual object has moved, changed or been replaced by another object
What was Simons and Levin (1987) experiment on change blindness?
When asking for directions, actor asking for directions changes mid way through
PPT mostly didn’t notice that the stranger they were interacting with had changed
What was Rosiell and Scaggs (2008) experiment on change blindness?
Asked students to look between differences in scenes(97% rated scenes as familiar but only 20% actually noticed the change)
LTM for complex scenes is less detailed than we expect it to be
What was De Vito et al. study on EWT? What did it show about memory?
Questionnaire of 180 healthy PPT at a train station
Clock broken at bomb attack but later fixed but 92% PPT still thought clock was broken at the time of the bomb attack (10:25) when asked because of notoriety of event (infamous picture of clock in the press)
Attempts to produce stable symbols might be the basis for the development of pervasive and consistent false memories
What was Loftus and Palmer (1974) experiment on EWT and impact of leading questions?
PPT asked to estimate vehicle speed when the cars ‘collided’, ‘bumped’, ‘smashed’, ‘hit’ or ‘contacted’
PPT in the contact condition estimated the lowest speed, then hit, bumped, collided, smashed
What is binocular rivalry?
Visual phenomenon that occurs when dissimilar monocular stimuli are presented to corresponding retinal locations of the two eyes
What are the two traditions of neuropsychology?
Classical neuropsychology - What functions are disrupted by damage to region X?
- Addresses functional specialisation
- Uses group study methods
Cognitive neuropsychological approach - Can a particular function be spared/impaired relative to other cognitive functions?
- Addresses building blocks of cognition
- Tends to use single case methodology
- Deficits that arise as a result of brain damage can be used to explain how the normal brain operates
What is phrenology?
Phrenology is a pseudoscience which involves the measurement of bumps on the skull to predict mental traits
What are the beliefs in phrenology?
Different parts of cortex serve different functions
Differences in personality traits manifest in differences in cortical size and bumps on the skull
Crude division of psychological traits (e.g. love of animals)
Not grounded in science
What is meant by diagnosis?
Diagnosis needs to be precise rather than generic terms such as ‘knee pain’
Diagnosis - ‘To know thoroughly’ by scrutinising signs and symptoms
What are the four steps of neuropsychological diagnosis?
Interview (exploring the symptoms)
Screening (test battery to identify areas of problems)
Full-blown neuropsychological examination (to reach a clinical labelling)
Experimental tests as hoc devised or derived from literature (to make the diagnosis precise)
What is cognitive offloading?
The use of physical action to alter the information processing requirements of a task so as to reduce cognitive demand.
What ‘effect’ did Sparrow et al. (2011) find in relation to cognitive offloading?
Google effect - Cognitive consequences of having information at our fingertips (Sparrow et al., 2011)
- 60 PPT asked to type 40 factual statements
- Group 1 - Told to save what they had typed
- Group 2 - Told to erase what they had typed
- Group 2 remember significantly more than group 1 - thinking
something will be available later leads to poorer memory
What is the testing effect?
Memory increased when some of the learning period is spent retrieving the to-be remembered information
Retention interval - Knowledge of something is more likely to remain if practised sooner
What did Thomas et al. (2018) find out about self-testing?
Self-testing soon after a lecture at various subsequent times leads to much better learning and less stressful exam performance
