Memory and Drugs

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

The storage and then retrieval of information.

Question 2

What two types of memory is there?

Answer 2

• short term: recent experiences, short period of time

- long term: earliest experiences onwards that can be stored for a long time.

Question 3

How is someone more likely to remember information?

Answer 3

• if there’s a pattern to it
• repetition: over extended time, time interval is very important
• strong stimulus associated with it: colours, lights, smells or sounds.

Question 4

What is the multi-store model?

Answer 4

Splits memory into sensory memory, short-term and long-term memory: shows how these work.

Question 5

When are memories lost?

Answer 5

When information arrives in a memory store and is not passed on or retrieved.

Question 6

Model are limited in explaining how memory works, because:

Answer 6

• memory is more complicated than shown
• no models have exact explanation of how long-term memory works
• multi-store model is too linear: doesn’t provide sub-divisions of short-term and long-term memory
• model does not differentiate between different types of stimulus and the difference in performance of individuals.

Question 7

How do drugs and toxins work?

Answer 7

They affect the transmission of nerve impulses across synapses, stopping the transmission, changing sped or making impulse stronger/weaker

Question 8

Give examples of drugs/toxins:

Answer 8

• antidepressant: Prozac increases levels of the transmitter substance called serotonin
• curare, used in South American Indians use as arrow poison, blocks action of another type of transmitter molecule.

Question 9

What are beta blockers?

Answer 9

Prescription drugs that block the transmitter molecule adrenaline: reduce heart rate. Used to rate people with problems with heart rhythm, but some use them to control anxiety:

Question 10

How does ecstasy(MDMA) work?

Answer 10

Works on serotonin, the same transmitter that Prozac affects.

Question 11

What happens when following the transmission of a nerve impulse?

Answer 11

The transmitter molecules should be removed from synapse.

Question 12

What does MDMA do to the concentration?

Answer 12

It increases the concentration: MDMA blocks the sites on the neuron where MDMA is reabsorbed.

Question 13

What does MDMA give you a feeling of?

Answer 13

Well-being, happiness because increased levels of serotonin.

Question 14

Why is a person irritable and tired after taking MDMA?

Answer 14

Because the brain’s serotonin is depleted.