Memory One Flashcards
What is the difference between learning and memory?
Learning = The Acquisition of information by the CNS resulting in a change in behavior
Memory = The encoding, storage and retention of learned information
What are the types of memory?
Declarative and non-declarative
What is declarative memory?
Available to conscious and expressed in words.
What are the two subtypes of declarative memory?
Episodic = Events, episodes
or
Sematic = Facts, i.e numbers
What is non-declarative memory?
involves skills and associations. Retrieved from a conscious level
i.e
Procedural
Motor Skills
Emotions
What is the time course of a memory?
Immediate Memory (sensory)
- If attention is paid then it can become
Working memory (lasts seconds to minutes), To acheive a goal/performance task.
- If encoding occurs it can become
Long term memory (held for hours days, weeks, years), which can be retrieved from working memory
How are memories stored?
In a engram
What is an engram?
The physical embodiment of memory in neuronal machinery
What does an engram depend on?
The changes in synaptic connectivity, growth and reorganization of synapses (pruning etc)
What happens aswell as the making of memories/
The forgetting of memories
How is the forgetting of memories done?
Degradation of connections
Why do we forget memories?
This can occur at any stage of the process and allows for the differentiation between what is important and what is not. I.e someone who cannot forget anything will not be able to read something and take away the important parts.
I.e especially important in immediate and working memory
What sort of memories are forgotten?
Unimportant or not-rehearsed information is degrades over time
What are the types of amnesia?
Retrograde and anterograde
What is retrograde amnesia?
Cant remember things from before trauma (varying degrees)
What is anterograde amnesia?
Cant remember things post trauma (Cant consolidate information)
What is the morris maze used for?
To test the consolidation of spatial memory.
Able to determine where spatial memory was formed (hippocampus and amygdala)
Also that over time the memory became more consolidated, ( the rats swam less)
where is spatial memory stored?
Hippocampus and amygdala
How was declarative memory tested?
Using monkeys to take two tests in a row and learn where the food was the first time and the second time i.e learn that in the second round the food was in a different place.
Non-matching to sample
Delayed or not delayed
What did the results of the monkey test show?
It tested working memory.
Showed that learning in this instance is related to the perihinal cortex not the hippocampus or cortex
What does the monkey test conclude?
Evidence that different types of memory require consolidation from different brain areas.
What is the route of declarative memory consolidation in the brain?
Neocortical areas feed information through the parahippocampal gyrus and rhinocortical area through to the hippocampus and back to the neocortical areas.
What does the route of declarative memory consolidation mean?
That long term memories are stored in the same area they are initially processed in (neocortices)
How was it shown that long term memories were stored in the cortex?
Karl Lashley experimented by training rats to solve a maze then lesion different parts of the brain and this showed that long term memories were stored in the cortex.
