Memory system basics for me Flashcards
What is Iconic memory
Visual / perceptual / sensory memory (short term)
How can we test Iconic memory?
Sterling’s experimental (1960)
Matrix of 9 letters (3X3)
Remember 1 row (3 letters) after a 500ms flash (conscious but quick)
What did they find with Sterling’s experiment (1960) to test length of iconic memory
Lifespan of iconic memory looks at +- 250ms
After 1 second, it’s no better than higher order memory systems
What is the limit of visual memory (iconic)
250 milliseconds
After 1sec when cuing visual recall we are tapping into
short term visual memory (no longer iconic)
Who created the modal model of memory
By Atkinson & Shiffrin
What does the modal model of memory by Atkinson & Shiffrin consist of
- Sensory memory
- Short term memory
- Long term memory
A buffer by which stimuli is received threw the senses
Iconic & echoic memory (Sensory)
How long does iconic memory last
Less than a second +- 250 milliseconds
What is shown threw Sperling’s (1960) sensory memory experiment
The length of iconic memory +- 250 milliseconds
For the sperling (1960) task recall good?
For partial YES (row)
For whole NO (all 9)
Short term memory lasts
18sec
Short term memory gets its information from
Sensory memory
Long term memory
What is rehearsal
The process thew which short term memory is maintained
How many numbers can we hold in short term memory
7 +- 2
According to George Miller (1956)
Who did bell contact for advice about phone numbers
George Miller (1956) the ideal number is 7 plus or minus 2
Ways to consolidate memories
- Rehearsal
Ways to increase the capacity of short-term memory
- Chunking
What is the max capacity of chunking in short term memory
4 chunks
Divisions of long term memory
- Declarative
- Non déclarative
Which type of memory does the multimodal model neglect to account for
Working memory
What is the central executive
One of the 4 parts of working memory
It coordinates the other 3 (Visio-spatial sketch pad / episodic buffer / phonological loop)
Parts of working memory
- Central executive
- Visio-spatial sketch pad
- Episodic buffer
- Phonological loop
What is the Visuo-spatial sketch pad?
Part of working memory (sub system)
For non verbal information
Limited capacity
Interacts with long term memory
What is the episodic buffer
Part of working memory (sub system)
To move and organize information to and from working & long term memory
What is the phonological loop
Part of working memory (sub system)
Anything auditory language related
Limited capacity temporary
Interacts with long term memory
What are 3 crystallized systems in working memory
- Visual semantics
- Episodic long-term memory
- Language
What are the 4 fluid systems in working memory
- Central executive
- Visuo-spatial sketch pad
- Episodic buffer
- Phonological loop
Can fluid systems (in working memory) be changed by leaning ?
Nope
Can crystallized systems (in working memory) be changed by leaning?
Yes
What part of memory is the dorsal lateral prefrontal cortex especially associated with?
Working memory
Central executive (planing)
What are the two parts of long term memory
- Declarative
- Non declarative
What are all the parts of long term memory
- Declarative
Episodic / Semantic - Non declarative
Perceptual / procedural
What is episodic memory
Personal experience
Declarative / long term memory
What is semantic memory
General knowledge
Declarative memory / long term memory
Can episodic memory serve as a gateway for semantic memory
Yes
Are episodic and semantic memory different?
Yea
See patient WJ
Was is the Recency bias
a tendency to recall experiences from the recent past
What is the primacy bias
A tendency to recall experiences from a distant past
Can other parts (than the hippocampus) record semantic long term memories
Yes (but limited)
Ex HM could remember last names of famous people from after his surgery
How can an old smell trigger a memory
Path = Nose /Olfactory sensors / olfactory bulb / cortex / limbic system
Connections survive from neurons epithelium and hypo campus despite old ones dying
What are two sub-types of non declarative memory
Perceptual representation system (eg priming)
Procedural memory
What is the perceptual representation system (priming) PRS
It contains very specific (superficial) representations of specific experienced events
Driven by a different process than episodic memory system (deeper)
It is one of the two parts of non-declarative memory
Not sure how it interacts with semantic memory
What is the procedural memory system?
It is one of the two parts of non-declarative memory
Priming
The unconscious process through which recognition of a particular item is facilitated by previous exposure to an identical or related item.
What is the method of opposition ?
A technique that pits conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) tendencies against one another.
What is the lexical decision task
participant are presented with a letter string and asked to indicate wether or not it constitues a word
If in same semantic category they will guess more accurately
What type of memory do children acquire late (compared with other kinds of memory).
episodic memory relatively late
What age does episodic memory develop?
4-6 years
The butcher on the bus phenomenon
The feeling of knowing a person without being able to remember the circumstances of any
previous meeting or anything else about him
or her.
What is spreading activation
The idea that activation of the paths that make up a semantic network spreads from the node at which the search begins.
semantic memory - spreading activation
When you activate a semantic network searching for information
The more active a node is the more easily its information can be retrieved
involuntary semantic memory (“mind popping”)
A semantic memory that pops into your mind without episodic context
Connectionist Model of memory
Individual units connected (neural network)
Excite or inhibit connections
Extension of the spreading activation model
In what model is this true?
In this memory model, information about individual experiences is derived from the
state of the entire system at a particular time.
The pattern of excitation and inhibition in
the system as a whole determines what you will remember.
The connectionist model of memory
Is all memory affected by age
Nope
Which type of memory shows a strong “age effect”
Episodic memory
Does semantic memory go down with age
Not necessarily
Getting older vs memory
Less episodic memory
Recognizing faces and people
Is problem with aging episodic memory related with problems with remembering names and faces?
Yes
Naveh-Benjamin (2000) associative deficit hypothesis, older adults have a “deficiency in creating and retrieving links between single units of information”
What is the associative deficit hypothesis, by Naveh-Benjamin (2000)
older adults have a “deficiency in creating and retrieving links between single units of information”
What is Korsakoff’s syndrome?
A form of amnesia affecting the ability to form
new memories, attributed to thiamine deficiency
and often (though not exclusively) seen in chronic
alcoholics.
What is the method of vanishing cues
A way of teaching amnesic patients the meaning of computer commands by presenting them with definitions of the commands and fragments of the commands’ names.
Additional letters are presented until the patient guesses the word. Then letters are progressively
removed until the patient is able to give the
name of the command when presented with its definition
What is prospective memory?
The ability to remember to do something at some future time
What is errorless learning?
Participants in a learning situation are taught in such a way that they never have the opportunity to make errors.
Which is the oldest form of memory (evolution)
Procedural
Which is the newest form of memory (evolution)
Episodic
What is anterograde amnesia
no normal moment-to-moment memory function
Inability to form new memories
Similar to momento (movie)
How long is iconic (short term visual memory)
250 milliseconds
What is Echoic memory
Auditory version of iconic memory (temporary storage of sound)
Passed on to short term memory
If language passed to weirneke - then rehearsing = Broca’s
What is Iconic memory
Visual memory
Temporary storage of images
Passed on to the short term memory
Span of Echoic (auditory short term memory)
Using Auditory Backward Recognition Masking task
Kallman & Massaro
Sound that goes backwards (masking/influencing) previous sound you are supposed to remember after 700ms (what tone did you hear) the interference (masking tone) had different timing
Shows echoic memory lasts 250 milliseconds
What is different between echoic and iconic memory
How privileged the info is to get into short term memory
Brain biased towards retaining sound information (because it disappears vs Visual information does not disappears).
The brain’s bias for sensory information
For Echoic memory!
How long does short term memory
18 seconds
According to Atkinson and Shiffrin what is short term memory
Same as long term but
Limited capacity & lasts less long (18sec)
What did Baddeley & Hitch (1974) bring ?
The concept of working memory
What is working memory according to Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
Complex interactive cognitive mechanism to manipulate and store information
Does not map onto brain areas
An issue with the episodic buffer result in
Problem such as anterograde episodic amnesia
Difficulty putting new information into our episodic (crystallized = long term memory system)
Would a problem with the episodic buffer impact our ability to recall previous information
Not normally
What is the problem with Baddley & Hitch’s (1974) working memory model?
It’s incomplete …
The knowledge of semantics (stuff)
beyond episodic memory knowledge of (when)
Don’t see the procedural kind of memory
Is iconic memory bigger than short term memory
Yes
Not getting sleep = long term memory degrades
yes! sleep is good
Connectionist model of memory
Memory is composed of many connections (groups of neurons) between neurons “pattern of activation”
The Hebb rule: Neurons that fire together wire together
Pattern of reactivity of multiple neurons reinforces that connection
Spreading activation
Nodes of neurons spread to other nodes (strengthen that node so memory becomes stronger)
Automatic - spreads outward from the origin point (perceptual neuron)
For the semantic model, memory is
A pattern of connection between connections (pieces of information)
What is different between the semantic model and the connectionist model?
Semantic network = Activation (excitatory)
In actual memory (connectionist model) we have both “excitatory & inhibitory”
What is the difference between tip of the tongue and butcher on the bus phenomenon
TOT = Failure of semantic network
BOB = Failure of episodic network
Why do failures of semantic and episodic memory become more common with age
Traumatic brain injury
(could be smaller problem)
Degradation of neural structures
Things we value more we invest more …
what are two main models of memory
- Trace theory
- Schema theory
What does the trace theory of memory say
Memories are permanent and complete copies of past events, remembering them is like re-experiencing the past (memory recalled same every time)
What does schema theory of memory say?
Memories are imprecise and fragmented copies of past events remembering is a reconstruction of the past (gaps get filled in with schema based assumptions)
What are problems with trace theory
Flashbulb memories - fade, just feel more intense, generalize, loose at the same rate as any other memory
Even more likely to loose / degrade because you talk about it more …
Similar to mystic writing pad, info would get mixed up if it was written on top of each other over and over again.
What is retroactive inteference
Decline of recall after further (subsequent events)
What is consolidation required for
Memories to become permanent
What is re-consolidation
Pulling up a memory and re-consolidating it (it gets influenced by current information)
Schema have 4 processes:
- Selection
- Abstraction
- Interpretation
- Integration
Evidence for schemas (we adjust)
We fill in the gaps / misremember details
