Memory Systems

Question 1

What is declarative (explicit) vs. nondeclarative (implicit) memory?

Answer 1

Declarative memory= facts & events

Nondeclarative memory= procedural memory, emotional responses

Question 2

What part of the brain does declarative memory use?

Answer 2

Medial temporal lobe; diencephalon

Question 3

What is retrograde amnesia vs. anterograde amnesia?

Answer 3

Retrograde: forget events prior to brain trauma
Anterograde: forget events after brain trauma

Question 4

What are Karl Lashley’s experiment? What was he looking for?

Answer 4

Put rats through complex mazes and measured number of errors and produced cortical lesions either before or after training; He was searing for the “engram” or memory trace

Question 5

What are the 2 principles that Lashley discovered from his studies?

Answer 5

1. Principle of mass action: memories are stored diffusely all over cortex
2. Principle of equipotentiality: neocortex all over the brain plays an equal role in memory storage

Question 6

What did Donald Hebb concluded?

Answer 6

Consolidation of short-term memories into long-term memories via strengthening of neural connections

Question 7

What is the concept of cell assemblies?

Answer 7

Neurons “connected” together

Question 8

What is the concept of reverberation?

Answer 8

Neural activity in connected neurons continue after stimulus is removed, and their connections become stronger during this “consolidation” period

Question 9

What did Wilder Penfield’s experiments do?

Answer 9

Poked patients with electrical stimuli and the patients would note where they felt it in the body –> created the Homonucullus