Memory Systems One

Question 1

Declarative Memory (Long term memory)

Answer 1

Refers to memory for facts and events; it can be semantic (things that are common knowledge like colour, sounds of letters, capitals of countries) or episodic (who, what, when, where, why knowledge). Available to conscious retrieval

Can be declared (propositional)

Examples
“What did I eat for breakfast?”
“What is the capital of Spain?”

Question 2

Procedural Memory

Answer 2

Refers to ‘how to’ knowledge of procedures or skills.

Question 3

Explicit memory

Answer 3

Refers to conscious recollection.

Question 4

Implicit memory

Answer 4

Refers to memory that is expressed in behaviour.

Question 5

Everyday memory

Answer 5

Refers to memory as it occurs in daily life.

Question 6

Encoded

Answer 6

To be retrieved from memory, information must be encoded, or cast into a representational form or ‘code’ that can be readily accessed.

Question 7

Mnemonic devices

Answer 7

Are systematic strategies for remembering information.

Question 8

Networks of association

Answer 8

Knowledge stored in memory forms networks of association- clusters of interconnected information. LTM is organised in terms of schemas, organised knowledge structures or patterns of thought.

Question 9

Working memory

Answer 9

-Refers to the temporary storage and processing of information that can be used to solve problems, respond to environmental demands or achieve goals.

Question 10

Baddeley and Hitch’s 1974 model (working memory)

Answer 10

Proposed rehearsal, reasoning and making decisions about how to balance two tasks are the work of a limited-capacity central executive system.

Question 11

Contemporary Models (working memory)

Answer 11

Distinguish between a visual store (the visuospatial sketchpad) and a verbal store.

Question 12

Distinction between LTM and Working memory

Answer 12

Are distinct from one another in both their functions and neuroanatomy, but interact to help enhance memory capacities.

Question 13

Remembering, misremembering and forgetting

Answer 13

• Psychologists often distinguish between the availability of information in memory and its accessibility
• People make memory errors for a variety of reasons
• Psychologists have proposed several explanations for why people forget, including decay, interference and motivated forgetting
• Memories recovered in therapy cannot be assumed to be accurate, but they also cannot be routinely dismissed as false
• Specific kinds of distortion can also occur within the memories of people whose brains have been affected by illness or injury

Question 14

Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 14

Involves the inability to retain new memories

Question 15

Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 15

Involves losing memories from a period before the time that a person’s brain was damaged.

Question 16

Non declarative (Long term memory)

Answer 16

Experience-induced change in behaviour

Cannot be declared (procedural)

Examples
Subliminal advertising?
How to ride a bicycle
Phobias

Question 17

Memory and Information processing

Answer 17

Memory involves taking something we observed, such as a written phone number, and converting it into a form we can store, retrieve and use.

Question 18

Mental Representations

Answer 18

• For a sound, image or thought to return to mind when it is no longer present, it has to be represented in the mind- literally, re-presented, or presented again- this time without the original stimulus.
• A mental representation is psychological version or mental model of a stimulus or category of stimuli. In neuropsychological terms, it is the patterned firing of a network of neurons that forms the neural ‘code’ for an object or concept, such as ‘dog’ or ‘sister’.

Question 19

Sensory Representations

Answer 19

• Store information in a sensory mode, such as the sound of a dog barking or the image of a city skyline.
• People rely on visual representations to recall where they left their keys last night or to catch a ball that is coming towards them in the air.
• Visual representations are like pictures that can be mentally scrutinised or manipulated.
• Auditory mode important for encoding information. Some forms are difficult to represent in any other mode. E.g. retrieving a tune by foo fighters or Guy Sebastian with little difficulty but trouble describing the melody than hearing it in their minds.
• People can identify objects by smell
• Memories of our past can be evoked by smell. Odour can induce participants to remember and relive past events especially those that occurred in the first 10 years of life.

Question 20

Verbal Representations

Answer 20

Information stored in words. Imagine what ‘liberty’ or ‘mental representation’ means without thinking in words. However using words to describe the smell of bacon is virtually impossible.
- Using words to describe things about which one has little verbal knowledge can actually disrupt sensory based memory.

Question 21

Information processing: an evolving model

Answer 21

-Psychologists studying memory in late 19th century- interest in memory under influence of behaviourism until cognitive revolution of 1960’s
-1890 William James proposed distinction between two kinds of memory which he called primary and secondary memory
-

Question 22

William James: Primary memory

Answer 22

Immediate memory for information momentarily held in consciousness such as a telephone number

Question 23

William James: Secondary memory

Answer 23

Vast store of information that is unconscious except when called back into primary memory, such as the 10 or 20 phone numbers a person could bring to mind if he wanted to call various friends

Question 24

Standard model of memory

Answer 24

• Stimulus information enters the sensory registers. Some information enters short term memory and is then passed on for storage in long term memory. Information can be lost from any of the sensory stores, usually if it is not very important or if a traumatic event has occurred that interferes with memory consolidation or retrieval.
• Predicted on metaphor of the mind as a computer, which places information into different memory stores and retrieves and transforms it using various programs.
• According to this model, memory consists of 3 stores: sensory registers, short term and long term memory.
• Storing and retrieving involve passing information from one store to the next and then retrieving information from long-term memory.

Question 25

Sensory Registers

Answer 25

Hold information about a perceived stimulus for approximately half a second after the stimulus disappears, allowing a mental representation of it to remain in memory briefly for further processing

Question 26

Iconic Storage

Answer 26

Describes momentary memory for visual information. For a brief period after an image disappears from vision, people retain a mental image or ‘icon’ of what they have seen. This visual trace is remarkably accurate and contains considerably more information than people can report before it fades

• Duration varies from from half a second to 2 seconds depending on individual, content of image and circumstances
• Research indicates emotional info, particularly visual evoking fear is subject to slow decay in iconic storage

Question 27

Echoic Storage

Answer 27

Momentary memory for auditory information

Question 28

Short Term Memory

Answer 28

According to standard model first stage of memory is brief sensory representation of a stimulus.

• Many stimuli people register for such a short time that they drop out of the memory system without further processing
• Other stimuli make a greater impression. Information about them is passed on to short term-memory
• Memory store that holds a small amount of information in consciousness- such as phone numbers- for roughly 20-30 seconds, unless person makes deliberate effort to maintain it longer by repeating it over and over

Question 29

STM Limited Capacity

Answer 29

• Does not hold much information
• To assess STM, psychologists often measure participants digit span–> How many numbers they can hold in mind at once
• Average person can remember about 7 pieces of info at a time, normal range is from 5-9
• Limist of STM seem to be neurologically based as they are similar in other cultures, including those with very different languages.
• New information ‘bumps’ previous information from consciousness

Question 30

STM Hermann Ebbinghaus (1885-1964)

Answer 30

First to note the 7 item limit to STM. Ebbinghaus pioneered study of memory by using himself.

• Would place syllables such as pir and vup in lists of varying lengths and then attempted to memorise the lists
• Found that he could memorise up to 7 but no more in a single trial.

Question 31

STM Rehearsal

Answer 31

• Not completely passive process of getting bumped off a stool. People can control the info stored in the STM.
• Also important in in transferring information to long term memory–> remembering a poem or a maths formula by repeating it

Question 32

Maintenance rehearsal

Answer 32

E.g. after looking up a phone number, most people will repeat the number over and over in their minds- procedure called rehearsal- to prevent it from fading until they have dialled the number

Question 33

Elaborative Rehearsal

Answer 33

Thinking about the information while rehearsing a procedure. Remembering the words to a poem is much easier when a person really understands what it is about, rather than just committing each word to memory by rote.

Question 34

Long term memory

Answer 34

An infrequently called phone number is not worth cluttering up memory banks STM. More important information goes on to LTM

• Representations of facts, images, thoughts, feelings, skills and experiences may reside for as long as a lifetime.
• According to standard model the longer information remains in STM the more likely it is to make permanent impression in LTM.

Question 35

Retrieval from LTM

Answer 35

Involves bringing it back into STM

Question 36

Difference between STM and LTM

Answer 36

STM is brief, limited in capacity and quickly accessed
LTM is enduring, virtually limitless but more difficult to access (as anyone who has tried to recall a person’s name or a term on a exam without success)

Question 37

Free Recall tests

Answer 37

The experimenter presents participants with a list of words, one at a time, and then asks them to recall as many as possible. When the delay between presentation of the list and recall is short, participants demonstrate a phenomenon known as serial position effect: a tendency to remember information towards the beginning and end of a list rather than in the middle.

Question 38

Evolution of Model

Answer 38

• Although provides basic foundation for thinking about memory- in last decade has evolved in 4 major respects.
• For info to into LTM, it must first be represented in each of the prior two memory stores
• Subsequent research suggests serial processing model cannot provide a full account of memory–> Most sensory info is not processed consciously
• Process of selecting which sensory info is stored in STM is influenced by the LTM
• Only way to decide which info to bring into STM to compare incoming data with info stored in LTM that indicates its potential significance
• Researchers have come to view memory as a set of modules- discrete but interdependent processing units responsible for different kinds of remembering
• Model over emphasises conscious memory for relatively neutral facts and underemphasises other forms of remembering such as skill learning and everyday remembering
• Metaphor of mind as a computer has changed to mind as brain

Question 39

Working Memory (Active memory)

Answer 39

• Many psychs think of STM as component of working memory
• It refers to the temporary storage and processing of information that can be used to solve problems, respond to environmental demands or achieve goals
• Info only in working memory as long as person is consciously processing, examining or manipulating it.

Question 40

Processing info in working memory

Answer 40

• Baddeley and his colleagues proposed that storage capacity and processing capacity are two separate aspects of working memory
• Processes such as rehearsal, reasoning and making decisions about how to balance two tasks simultaneously are the work of a central executive system that has own limited capacity, independent of the info it is storing or holding momentarily

Question 41

Visual and Verbal Storage Working Memory

Answer 41

Visual store also called visuospatial sketchpad is like a temporary image the person can hold in mind for 20 or 30 seconds. Stores visual info such as nature and location of objects (person turning around to grab a cup will know where she placed a bag of tea).
Images in visual store can be mentally rotated, moved around or used to locate objects in space that have dropped out of sight

Question 42

Verbal Storage of Working Memory

Answer 42

Relatively shallow: Words are stored in order, based primarily on their sound, not their meaning. Phonemic info helps to make items more distinctive and easily discriminable from other target items.
A list of similar sounding words, (man, mat, cap and map) is more difficult to recall than a list of words that do not sound alike. Similarity of meaning (large, big, huge, tall) does not interfere with LTM
-verbal working memory and LTM have different ways of storing info

Question 43

Intermediate Term Memory

Answer 43

An intermediate-term memory (ITM) outlasts a STM, but is not permanent.

Question 44

Iconic Memory

Answer 44

Iconic memories are the briefest and store sensory impressions.

Question 45

Semantic Memory

Answer 45

-Memory for facts, general knowledge, word meanings - “knowing”Common Tests:
-Object Naming e.g. “What is this?”
-Semantic Judgements: “Which bottom picture goes best with the top one?”
-Category Fluency
“Name as many dog breeds as possible in 1 minute”
German Shepard, golden retriever, . . .

Question 46

Broken Memories (Dissociation)

Answer 46

Dissociations occur where brain injury impairs performance on a particular task

Question 47

Broken Memories (Double dissociation)

Answer 47

Double-dissociations (i.e. where one patient is impaired in Task A but not Task B, and the other is impaired in Task B but not Task A) present strong evidence for separable systems

Question 48

HM A well known case of amnesia

Answer 48

• Patient HM (Henry Molaison) had epileptic seizures at age 10 and was operated on after high school
• At age 27, (1953), surgeons removed bilateral medial temporal lobes, including hippocampus and amygdalaanterograde amnesia: loss of information following the onset of amnesia
• HM had a profound anterograde amnesia. Unable to store or retain any new memories of events or episodes.
• HM did show some evidence of learning new information.
• became faster at doing jigsaws that he had done before.
• slowly learned the layout of the bungalow where he lived.
• gained familiarity for faces of people who had become famous since his operation (eg. Elvis Presley)retrograde amnesia: loss of information before the onset of amnesia
• HM had childhood memories, but they did not have the quality of re-experiencing the events (i.e. more like “facts” about what had occurred)
• Loss of memories for the 1-2 years prior to the operation
• could be mild retrograde amnesia
• cannot exclude that severe epilepsy may have interfered with memory storage prior to surgery

Other amnestic patients (i.e. Wearing) show more marked retrograde amnesia. Retrograde amnesia may show a temporal gradient (older premorbid memories better recalled than more recent).

Question 49

Amnesia

Answer 49

Amnesia can arise from neurosurgery (e.g. HM), strokes, head injury, certain viruses or as a symptom of long-term alcoholism (Korsakoff’s syndrome)

Most have difficulties in acquiring new memories (anterograde amnesia) and remembering events from before their brain injury (retrograde amnesia) although extent of each is variable

Amnesic patients can learn the rules of a weather prediction game, but can’t remember which cards they have previously seen

Have problems with declarative memory

Have normal digit span

Question 50

Primacy Effect

Answer 50

The primacy effect is the higher performance for items at the beginning of a list (LTM).

Question 51

Recency Effect

Answer 51

The recency effect shows better performance for the items at the end of a list (STM).

Question 52

Memory Systems Impaired in Amnesia

Answer 52

STM – spared
Non-declarative memory – spared
Episodic memory – definitely impaired
Semantic memory – typically impaired

Question 53

Consolidation

Answer 53

Information may be consolidated into long-term storage.

The process by which moment-to-moment changes in brain activity are translated into permanent structural changes

Question 54

Plasticity

Answer 54

the brain’s ability to change as a result of experience; persists throughout life (although greatest in childhood); changes in neural connectivity

• Whole brain is capable of plasticity, therefore learning and memory is a brain-level property rather than a specialised faculty (even amnesic patients remember some things)
• However, different regions of the brain contribute to learning and memory in different ways – some regions are specialised for words, others for perceptual learning, and others for remembering episodes from one’s life