Midterm 2 Flashcards
Memory processing stages
Encoding, storage, retrieval
Encoding
Short term transduction of a physical stimulus into a neural code. It may be a structural change in the brain that encodes a fact or an event about the world
Storage
Retains encoded memory traces that ended up there through the process of consolidation
Retrieval
Recovery of a memory through an activation of a stored memory trace by some kind of cue
What happens if Encoding, Storage or Retrieval doesn’t work?
Memory cannot function
Capacity
Amount of information a memory system can hold
Duration
How long information remains in memory
Encoding, neural basis
A memory trace is formed as a hippocampal-cortical activity pattern
Storage, neural basis
Via consolidation, a memory is transformed into stable cortical pattern
Modal model of memory
Proposed that there are three distinct memory stores: Sensory memory, Short-term and Long-term memories
Sensory memory
Stores memory encoded by sensory organs, has extremely high capacity but very low duration. Rapidly decays within 1 second
Short-term memory
Memory selected via attention from sensory memory ends up in STM. Capable of producing behavioral output has capacity of 7 +/- 2 items that may be stored for 15-30 seconds
Maintenance rehearsal
Mental repetition of information in the STM with no elaboration. Repeating it over and over again eventually allows for an encoding of this information into LTM
Elaborative rehearsal
Information encoding technique that involves elaboration on the meaning of information. Leads to a greater encoding in long term memory
Long Term Memory
Some of the rehearsed information ends up in the LTM. Information may be retrieved from LTM back to STM to aid with a task or a behavior.
Capacity is unknown, duration may last until one’s death, with some information being lost in time
Positive afterimage
Visual memory that represents a perceived image that is no longer present
Negative afterimage
Visual memory of perceived image that is no longer present. Due to the visual receptors being overstimulated
Positive and negative afterimages are an example of…
Persistence of vision
What were the two conclusions that Sperling’s (1960) experiment led to
- Sensory memory capacity is very large, however the duration is very low
- Many items are present in the sensory memory and in order to bring them to the STM and report them, people need a cue
What is the brain region that is crucial for STM
Prefrontal Cortex
What is the average duration of a STM? What happens if it’s not rehearsed?
Average duration is 20-30 seconds, if the memory’s not rehearsed, it drops to 15
What are the upper and lower capacity limits for STM?
9 is the upper limit and 5 is the lower limit
Serial position effect
Order in which one remembers the items determines how well they’ll be remembered
Primacy effect
Items presented first in a list are usually well remembered since the brain has more time for rehearsal
Recency effect
Items presented last on the list are better remembered since they are fresh in the STM
Chunking
Grouping objects together in a meaningful manner for more information to be presented at once
What are the components of the working memory model
Central executive, visuospatial sketchpad, phonological loop
Role of central exec
- Coordinating between visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop
- Filtering irrelevant information and preventing it from going into STM
What is thought to be one of the reasons for the individual differences in STM capacity?
Central exec’s capacity to filter irrelevant information is thought to be one of the reasons for the individual differences in STM
Visual and auditory memory are processed _______ with/from one another and __________ with one another
Separate, do not interfere
_____ areas of the brain are active for v____ and v____ short term memory
Different areas of the brain are active for visual and verbal short term memory
Patient ELD
When it came to STM, ELD has issues recalling visuo-spatial items, but not verbal ones
Patient PV
When it came to STM, patient PV has issues recalling verbal information but not visuo-spatial
Phonological loop
Auditory component of working memory that allows auditory information to be repeated so it may be used or analyzed
Phonological store
A passive storage for verbal information. Also deemed “inner ear”
Articulatory control loop
Responsible for active rehearsal of verbal information. Used for transforming written language into sounds (reading)
Has an important role in language, also caller “inner voice”
Visuospatial sketchpad
Contains information and allows for active manipulation and analysis of information
Visual cache
Specialized in information about colors, form, and other visual features
Inner Scribe
Specialized in information about spatial location, movement and sequences
The Episodic Buffer
Integrates visual and verbal information with one another.
Memory decay
One of the possible causes of forgetting. As time goes by, memories simply fade.
Proactive Inference
Cases in which learned information causes one to forget something that may potentially be learned in future
Retroactive inference
Causes in which newer information causes one to forget something from the past
Articulatory suppression
Technique used in verbal memory experiments, designed to block rehearsal. Participants repeat task-irrelevent utterance out loud while trying to maintain other verbal items in memory.
What are the differences between LTM and STM in how they retain information?
LTM usually retains abstract and semantic information, whereas STM retains specific physical details about the stimulus
The forgetting curve
Curve constructed by Ebbinghaus. States that forgetting is exponential, rate of forgetting is initially very fast and slows down over time.
The spacing effect
Memory is better retained when the same amount of learning is spaced out over tme
Retrograde Amnesia
Form of amnesia where memories, formed prior to trauma or brain damage, are lost
Anterograde amnesia
Form of amnesia that blocks the ability to form memories after the trauma or brain damage
Ribot’s Law
Remote memories are less affected than ones that were formed closer to the event that caused amnesia
Dissociative Amnesia
Retrograde amnesia for episodic memories and autobiographical knowledge. Usually happens in response to psychological or physical trauma and not due to brain injury.
People with dissociative amnesia display hypometabolism (reduced activity) in the lateral PFC.
Episodic memories are not affected by the amnesia, but accessing of the events is
Alzheimer’s in its early stages
May manifest in the form of impaired short-term memory capabilities and short term memory tasks are often used as a tool in diagnosing the onset
Patient HM
Had compromised LTM and anterograde amnesia due to a removed hippocampus.
His STM was intact
Could repeat a list of words and have meaningful conversations
Could maintain information in his mind for up to 15 minutes
Could learn new skill-based skills and recall major historic events of his childhood
Patient KC
Could answer semantic questions from his past like the fact that he wrote a report at some point.
Was unable to recall specific episodes like when exactly he worked at Brampton Engineering
Patient KF
Was able to form new LTM about the encountered events
Only had STM capacity of 2-3 items
Consequence of damage to the hippocampus on STM and LTM
Difficulties recalling or encoding information into long-term memory while preserving short-term memory
Damage to cortical regions involved in short-term or working memory processing will…
Selectively damage STM processes preserving LTM functioning
Episodic memory
Responsible for specific events and episodes like dancing at the school prom
Semantic memory
Responsible for rememberting general information and facts
Children with hippocampal damage…
Have episodic memory impairment: cannot copy images after a delay
Semantic dementia
Impaired word naming and picture matching tasks, relatively spared at episodic memory tasks.
Personal Semantics
Facts we have about ourselves or general workings of autobiographical facts
Repeated events may also be considered personal semantics
Frontal and Parietal lobes for _____ memory just like Occipital and Temporal lobes for _____ memory
Semantic memory, episodic memory
Episodic and Semantic Neural Overlap
When one is engaging in semantic and episodic tasks, there is a lot of overlap in neuronal activity
Anoetic consciousness
Implicit memory
No awareness or personal engagement with information that is being acessed from memory
(tying shoes, riding a bike etc)
Noetic consciousness
Semantic memory
Awareness, but no personal engagemet
One’s accessing factual information that is not personal
Autonoetic consciousness
Episodic memory
Awareness and personal engagement
Asking people to draw bikes from memory showed that…
Semantic knowledge can affect the ability to retrieve detailed instances. When trying to draw bikes, people were accessing general knowledge of a bike, ignoring fine details.
Synaptic consolidation
Changes at the synapses between neurons that lead to long-term storage of memories
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
A form of synaptic consolidation in which a receiving neuron becomes more likely to fire in response to the stimulation of a sending neuron.
Systems consolidation
A process of making long-term memories more durable based on connections between cortical areas; thought to be orchestrated by hippocampus
Hippocampal replay
A phenomenon in which sequences of brain activity in the hippocampus that occurred during behavioral activity are repeated or “replayed” in sequence, after the event
Working memory components, neuro
Episodic buffer - Parietal lobe
Central Executive - PFC
Phonological Loop - Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas
Visuo-spatial sketchpad - Occipital lobe
Deep encoding
Meaningful encoding is best for forming lasting memories
Self-reference effect
making references to oneself makes it easier to form memories
Generation Effect
Actively making your brain complete words or sentences leads to improved formaton of memories
Memory retrieval is better when there is an overlap with _______ c_______. This phenomenon is known as ______ specificity hypothesis
Encoding context. Encoding specificity hypothesis
Daniil drank 2 cheeky lil pints of stout and started studying for Cog. In what state would he remember what he learned best: Completely sober or in a post-2-cheeky-lil-pints-of-stout state? Why?
In a post-2-cheeky-lil-pints-of-stout state, due to State Dependent learning
For some unknown reason, Abby and Laura decided to dive under water, set up a desk and study Neuro terminology. Would their retrieval abilities be better under water or on a terrace downtown Montreal? Why?
Under water, due to Context Dependent learning with environment as a context. Information encoded in a specific environment is better recalled in that environment
Using ROY G BIV to remember colors of the brainbow is an example of…..
Naming Mnemonics
Method of Loci
Associating pieces of information with a location or a visual image
Shallow processing focuses on ______ and Deep Processing focuses on ______
Structural or physical information, Meaning of the information
Familiarity Effect
Phenomenon in which people tend to rate something that they have encountered before more favorably than something completely unfamiliar
Propaganda effect
Phenomenon in which people will tend to rate statements that they have heard before as being more likely to be true than those they have not heard before
When Daniil was a lil kid, he got bitten by a Japanese Flying Squirrel (the cute ones). He has no recollection of the instance when he got bitten, but he is very scared of those little fur balls. This is an example of
Fear conditioning
In case of Daniil and squirrels, what brain area is activated when he sees a squirrel and feels threatened?
Amygdala
In case of the patient SM, bilateral amygdala damage led to….
Complete absence of the experience of fear
Laura claims that we have episodic memory traces and they are recalled the exact same way at each retrieval. She supports her claim with the observations that recurrent memories are unchanged from the original events in cases like PTSD. What hypothesis is she representing?
Reappearance hypothesis
Vivid memories of significant public events are called….
Flashbulb memories
What was the result of the studies testing the consistency of flashbulb memories?
Declaration of consistent memories decreased
Declaration of inconsisted memories increased
People consistently believed in accuracy of their flashbulb memories