Neuropsychology of Memory

Question 1

How long is short term / working memory?

Answer 1

up to 30 seconds

Question 2

How big is the short term memory store?

Answer 2

Limited to around 7 chunks (+/-2)

Question 3

How long is long term memory?

Answer 3

Up to many decades

Question 4

How big is the long term memory store?

Answer 4

Supposedly unlimited

Question 5

How do short term memories get lost?

Answer 5

Even just the slightest distraction can replace the information

Question 6

How do memories get lost from long term memory?

Answer 6

Either through retrieval failure or interference (e.g. from new memories)

Question 7

What are the three main influential models of memory?

Answer 7

▪️Baddeley’s Working Memory model (1974)
▪️The Multi-Store Model of Memory (modal model) (1968)
▪️The Long-Term Memory Model (1987)

Question 8

What are the original three main components of the working memory model?

Answer 8

▪️Central executive
▪️Visuospatial sketchpad
▪️Phonological loop

Question 9

What are the fluid systems of the working memory model?

Answer 9

▪️Visuospatial sketchpad
▪️Episodic buffer
▪️Phonological loop

Question 10

What are the crystallised systems of the working memory model?

Answer 10

▪️Visual semantics
▪️Episodic LTM
▪️Language

Question 11

What are the three main stores of the Multi-Store Model of Memory?

Answer 11

▪️Sensory memory
▪️Short term memory
▪️Long term memory

Question 12

How does information move from sensory memory into short term memory?

Answer 12

Through attention

Question 13

How is short term memory forgotten?

Answer 13

Through decay or displacement

Question 14

How is long term memory forgotten?

Answer 14

Through interference or retrieval failure

Question 15

How does information move from short term memory to long term memory according to the multi store model?

Answer 15

Elaborate rehearsal, particularly if information is contextualised/made relevant

Question 16

What are the two main types of long term memory?

Answer 16

▪️Declarative (explicit)
▪️Non-declarative (implicit)

Question 17

What are the two types of declarative memory and where are they mapped to in the brain?

Answer 17

▪️Semantic (facts)
▪️Episodic (events)

Medial temporal lobe and diencephalon

Question 18

What are the four types of non-declarative memory?

Answer 18

▪️Procedural (skills, habits)
▪️Priming
▪️Simple classical conditioning
▪️Non-associate learning

Question 19

What brain region is associated with procedural memory?

Answer 19

Striatum

Question 20

What brain region is associated with priming memory?

Answer 20

Neocortex

Question 21

What is non-associate learning related to?

Answer 21

The reflex pathway

Question 22

What are the two types of simple classical conditioning and what are the neurological correlates?

Answer 22

▪️Emotional response - amygdala
▪️Skeletal musculature - cerebellum

Question 23

What is episodic memory?

Answer 23

Unique memories located in a specific time and place. They last up to several decades, can be verbalised, and come with a sense of recollection

Question 24

What is semantic memory?

Answer 24

Memory of facts, both general and personal. They can be verbalised although are not associated with a sense of recollection

Question 25

What is amnesia?

Answer 25

A disorder of new learning (anterograde) ▪️Intellectual functioning intact ▪️Working memory intact ▪️May also have retrograde amnesia (inability to recall past events)

Question 26

Lesions in which brain areas are most frequently associated with amnesia?

Answer 26

▪️Medial temporal lobes ▪️Hippocampus

Question 27

What did the study of HM teach us about the medial temporal lobes?

Answer 27

They play a key role in the acquisition of new memories

Question 28

What is consolidation?

Answer 28

The process through which memories become more stable over time, making them less vulnerable to loss after injury

Question 29

What is hypothesised to be the neuroanatomical underpinning of consolidation?

Answer 29

A complex relationship between the hippocampus and neocortex

Question 30

What is the Multiple Trace Theory of consolidation?

Answer 30

▪️Memories are encoded in hippocampal-neocortical networks ▪️More extensive memory traces are formed and dispersed over wider areas of the hippocampal complex over time with repeated retrieval ▪️This process protects older, more extensively represented memories from damage

Question 31

What did Winocur, Moscovitch, and Bontempi (2010) add to the hippocampal-neocortical network theory of consolidation?

Answer 31

With time and experience, a hippocampal memory supports the development of a less integrated, schematic version in the neocortex, retaining the gist of the original but with few contextual details

Question 32

What type of dementia is associated with bilateral hippocampal atrophy?

Answer 32

Alzheimer's disease

Question 33

What type of dementia is associated with unilateral onset of MTL/hippocampal atrophy?

Answer 33

Semantic dementia

Question 34

What type of dementia initially presents with poor new learning, getting lost, and trouble finding things?

Answer 34

Alzheimer's disease

Question 35

What type of dementia initially presents with preserved new learning but forgetting words and concepts?

Answer 35

Semantic dementia

Question 36

What are the signs of left-dominant semantic dementia?

Answer 36

Poorer performance on naming and verbal comprehension

Question 37

What are the signs of right-dominant semantic dementia?

Answer 37

Poorer performance with visual stimuli (e.g. faces, pictures, models)

Question 38

What did Maguire (2000) find in London taxi drivers?

Answer 38

Greater grey matter volume in posterior hippocampi and less in the anterior - spatial memory?

Question 39

What memory impairments might be seen with frontal lobe injury?

Answer 39

Executive impairments in retrieval strategies, attention and working memory

Question 40

What brain areas, aside from the medial temporal lobes, might result in memory impairments if damaged and why?

Answer 40

Frontal lobes and subcortical structures such as the basal ganglia, due to complex circuitry and feedback loops

Question 41

What brain area is thought to map onto the central executive?

Answer 41

Prefrontal cortex

Question 42

What brain areas are thought to map onto the phonological loop?

Answer 42

Broca's and Wernicke's areas

Question 43

What brain area is thought to map onto the episodic buffer?

Answer 43

Parietal lobe

Question 44

What brain area is thought to map onto the visuospatial sketchpad?

Answer 44

Occipital lobe

Question 45

What are signs of functional amnesia?

Answer 45

▪️Lack of organic injury (psychogenic) ▪️Variable presentation ▪️Retrograde amnesia but not so much anterograde ▪️Loss of identity ▪️Psychiatric history/comorbidity

Question 46

What is the main principle of the Multiple Trace Theory of consolidation?

Answer 46

The more widely dispersed a memory trace is through the brain, the less vulnerable it is to degradation

Question 47

What executive functions are involved in prospective memory?

Answer 47

Planning, initiation, and goal maintenance

Question 48

What roles does executive function play in retrieval of memories?

Answer 48

▪️Strategic information search (shown by ability to recall with prompts) ▪️Verification of memories

Question 49

What signs might indicate impairment of the role of executive function in retrieval?

Answer 49

▪️Confabulation - filling in the gaps when retrieval fails ▪️Intrusions - inability to filter so lots retrieved unnecessarily

Question 50

How do you assess posttraumatic amnesia?

Answer 50

Specific tools such as the Galveston Orientation and Amnesia Test (GOAT) or the Westmead PTA scale

Question 51

What are the four main processes of memory?

Answer 51

1. Attention 2. Encoding 3. Storage 4. Retrieval Find where in this process it's breaking down!

Question 52

What is the first step of a memory assessment?

Answer 52

Clinical interview ▪️Ask about specific situations, what's usually forgotten and what's not affected ▪️Questions about recent events

Question 53

What other neuropsychiatric factors might influence memory?

Answer 53

▪️Depression (concentration, effort, speed) ▪️Anxiety (WM) ▪️Fatigue ▪️Substance abuse

Question 54

How might you interpret poor immediate and delayed recall but good recognition?

Answer 54

▪️Initial attention and retrieval issues ▪️Some encoding intact ▪️Severe depression, anxiety, or frontal lobe inefficiency

Question 55

How might you interpret some immediate recall but severely impaired delayed recall and poor recognition?

Answer 55

▪️Clear forgetting over time ▪️Medical temporal dysfunction - early AD or other conditions affecting this area

Question 56

How might you interpret reasonable immediate recall, normal recognition but poor delayed recall?

Answer 56

▪️Retrieval difficulties ▪️More likely frontal than medial temporal ▪️Pattern commonly seen in vascular dementia

Question 57

How might you interpret very poor recognition, but relatively better immediate and delayed recall?

Answer 57

▪️Non-neurological? ▪️Possibly anxiety, performance anxiety, or related to motivational factors

Question 58

What are the two main routes to rehabilitation?

Answer 58

▪️Repair and restore (e.g. medication, brain training) ▪️Compensation

Question 59

What are the three main compensatory techniques used in memory rehabilitation?

Answer 59

1. Enhanced learning 2. Modifying environment 3. External aids

Question 60

What are the five main methods of enhanced learning?

Answer 60

▪️Chunking ▪️Mnemonics ▪️Elaboration ▪️Repetition - spaced retrieval ▪️Errorless learning

Question 61

What is elaboration?

Answer 61

An enhanced learning technique that involves connecting information to something familiar, creating a story, or adding meaning to something with the aim of achieving deeper semantic processing

Question 62

What is errorless learning?

Answer 62

An enhanced technique that involves prompting the individual after a question so that they get it right. Prompts are reduced until they don't need it. Aim to reduce errors in acquisition phase of memory

Question 63

What group have shown the best response to errorless learning?

Answer 63

Those with severe memory impairment