PSYC 3330 - 1 (intro history) Flashcards
What is memory?
an organism’s ability to store, retain, and retrieve information
Learning
any change in the potential of an organism to alter its behaviour as a consequence of experience
Acquisition
recorder of experience (wax tablet, tape recorder, video camera)
Store information
organized storage (storehouse, library, dictionary)
Associations
interconnections (switchboard, network)
Need to search
jumbled storage (purse, junk drawer, garbage can)
Fades with time
Temporal availability (conveyor belt)
Access a memory
Content addressability (lock and key, tuning fork)
Retain gist
forgetting of details (leaky bucket)
Use what is available of memory
reconstruction (rebuilding dinosaur)
Not a passive memory
active processing (workbench, computer program)
Attention
select some info for further processing, avoid distraction by other info
Plato
wax tablet metaphor (wax quality, strength of impression)
Aristotle
laws of association (similarity, contrast, contiguity)
Darwin
memory is adaptive, natural selection
Ebbinghaus
nonsense syllables, learning/forgetting curves
Bartlett
-memory is fragmentary
-meaning is critical (schemas)
-prior knowledge influences memory
Gestalt movement
-whole is different than the sum of its parts
-memory influenced by configuration and context
-anti-reductionistic
Pavlov
classical conditioning
Watson
operant conditioning
Verbal learning
-a behaviourist approach to learning of verbal materials (Ebbinghaus)
-memorization is the “attachment of responses to stimuli”
-forgetting is the “loss of response availability”
Lashley
-search for the engram
-rats learned a maze
-memory is affected more my amount of tissue removed, not loaction
Hebb
signal reverberation within collections of cell assemblies followed by a change in neural interconnections (neurons that fire together wire together)
Information processing models
model of cognition made without reference to the brain
Encoding
entering information into system
Retrieval
finding and recovering stored memories
Storage
retaining memories over time
George Miller
-limited capacity of memory
-working memory capacity: magic number seven, +/- two
-organization aids memory (how you think about something affects ability to remember)
Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model
assumes multiple memory structures
Information from external environment
sensory memory (perceptual) -> short-term memory store -> long-term store
Short-term memory
limited-capacity
long-term memory
permanently encoded in unlimited storage
Modal model of memory steps
sensation -> perception -> short-term (working) memory -> long-term (storage) memory
Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
-measures white matter organization
-based on limited diffusion of water molecules in axons
Early models were one way flow (input -> output)
today, evidence suggests information is bidirectional
Declarative memory (explicit)
semantic memory, episodic memory
Nondeclarative memory (implicit)
procedural memory, classical conditioning, priming
Lab pros
-more experimental control
-easier to develop and test theories in rapid succession
Lab cons
-overrepresentation of populations
-reduced generalizability of findings
-less ecological validity
Real world pros
-test theories across populations
-advance therapeutic treatments
-highlights gaps in current understanding, advances future development
Real world cons
-less experimental control
-more confounding variables
Disease-related studies
characterize deficits vs preserved abilities in specific diseases
Lesion studies
characterize deficits vs preserved abilities due to focal brain
Disease-related studies pros
provides a direct route to advancing diagnosis and treatment
Disease-related studies cons
-often difficult to separate memory impairments from other deficits related to the disease
Lesion studies pros
helps identify casual links between brain and behaviour
Lesion studies cons
-cases are rare
-lesions almost never
confined to specific region of interest
-patients’ deficits rarely entirely pure
