PSYCH 104 Final (Memory) Flashcards
Memory (The storage metaphor: issues?)
The flaw:
- If this was how it was done we would be able to recall memories perfectly as they happened
Memory illusion (What is it?)
- Memory illusion
○ False but subjectively compelling memory
Forgetting (What is it?)
Forgetting
- Deterioration in learned behavior following a retention interval
Retention interval (What is it?)
○ Retention interval: a period during which the learning or practice of a behavior does not occur
Memory (What are its three components?)
- Sensory memory
- Short term memory
- Long term memory
- Sensory memory:
A brief storage of perceptual information before it is passed to short term memory
Sensory memory (Iconic store / memory)
§ Iconic store / memory:
□ Visual sensory memory that only lasts about a second
□ George sperling: Method of partial report
Sensory memory (Echoic store / echoic memory)
§ Echoic store / echoic memory”
□ Auditory sensory memory that only lasts 5-10 seconds
Short term / working memory (What is it?)
○ Memory system that retains information for limited durations.
Encompasses information currently being attended to, thought about or “processing” in some way
Short term memory is short because of?
- Decay
- Interference
Short term memory (Decay)
□ Decay: fading of information from memory because competition from additional incoming information
Short term memory (interference)
□ Inference: loss of information from memory because of competition from additional incoming information
® Retroactive interference: interference with retention of old information due to acquisition of new information
® Proactive interference: interference with acquisition of new information due to previous learning of information
Short term memory (What is our capacity?)
○ Has limited capacity of 7+/- 2
§ Magic number: the assumed span of short term memory
□ Researchers are not unanimous on this point
□ Digit span task
Short term memory (Chunking)
○ Chunking:
§ Organizing information into meaningful groupings, allow us to extend the span of short term memory.
Short term memory (Rehearsal)
○ Rehearsal:
Repeating information to extend the duration of retention in short-term memory
Short term memory (Rehearsal: Maintenance rehearsal)
□ Maintenance rehearsal:
® Repeating stimuli in their original form to retain them in short-term memory
Short term memory (Rehearsal: Elaborative rehearsal)
□ Elaborative rehearsal:
® Linking stimuli to each other in a meaningful way to improve retentic information in short term memory
REMEMBER THE PIGEON
Pigeon facing right
- brown coffee mug on head
- “coffee makes me poop”
Short term memory (Levels of processing)
○ Levels of processing / depth of processing
A model of memory that posits the more “deeply” we process information, the better we are at remembering it
Short term memory (Levels of processing: 3 levels?)
§ Has three levels:
□ Structural
□ Phonological
- Sematic
Short term memory (Levels of processing: issues?)
§ Problem
□ Circulatory
□ Falsifiability
Long term memory
- Long term memory (LTM)
○ Relatively enduring (from minutes to years) retention of information stored regarding our facts, experiences, and skills
○ Has large capacity (unlike STM)
○ Lasts for hours to years
§ Permastore: type of long term memory that appears to be permanent
Memory (primacy effect)
○ Primacy effect: tendancy to remember words at the beginning of a list especially well
§ Traditionally thought to reflect LTM processes
Memory (Recency effect)
○ Recency effect: Tendency to remember words at the end of a list especially well
§ Traditionally thought to reflect STM processes
Serial position curve (What is it?)
(this curve is known as a serial position curve)
- U shaped curve
- Uses Primacy and recency effects
Repeated retrieval (What is it?)
- Repeated retrieval:
○ Repeatedly trying to recall/use the material over time
§ Example: quizzing yourself
Long term memory (Explicit: Semantic memory)
- Semantic memory (Conscious)
○ Our knowledge of facts about the world
○ Also known to as refered “declarative memory”
Long term memory (Explicit memory)
- Explicit memory
○ Memories we recall intentionally and of which we have conscious awareness of
Long term memory (Explicit: episodic memory)
- Episodic memory
○ Recollection of events in our lives
Long term memory (Implicit memory)
- Implicit memory (unconcious)
○ Memories we dont deliberately remember or reflect on consciously
Long term memory (Implicit: Procedural memory)
- Procedural memory
○ Memory for how to do things, including motor skills and habits
Long term memory (Implicit: Priming memory)
- Priming
○ The activation of one concept by another
Long term memory (Semantic priming)
(Semantic) priming
- Semantically related words will result in faster reaction times
(ESSENTIALLY WHEN WE HAVE WORDS TOGETHER THAT LOGICALLY MAKE SENSE WE RESPOND FASTER)
Memory as a network (What are the parts?)
- Memory as a network of associations
○ Theory that memory can be represented as a network of associated concepts
○ Each concept is represented by a “node”
○ Lines between concepts represent “associations”
○ Shorter lines mean longer relationships
○ Often conceptualized as neural network with each node being equivalent to a neuron
○ Problem
§ Unfalsifiable
Neural basis of memory storage (Engram)
- Engram
○ A, hypothesized, physical trance of a memory with the brain
○ Karl Lashley
§ Trained rats on a maze
§ Lesioned brain areas
Hebbian learning (What did he hypothesize?)
- Hebbian learning
○ Donald Hebb, in 1949, hypothesized …
§ When an axon of cell A is near enough to excite a cell B and repeatedly or persistently takes part in firing it, some growth processes or metabolic change takes place in one or both cells such that A’s efficiency, as one of the cells firing B, is increased
§ Example: neurons that fire together wire together
Neural basis of memory storage (Long term potentiation of synapses)
The neural basis of memory storage
- Long term potentiation of synapses (LTP)
○ A long lasting enhancement in signal transmission between two neurons that results from stimulating them synchronously
§ Potentiation: an increased effect to evoke a post-synaptic potential
Amnesia (Retrograde amnesia)
Amnesia
- Retrograde amnesia
Loss of memory from our past
Amnesia (Anterograde amnesia)
- Anterograde amnesia
○ Inability to form new memories from our experiences
H. M. (Who was he and what was done to him?)
H. M.
- Child who had issues in school and life - Tried to remove his limbic system - Had someone sent to his house where he conducted studies - Even though he did not have memories anymore he could still retain information - He had no hippocampus Procedural memory happens in the basal ganglia and the cerebellum
Amnesia (consolidation)
Consolidation:
- A hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of information into durable memory codes stored in long term memory
Alzheimer’s Disease (What is it?)
Alzheimer’s disease
- A degenerative brain disease that results in dementia
○ Language deteriorates along with other bodily processes
○ Risks increase with age
○ Strong genetic component
○ Associated with a number of neurological abnormalities
§ Eg. Deterioration of acetylcholine neurons in the cortex
○ Early lifestyle may play a large part in its progression
§ Eg. Nun study
The nun study (What was it?)
Essentially they were developing Alzheimer’s but their cognitive decline was not evident in their behaviors
- It is believed that this is because of the lifestyle they lived
Amnesia (Infantile amnesia)
- Inability of adults to remember personal experiences that took place before an early age
○ Occurs for events before the age of 2-3 years old - May be due to…
○ Underdeveloped hippocampus
○ No sense of self
False memories (Cryptomnesia)
- Cryptomnesia
○ Failiure to recignoise that our ideas originated with someone else
§ May be the result of source monitoring confusion, a lack of clarity about the origin of a memory
False memories (Misinformation effect)
- Misinformation effect
○ Creation of fictious memories by providing misleading information about an event after it takes place
False memories (Implanted memories)
- Implanted memories
○ Fact or fiction? - they can occur
