Psychology of Learning & Memory

Question 1

What is memory?

Answer 1

Selective acquisition (learning) of new info & selective retention/storage of info for future use (memory)
-Shows plasticity of brain - ability to change in response to experience
-Involves synchronised brain region activity

Question 2

What are the stages of memory?

Answer 2

Encoding→Initial Storage→Consolidation→Retrieval

Question 3

What is forgetting?

Answer 3

Failed retreival process of a memory

Question 4

What are the 3 possible causes of forgetting (failed retrieval)?

Answer 4

-Unsuccessful storage
-Loss of the memory trace (fading ink)
-Failure to locate the trace at retrieval

Question 5

What are the 2 major categories of memory?

Answer 5

-Long-term
-Short-term - sensory & working

Question 6

What are the 2 forms of long-term memory?

Answer 6

-Declarative
-Non-declarative

Question 7

What is declarative memory?

Answer 7

Can be brought into conscious awareness & described

Question 8

What is non-declarative memory?

Answer 8

-Can not be brought into conscious awareness
-Can only be demonstrated & learnt through experience

Question 9

What are the 2 types of declarative memory?

Answer 9

-Episodic
-Semantic

Question 10

What is episodic memory?

Answer 10

-Memory of past events in a person’s life
-Stores accumulated events, an autobiography

-Memory of specific event e.g., holiday to Paris
-Tied to a particular time & place (context specific)
-Recalled (re-experienced) in 1st person - are specific to the individual

Question 11

What is semantic memory?

Answer 11

-Knowledge of the word: facts, concepts, vocabulary
-Doesn’t refer to temporal landmarks in a person’s life

-General knowledge e.g., Paris = capital of France, the meaning of words
-NOT tied to a specific context - i.e., we can’t recall where & when we learnt Paris is the capital of France
-Shared across individuals in a particular culture

Question 12

How does semantic memory work?

Answer 12

There is a distributed network of categorical & feature based info
-Feature = has claws, roars
-Category = big cat or mammal

–> so accessing category or feature - facilitates access to linked info in the network
–> & this semantic system also facilitates for the generalisation of knowledge to new concepts & allows us to pick up an atypical features within categories (carrots = orange - but most veg = green)

Question 13

What are the 4 types of non-declarative memory?

Answer 13

-Procedural
-Perceptual representation system
-Classical conditioning
-Non-associative learning

Question 14

What is procedural memory?

Answer 14

-Often acquire more slowly by trial & error process
-Stores info guiding beh e.g., how to drive, ride bike, train dog
-May be unable to verbalise these memories - have become 2nd nature
-How we remember these = based upon how we learn them

Question 15

What is perceptual (representation system) memory?

Answer 15

Ability to interpret incoming stimuli by recognizing individuals, by categorizing them & by noting relationships between such individuals & categories
–> i.e., ability to recognise an object is what it is

Question 16

What is classical conditioning & operant conditioning - as associative memory?

Answer 16

Classical
= Paired associations with neutral stimulus
-By repetition = forms associations

Operant
= learning by rewards (food) to reinforce or by punishments (electric shock) to inhibit beh
–> behs = strengthened or weakened based on consequences of that beh
-Behaviourists say - stored info guides beh = stimulus response
-Bio explanation = declarative memory - learning an food as an outcome because are hungry (rats - press correct button for food)

Question 17

What is non-associative memory?

Answer 17

Simplest yet fundamental form of learning that does not require stimuli association or pairing

Question 18

Show all of the divisions of memory -> multiple memory system ‘tree’.

Answer 18

Question 19

What influences what information we store?

Answer 19

-Having meaning behind information makes it easier to store
-If the info we are attending to is important (may be subjective importance to the individual)
-Making judgements when forming attending to info/stimuli can assist with memory - e.g., deciphering the categories of words
-Cognitive schemas - can lead us to form ‘false’ memories - i.e., we falsely believe something based upon the other linking info
–> BUT schemas are useful - as these mental representations enables us to organize our knowledge into categories (can assist with retrieval)

Question 20

How are links made between information?

Answer 20

By strengthening synapses

Question 21

What is short-term memory?

Answer 21

= Memory for info currently held in mind

-Brief store
-& somewhere to hold material retrieved from the long-term memory –> this is called working memory

Question 22

What is working memory?

Answer 22

System for:
-Selection (from incoming sensory info)
&/or
-Retrieval (from long-term stores)
-Temporary storage
-Manipulation of info

-How we hold info we receive from our long term memory
-Provides interface between current perception, long-term memory & action
-Critical for successful completion of more demanding cognitive tasks
-Is ‘capacity constrained’

Question 23

What memory is used for a simple mathematical problem?

Answer 23

-Long term - for accessing maths ability & ability to recognise numbers & what their value is
-Working memory - to bridge the interface between perception, this long term memory retrieval & action -> so holds our thoughts

Question 24

Why are many memory complaints caused by interference with working memory?

Answer 24

BECAUSE - working memory is ‘capacity constrained’
–> meaning it can become ‘overwhelmed’
-Worry
-Rumination
-Poor sleep
-Excess alcohol
–> all have side-effects on our limited working memory - by consuming it
-Also - brain injuries & pathologies can disrupt working memory

Question 25

What is retrograde & anterograde amnesia?

Answer 25

Retrograde amnesia:
= loss of memories formed prior to brain injury - associated with damage to brain regions linked to declarative memory
-Can make new memories
-Can’t remember past memories

Anterograde amnesia:
= (lose ability to make new memories but retain old ones) difficulty forming new declarative memories after brain injury e.g., semantic facts & episodic meaning can’t make new memories of life events - but retain non-declarative memory e.g., procedural
-Can remember past memories
-Can’t make new memories
-Can’t assimilate & learn - as can’t form new memories

Question 26

Where is the hippocampus?

Answer 26

Medial temporal lobes - under cerebral cortex

Question 27

Role of the hippocampus?

Answer 27

-Plays a role in limbic system - responsible for beh & emotional responses
-Important role in learning, emotional responses, memory formation & storage

Question 28

What are the 3 major functions of the hippocampus?

Answer 28

1. Influences memory formation –> influences ability to encode & retrieve info - a short-term memory is registered before transfer to long-term memory storage
2. Informs beh responses –> drawing from stored info to influence our actions - as previous experiences play big part in how we form relationships & behave around others
3. Helps spatial cognition –> direct pathway - hippocampus can express spatial memory - like remembering driving routes or processing info about location

Question 29

What can cause damage to the hippocampus?

Answer 29

-Encephalitis
-Stroke
-Alzheimer’s disease
-Other forms of dementia

Question 30

What signs of Alzheimer’s demonstrate underlying hippocampal pathology?

Answer 30

Difficulty forming new episodic memories & difficulty learning layout of unfamiliar environments
–> this occurs in early stages of Alzheimer’s

Question 31

What does bilateral damage to the hippocampi & other associated structures in the medial temporal lobes cause?

Answer 31

*Severe difficulty forming new episodic memories
*Severe loss of pre-existing episodic memories
-A temporal gradient may be seen with preservation of older memories (Ribot’s law)
*Severe difficulty forming new semantic memory
*Loss of pre-existing semantic memory
-A temporal gradient = often seen with relative preservation of older memories
-Difficulty navigating particularly in unfamiliar environments

Question 32

Who is Clive Waring & what happened to him?

Answer 32

-Was a musician & conductor
-Suffered herpes simplex encephalitis aged 47 (in 1985) = caused:
catastrophic bilateral damage to hippocampus / medial temporal lobes-particularly those areas responsible for memory retention
–> so he lived in a constant state of reawakening

Question 33

How was Clive affected?

Answer 33

-Could still play piano, read, conduct = procedural memory
-Lost many memories from before illness
-Could recognise his wife (perceptual memory) & hold info in mind during brief conversation (working & semantic memory) - but later = no recollection
-Profound inability to form new memories

Question 34

Summarise the functions of the hippocampus?

Answer 34

Episodic memory
-Combines sensory stimuli from an event in a specific context - visual, auditory, olfactory, emotional
-Knowing when an event had occurred = more linked to orbitofrontal cortex
-Allows for ‘mental time travel’ - place contextual detail in personal past

Facilitates system consolidation
-“Strengthening” episodic memories
-Forming semantic memories
–> so general themes & rules - extracted from context specific info & integrated into our general world knowledge

Question 35

What is the Garcia effect?

Answer 35

= the impact of gastro-intestinal illness upon food preferences
-e.g., chemo leads to people expressing dislike for food eaten before a session
= these are phobias - called preparedness-adaptions - causes avoidance

Question 36

After suggesting declarative memory may play a role in operant conditioning - how can a maze with rats further reinforce this?

Answer 36

Rats learn to take shortest route to the food
-When routes are blocked - rats show use of declarative memory by knowing food is at the end of other routes too (i.e., they can go other ways) - not just the conditioned route
-BUT -> if remove rat hippocampus = can’t do spatially dependent tasks like this

*Behaviourists may say the rat just learns the route which is why showing the rats can still find food when a route is blocked disproves this - showing declarative memory used

Question 37

What is retrieval?

Answer 37

-Often a quick, automatic effortless process - triggered by contextual cues
-But can also be slow, deliberate & effortful

Question 38

How does retrieval occur?

Answer 38

Prefrontal cortex:
-Monitors memories which we retrieve automatically
-Supresses irrelevant memories (for that specific context)
-Links episodic memories to the context acquired in (source monitoring) -> so can determine if a memory was real or imagined
-Locates memory in time (i.e., the temporal relationship to other memories)

Question 39

How can false memories occur?

Answer 39

-Failed monitoring functions of the pre-frontal cortex following damage

-Cognitive schemas

Question 40

How do we forget?

Answer 40

*Insufficient processing when encoding
-Active processing of info at time encoded = more likely to be recalled

*Retrieval induced forgetting
-Retrieving a memory causes active inhibition of similar competing memories - e.g., inhibiting memory of where parked car on a different day to remember where is parked today

Question 41

How does age impact some of the different types of memory?

Answer 41

-Memory processing declines with age
-Semantic memory = increases initially then begins to plateau then slightly decrease
–> because we gain more facts/general knowledge & educational knowledge in the majority of early to mid life.
-Episodic memory = declines then plateaus with age

Question 42

How does age impacting cognitive function impact our daily functioning & why?

Answer 42

= age associated decline in cognitive function does not impact our functioning in day to day life
-Rarely need to perform at max. cognitive function in life
-Most daily activities rely on knowledge & experience - not controlled & efficient processing
-We can accommodate decline in cognitive function - by changing beh = use reminders, change driving beh