SPR L8 Memory Flashcards
The Neuropsychology of Memory
Learning Outcomes
- Describe the 3 main stages of the memory system.
- Describe the features of working memory and long term memory.
- Describe the processes involved in encoding, retrieving and forgetting information.
- Differentiate between implicit and explicit memory.
- Describe the neural basis of explicit memory.
What is Memory?
- The retention of information across various intervals of time.
- The means by which individuals draw on past knowledge in order to use such knowledge in the present.
- The dynamic mechanisms associated with the retention and retrieval of information.
Basic Concepts of Memory
What are the three basic processes involved in memory?
What model can these be expressed in?
Encoding: forming a new memory code.
Storage: retaining a memory code.
Retrieval: recovering a memory code.
The Multi-Store Model
Basic Concepts of Memory
Outline the multi-store model of memory
What does each stage differ in?
What is short term memory also referred to as?
see picture
A.Function
B.Duration
C.Capacity
working memory
Sensory Memory and Attention
- What does sensory memory register?
- There are many “types” of sensory memories -what do these correspond to, give examples.
- Describe their capacities
- Describe their duration
- How do sensory memory traces fade?
- What must we do to a sensation in order to be aware of it?
- sensations coming from the environment
- correspond to different sensory modalities e.g. iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory.
- They have a large capacities
- BUT very short duration
- fairly rapidly - lasts no more than 2 seconds.
- We must ATTEND to the sensation (give attention to it)
The Selective Nature of Attention
- What is attention?
- What must this gate do to be effective?
- How is this accomplished?
- What is the process of selection also dependent upon?
Attention as a Gate to
Conscious Awareness
- the gateway that lies between sensory memory and working memory.
- it must discriminate what is useful
- through a process of selection, which is dependent on the physical attributes of incoming stimuli.
- whether stimuli are: novel or expected, relevant to ongoing behaviour
Short-Term Memory
- Which sensations become encoded into STM?
- What does STM allow for?
- Describe its capacity
- Give an example
- Describe its duration
- What is Maintenance rehearsal?
- Sensations to which we actively attend
- information transfer from sensory to long-term memory
- It has a limited capacity
- George A. Miller (1956):
STM span = “Magic Number 7 ± 2”
- It has a short duration - Maintains information unrehearsed for up to 20 seconds, Demonstrated by the recency effect
- “holding on” to information in STM through repetition
STM as “Working Memory”
The Active, Conscious Mind
Baddeley’s theory of Working Memory
- What is working memory?
- What are the three components of working memory?
- A dynamic system central to the thinking process (an internal work bench)
- Central Executive Control System
Two Slave Systems:
Phonological rehearsal loop (AKA: the inner voice)
Visuospatial sketch pad (AKA: the inner scribe).
Encoding Information
into Long Term Memory
- Describe LTM?
- How does information get there?
- Descibe Craik and Lockart Levels of Processing Theory
- What is elaborative rehearsal?
- large in both capacity & duration.
- Information gets into LTM through encoding. eg. Maintenance rehearsal is one way to try to encode into LTM, but not a particularly effective one.
- The deeper you process, the better the LTM.
- The more meaningful the information and the more connections you make between old and new learning, the more likely you are to remember the information
Encoding Information
into Long Term Memory
Encoding Strategies
- Describe Elaborative rehearsal
- Describe Self-Reference Processing
- Describe Visual Imagery
- What is Pavio’s Dual-Coding Theory?
- Focuses on the meaning of information. Associations to already stored information - relate what you already know to what you’re trying to encode.
- The self is a special mnemonic device. Easier to code if it is relevant to us.
- Linking a stimulus to a visual image or picture at the time of encoding
- memory is enhanced by using both a visual and semantic code. Easier for concrete rather than abstract concepts!
Our Memory is Organised
- How can you consider LTM?
- Describe the associations
- The more associations you form and the closer they are…
- as a Roadmap or a Network of Associations.
- some associations are closer to one another than others.
- the more “nodes” you have to help you access the desired information.
“Cells that fire together, wire together!”
The Structure of Long Term Memory
Describe the structure of long-term memory
- LTM
- Declarative - facts, data, events
- Episodic memory - personal experiences
- Semantic memory - general factual information
- Procedural - how to do things
- Declarative - facts, data, events
Memory Retrieval: Why do we forget?
List the 4 reasons we forget
- Decay
- Interference
- Ineffective Coding
- Retrieval Failure
Memory Retrieval - why do we forget?
Describe the following
- Decay
- Interference
- Ineffective Coding
- Retrieval Failure
- Outline the Encoding Specificity Principle
- Memory traces fade with time. Difficult to prove
-
Retroactive: New learning interferes with old learning
* Proactive*: Old learning interferes with new learning - lack of attention, coding hardware damaged
- Encoding Specificity Principle: - If our retrieval cues are not closely allied with the encoded memory, we will not recall. - Context and State Dependence
Amnesia:
When the memory system goes wrong
Classic Amnesia
Describe this
(See picture)
Neural Basis of Explicit Memory
- How can classic organic amnesia come about?
- What can cause it?
- Lesions to temporal lobe structures and/or the diencephalon
- Temporal lobe surgery: The case of H.M.
- Korsakoff’s Syndrome
- Early Stage Alzheimer’s
- Herpes Simplex Encephalitis
- What does damage to the hippocampus cause?
- What is this?
- Anterograde Amnesia
- inability to form new memories.
“His impairment in new learning is so pervasive and severe that he requires constant supervisory care. He does not learn the names or faces of those who see him regularly. Having aged since surgery, he does not now recognize a photograph of himself.“
- What does the Hippocampus encode?
- Outline the main phychological findings in the case of H.M
- What was it demonstrated that the hippocampus is essential in? What else did this case illustrate?
- explicit memories
- H.M. demonstrates an encoding failure for explicit memories
Working memory unimpaired
Procedural memory unimpaired
Emotional conditioning unimpaired
LTM for episodes before surgery also largely intact.
- in forming new explicit memories.
that the brain contains more than one memory system
Amnesia and Musical Ability: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15791973
Summary 1
- Memory is the retention of information over time.
- Memory can be seen in terms of three processes:
- (i) encoding, (ii) storage, and (iii) retrieval
- The memory system is comprised of three subunits or stages:
- (i) sensory memory, (ii) working memory (iii) long term memory
- The memory system, like a roadmap, is highly organised
Summary 2
- The memory system contains two broad types of information
- (i) explicit knowledge and (ii) implicit knowledge.
- Working memory is heavily reliant on areas of the frontal cortex.
- The hippocampus is heavily involved in the formation of explicit rather than implicit memories.
Reading : Memory Problems
- Describe the primacy effect and the recency effect
- Why is recognition easier than recall?
- How can we help patients remember the advice they are given in a consultation?
- What are anterograde and retrograde amnesia?
Reading : Understanding Learning
- Describe classical conditioning.
- Describe operant conditioning.
- What is :
- ‘observational learning’
- ‘systematic desensitisation’
- a mnemonic?
