topic 6 (memory) lectures 3&4 (brain regions and memory)

Question 1

what are the three critical stages of long term memory?

Answer 1

ENCODING - the process of creating memory representation

CONSOLIDATION- making the memory representation stable

RETRIEVAL- reactivation of stored stable trace

Question 2

what are the two types of amnesia?

Answer 2

retrograde amnesia

anterograde amnesia

Question 3

what is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 3

loss of memory for things that occurred before the brain damage

inability to remember things from the past

Question 4

what is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 4

loss of memory ability for things after the brain damage

inability to form new memories

Question 5

outline the case study of patient H.M

Answer 5

• patient who underwent a temporal lobectomy to help his epilepsy in 1953
• bilateral removal of the medial parts of the temporal lobe
• retoragrade amnesia was minor, he could remember most things from before the event
• he had complete anterograde amnesia and was unable to form new memories
• his working memory was intact. he had a digit span of 6.
• was able to complete the corsi block tapping task without problems, but not when they adapted the task to require longer term memory
• the mirror drawing task requires you to complete a drawing whilst looking at your hand in the mirror. PPts usually improve over time. HM did the task over three days and improved at it over time, but did not remember completing the task and required instructions every time. so learning occured but he was unaware of this
• fragmented image task requires ppts to work out what an image is representing in various levels of fragmentation. HM improved at this task but did not remember seeing the images before.

THEREFORE

• HM could not make new conscious EXPLICIT/ DECLARITIVE MEMORIES
• he could learn new skills/tasks- IMLICIT/NON DECLARATIVE MEMORIES

Question 6

what is the corsi block tapping task?

Answer 6

• spatial memory task
• involves mimicking a researcher as they tap a sequence of up to 9 identical spatially seperated blocks

Question 7

what are the two types of explicit memories?

Answer 7

EPOSIDIC MEMORY- memory of certain events

SEMANTIC MEMORY- general knowledge not tied to certain events

Question 8

what are 4 types of implicit memory?

Answer 8

procedural memory

priming

perceptual learning

classical conditioning

Question 9

what is priming?

Answer 9

changes in perception and belief caused by previous experience

Question 10

what is perceptual learning?

Answer 10

recalibration of perceptual systems as a result of experience

Question 11

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 11

learning about associations among stimuli

Question 12

how is the severity of retrograde amnesia measured?

Answer 12

the temporal gradient- recent things are more easily lost

the famous faces test is used in hospitals. You give people images of famous faces from different periods in their lives and see which ones they remember

Question 13

which two brain sections are essential in explicit memories and what processes?

Answer 13

the hippocampi
the amygdala

evidence suggests their involvement is in encoding and in consolidation

Question 14

what was Haist’s study on consolidation in the medial temporal lobe?

Answer 14

fmri study looking at:
entorhinal cortex
hippocampal formation
fusiform cortex

• tested consolidation using famous faces, the idea being that the longer we have known something, the longer we have consolidated it
• found that the activity in the hippocampus and fusiform face area was the same for faces that had been known for decades
• found that entorhinal cortex activity decreased the longer the patient had known the face for.
• this suggests the hippocampus is consistently involved in all memory activation, but the entorhinal cortex is specifically implicated in consolidation

Question 15

outline Maguire et als taxi driver study

Answer 15

postivie correlation between the volume of the posterior hippocampus and the time spent driving a taxi in london

Question 16

outline the difference between eposidic and semantic memory in patient KC

Answer 16

• his intelligence, language, skills and abilities were normal
• he cannot remember personal experience, events or memories from birth onwards

Question 17

what was vargner khadam et als study on very early onset damage

Answer 17

• studied children with very early onset hippocampal damage
• they were able to go to school but required a lot of support due to eposodic memory deficit
• their semantic knowledge was intact, despite encoding most of it after the damage

Question 18

whats baddelys updated 2000 working memory model

Answer 18

• adds on the eposidic buffer
• this is responsible for our consciousness and awareness