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Psychology U3/4 > U3AOS2B - Memory > Flashcards

U3AOS2B - Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

Why is memory an active process?

A
  • Memory is an active process because it involves purposefully encoding, storing and retrieving information
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2
Q

Compare human memory to a computer system

A
  • Similarity
    • Information is coded, stored and recalled when needed
  • Differences
    • Information in a human memory is not an exact replica of the event
    • Information in a human memory can decay, in a computer it does not decay
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3
Q

Outline the Atkinson-Shiffrin multi-store Model of Memory

ASM

A
  • Sensory Memory
    • Function is to recieve all raw external information from 5 senses and enable perceptual continuity
    • Capacity is vast, potentially unlimited
    • Duration is 0.3-4 seconds
  • Short Term Memory (STM)
    • Function is to recieve information from sensory memory and transfer it to and from LTM; maintain information in conscious awareness
    • Capacity is 7+/- 2 pieces of information
    • Duration is 18-20 seconds, up to 30 and can be longer if renewed
  • Long Term Memory (LTM)
    • Function is for information storage for re-access and use at a later time
    • Capacity is vast, potentially unlimited
    • Duration is potentially permanent although some information may be lost or inaccessible over time
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4
Q

How does sensory memory enable perceptual continuity?

ASM

A
  • Each impression is stored long enough so that each slightly overlaps the first
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5
Q

Describle the difference between sensory registers and sensory memory

ASM

A
  • A sensory register is specific to respective senses, differing in encoding processes and storage duration
  • Sensory memory is the general temporary memory store for all types of sensory memory
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6
Q

Why is sensory memory not considered a perceptual system?

ASM

A
  • Sensory memory stores raw information
  • Differs to a perceptual system where information has to be interpreted in a meaningful way, which in sensory memory only occurs when information is attended to
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7
Q

When is sensory memory subjected to an encoding process?

ASM

A
  • Information is left raw unless attended to, which then would have to be converted to a form enabling neurological representation and storage as memories
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8
Q

Outline 3 types of sensory memory

ASM

A
  • Iconic
    • Visual memory
    • Duration of 0.3 seconds
  • Echoic
    • Auditory memory
    • Duration of 3-4 seconds
  • Haptic
    • Physical memory
    • Duration of approximately less than two seconds
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9
Q

Why is echoic memory longer than iconic memory?

ASM

A
  • Need to have a duration of 3-4 seconds in order to hear words in a meaningful manner
  • If it had the same duration as iconic memory, speech would be heard as short series of sounds instead of syllables blended together
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10
Q

How is echoic memory adaptive?

ASM

A
  • Being able to pay attention to significant echoic information (e.g an incoming car) allows individuals to survive
  • This is because you ‘tune out’ other sounds
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11
Q

How is sensory memory unique from all other types of memory?

A
  • Contains exact replicas of sensory experience → Most accurate retention of past events
  • STM and LTM only contain information that has been attended to from the sensory store ∴ Less accurate
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12
Q

Why is short term memory referred to as a seat of conscious control?

ASM

A
  • Information is actively manipulated so we can retain information for enough time to use it
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13
Q

How can the duration of short term memory be increased?

ASM

A
  • Maintenence Rehearsal
    • Involves repeating information vocally or subvocally
    • Enhances functional duration of STM
  • Elaborative Rehearsal
    • Giving meaning to new information or making associations to information already stored
    • Best way to transfer to LTM
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14
Q

How can information in short term memory be lost?

ASM

A
  • Decay
    • Losing information due to lack of use, fading
  • Displacement
    • When short term memory is ‘full’, information can be replaced
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15
Q

Why is short term memory referred to as ‘working memory’?

ASM

A
  • Used to emphasise the active processing and use of information
  • It enables us to maintain information in conscious awareness whilst undertaking everyday tasks
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16
Q

Compare and contrast short term memory to sensory memory

ASM

A
  • Similarities
    • Brief duration
    • Information lost if not attended to
  • Differences
    • Short term memory has a limited capacity, sensory memory has a vast and potentially unlimited capacity
    • Short term memory is all within conscious awareness, sensory memory is not
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17
Q

What happens to long term memory when transferred from short term memory?

ASM

A
  • Further encoding occurs according to meaning
  • Information then becomes unconscious in order to prevent overstimulation/ being overwhelmed
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18
Q

How is long term memory stored and what does this enable?

ASM

A
  • Stored semantically; meaning of words are encoded instead of its sensory input
  • Stored for a long time in an organised way, according to meaning and importance
  • Allows efficient retrieval
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19
Q

State 4 strengths of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A
  • Distinguishes between different stores
  • Outlines that each store has a different capacity and duration
  • Good understanding of structure and process of memory
  • Findings from memory studies support the distinction between STM and LTM
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20
Q

State 5 weaknesses of the Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A
  • Oversimplified; STM is more complex… has been proposed to have different components rather than being a singular store
  • Ignores factors such as motivation and strategy, which can help in encoding STM to LTM
  • Rehearsal is not necessary for transfer from STM to LTM
  • Does not account for individual differences in memory processing, storage duration and capacity
  • Does not explain the four types of LTM
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21
Q

Outline and classify the 4 types of long term memory

NOT IN ASM

A
  • Explicit/Declarative (KNOWING THAT)
    • Episodic - connects past to present and contains personal experiences involving aspects such as time and place acquired
    • Semantic - general facts and knowledge
  • Implicit/Non-Declarative
    • Procedural (KNOWING HOW) - memory involving motor skills
    • Classically conditioned memory

Define both by saying declarative/non-declarative

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22
Q

Describe the difference between episodic and autobiographical memories

A
  • Episodic are things that are personally experienced
  • Autobiographical memories contain components of episodic and semantic memory
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23
Q

Distinguish between episodic and semantic memory

A
  • Episodic is personal experience, when and what
  • Semantic is facts and knowledge that can be acquired that can be acquired by another person but passed on to an individual autobiographically
    • Mostly will not remember the moment it was acquired
    • Does not include time and space
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24
Q

When can an implicit memory be identified?

A
  • When it does not require conscious or intentional retrieval
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25
Q

Why are implicit memories called implicit?

A
  • Existence of a specific memory can be ‘implied’ from response observed
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26
Q

State two characteristics of a procedural memory

A
  • Present even after not being done for a long time
  • Becomes automated or better with practice
27
Q

How are each of the memory stores involved in the transfer and storage of information?

A
  • Sensory information received and stored in its raw form
  • Attention transfers this to STM
  • STM stores a limited amount of information for up to 30 seconds in conscious awareness
  • With further rehearsal (e.g elaborative) the information could be transferred into LTM
  • LTM stores vast amounts of information for use at later times
  • Information retrieved from LTM into STM for use
28
Q

State the locations of the 5 main brain areas in memory

A
  • Hippocampus - Above both ears and deep inside the brain, shaped like a seahorse
  • Amygdala - On top of hippocampus end (small bud)
  • Neocortex - The general exterior of the main part of the brain (2.5 mm thick)
  • Basal Ganglia - Deep within the brain, consisting of multiple sub structures
  • Cerebellum - The minibrain, below the main part

🔗- Nervous System, Learning

29
Q

Briefly summarise how brain areas are involved in memory

A
  • They have distinctive roles and specialisations
  • They are not all equally involved
  • Anatomically connected and interact with each other
30
Q

Describe the role of the hippocampus in memory

A
  • Formation and encoding of new explicit memories
  • Helps to ensure they are neurologically stable, long lasting and long term
  • Consolidation - Making a new memory stable and enduring
    • 1/2 Internal, rapid storage
    • 2/2 Slower, permanent process
  • Reconsolidation - Retrieval and revision of a previously stored memory
  • Does not store memories but transfers them to the neocortex (occurs in sleep)
  • Plays significant role in linking new information to previous
  • Important for spatial memory
31
Q

How is damage to the hippocampus exhibited?

A
  • Difficulty forming new explicit memories
  • Symptoms of Alzhiemer’s
  • HM, Henry Molaison
    • Removal caused anterograde amnesia (damage in retaining new memories) and retrograde amnesia (loss of past memories)
    • Proves that the hippocampus is also important in retrieval
32
Q

How do the hippocampus and amygdala interact?

A
  • The hippocampus plays a role in the explicit component of emotional memories
  • When there is a extremely emotionally arousing event, the amygdala tells the hippocampus to increase consolidation
33
Q

Describe the role of the amygdala in memory

A
  • Most known for role in processing and regulating emotional reactions (fear and anger) which helps retrieval of explicit memory
  • Recognises similar events in future, particularly if it is linked to survival
  • Involved in formation and consolidation of classically conditioned fear
  • Does not permanently store memories
  • Flashbulb Memory - vivid, highly detailed and long-lasting memory of an event that is extremely emotionally arousing
    • Often includes personal details
    • Amygdala tells hippocampus to increase consolidation
34
Q

What happens to an individual if both amygdala’s are damaged/removed?

A
  • Cannot learn to fear things that signal to danger
  • Cannot express fear in appropriate situations
  • Lose memory of learned fears
35
Q

Describe the role of the neocortex in memory

A
  • Important roles in a range of memory processes
  • Crucial role (recieving from hippocampus) in formation, consolidation, STORAGE and RETRIEVAL of explicit memories
  • Explicit memories are distributed across the neocortex, storage tends to be in areas where relevant information was processed
    • Big memories have different pieces in different locations in the brain which are linked by neural networks - Neocortex helps put them together like a JIGSAW for recall/ conscious retrieval
36
Q

Describe the role of the basal ganglia in memory

A
  • Role in implicit memory involving motor skills and habits through associating motivation with reward or reinforcement
  • Medications that restore basal ganglia dopamine improve acquisition and retention of various simple motor tasks
  • Habituation - Growing accustomed to a stimulus or situation and therefore decreasing in response following repeated exposure
    • Described as non-associative learning because it does not require association of 2 stimuli in order to produce a behaviour change
    • Involuntary, occurs without intention to learn
    • Automatic
37
Q

Compare and contrast the basal ganglia and amygdala

A
  • Similarity
    • Both involved in implicit memory
  • Difference
    • Basal ganglia is involved in motor skills, amygdala is involved in emotional memory
38
Q

Describe the role of the cerebellum in memory

A
  • Multiple roles including coordinating fine muscle movements, regulating posture and balance as well as contributions to various perceptual and cognitive processes
  • Best known for involvement in activities requiring a skilled sequence of movements that require timing and are made with speed, ease and fluency
  • Everyday procedural movements
  • Does not store long term, well-learned reflexes go to neocortex
    • Stores implicit memory of simple classically conditioned reflexes
39
Q

What is caused by damage to or removal of the cerebellum?

A
  • Difficulty to time and coordinate muscle control for everyday activities
  • Unable to store or acquire conditioned reflexes but can still remember experience
  • Impaired spatial learning and memory
40
Q

Define autobiographical events

A
  • Experiences that have occured at some time
  • Stored in episodic memory
41
Q

Define mental time travel/episodic future thinking

A
  • Using episodic and semantic memory to either revisit the past (episodic only) or imagine the future
42
Q

Define brain lesions

A
  • Areas of brain tissue that have been damaged due to injury or disease
43
Q

Explain Alzheimer’s

A
  • Neurodegenerative disorder characterised by…
    • Gradual widespread degeneration of brain neurons
    • Progressive memory decline
    • Deterioration of cognitive and social skills (confusion, disorientation and repetition)
    • Personality changes
    • Brain Lesions
  • Cortical areas (hippocampi) are damaged first, disrupting STM
    • Neocortex
    • Cerebellum
  • Implicit memory is typically intact
  • Loss of episodic memory first, then semantic
  • Can be best diagnosed via Autopsy
    • Brain imaging can also be possible but not with certainty because brain lesions are not visible - instead are used to rule out tumours, hemorrhages and strokes, which can mask Alzhiemer’s
44
Q

State the causes of Alzheimer’s

A
  • Amyloid plaques (protein deposits inbetween neurons in the synapse)
  • Neurofibrillary tangles - inside neurons
  • Cortical shrinkage
  • Imbalance in acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory
45
Q

State and describe the 3 stages of Alzheimer’s

A
  • Early; 2-4 years
    • Forgetting recent information
    • Trouble organising and planning
    • Lost in familiar places
  • Middle; 2-10 years
    • Delusions, compulsions and repetitive behaviour
    • Trouble learning new things
    • Physical struggles (getting dressed bowel problems)
    • Sleep problems
    • Anterograde amnesia
  • Late; 1-3 years
    • Personality and behaviour changes
    • Cannot remember family and loved ones
    • Lacks awareness
    • Physical problems become more severe
    • Retrograde amnesia
46
Q

What is aphantasia?

A
  • Absence of visual imagery
    • Connection between visual cortex and cortex in frontal lobe is weak (therefore brain imaging is useful in diagnosis)
  • Considered to be a normal variation in human experience but can still have an effect on everyday life
  • Still POSSIBLE to be creative and imaginative
47
Q

What are common symptoms of aphantasia?

A
  • Difficulty with facial recognition
  • Autobiographical memories less vivid
  • Reduced ability to recall episodic memories
  • Difficulty to imagine future events
  • Dream less
48
Q

What are the two types of aphantasia?

A
  • Congenital - Present from birth
  • Acquired - Present after brain injury or significant psychological event such as depression or anxiety
49
Q

Is there a cure for aphantasia?

A
  • No cure for congenital
  • Individuals with acquired aphantasia have reported regaining visual imagery after therapy
50
Q

What are similarities between people with Alzheimers and aphantasia in being able to undergo episodic future thinking?

A
  • Both have difficulty with imagined futures
51
Q

What are differences between people with Alzheimers and aphantasia in being able to undergo episodic future thinking?

A
  • Different reasons for difficulty
    • Alzheimers → Gradual because of degeneration (hippocampus-neocortex-cerebellum)
    • Aphantasia → Constant difficulty because of an impaired mind’s eye
52
Q

Define and describe mnemonics

A
  • Any technique used to consciously aid memory
  • Uses information that is already stored in LTM by making a link or association with the new information
  • Makes new information more elaborate
    • Extra information enables better encoding due to the enhanced organisation
  • Ease or difficulty of learning information depends on how well it fits with what we already know
53
Q

How do mnemonics assist memory?

A
  • Create cues to assist ability to retrieve information in the required order/sequence by elaborating and organising the information in LTM
54
Q

Describe the types of mnemonics in written culture

A
  • Acronyms - Pronounceable words formed from the first letters of a group of words
    • Initialisms - Abbreviations pronounced by saying each letter of the word individually
  • Acrostics - Creating a sentence from first letters (useful for sequential information)
  • Method of Loci - Information converted into mental images associated with position or place
    • Can improve memory by a factor of 2 or 3 times
  • Each element acts as a cue for the next
55
Q

What is the first step in method of loci?

A
  • Learn some locations that are easily distinguishable and well known to you
56
Q

Describe the mnemonic within oral culture

A
  • Songlines - sung narratives containing Dreamings
    • Navigational route comprising a sequence of locations
    • Enhanced through stories with vivid characters
    • Acts as a table of contents
    • Contains crucial information about seasons, food sources, navigation, tool making and laws
    • Belongs to a certain location/ clan, not information to be spread around (can’t be replicated)
    • Better suited to teaching in a singular, relatively short instruction period
    • Do not follow a linear direction

Dreamings - stories and beliefs about culture contained within a songline
Only Aboriginal - Not Torres Strait
⭐ - Encoding, storage + Retrieval & Appropriate brain regions
🔗 - Ways of Knowing

57
Q

Why are songlines effective?

A
  • Humans remember narratives easier over facts and knowledge alone
  • Incorporating knowledge into a narrative ensures that the information is long lasting
58
Q

Do songlines remain constant throughout time?

A
  • No because information is constantly added
  • Songlines are always being modified in accordance to what affects Country
59
Q

What are two limitations of mnemonics?

A
  • Better suited to list-like information
  • Time consuming
60
Q

State two differences between songlines and methods of loci

A
  • Songlines have a narrative structure, methods of loci don’t necessarily have one since information is often random
  • Songlines have knowledge intimately related to the landscape, methods of loci contain encoded knowledge not inherently related to the places in the journey (arbitrary relationships)
61
Q

State two differences between songlines and acrostics

A
  • Songlines are typically sung but not always, acrostics are typically not sung
  • Songlines often increase in content over time, acrostics do not
62
Q

How does a mnemonic aid encoding, storage and retrieval?

A
  • Encoding → Mnemonics allow for deeper encoding because they provide more detail and elaboration
  • Storage → They allow for more robust storage of the information in LTM because links are made between the mnemonic and the information
  • Retrieval → More easily accessible cues are available to assist in locating and recovering relevant information
63
Q

What should a model with high explanatory power contain?

A
  • More observations can be accounted for
  • Makes fewer assumptions
  • More falsifiable
  • More details of cause-and-effect relationships are provided

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