Week 2: Memory Flashcards
Modal Model of Memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin)
This was seen as the definitive description of how the roles of short-term memory and long-term memory were parcellated for a long time.
Modal Model of Memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin)
An early theory suggesting that memory is divided into three main stores: sensory memory, short-term memory, and long-term memory.
Modal Model of Memory (Atkinson & Shiffrin)
Sensory Stores > Short-Term Store (STS) > Long-Term Store (LTS)
Memory (Shallice & Warrington)
- Short-term memory and long-term memory do not use the same neural structures as each other.
- There can’t be a sequential route from short-term memory to long-term memory
Opposing Routes on Memory
Modal Model (Atkinson & Shiffrin): the route to the
long-term memory is always through the short-term memory.
Shallice & Warrington: the route to long-term memory was not necessarily through rehearsal in a short-term store.
Rehearsal
The process of repeating information to maintain it in short-term memory and potentially transfer it to long-term memory.
Displacement
Refers to the process of pushing out old information from short-term memory (STM) to make room for new information.
Baddely & Hitch (1974)
Introduced the first model of working memory
Multiple/Separate Short-Term Stores (Baddely & Hitch)
The idea that there might be separate short-term stores for different types of information is introduced.
Model of Working Memory (Braddely & Hitch)
Different from short-term memory because it’s not just about storing information temporarily, but also about actively using and manipulating it.
Central Executive
Facilitates information processing by organizing the correct type of material into the correct store.
2 Additional Independent Short-Term Stores (Braddely & Hitch)
1) Phonological Store or Loop
2) Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad
Phonological Loop (Verbal Working Memory or VWM)
This part handles speech-based or verbal information.
Ex. Remembering a phone number
Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad (Spatial Working Memory)
This part deals with visual and spatial information.
Ex. Imagining a map or remembering where you left your keys
Visuo-Spatial Sketch Pad (Spatial Working Memory)
This is used for creating a visual mental image of new items or items from long-term memory that you need online.
Online Manipulation
The ability to actively work with information that is currently held in mind. It’s not just storing the information, but doing something with it.
Key Assumptions of the Working Memory Model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974)
1) If two tasks use the same part of the working memory, they cannot be carried out well.
2) If the two tasks are using different parts, they should be completed accurately.
Broca’s Area
A brain region we know to be involved in speech production.
Rhyming
Matching sounds at the end of words
Recall
Retrieving information from memory
Storage
Holding information in memory
Components of Phonological Loop
1) Phonological Store
2) Articulatory Loop
Phonological Store
Part of the phonological loop that holds spoken sounds
Articulatory Loop
Part of the phonological loop that rehearses sounds silently
Left Parietal Lobe
Brain region involved in processing sensory information, including language
Left Frontal Lobe
Brain region involved in planning, decision-making, and speech production
Left Hemisphere of the Brain
Generally dominant for language functions in right-handed individuals.
Plays a more prominent role in processing language, including storing and manipulating sounds of words (phonological memory).
Parietal Regions and Memory
Left Parietal Region > Verbal Working Memory
Right Parietal Region > Spatial Working Memory
Priming
A psychological phenomenon where exposure to one stimulus influences a response to a subsequent stimulus.
It’s like warming up your brain for a specific task.
Priming
The activation of visual areas in the brain corresponding to the target item’s location.
Visual Cortex
The part of the brain responsible for processing visual information.
It’s located in the occipital lobe, at the back of the head.
Key Functions of the Visual Cortex
1) Receiving visual signals
2) Processing visual information
3) Creating a visual perception
Central Executive
Decides what information should go into the different stores
Central Executive
Organizes which store the information should go to
Central Executive
Used to inspect, transform, and manipulate the information being held in the stores
2 Processes of Long-Term Memory
1) Explicit Memory (declarative)
2) Implicit Memory (non-declarative)
Explicit Memory (declarative)
It forms the memories that we can consciously access and explain.
Explicit Memory (declarative)
Conscious recollection of facts, events, and personal experiences.
Explicit Memory (declarative)
Memories that we can declare or say out loud.
Implicit Memory (non-declarative)
It forms memories that we cannot describe or define but consists of long-term memories.
Implicit Memory (non-declarative)
Learning and retention of skills, habits, and conditioned responses without conscious awareness.
Implicit Memory (non-declarative)
Memories that are not accessed through any conscious recollection.
Priming
A good example of implicit memory
Priming
Within this phenomenon, exposure to some
stimuli might alter participants’ responses to later stimuli, without them explicitly recalling the previous words or knowing that they are affecting their responses
Amnesia
It refers to a specific problem in long-term memory, without concurrent decline of any other cognitive function.
Retrograde Amnesia
The term for loss of memory before the event that caused amnesia.
Extremely rare.
Anterograde Amnesia
These cause a loss of the ability to acquire any new memories. And it’s very debilitating, indeed.
More common.
Focal Retrograde Amnesia
Pure retrograde amnesia without the learning deficits of
anterograde impairments.
Rarely exists without there being a psychiatric origin.
Brenda Milner
A neuropsychologist who introduced the distinction between implicit and explicit long-term memory by clearly showing for the first time in her study of the most famous neuropsychological patient, HM (who suffered from severe anterograde amnesia).
Medial Temporal Lobe
This region of the brain is crucial for explicit memory but not for implicit memory.
Hippocampus
A key structure within the Medial Temporal Lobe, particularly involved in memory formation.
Procedural Memory
A type of implicit memory involving motor skills and habits.
Fractions of Explicit Memory
1) Episodic: Events and experiences
2) Semantic: Facts
Endel Tulving
An experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist who was the person who coined the phrase “episodic” and “semantic memory”.
He studied a patient known as KC (damaged medial temporal lobes bilaterally) who had severe anterograde and retrograde amnesia.
Episodic Memory
A part of explicit memory.
Our memories of our personal experiences or personally experienced events.
Episodic Memory
More reliant on the medial temporal lobe
Elements of Episodic Memory
The 3 Ws:
What/Who
Where
When
Semantic Memory
A part of explicit memory.
Our memories of general knowledge and they are context-free.
The Case of KC
Endel Tulving studied KC who suffered from damage to his medial temporal lobe which resulted in severe retrograde and anterograde amnesia confined to episodic memory.
The study demonstrated that it’s possible to lose episodic memory while retaining semantic knowledge.
Varga-Khadem’s Study
Found that patients with hippocampal damage exhibited severe episodic memory impairment but preserved semantic knowledge.
Loss of Episodic Memory
Frequently among the first symptoms of dementia which is exceptionally upsetting and unsettling for patients.
Episodic Memory & Sense of Self Self
It’s crucial to our sense of ourselves that we have a sense of reexperiencing the events that we recall.
Remembering
Very much a reconstructive process.
Reconstructive Nature of Memory
Memories are not exact replicas of past events but are reconstructed based on existing knowledge and expectations.
Memory Distortion over Time
Memories can change over time due to factors like social influence and rehearsal.
Loftus’ Research
Demonstrated how misleading information can alter memory, particularly in eyewitness testimonies.
False Memories
Fabricated memories based on expectations and suggestions.
Factors Influencing Memory
1) Social Interactions
2) Misleading Information
3) Expectations
Wade & colleague’s Study
Demonstrated the creation of false episodic memories through manipulated photographs.
Hassabis & Maguire’s Study
Found that the brain regions involved in recalling real memories are also activated during the creation of imagined events, emphasizing the constructive nature of memory.
