Week 4 (Memory Systems) Flashcards
Three processes of memory
- Encoding
-Through our sensory organs, a memory trace is formed - Storage
-Retention of this memory trace is stored in the neurons of the brain
-Maintenance of information may occur via rehearsal or reconsolidation - Retrieval
-The memory affects behaviour in some way, which could be non-verbal and verbal
These processes can be declarative (directly expressible) or non-declarative
And these processes can be disrupted by brain damage
The Modal Model, or Multistore Model (Atkinson & Shiffrin, 1968)
Sensory register: Systems that receive info from the environment (via our senses) and have a large capacity but brief duration
Short-term store: A temporary store for relevant info, up to approx 30 seconds with a small capacity
Long term store: A more permanent store for info with an unknown but large capacity
Working Memory: Baddeley & Hitch (1974)
Visuo-Spatial Sketchpad: Stores a small amount of information based on visual and spatial characteristics
Central Executive: An attentional system to control and co-ordinate mental activities
Phonological Loop: Stores a small amount of information in a speech-based form
In 2000, Baddeley added fourth component to the working memory model
The Episodic Buffer
-There is evidence that visual and verbal components are combined in short-term store, BUT old model assumes independent systems for visual and verbal information
Patient HM
-Experimental surgery of medial temporal lobes, including hippocampus
-Improved epilepsy but meant he could not create new memories
-But he could learn new procedural skills (the mirror drawing task)
Types of long-term memory
-Declarative
-Non-Declarative
Declarative Memory
AKA Explicit
-Semantic (facts)
-Episodic (events)
Damage to anterior temporal lobes affects semantic
Damage to hippocampus affects episodic
Non-Declarative Memory
AKA Implicit
-Procedural skills (e.g., motor, perceptual, cognitive)
-Priming (perceptual, semantic)
-Conditioning
-Nonassociative (habituation, sensitisation)
Breakdown associated with damage to areas outside the medial temporal lobes
Tulving’s Model of Memory (Tulving, 1985)
Episodic –> Autonoetic consciousness
Semantic –> Noetic consciousness
Procedural –> Anoetic consciousness
Types of amnesia
Retrograde amnesia: Not able to remember information from before brain damage
Anterograde amnesia: Not being able to learn new information
Example of Procedural memory (Non-Declarative)
-Playing the piano
-Drawing in the mirror
Example of Conditioning (Non-Declarative memory)
-Giving children sweets when they have behaved well, emotional responses to words/ images
Priming (Non-Declarative memory)
AKA Implicit memory
-When prior experience helps us complete current tasks , without our conscious knowledge
-Tested with encoding and retrieving words
Example of non associative memory (Non-Declarative)
Desensitising therapy with images of snakes; or getting hand dirty for germaphobes
Semantic memory
-Our store of knowledge
-Recalling facts
-Personal knowledge
-Senses that something has happened
Retrieval: Knowing
Episodic memory
-A type of memory specific in time and place
-Associated with different process of retrieval, one that includes mental time travelling, reliving and subjective sense of self
Retrieval: Remembering
Autobiographical memory
We need both episodic and semantic memories to form a coherent sense of self
The self memory system
(Conway, 2005)
-Personal memories differ on levels of abstraction, from self-images to specific to specific episodic memories.
-Found evidence that structure of autobiographical memory was evident in the process of retrieving an autobiographical episodic memory
-When we retrieve a memory, we access general personal information before accessing related specific information
Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve (1885)
A curve that plateaus
-shows that your memory of an event occurring gets worse
The three categories of the 7 deadly sins of memory
Forgetting
-Transcience
-Absent-mindedness
-Blocking
Inaccuracy
-Misattribution
-Suggestibility
-Bias
Persistence (own category)
7 deadly sins of memory
-Transience
-Absent mindedness
-Blocking
-Misattribution
-Suggestibility
-Bias
-Persistence
Memory recognition tests: Re-presented and accurately identified
Hit (accurate)
Memory recognition test: Re-presented but not identified
Miss (A type of error)
Memory recognition test: Not presented but identified
False alarm (a type of error)
