Memory Flashcards

Question

What is the primary-recency effect?

Answer 1

Primacy-Recency or the Serial Position Effect When presented information in serial order, we remember more form the beginning and end of the list, at the expense of intermediate items.

Answer 2

Craik and Lockhart - 1972 - Depth of encoding determines later memory for information - Processing at encoding can be shallow or deep. The greater the processing the meaning of stimuli at encoding the deeper the level of processing and greater likelihood of later storage and retrieval - Importantly Craik and Lockhart disagree that rehearsal will improve LTM as it just repeats previous operation. BUT rehearsal has beneficial effects but they are small and nor for every type of memory eg prospective memory may not benefit

Answer 3

Craik and Lockhart - 1972 - Depth o encoding determines later memory for information - Processing at encoding can be shallow or deep. The greater the processing the meaning of stimuli at encoding the deeper the level of processing and greater likelihood of later storage and retrieval - Importantly Craik and Lockhart disagree that rehearsal will improve LTM as it just repeats previous operation. BUT rehearsal has beneficial effects but they are small and nor for every type of memory eg prospective memory may not benefit

Answer 4

STORAGE INTO ltm Involves structural change: the pattern of neural pathways are changed - Long term potentiation: strengthening of synapses, believed to be the cellular foundation for memory - Research into how to induce LTP useful for dementia treatment - rats given NMDA receptor antagonists display memory deficits. Mice bred with enhanced NMDA function show greater LTP and better memory Requires metabolic activity for minutes/hours after the stimulus has been presented. Believed that the hippocampus plays a vital role in consolidation. Human memory has got significantly worse over the last 20 years due to this process being weakened by the advent of google. Hippocampi are getting smaller as we are externalising memory to smart phones etc.

Answer 5

* Cue required (eg prompt, reminder, question) * Original stimulus reconstructed using information from cue * The more information available, the easier the retrieval * A good 'filing system' also aids retrieval - eg mnemonics (memory aids, Method of Loci), make something personally relevant to you and you're more likely to remember it * Retrieval can be affected by interference - proactive (new phone number replaces old number), retroactive (old routine home blocks new route home) * Tip of the tongue phenomenon We know that memory isn't just recalling what you laid down - it is reconstructive. Retrieval even from long term memory can be interfered with by the same processes as in short term memory.

Answer 6

Levels of processing - The more something is elaborated at the time of encoding, the easier it will be to retrieve Organisation - Of concepts in memory (also, associations between concepts stored in LTM may facilitate recall) Context - Being in the same place/emotional state as the time of encoding facilitates recall - State Dependent Memory Organisation of concepts in memory affects how you retrieve them. The hardest thing you could be asked to remember is information that you have nothing similar to in the past (similar to if you don’t have visual stimuli from birth you cant see even when given sight back later in life). This is why there is some evidence that if your critical period during childhood is more varied and exciting you will do better in life as - has been seen in rat studies where brains bigger, denser, more neuronal connectivity. This tells us that you can make your brain better than biology gave you through environmental use. State dependent information also important for mood - if taught something drunk you wont remember it sober, but drunk you will - also works with drugs.

Answer 7

Declarative knowledge (sometimes known as explicit memory): - Memory for facts, for information that can be conveyed by statements - Involved conscious recollection of events/facts - Encompasses semantic and episodic memories - Eg your birthday

Answer 8

Non-declarative: - Generally doesn’t involve conscious recollection eg procedural memory - Implicit memory - Priming

Answer 9

Implicit memory: one of the two main types of long-term human memory. It is acquired and used unconsciously, and can affect thoughts and behaviours. One of its most common forms is procedural memory, which helps people performing certain tasks without conscious awareness of these previous experiences. Can work out if implicitly racist using this by looking at speed of processing these things,

Answer 10

Priming: where one concept being active in your mind leads to another concept being active eg bread = butter, doctor = nurse. One concept primes another. You self-prime yourself by your interests, if your really love football you will prime yourself to notice all things football in the environment.

Answer 11

Procedural knowledge - Memory for how to do things/skills - Often in the absence of conscious recollection Eg how do you tie your shoelaces, driving, riding a bike, playing chess This form of memory is also dissociated from the others. Can lose all other forms of memory but still be able to do things using this form of memory. Chess is interesting because they can see it and don’t think they know how to play as don’t think they ever have before, but if you tell them to guess then they can do it perfectly. This is an unconscious form of memory and it can't access conscious.

Answer 12

This form of memory is also dissociated from the others. Can lose all other forms of memory but still be able to do things using this form of memory. Chess is interesting because they can see it and don’t think they know how to play as don’t think they ever have before, but if you tell them to guess then they can do it perfectly. This is an unconscious form of memory and it can't access conscious.

Answer 13

* Most episodic memory decline over time however decline is not uniform over all memories eg * Behrick et al 1975 - memories of student days showed remarkable preservation - reminiscence bump = surprising perseverance of memories occurring between ages of 10 and 30. why? Most episodic memories decline over time but not uniform over all memories. Memory across human lifespan interesting as if get someone at 80 to recount the whole life they get reminiscence bump and get a lot of information between the age of 10 and 30. partly primacy effect as before 10 structures for laying down memories aren't properly developed, and because the time in this period is an important transitional time, and should make this time a good part of your life as will remember it forever, this is also because during this time you're exposed to a lot of new experiences. These are emotionally significant events. If they are new experiences then there cant be proactive interference as you have never done it before. Also have a bias towards positive rather than negative memories. Brain has some process where it rewrites your own history as you age - selectively forgets negative things and then you remember your past better than it actually was.

Answer 14

* Stability of early adulthood memories is remarkable * Why * Majority of first time experiences. Novelty is memorable because of the lack of proactive interference from previous learnings * More evidence for reminiscence bump for positive than negative memories (Bertsen and Ruben, 2002) Facebook and social media exacerbates this as we mostly tend to post positive things, biasing ourselves. Facebook is like a selectively positive diary, if compared with actual diaries we see that this fully positive life is fake.

Answer 15

* Flashbulb memory = detailed and extremely vivid memories regarding circumstances surrounding very shocking event eg September 11th * Only occur with shocking and emotionally significant events. Evolutionarily adaptive? * Emotional arousal during encoding enhances retention * Also frequently rehearsed and talked about Memories where something happens with such great significance that you can't ever forget it - eg 9/11 Happens with things that are usually negative and very different and are encoded very rapidly because there is emotion associated with (amygdala, limbic system) and this encodes it in a different way with memory and emotion. This is evolutionary for survival, useful to remember this information so as to avoid it as well. Can have personal versions of this as well not just famous things for all people, eg first real breakup. This is also partly how trauma memory works. You never forget flashbulb memories, and it is one instance memories.

Answer 16

- Sensing that a stimulus has been previously encountered, sense of familiarity - Generally easier than recall, as information is contained in the cue Recognition can be direct from a set stimuli or from a mental search of LTM store

Answer 17

- Reconstruction of a stimulus using the information available from the cue and information from LTM - Checked by the process of recognition - Greater 'cognitive demand' than recognition Recall can be direct from the cue or arise after problem-solving strategies have been employed

Answer 18

The main causes of forgetting from either working memory or long-term memory: Passage of time: - Rapid decay of information from WM - Cell death leads to loss of LTM (can be accelerated eg dementia) Interference: - Interference to storage in WM eg pro/retroactive - Connections are remolded over time in LTM, influenced by pro- and retroactive interference of information

Answer 19

Phenomena - Infantile amnesia = inability to remember events from early childhood - Generally people can not remember anything before 2 years. First memories usually occur between 2 and 5 years. Probably because brain regions responsible for episodic memory are nor sufficiently developed - Reminiscence bump = preserved memories for 10 to 30 years (many first time occurrences) Normative aging: - Speed of processing declines (perfect 1994) - Memory declines and forgetfulness increases but shouldn't interfere with ongoing functioning Everyone has infantile amnesia 30-60 age period kind of gets lost, as opposed to the 10-30 gap

Answer 20

suggested threatening information is often blocked from conscious awareness most of this evidence was based on adult patients that often spontaneously retrieve memories of being abused as children that they report no previous memory of.

Answer 21

* Butter, food, eat, sandwich, rye, jam, milk, flour, jelly, dough, crust, slice, wine, loaf, toast * Nurse, sick, lawyer, medicine, health, hospital, dentist, physician, ill, patient, office, stethoscope, surgeon, clinic, cure * Bread? Doctor? * Clancy et al 2000 compared women with recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, with women who believed they were abused but could not recall it and women who had always remembered abuse and controls.

Answer 22

* Also issue of prompting – subsequent studies have shown that adult patients that admit to reporting false recovered memories had clinicians that categorically suggested they had been abused as children * This finding relates to the literature of eyewitness testimony and its unreliability. Block things out so that we don’t have to keep reliving it. The evidence is very mixed on whether this exists at all. Confabulation is when you remember things in a different way but that is plausible. Remember things that weren't there for example. Something worse about the peoples memories in the results to make them unsure if something happened or not. Suggestibility factor - eg from therapists etc suggestion of abuse

Answer 23

* The case of HM (Milner, 1978) * Had surgery to cure severe epilepsy * After operation had near normal memory for events prior to surgery, and STM normal (approx 15 s) * But severe deficit for new memory of facts or of events occurring after surgery (encoding from STM to LTM). * Since operation he forgets the events of his life as they occur * Able to learn motor skills but could not remember which skills he had learned (Short term declarative) * Hand buzzer example Can remember anything that happened from then on - semantic and episodic. However could learn chess which is procedural but has to guess the moves having been taught after the accident. Every time the doctor would go in he would say hello doctor who are you and he would say I've never seen you before in my life and come back in 30 seconds later would say the same thing again. Doctor then used electric shock hand shake thingy after meeting about 100 times and then went out and came back and then he still says he's never seen him before and doesn’t recognise him BUT refuses to shake hands, and said he just didn’t feel like it so he had partial awareness.

Answer 24

* Temporal Lobe Amnesia (e.g. Korsakoffs) * Patients are able to learn skills ○ Procedural * Patients are unable to learn new facts ○ Declarative * E.g. a patient may show improved performance on a simple task over time, but each time they will show no recognition or memory of ever having performed the task before (despite obvious improvements) Irreversible when gets to Korsakoffs Able to learn new skills but not new facts - so declarative and semantic mainly damaged. Can have functioning episodic memory though

Answer 25

* The case of KC (Tulving, 1989) * Damage to specific brain regions, (left frontal-parietal and right parieto-occipital lobes) following a traffic accident * Can no longer retrieve any personal memory of his past (autobiographical memory) but general knowledge remains good * Plays chess well but does not remember where he learned to play * Can learn semantic knowledge when care is taken but cannot acquire episodic knowledge ○ E.g. will claim never to have met people met recently, but will be more friendly towards them than people he really hasn’t met

Answer 26

* Amnesia can be brought about by: * Damage ○ Head injury, stroke * Chronic alcohol abuse ○ e.g. Korsakoff’s syndrome, affecting storage and retrieval processes * Disease ○ e.g. Alzheimer’s: extensive damage to cortex, progressive deterioration from some impaired memory skills (esp. episodic memory) à more general cognitive impairment * Reversible brain disease ○ Tumours, hydrocephalus, subdural haematoma, deficiencies in B1, B6, B12, endocrine disease, syphilis * Psychogenic Memory Loss ○ Abuse, war

Answer 27

Most depictions of amnesia in films is someone hits their head and they lose the ability to remember who they are from the past - this is very rare and is called retrograde amnesia. The much more common form is anterograde amnesia which is where you can't make new memories. Also need to clinically separate into semantic and episodic to see which system is damaged. Semantic is rarer. Trauma could be so great that some kind of regressive mechanism is acting - people forget things because it is too traumatic. Could also just be lying. Common denominator of PML is that you never lose a nice memory, always traumatic things. Following a stroke you gradually get function back, get memories back, but if a whole brain region is killed that wont recover. However we know that another area can learn and adapt to what you’ve lost, so areas around the dead area can take on some of the function. Get a slow, gradual recovery.

Answer 28

* Anterograde amnesia (as in patient HM) * Inability to store new information * Inability to transfer information from STM to LTM

Answer 29

* Retrograde amnesia (rarer) * Inability to recall information prior to trauma * Often following closed head injury, can be relatively short duration

Answer 30

* HM had both hoppocampi surgically removed yet retained information from the past. * Therefore suggests this is not the actual repository * Memories are stored in various regions of the cortex

Answer 31

Frontal lobe - stores certain semantic and episodic memories Prefrontal cortex - involved in storage of STM Motor cortex - procedural memory Temporal lobe - formation and storage of LT semantic and episodic and also new STM Amygdala - emotions, emotional response, emotional memories Hippocampus - new LT semantic and episodic memories, not the repository but where theyre formed - amygdala on the end of it, close biologically as get bang for buck as it stores the memories, both lighting up saying to store quickly, perhaps one time learning Cerebellum - storage of procedural memories and also for balance. If drink enough for long enough you permanently damage it and you get a permanent alcoholic gate

Answer 32

* Memories are stored in a distributed fashion throughout the cortex * Therefore something has to integrate these into coherent memories * That something is probably the hippocampal region (Schacter, 1996) Not only the hippocampus because can remove it and there's still function - likely to be the regions around the hippocampus more than others.

Answer 33

• Can result from head injuries, psychological states or drugs • Concussion often associated with memory loss • Cinema experience • Usually retrograde amnesia for events immediately preceding the cause • Fugue states (Schacter et al. 1982) • Occur with extreme psychological trauma often loss of previous experience and identity • Drugs Date rape drugs such as rohypnol can cause amnesic effects for events occurring while under the influence Rohypnol, alcohol Fugue states - when you have a big psychological trauma, do something horrific (eg kill someone) and then forget what you’ve done and are found wandering. Unaware of what you're doing.

Answer 34

• Memory across the lifespan is unequally distributed as we have seen (Rubin, Wetzler & Nebes, 1986). • If we ask an older adult to recall their lives the following general pattern would emerge • Infantile amnesia – failure to recall anything from first 3 years often first 5 years • Reminiscence Bump – better memory for period 10 to 30 but strongest for positive information • Alternative theory • Conway & Pleydell Pearce (2000) • Knowledge base ○ Lifetime periods – vast swathes of time defined in terms of ongoing situations ○ General Events – often repeated but related to each other ○ Specific knowledge of events • Working self ○ Concerned with goal attainment frames knowledge in terms of progress or lack of progress towards important goals As opposed to being because of new experiences, might be because of the Conway and Pleydell Pearce theory - the things you remember are discrete normative events, so average life would look like birth, school, university, work, tv, marriage, children, divorce??, death. This theory argues that these are the structures that we hang memories on. Working self - anything related to you is better remembered, cognitive bias to things you're interested in, also cognitive bias if set a goal for your life then you have a cognitive bias to anything related to that goal. This means that you notice some things more that you didn’t notice before or wouldn’t usually. * At advanced age memory starts to decline * Speed of processing slows with age (Perfect, 1994) * Generally normative age related decline should not interfere with daily functioning * Where it does its more likely to indicate a pathological process * Working memory declines more Average life expectancy is 80 (M) and 81 (F), and 80 is where we class as starting to see advanced old age. Older adults used to refer to 60-80 and after 80 were referred to as either advanced old or old-old, but have now had to create new terminology as people are living longer now.

Answer 35

• Brain damage studies are broadly supportive of the 3 types of autobiographical knowledge ○ Generally event specific knowledge is more compromised than general events or lifetime periods ○ Confabulation on basis of plausibility is common General event autobiographical knowledge is every time you’ve been to uni - repeatedly go, similar to dating etc

Answer 36

* Affects roughly 800,000 people in the UK * Increases with age * Is a syndrome associated with multiple losses * Memory loss * Speed of processing * Language ability * Understanding * Emotional ability * Alzheimers is most common form representing the majority of cases * 10% of individuals develop dementia at some point * Cure is impossible because of neurodegeneration but slowing is possible Massive cause of memory loss. 800,000 is going up, significantly higher than schizophrenia rates, going up because living longer and lifestyle factors such as alcohol use, using your brain/lack of use. Not just memory loss - also speed of processing, language, comprehending, emotional, personality change. An almost certainty if live long enough is the lens of the eye wears out and get cataracts, prostate cancer, also memory loss is another certainty. Rest of us (90% not with dementia) wont escape memory loss. Memory loss with dementia is problematic because cure is impossible because it is caused by neuronal death. Drugs can slow it but not stop it. Slowing it is a problem though because by the time someone presents with dementia they can have lost 50% of the neurones already. Looking currently at transplanting parts of brains, just the regions which are damaged not the whole brain. Could be taken from elsewhere or grown. Other treatment possibilities include encouraging neurone regeneration/regrowth. They are looking at this by using certain animal species and looking at how they regenerate eg starfish.

Memory Flashcards

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