Brain and Behaviour Flashcards
What are thought to be the neural correlates of declarative memory?
Medial temporal lobes including the hippocampus + parahippocampal cortex
Name and define each of the stages of the memory process.
Registration: input from senses into the memory system
Encoding: processing + combining of received information
Storage: holding of that input in the memory system
Retrieval: recovering stored information from the memory system (remembering)
What are the conceptual divisions in memory systems?
Sensory
Working or short term memory
Long-term memory
Describe the model of memory
Info in + sensory registration
Some info lost, some immediately transferred to long term memory, some aspects attended to
Aspects attended to transferred to working memory (limited capacity)
Rehearsal of these aspects stores them in working memory
Some transferred to long term memory, some lost
Retrieval requires activation of working memory
State two strategies for enhancing memory.
By assimilation: linking words with previous knowledge/giving words a meaning
Learn by mnemonics
What are the two types of long-term memory?
Non-declarative: “knowing how”- procedural, non-associative learning, conditioning
Declarative: “knowing what”
What are the two types of declarative memory?
Episodic: related to personal experience (e.g. knowing what you did last night)
Semantic: facts/ general knowledge (e.g. capital of France)
What are the main influences on language development?
Genetic factors: some mutations lead to severe language problems
Condition e.g. autism, ADD, developmental verbal dyspraxia
Environment/ exposure to others
What is the critical period for language acquisition?
As age increases from birth, ease of learning language decreases from age 3-8
> age 10, ease of learning language is much lower than earlier in life
What is executive functioning?
Mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, + multitask
State 8 common behavioural and emotional aspects of dysexecutive syndrome.
Impulsivity Disinhibition Emotional bluntness/ dysregulation Apathy Perseveration Poor initiation of tasks, lack of drive Hypo-/hyper-activity Socially inappropriate
What is the serial position effect?
There is a higher probability of remembering items at the beginning + end of a list
“Primacy effect” + “Recency effect”
What is the probability of remembering words in a list dependent on?
Order in the list Personal salience of words Number of words Chunking or other encoding strategy Delay time Distraction
Which hemisphere has dominance for language in most people?
Left hemisphere
Though some left handed people have right hemisphere/ bi-lateral dominance for language function
List 4 characteristics of Broca’s expressive aphasia
Non-fluent speech
Impaired repetition
Poor ability to produce syntactically correct sentences
Intact comprehension
