Auditory Perception And Memory

Question 1

Explain auditory path from pinna to cochlea

Answer 1

Pinna catches sound. Ear canal amplifies sound. Ear drum vibrates in respond to soundwaves and passes vibrations to the ossicles (where small space=energy is concentrated=increases pressure of signal), ossicles pass the vibrations to the cochlea. The cochlea ultimately turns the mechanical energy into neural energy.

Question 2

What happens in the cochlea

Answer 2

Basilar membrane vibrates. High pitch closer to the base. Low pitch farther away from base. Hair cells vibrate in responde to vibration of basilar membrane . When they bend, transmit signal to auditory nerve.

Question 3

Later auditory perception

Answer 3

Starts in primary auditory cortex (A1) located in temporal lobe. Respond to specific auditory properties such as pitch and rhythm.

Question 4

Distinguish frequency, amplitude

Answer 4

Frequency: how many cycles per second. High pitch= many cycles per second
Low pitch= fewer cycles per second
Perception of pitch

Amplitude: how high does the wave go
High pitch: rlly high
Low pitch: rlly low
Perception of loudness

Question 5

Is audition contralateral

Answer 5

Yes

Question 6

How do we call the unit of measurement for loudness levels

Answer 6

The phon.

Question 7

Interaural time difference vs interaural level difference

Answer 7

Time difference: Sound arrives sooner at ear on the same side as the sound

Level difference: louder in ear on the same side as sound

Question 8

Detecting sounds horizontaly vs vertically

Answer 8

Horizontally: as we have ears on left and right side of head, well situated to detect sounds on the horizontal plane

Vertically: pinna becomes important!

Question 9

Iconic/Echoic and haptic sensory memory

Answer 9

Echoic= brief memory of sound
Haptic= brief memory of touch
Iconic= brief memory of image. Persistence of vision: positive (represents perceived image) and negative afterimage (inverse of perceived image)

Question 10

Sperlings experiments: three rows of letters. Difference between whole report and partial report

Answer 10

Whole report: people could remember 4 or 5 letters from the display

Partial report (didnt know what row would be asked): could well remember. As long as not much time between visual display and tone signal which says which row to report

Question 11

Short term memory relies on what part of brain

Answer 11

Prefrontal cortex

Then with help of hippocampus stored in various places accross cortex

Question 12

4 sub units of working memory

Answer 12

Visuo-spatial sketchpad: visual component.
2 parts:
-visual cache: info about visual features
-inner scribe: info about spatial location, movement, sequences

Phonological loop: the auditory component.
2 parts:
-phonological store: holds the words we hear
-articulatory control loop: allows us to repeat words in a loop (inner voice)

Central executive: gatekeeper, determines what infi makes it into WM

Episodic buffer: controlled by central executive. It links info with what we know. Takes info from VSS, long-term memory and PL

Question 13

Retroactive interference vs proactive interference

Answer 13

Retro: problem remembering old info

Pro: problem remembering new info

Question 14

Mnemonics

Answer 14

Organizational strategies that help encode to-be-rembembered info

Question 15

Method of loci

Answer 15

Associate pieces of info with location or visual image to help remember

Question 16

Forgetting curve

Answer 16

Memory loss largest early on and slows down

Question 17

Best way to encode info

Answer 17

Self reference

Question 18

Encoding specificity hypothesis

Answer 18

Memory retrival is better when there is overlap with encoding context (internal state or external environnement

Question 19

Sematic dementia

Answer 19

Impaired at word naming and picture matching tasks (they cant access facts)

Question 20

Misattribution effect

Answer 20

Retrieving familiar info from the wrong source ex. Thinking you remember someone from high school but it was actually from previous job

Question 21

Misinformation effect

Answer 21

Leading questions can cause false memory formation
Ex. «How fast were the cars going when they contacted each other?» vs «How fast were the cars when they smashed into each other»

Smashed: rlly fast
Contacted: not too fast

Question 22

What structure supports procedural memory?

Answer 22

Basal ganglia (striatum)

Question 23

Which part of the brain is monitors habit behaviors

Answer 23

Prefrontal cortex

Question 24

Amnesia

Answer 24

Loss of episodic memory due to brain damage

Intact: STM, procedural memory and semantic memory

Question 25

2 types amnesia

Answer 25

Retrograde: cant remember events that happened before BD

Anterograde: cant remember events that happen after BD (impaired formation of new memories)

Question 26

Dissociative amnesia

Answer 26

Disorder characterized by retrospectively reported memory gaps. Inability to recall personal info: leads to shift on lifestyle such as moving to a new place, assuming a new identity

Response to traumatic event

Question 27

Alzheimer dementia

Answer 27

Starts in medial temporal lobe
-early symptoms: deficit in episodic memory, decline in ability to retain new info
-late symptoms: deficit in semantic memory too

Question 28

Semantic dementia

Answer 28

Starts in left anterior temporal lobe
-deficits recognizing faces of friends, words and uses of objects
-anomia (loss of word meaning and finding), calling objects «thingys»

Question 29

What structure is needed to encode new memories

Answer 29

Hippocampus

Question 30

What types of memory get impaired by age

Answer 30

Episodic memory and working memory

Implicit and semantic is intact!

Question 31

Which of the following is a symptom of early stage Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 31

Poor object recognition