Chap 9 Flashcards
(34 cards)
Midline diencephalic region
Brain area, related to the hippocampus, where damage may result in amnesia.
Mammillary bodies
Parts of the hypothalamus; damage to these structures may result in amnesia.
Anterograde amnesia
Deficit in learning new information after the onset of amnesia.
Episodic memory
Autobiographical memories that are specific to one’s particular experience; includes context about the time, space, etc.
Retrograde amnesia
Memory impairment for information that was acquired prior to the event that caused the amnesia; a deficit stretching back in time to some point before the onset of amnesia.
Semantic memory
Knowledge that allows the formation and retention of facts, concepts, categories, and word meaning and retention of information about ourselves and the people we know – all of which are expressed across many different contexts.
Temporal gradient
Effect of amnesia in which there is greater
compromise of more recent memories than
more remote memories.
Working memory
The ability to hold a limited amount of
information on-line over the short term
while the information is being actively
used or processed.
Digit span task
Test in which a person must report back a
sequence of digits read one at a time by
the experimenter; reveals the person’s
working memory span.
Extended digit span task
Test in which the same digit string is
presented on each trial but with an
additional digit added to extend the span;
requires use of long-term storage in
addition to working memory.
Delayed nonmatch-to-sample task
Test in which an animal is exposed to one of a large set of
objects and, following a delay, is presented again with the
object just viewed, together with another from the set of
available objects; to receive a reward, the animal must
select the object that was not previously presented. Reveals
dissociation between long-term-memory deficit and fully
functional working memory.
Skill learning
The acquisition – usually gradually and
incrementally through repetition – of motor,
perceptual, or cognitive operations or
procedures that aid performance.
Mirror-tracing task
Test in which the person must trace the
outline of a figure by looking in a mirror.
Mirror-reading task
Test in which word triplets are presented in mirror-image orientation, and the viewer reads them aloud as quickly and accurately as possible; determines whether a skill generalizes to new exemplars.
Word-stem completion task
Test in which participants are given a list of words to
study. After a delay, memory for the words is tested in two
ways, both of which involve the presentation of three-letter
stems. In the cued-recall condition, participants are asked
to recall the word from the study list that started with those
same three letters. In the word-stem completion condition,
individuals are to report “the first word that comes to mind”
that completes each stem.
Morris water maze
Test of learning and memory of spatial relations in
animals. A rat is placed in a circular tank filled with an
opaque liquid that obscures a slightly submerged
platform, which is positioned at a constant location
relative to various visual cues outside the maze.
Normal animals learn the position of the platform,
and across trials there is a decrease in the time it
takes them to swim to the platform.
Explicit memory system
Memory system that permits the conscious
recollection of prior experiences and facts;
lost in amnesia.
Declarative memory system
Memory system, supported by the
hippocampus, that allows particular
information to be used flexibly in contexts not
linked to the situation in which the information
was acquired.
Implicit memory system
Memory system that allows prior experience to
affect behavior without conscious retrieval or
awareness of the memory.
Procedural memory system
Supports memory of “how” things should be
done, allowing for the acquisition and expression
of skill; learning in this system is probabilistic,
integrating information across events rather than
storing each event separately.
Relational learning
Hippocampal memory system that supports
learning (whether conscious or unconscious)
occurring in tasks or situations where
performance depends on acquiring memory for
the relations among items, especially items
associated only arbitrarily.
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
Neuronal mechanism that allows processing
of the conjunctions or co-occurrences of
inputs, in which brief, patterned activation of
particular pathways produces a stable
increase in synaptic efficacy lasting for hours
to weeks.
Place fields
Particular places in the environment to which
hippocampal neurons fire preferentially.
