Cognitive Deck 2 Flashcards
(45 cards)
Define phonological, semantic, and visual LTM.
Phonological - Supports our ability to identify spoken words. No meaning associated with phonological LTMs.
Semantic - Our knowledge of the meaning and function of words and objects. Semantic memory supports inferences. i.e., an ostrich breathes.
Visual - Supports out ability to identify visual information, including written words, objects, faces, etc.
Briefly describe episodic memory.
Links memories from various LTM systems (visual, semantic, phonological) to store a record of a personal event.
Also procedural memory
Example of a LTM single dissociation (with semantic, visual or phonological).
Dyslexics have difficulty identifying words (Task 1) but are fine in recognizing faces (Task 2).
But could just mean one task is harder.
Example of a LTM double dissociation (with semantic, visual or phonological).
Prosopagnosic patients
have more difficulty in identifying
faces (Task 2) compared to words
(Task 1).
Rids the argument that one task is just harder.
What do double dissociations of LTM stores show?
That the stores (semantic, visual, phonological) can be split further.
Such as: visual into words and faces, and phonological into language sounds and non-language sounds eg woof.
Give a double dissociation between episodic LTM and procedural LTM.
Amnesia patients = bad episodic, good procedural.
Parkinsons/Huntingdons = good episodic, bad procedural.
What is the first thing you must do to encode information?
Pay attention.
Maintenance vs Elaborative rehearsal.
Maintenance rehearsal: Keeping
information active in STM by relying on phonological loop.
– That is, just repeating information, without considering the meaning. Not enough to encode to LTM.
Elaborative rehearsal: Encoding the
meaning of to-be-remembered information generally leads to better episodic memory.
Levels-of-processing: Memory is a by-product of perceptual and conceptual analyses.
* Perceptual –> phonological –> conceptual.
– Memory tends to be best for “deep” levels of encoding.
* Best when organizing
new new memories to fit with old memories.
* Intention to remember irrelevant.
What did the museum example for encoding to LTM find?
People often remember
quite different things depending on background knowledge, our interests, and how we organise new information with old.
” painting with a smooth surface, an easy one to spot check. It is approximately five feet high and seven feet long.” - security guard.
“film noir sort of feel, a mystery novel to it. The puzzle is there….” - art curator.
What is the picture superiority effect, with evidence?
We encode pictorial information better than verbal information.
– Participants studied lists of pictures and words and tested on pictures and words.
– Asked to attend to the names at encoding (verbal instructions) or the image (imagery instruction).
– Tested on pictures and words in Yes/No recognition task.
What is the concreteness effect?
Words like “car”, “house” better remembered than abstract
words like “truth”, “betrayal”.
What does the concreteness effect and picture superiority effect support?
Dual code theory-
Information stored in at least two forms: verbal/linguistic code and a mental image code.
Concreteness effect - Concrete words can be encoded in both systems: you can imagine an apple (visual code) and say the word “apple” (verbal code). Abstract words typically only activate the verbal system, making them harder to remember.
What are mnemonic devices and methods of loci?
Mnemonic devices improve memory by improving the encoding of information.
– Deep levels of encoding, Organizing and linking
new information to old, Visual imagery.
Method of Loci: Imagine a journey through a familiar route:
* e.g., bed, closet, bathroom, Bedroom 2, stairs, lounge,
kitchen, front door, etc.
* Then take list of items you want to memorize and link them to the route through imagery.
* corn, potatoes, bread, flour, OJ, milk, coffee, etc.
What is consolidation?
The process of converting memories into a format resistant to forgetting. Consolidation within hippocampus. Binds information across different systems located in different parts of the cortex.
– Two types (short-term & long-term consolidation)
* Short-term consolidation: converting short-term memories into it more enduring format.
Occurs over seconds or minutes.
– Short-term consolidation involves the hippocampus linking information from all the various LTM systems via the hippocampus to form an episodic memory.
Short-term consolidation: Takes seconds/minutes to develop long-term links from hippocampus to other memory systems.
What is long-term consolidation?
Long-term consolidation occurs over months, years. Observed in extended temporally graded retrograde amnesia.
Initially (due to short-term
consolidation), memory in hippocampus links all the various types of LTM in order to store a record of the episode.
Over time, memories in the various LTM systems are linked directly (without requiring the hippocampus) to form an episodic memory.
On this view, damage to hippocampus does not erase old episodic memories because they have moved to cortex.
What is the multiple-memory trace theory?
**Older memories are better coded within the hippocampus because they have been rehearsed more often. **
– Episodic memories always rely on the hippocampus, and do not move to the cortex.
– This view denies that episodic memory undergoes long-term consolidation.
The hippocampus is always involved episodic memories, and the severity and extent of RA depends on the extent of the hippocampal lesion.
* Prediction: hippocampus should be involved in the retrieval of old and recent episodic memories.
Give some features of retrieval.
- Retrieval is less affected by divided attention than encoding. Suggests an automatic component to memory retrieval.
- Recall more affected than recognition in Korsakoff amnesia (Korsakoff amnesia associated with frontal lesions).
*
What are the two types of retrieval for episodic memory?
1) Automatic Retrieval: Hippocampus can retrieve information relatively automatically with strong retrieval cues:
– In cued recall task part of the study items are repeated at test,
allowing retrieval under divided attention.
– In recognition task the study word itself is presented at test,
allowing Korsakoff patients to recognize some items.
In automatic retrieval, memories often “pop out. These
memories are sometimes correct, sometimes not, and
hippocampus cannot correct itself. Need another system
to correct for false memories.
– False memories are the confabulations.
2) Effortful Retrieval:
If you are not given a strong retrieval cue (as in free recall), then hippocampus cannot retrieve memories very well.
– Divided attention impairs free recall
– Free recall is poor in Korsakoff patients.
The frontal system can generate better retrieval cues that the hippocampus can use to generate a memory.
Frontal systems can also monitor and eliminate errors in memory retrieval.
How does the frontal system work with the hippocampal memory system?
- The frontal system is the “boss” of the hippocampal memory system
– Control the information that is presented to the hippocampus at encoding (by directing attention).
– Initiate and guide retrieval.
– Monitor information that is retrieved from hippocampus.
What is retrieval and encoding specificity?
The effectiveness of a retrieval cue
depends on how well it relates to initial encoding.
– That is, the way we perceive and think about events at encoding determines what cues will later
elicit episodic memories.
* Explains state dependent and mood dependent episodic memory.
What is the wet land dry land study and what can it explain?
Participants learned words either on land or under water, and were tested on land or under water. Better results when tested where they studied.
May help explain exceptional visual long-term memory when same identical images are repeated at study and test.
Why do episodic memories fail?
– Poor encoding
– Poor retrieval cues
– Loss of storage (the acquisition of new memories can interfere with previously stored memories).
Describe a study showing that encoding is better for familiar faces.
Experiment carried out with Asian and Caucasian participants making perceptual decisions about Asian and Caucasian faces:
–Each trial consisted of a target face at the center of the screen for 250 ms, and after 1 second delay, two faces presented side by side.
–Participants pressed one of two response buttons to indicate which picture matched the target.
Better for own race.
Arguments that verbal language is innate.
Universal across cultures.
* Brain damage can specifically impair language. e.g., Broca’s aphasia.
– Rarely a selective disorder of a general skills, e.g., chess.
* Critical period for language learning.
– Genie (isolated from language till 13.5 years).
– Sign-language.
– Phonology (the sounds of language).
* Language unique to humans.
