Learning and Memory Flashcards
(38 cards)
sensory memory
iconic/echoic. seconds to milliseconds
short term memory
seconds to minutes
long term memory
days to years
declarative memory
explicit, allows us to consciously recollect events and facts
non-declarative
implicit, accessed without consciousness through performance rather than recollection
Patient HM
loss of episodic and semantic, still maintained working and procedural, implicit memory
episodic memory
can remember specific episodes
semantic memory
can remember facts (ie thanksgiving is on thursday)
Hippocampus
necessary for encoding and consolidating new memories
MTL
medial temporal lobe, necessary for working memory, consolidation of new memories
LTP
long term potentiation - structural changes in synapse. larger EPSPS more likely to fire action potential. presynaptic neurons are potentiated
reinstatement hypothesis
memory retrieval can be facilitated when the neural activity is similar to that in the time of encoding
preattentive
parallel, only one feature sticking out
attentive
serial, must pick out more than one feature
overt attention
Intentionally focusing attention by directing gaze toward stimulus
Most direct way to shift attention
covert attention
Attending to stimuli outside the center of gaze
“Watching out of the corner of your eye”
bottom up
Looking at entire visual field to find target.
Reaction time does not vary based on number of distractors
“Preattentive” or “parallel” search
Involves Exogenous Attention.
top down
Parsing through individual elements to find target
More distractors = longer reaction time; linear relationship
“Attentive” or “serial” search
Involves Endogenous Attention.
optic ataxia
cannot move hand to object
ocular apraxia
inability to control gaze
simultagnosia
inability to recognize more than one object shown at the same time
neural effects of attention
activity in visual cortex is modulated by spatial attention. attention boosts the signal in the neurons, making processing more efficient because irrelevant info is ignored
davachi et al
Perirhinal Cortex showed greater activity for recognized items relative to forgotten items.
Hippocampus & Parahippocampal Cortex showed greater activity for
source recollection compared to item recognition.
Perirhinal Cortex is involved in item recognition.
Hippocampus & Parahippocampal Cortex are involved in source recollection.
MTL structures have specialized roles in memory encoding.
mirror neurons umilta et al
Results:
F5 mirror neurons showed the most activity in the full-vision, object-present condition.
F5 mirror neurons showed slightly reduced activity in the hidden, object-present condition, but still significantly higher than baseline.
F5 mirror neurons showed greatly reduced activity during the miming (object-absent) conditions compared to both object-present conditions.
Conclusions:
Mirror neuron activation is not limited to directly visible events.
Mirror neurons play an important role in action recognition.