Lecture 12 - Intro To Memory Systems Flashcards
What are the joints of memory?
- System that needs classification to be understood to make scientific sense
- Breaking complex system into components in a natural and non-arbitrary way
How do we learn about memory?
- Introspection
- Empirical research and theory building
- Cycles: considering how findings from different methods fit together
What is encoding?
- Entering information into the system
What is storage?
- Holding information statically
What is retrieval?
- Getting info out of the system
What is the information processing approach?
- Environment -> Sensory Memory -> STM -> LTM
- System for internally preserving info from env
- Boxes are permanent and universal structures, processes might be more flexible
- Arrows show info movement
What is the environment?
- Contains info we might want to know Outside memory storage
What is sensory memory?
- Brief storage of info within a specific perceptual modality (e.g., audition, vision, etc.)
- Very recent memories retain high sensory fidelity for a lot of information, closely linked to perceptual systems
- Processes: Information from environment encoded into sensory memory
What is STM?
- Retention of small amounts of information over periods of a few seconds
- Processes: Some information stored in sensory memory goes to STM
What is LTM?
- Holds info for long periods of time
- Some info in STM is encoded into LTM
- Retrieve info from here when you need knowledge
- Info loss: not everything that is remembered briefly is transferred to LTM
Describe HM:
- Had surgery for epilepsy
- Lost LTM, he could not retain new memories
- A lot of his cognition is spared including IQ, conversations, selective attention, immediate memory, procedural memory and most sensory functions
- Procedural memory is conserved via mirror tracing box, he gets better as time goes on, even if he does not remember the activity
- Shows different kinds of memory
How does HM support dissociation of memory?
- HM thinks: remembers info for seconds but could not learn long term memories or retrieve them (STM fine, LTM not)
- Knows semantically but episodic not
What were the dissociations proposed with HMs deficits?
- Has the structures but movement is impaired
- Maybe info is present but access is not present
What did Cowan et al. find?
- Patients with amnesia can code new memories under certain conditions
- Took patients similar to HM
- Asked to immediately recall list of words to test STM
- Delayed recall task, manipulated what happens e.g other tasks or no obvious interference
- Immediate condition are always better, in no interference condition, control forget a little, patients remember very little
- Under some circumstance, some info is passing into LTM
Why can this information process cannot be right
- Incomplete
- Isolation of short/long term period is hard, when done, they fail spatial STM memory test
- Additional joints needed in STM
