2:3 Memory

Question 1

Describe Atkinson and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of Memory (1968).

Answer 1

It involved a route into long-term memory:

1. Different senses enter sensory-specific stores for a brief time.
   - - Vision, audition.
2. Sense then enter the short-term store (STS), where they might be rehearsed.
   - - Rehearsal, coding, decisions.
3. They are transferred into long-term stores (LTS) or we lose them or they become displaced if we fail to practice them enough.
   - - Permanent memory.

** Modal Model: The route to the long-term memory is always through the short-term memory

Question 2

What two findings did Shallice and Warrington make on memory?

Answer 2

1. Short-term and long-term memory do not use the same neural structures as each other.
2. There can’t be a sequential route from short to long-term memory. Otherwise, any impairment in short-term memory would prevent somebody possessing a normal long-term memory store.

Question 3

Who developed the model of working memory?

Answer 3

Baddeley and Hitch (1974).

Question 4

Give an example of a dual-task study of a central executive.

Answer 4

Studying two independent short-term stores:

1. Verbal information.
   Eg. the phonological store or loop.
2. Visuo-spatial info.
   Eg. material on sketch pad.

The central executive organizes the correct type of material into the correct store.

• If two tasks use the same parts of the working memory, they cannot be carried out well at the same time.
• If two tasks use different parts, they should be successfully completed accurately.

Question 5

What’s another term for our phonological store?

Answer 5

Verbal working memory (VWM).

Question 6

In which brain area is verbal memory stored?

Answer 6

Left parietal.

Question 7

In which brain area are neural correlates of articulatory loops stored?

Answer 7

Left frontal.

Is also Broca’s area, involved in speech production.

Question 8

Holding a location in spatial working memory involves priming visual activity in parts of the cortex that correspond to:

Answer 8

• The item’s location in the world.
• Also overlaps with the attention process.

Eg: Right-hemisphere parietal regions are required for spatial working memory and for spatial attention.

Question 9

Describe three Central Executive functions:

Answer 9

1. Decides what information should go into the different stores.
2. Organizes which store the information should go to.
3. Used to inspect, transform, or manipulate the information being held in the stores.

Question 10

What are two distinct processes of long-term memory?

Answer 10

Explicit (declarative) memory.
- Can consciously access and explain.

Implicit (non-declarative) memory.
- Cannot describe or define.

Question 11

Skills we’ve learned, like catching a ball or priming, are examples of which type of long-term memory?

Answer 11

Implicit.

They are not accessed through any conscious recollection.

Question 12

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 12

A loss of memory before the event that caused amnesia.

Rare.

Question 13

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 13

Loss of ability to create new memories.

But able to remember people and events from before the operation or event that caused amnesia.
More common.

Question 14

Removal of which parts of the brain would cause anterograde amnesia?

Answer 14

Medial temporal lobes and hippocampus.

Eg. Famous study of patient HM but Brenda Milner –> HM’s working memory was normal but long-term memory could not be improved and no new explicit memories could be made.

Question 15

What two types of memories fall under long-term explicit memories?

Answer 15

1. Episodic (events and experiences).

2. Semantic (facts).

Question 16

Which types of memories answer what, where and when?

Answer 16

Episodic or event memories.

Question 17

What types of memories include general knowledge, such as what we learned at school, or the geography of a country?

Answer 17

Semantic.

Question 18

In which part of the brain is episodic memory saved?

Answer 18

Medial temporal lobe and hippocampus.

Question 19

True or false: Episodic memory is linked to a sense of self.

Answer 19

True.

Question 20

Loss of episodic memory is among the first symptoms of what neurodegenerative disease?

Answer 20

Dementia.

Question 21

True or false: Episodic memories provide an accurate recollection of an event.

Answer 21

False. They can be inaccurate from the first recall.

Eg. Wade and colleagues superimposed photograph of the hot air balloon.

Question 22

fMRI scans of someone creating an imaginary event shows which brain regions are at use?

Answer 22

Medial temporal and hippocampal – the same as episodic memory.