Long-Term Memory Systems

Question 1

what are the two long term memory systems?

Answer 1

declarative memory
non-declarative memory

Question 2

what is declarative memory?

Answer 2

• Conscious recollection
• Episodic memories: thing that have happened in our lives
• Semantic memories: factual knowledge
• Explicit memory
• in the Medial temporal lobe & diencephalon

Question 3

what is non-declarative memory?

Answer 3

• Unconscious:
• procedural memories: how to do things
• Priming
• Implicit memory: may not be aware of, not consciously happening.
• in the Basal ganglia & Neocortex

Question 4

what is the breakdown of long-term memory systems?

Answer 4

long-term memory splits into declarative memory and non-delarative memory. declaratove memory forms episodic and semantic memories and non-declarative memory forms procedural memory and priming.

Question 5

what is episodic memory?

Answer 5

• Recollection of events
• Remember something as a second hand experience.
• Things that are part of your daily life.
  Where and when personal events occurred
• Memory that has been encountered multiple times but no longer linked to those experiences
• Has become general knowledge.

Question 6

what is semantic memory?

Answer 6

• Facts or general knowledge about the world
• Don’t really have to think about
• Don’t have to make a lot of effort to remember it.
• Abstracted from actual experience
• Stored in the form of concepts
• mental representations of categories (e.g. objects)

Question 7

is episodic memory like a video recorder?

Answer 7

• Are you reconstructing the experience based on what you think has happened
• Easy to miss things
• How accurate is our memory
• Reproduce a detailed and accurate picture of the past…
• Requires a large amount of processing
• What you recall is not of the same accuracy as a video
• We tend to recall important aspects: how we felt, who was there, what happened etc.

Question 8

how is episodic memory a construction of events?

Answer 8

• Rather than reproductive
• Access gist, with trivial details omitted
• Only remember important aspects
• Flexibility needed to form future plans
• Use knowledge acquired to know what to do next time
• Prone to error and illusions
• Easy to plant false memories
• Study that makes people believe they committed a crime in their youth- can easily make them believe they were there.
• Childhood memories- memory is repeated over and over to the point where we feel we remember it too even though we didn’t.

Question 9

how is semantic memory stored in concepts?

Answer 9

• mental representations of categories (e.g. objects)
• Concepts are organised in hierarchies

Question 10

what are the 3 concepts used in semantic memory?

Answer 10

• superordinate level: the larger concept the object belongs to.
• basic level: tend to describe a specific object
• subordinate level: describe the object in a more specific sense- specify the type.

Question 11

which concept is acquired by children first?

Answer 11

Basic level

Question 12

how is the role of expertise important for concepts?

Answer 12

• Birdwatchers: Subordinate categories when naming birds
• Dog experts: Subordinate categories when naming breads of dog
• Faces: Subordinate level used especially when identifying someone you know- use names and address them as individuals.

Question 13

what do mental concepts look like?

Answer 13

• Traditionally, assumed that to have the following characteristics: Abstract in nature/ Stable
• Argued that concepts can vary depending on your goals, experiences etc.
• Shared across individuals
• More recently, argued that concepts vary depending on…
• Individual’s goals
• Current context/setting
  Barsalou (2009, 2012)

Question 14

what are goal-based categories?

Answer 14

• Difficult to define and are different for everyone.
  e.g.:
• Things to take in a fire
• Things you would do if you won the lottery
• Things that float

Question 15

what are schemas?

Answer 15

• A number of different objects/ chunks are integrated into one section of knowledge.
• Helps make sense of the world- without having to use a lot of cognitive resources.
• Draw conclusion about what is happening.
  Pick out salient clues from the environment to explain the behaviour and situation.
• Integrated chunks of knowledge about the world, events, people or actions. (Abstract form)
• Factual knowledge that you have gained from experience- now become a stand alone fact about a concept on its own.
• In the form of scripts
  Information about the sequencing of events
• Abstract and corresponding to individual words
• Broader, more flexible structures of information

Question 16

what is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 16

• Reduced ability to acquire new memories
• Don’t lose all memory
• May lose memories from a certain point onwards.
• Damage to hippocampus
  ○ Poor episodic memory
  ○ Don’t remember personal experiences well.
• Damage to para-hippocampal cortex
  ○ Poor semantic memory
  ○ Not easily able to remember knew factual knowledge.
• Damage to both regions
  ○ Poor episodic/semantic memory
  ○ Both factors are lacking
• Tells us they are stored and processed in different parts of the brain
• Qualitatively different
• Can both be affected separately and together.
• If one is affected, doesn’t mean the other will be affected.

Question 17

what is interdependence?

Answer 17

• Involve similar brain systems at time encoding and retrieval
• A level of interdependence between them.
• During coding and retrieval- episodic and semantic memories.

Question 18

what did Kan et al (2009) study in relation to interdependence?

Answer 18

• Learn prices of grocery items (episodic memory task)
• Prices either congruent (what you would normally expect to pay in a shop) or incongruent (not what they would expect) with prior knowledge (semantic memory)
• Healthy controls had better memory for congruent grocery prices
• When prices were what they would normally expected to pay (episodic in line with semantic) could remember it more as it fit in with expectations
• Amnesiac patients with poor semantic memory showed no congruency effect
• Remembered both of the prices equally (well or badly)
• For healthy controls, showed how the systems support each other and work together.

Question 19

what is semanticism?

Answer 19

• Episodic memories can become semantic memories over time
• Know it as a fact but don’t know how you know it is true- becomes engraved.
• lack personal/contextual information over time

Question 20

what did Harland et al (2012) study in relation to semanticism?

Answer 20

• 200 pictures presented to participants
• Memory tested 3-days and 3-months later using ‘remember/know’ paradigm
• 100% sure they saw it vs pretty sure they saw the photo
• Some memories episodic (remembered) at both intervals, with stable hippocampal activations
• Others were episodic at short interval, but became semantic (know, or familiar) at long interval
• Became semantic after 3 months- felt familiar, some images became somaticized rather than episodic over a long time.

Question 21

what are the two forms of non-declarative memory?

Answer 21

1. priming
2. procedural

Question 22

what is priming?

Answer 22

• Facilitated processing of repeated stimuli
• Can shape thoughts and behaviour for subsequent things that happen to you
• Occurs very rapidly- Too fast to notice
• Tied to a specific stimulus
• Specific to a situation
• Short lived

Question 23

what is procedural memory?

Answer 23

• Skill learning (e.g. riding a bike)
• Happens slowly- initially for it to become automatic
  ○ Occurs very slowly
  ○ Generalises to numerous stimuli
• Once it is automatic it can generalise across stimuli and behaviours
• Also referred to as ‘knowing how’ memory- For skills that have become automatic.
• Includes memory for acquired skills and abilities that have become automated and can be carried out without conscious thought
• Many of the processes stored in procedural memory are initially effortful before being fully learnt and no longer requiring concentrated attention to be completed
• Need to be learned initially to become automated
• Automatisation of these processes allows capacity to be freed up for more urgent tasks that require cognitive resources

Question 24

what are the two types of priming?

Answer 24

1. Perceptual
   * Repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to a facilitated processing of its perceptual features
   * Something that is based on its appearance/ visual features of the way it looks
   * superficial
2. Conceptual
   * Repeated presentation of a stimulus leads to facilitated processing of its meaning
   * What does it mean/refer to as an object

Question 25

what type of memory is also known as explicit memory?

Answer 25

declarative memory

Question 26

what type of memory is tied to a specific stimulus?

Answer 26

priming

Question 27

what type of memory uses recollection of past events?

Answer 27

episodic memory

Question 28

which type of memory focuses on unconscious awareness?

Answer 28

procedural memory

Question 29

how do we study memory?

Answer 29

* Key differences between everyday memory and lab- based memory * Memory is often studied in lab-based settings as its so complex to study- does cause hiccups.

Question 30

what are the differences between everyday memory and lab-based memory?

Answer 30

1. Everyday memory * Long time and often remembered * Incidental: don’t actively try to remember all the details * Social factors important: the people we interact with are important, what the experience is like. * Accuracy is not our main goal/motive: remember the information we want to 2. Lab-based memory * Remember information shortly beforehand: no long-term memory there * Intentional: remembering information for a specific purpose. * Social factors and demands absent: social factors aren't important as you just want to do well * Motivated to be as accurate as possible: want to be perceived as being good and doing well, make an effort to remember as much as possible- little intentional conscious effort on unimportant stimuli.

Question 31

what is autobiographical memory?

Answer 31

* Long-term memory for life events * Type of episodic memory. * Related to episodic memory, as both relate to personally experienced events. * Relevant to an individuals personal life. * Complex memories of personal significance that extend back over many years * Everything you have gone through since you have born * Stands out as a major life event- meaningful, big or small events worth remembering.

Question 32

how are flashbulb memories an example of autobiographical memory?

Answer 32

* Vivid memories of distinctive events * Something that happened- usually a shared experience with many people * Long-lasting if there was an intense emotional experience when formed * Can be positive or negative * Has a massive emotional impact- often completely unexpected.

Question 33

how is trauma an example of an autobiographical memory?

Answer 33

* Painful memories repressed to protect person from psychological harm * Some instances may be remembered others are repressed. * Not consciously aware of anymore

Question 34

what is childhood amnesia? ## Footnote example of autobiographical memory

Answer 34

* Inability to recall autobiographical memories from early childhood * Neurogenesis= process of generating new neurons * Cant clearly recall memories from early childhood. * May think you remember something but you actually don’t. * Due to lots of new connections in the brain developing * Don't have developed schemas or knowledge of the world- not much context to place memories in making them easier to forget.

Question 35

what is a reminiscence bump? ## Footnote a form of autobiographical memory

Answer 35

* Recall disproportionate number of memories from early adulthood * teenager adulthood * Generation of life scripts * Many significant life events happen

Question 36

what is the significance of Jill price?

Answer 36

* The woman who cant forget. * Example of where memory went "wrong"

Question 37

what is retrospective memory?

Answer 37

* Emphasis is on the past * Recalling things that have happened * Many external cues * Things that can remind us of an event. * What we already know= high informational content * Lot of information that we know about things that have already happened.

Question 38

what is prospective memory?

Answer 38

* Remembering to carry-out an intended action * External reminders become part of the environment- would need creating by the individual to remember something * Absence of an explicit reminder * When to do something = low informational content * Don’t know what the event iwll look like as it hasn’t happened yet.

Question 39

what are the stages of prospective memory?

Answer 39

1. Intention formation * Intention linked to a specific cue * Deciding to do a particular thing 2. Retention interval * Environmental monitoring of task-relevant cues * Have to remember what you are going to do at that date and time * Have to keep track of the environment to remember the action you want to complete. 3. Cue detection and intention retrieval * Realise the relevant cue has happened. 4. Intention recall * Retrieve intention from retrospective memory. * Remember exactly what it was you needed to do. * Recall the attention of the action to be completed. 5. Intention execution * Fairly automatic and undemanding * Execute the action to attend what you wanted to do

Question 40

what are the types of prospective memory?

Answer 40

* Time-based: Remembering to perform an intended action at the right time * Event-based: Remembering to perform an intended action in the right place * Implementation intention- Action plans to achieve goal, Where, when and how will goal be achieved

Question 41

which type of memory includes vivid memories of distinctive events?

Answer 41

flashbulb memory

Question 42

which type of memory focuses on remembering to perform an intended action?

Answer 42

prospective memory

Question 43

which type of memory uses long-term memory for personal life events?

Answer 43

autobiographical memory