Memory

Question 1

What is a key factor in Atkinson’s and Shiffrin’s Modal Model of memory (1968)?

Answer 1

The route to long-term memory is always through short-term memory

Sensory stores -> Short-term store (STS) -> Long-term store (LTS)

Question 2

How did Shallice and Warrington (1970) demonstrate that the Modal Model of memory (Atkinson and Shiffrin, 1978) was inaccurate?

Answer 2

Neurological patient showing severe ST memory impairment in verbal tasks
BUT no impairment in verbal LT memory

1. ST and LT memory do not use the same neurological structures
2. There can’t be a sequential route from ST memory to LT memory
   - otherwise any impairment in ST memory would prevent somebody possessing normal LT memory

Question 3

What is working memory for Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?

Answer 3

Separate short-term stores for different types of information

Question 4

How did Baddeley and Hitch (1974) develop the influential model of working memory?

Answer 4

> Digit span task and Spatial learning task
- keeping digits in mind (correctly recalled trials) did not modulate reasoning accuracy

-> Both tasks need short-term memory -> so they don’t rely on the same resources
=> Working memory (replaced the idea of ST memory)

Question 5

What are the two key assumptions of the Model of Working Memory of Baddeley and Hitch (1974)?

Answer 5

Visuo-spatial sketch pad ; Central executive ; Phonological store

1. If two tasks use the same part of working memory they cannot be carried out well
2. If the two tasks are using different parts, they should be completed accurately

Question 6

How did Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993) find about the neurological correlates of verbal working memory (phonological store)?

Answer 6

> Authors thought English-speaking participants would

• use phonological store for keeping in mind English letters
• and use visuo-spatial store for Korean characters (not verbally rehearsible)

> Participants isolated recall of English letters, not Korean characters, to 2 areas of left hemisphere:

• one more frontal
• the other more parietal

> Phonological store vs. articulatory loop (PET scan)

• memory task: storing in mind 6 letters
• rhyming task

Question 7

What were the neurological correlates of verbal working memory found by Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak (1993)?

Answer 7

> Left parietal: Verbal memory

> Left frontal: Neural correlate of articulatory loop
- overlaps with Broca’s area (speech production)

Question 8

How did Postle and colleagues (2004) founded the concept of spatial working memory?

Answer 8

Task in fMRI
- initial fixation -> Target -> Delay (V1 stimulation) -> Probe -> Intertrial interval

• respond to whether the target participants had seen before delay period, was to the left or right or same position as to where the probe items were now presented
• > they had to maintain the target’s position in their spatial working memory over the delay period

=> Spatial working memory used for creating visual mental images

Question 9

What are the regions associated with verbal working memory, and spatial working memory (Paulesu, Frith and Frackowiak, 1993; Postle et al., 2004)?

Answer 9

> Left parietal regions: Verbal working memory

> Right parietal regions: Spatial working memory
just as for spatial attention

Question 10

How does inhibited spatial working memory impact patients with neglects, in neglect tasks?

Answer 10

Lower performance:

• cancellation task without being able to see where he/she has cancelled items
• > when he/she has to keep locations in mind, it adds spatial working memory element to the task
• > performance is much worse

Question 11

What are the three principal functions of the Central Executive in the the Model of Working Memory (Baddeley and Hitch, 1974)?

Answer 11

1. Decides what information should go into the different stores
2. Organises which store the information should go to
3. It is also used to inspect, transform, manipulate the information being held in the stores

Question 12

What are the two processes of long-term memory?

Answer 12

1. Explicit (declarative) memory
   - can consciously access and explain (e.g. skills)
2. Implicit (non-declarative) memory
   - cannot describe or define
   - no access through conscious recollection

Question 13

What is priming and which process of long term memory does it reflect?

Answer 13

Exposure to some stimuli may alter participant’s responses to later stimuli
- without them recalling the first (priming) stimuli or knowing its affecting their responses

-> implicit (non-declarative) memory

Question 14

What is amnesia?

Answer 14

Specific problem in long-term memory, without decline of other cognitive functions

Question 15

What are the two types of amnesia?

Answer 15

1. Retrograde amnesia

2. Anterograde amnesia

Question 16

What is retrograde amnesia?

Answer 16

Loss of memory before the event that caused amnesia

Question 17

What is anterograde amnesia?

Answer 17

Loss of ability to create new memories

Question 18

What is the prevalence of retrograde and anterograde amnesia?

Answer 18

> Brain injuries resulting in amnesia don’t usually lead to any severe loss of previously acquired memories from long-term storage
-> retrograde amnesia is rare

> Anterograde amnesia is more common

Question 19

What is focal retrograde amnesia?

Answer 19

Retrograde amnesia without the learning deficits of anterograde impairments

Question 20

Which film best depicts amnesia?

Answer 20

‘Finding Nemo’

- anterograde amnesia

Question 21

Which patient lead to the distinction between implicit and explicit long-term memory (Scoville and Milner, 1957)?

Answer 21

H.M.
- mild anterograde amnesia after removal of parts of his medial temporal lobes and hippocampal formations bilaterally (he was suffering of severe epilepsy)

• able to remember people and events from before the operation
• no new memories

Question 22

What were HM’s performances to working memory and learning tasks? What were the conclusions of Scoville and Milner (1957)?

Answer 22

> HM’s verbal and spatial working memory was in normal range

> His long term memory could not be improved

> Mirror drawing task:

• he couldn’t consciously remember even having completed task just before -> no new explicit memories
• BUT retained brand new procedural memories, without awareness of learning

> Fragmented pictures task:
- he was better able to identify figures on second occasion without remembering having done the task

Question 23

What were the conclusions of Scoville and Milner (1957) from the patient HM’s task results?

Answer 23

1. Parts of the medial temporal lobes removed in HM are not necessary for implicit memory formation
   - BUT necessary for explicit long-term memory formation
   (he had procedural implicit memory)
2. The absence of profound retrograde impairment in HM also shows that medial temporal lobes are unlikely to be the site of LT storage of old memories

Question 24

What does evidence suggest on the effect of medial temporal lobe and hippocampal damage to episodic and semantic memory?

Answer 24

Episodic memory is much more affected by medial temporal lobe and hippocampal damage than semantic memory

Question 25

What did the patient K.C. teach us about episodic and semantic memory (Tulving, 2002)?

Answer 25

KC's brain showed severe damage to medial temporal lobes and hippocampi > Impaired episodic memory BUT intact semantic - he took mechanics course after his injury and learned semantic words without remembering people from his course or events in this period - no sense of experiencing family type events

Question 26

What did Vargna-Khadem (1997) find out about the learning differences in the explanation of why episodic memory is more impaired in amnesia?

Answer 26

> Episodic -> singular occurence learning > Semantic -> repetition > Early age hippocampal and medial temporal lobe damage (in adolescents) - the 3 patients , compared to healthy controls, forget almost all words (task) after short period - they have remembered little at all from the image (delayed recall) - However, these 3 patients attended mainstream school, had IQ and knowledge within normal range for their age group => There's no semantic impairment in these children, results show clear episodic-semantic distinction - they were impaired in every episodic task - BUT at normal range in semantic tasks

Question 27

What makes episodic memory a reconstructive process?

Answer 27

> Episodic memories are biased, change over time, are susceptible to false pieces of information > Episodic memory can be inaccurate from first recall - e.g. work by Loftus on eyewitness testimony: falsely recalling details of crime scene when wording of questions was altered

Question 28

What may cause the loss of accuracy in episodic memories?

Answer 28

- Recalling memories in company | - Incorporating recollections of others

Question 29

How did Dennis Hassabis and Eleanor Maguire demonstrate the constructive nature of episodic memory?

Answer 29

The network used for recalling real episodic memories (brain regions including medial temporal love and hippocampus) is also used when participants in fMRI create imaginary event