Memory

Question 1

SINGLE DISSOCIATIONS

Answer 1

• damage to brain area 1 = disrupted function A; intact related function B
• indicates both functions = partially dif BUT function A could be harder so got more damaged

Question 2

DOUBLE DISSOCIATIONS

Answer 2

• need to find patients who show exact opposite pattern; area 2 brain damage leaves function A intact but disrupts function B
• indicates functions A/B = independent
• rules out generic difficulty account

Question 3

HM

Answer 3

• “… everything looks clear to me, but what happened just before… like waking from a dream…”

Question 4

NEURO PARTS ASSOCIATED W/MEMORY

Answer 4

• olfactory bulb
• mammillary body
• amygdala
• hippocampus
• massa intermedia of thalamus
• cingulate gyrus
• corpus callosum
• fornix

Question 5

DOUBLE DISSOCIATION OF WM/LTM IN BRAIN DAMAGE

Answer 5

AMNESIAC SYNDROME
- normal working memory; little/no ability to convert new facts/events to permanent memory (anterograde amnesia))
- HM; normal memory span (7 digits) but couldn’t learn 8 -> normal recency effect in free recall (last items still WM); poor earlier recall = didn’t react LTM
STM PATIENTS; SELECTIVE IMPAIRMENTS OF WM
- WARRINGTON & SHALLICE (1969); KF; poor immediate repetition of short word sequences; able to learn such sequences if presented slowly (LTM intact)

Question 6

ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA

Answer 6

• patients (ie. HM) have drastically impaired ability to form new memories for experienced events/facts (ie. can’t form new declarative memories)
• but normal learning rates exhibited in acquisition of:
• perceptual skills (ie. recognition of incomplete figures)
• problem solving skills (inducing riles/Tower of Hanoi)

Question 7

DOUBLE DISSOCIATION AMNESIA

Answer 7

• impaired procedural memory combined w/unimpaired declarative memory = NOT amnesia
• brain damage also causes procedural memory deficits w/o impairing declarative memory ie.
• APRAXIA (problems coordinating movement)
• APHASIA (problems w/speech)
• ACALCULIA (problems w/simple maths)
• PROSOPAGNOSIA (difficulty recognising faces)

Question 8

DECLARATIVE MEMORY

Answer 8

TULVING (1972)

• EPISODIC = memory for individual autobiographical experiences; aka. mental time travel
• SEMANTIC = general/conceptual knowledge abstracted from experience (ie. famous people/whose related to who/item names etc.)

Question 9

DECLARATIVE DOUBLE DISSOCIATION

Answer 9

TULVING (2001)

• amnesiac patients tend to have anterograde amnesia for both new personal episodes/new knowledge
• KC (Clive Wearing); can’t recollect episodically since birth (dense retrograde amnesia); but pre-trauma semantic = perfect

Question 10

EPISODIC MEMORY IN SEMANTIC DEMENTIA

Answer 10

ADLAM et al (2009)

• semantic dementia = progressive semantic loss combined w/well preserved episodic memory
• 1-2D; semantic memory tests:
  a) object/sound knowledge (pick object from tray)
  b) iconic European buildings in several dif rooms
• 2D; what/where/when questions (ie. was I wearing a hair clip, which one?)

Question 11

SUMMARY I

Answer 11

• WM = limited capacity
• large info intake to sensory memory stores
• only attention receivers maintain
• what receives attention = past experiences of importance/rewarding meaning we’re not always perceiving/storing accurate image of world; attentional filters determine maintenance
• dif past experiences = dif attentional filters