PSYC 110 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Long-Term Memory, Anterograde Amnesia, Neocortex
27 Jun 2018
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Memory as Representation of Knowledge
Some memories are available to consciousness such as knowing how to throw a ball, ride a bike,
multiply - these memories are sometimes non verbal such as you can do them but it is quite difficult
to explain it to somebody else
Explicit Memory Implicit Memory
Can be brought into a person's consciousness Cannot be verbalized
Assessed through explicit tests - ask them to
report it
Assessed through implicit tasks - ask them to show
you how to do it
Declarative - can be explained using words Non-declarative - cannot be explained using words
Autonoetic/"self knowing" - can place oneself
and recreate it
Anoetic - not subject to conscious attention
Can be called to mind at any time Cannot be called for voluntarily, only in the context
of a task/problem
Refer to Figure 9.11
Explicit memory consists of
Episodic Memory:
oexplicit memory of one's own past experiences
ointegral part is of having experienced the event
oSometimes called autobiographical memories
oMore fleeting and less stable than semantic memory
Semantic Memory:
oexplicit memory that is not tied mentally to a particular past experience
oincludes knowledge or word meanings, facts that constitute general
understanding of the world
oAlso knowledge of oneself which is not tied to an experience
oApples are red, penguins are birds - all this knowledge of course had to be
gained through experience but the memory of this does not tie to the experience of
gaining this knowledge
oIt is still a part of consciousness but temporarily unspecific pieces of information
- called noetic or knowing
Most often we forget our memories from past experiences but remember the general knowledge we
extract from these experiences
People can remember a word better if another word associated to it is introduced before it -
spreading activation model because it explains how activation of one concept leads to a spread of
activity to nearby concepts - you are more likely to think about apple after the words red and pear,
than you are to think about a bus
Implicit memory consists of:
Classical Conditioning effects: Memories resulting from classical conditioning - internal
changes in a person or animal to respond to the conditioned stimuli.
Procedural Memory:
o Motor skills, habits, and unconsciously learned rules
oYou improve with practice such as riding a bicycle, hammering nails
oThe improvement is retained from one practice session to the next even though
you are unaware of the change in muscle movements
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oYou cannot explain how you learn the skills, difficult to put into words - implicit
and non-declarative
Priming:
oActivation by sensory input of information stored in the long term memory
oNot experienced consciously but influences conscious perception and thought -
link between implicit and explicit
oHelps keep our stream of thought on consistent, logical lines
oWhen we see or think about something, our semantic memory gets activated
and can be retrieved easily - causes us to be primed to that and seeing anything else
helps us to create a connection with it
oOccurs independent of conscious memory
Separate Memory Systems:
Brain damage can destroy one kind of memory but not affect the other.
H.M: Damage to hippocampus lead to loss of encoding new long-term memory. He
could remember events that occurred before his operation but as soon as his attention was
distracted, he lost all the information. He knew what was happening to him in the moment but
as soon as he took his focus away, he couldn't remember anything. His disorder was temporal
lobe amnesia (loss of memory due to damage to brain is called amnesia)
More severe cases can cause loss of episodic and semantic memory. They not only lose
all their memory from the accident but also lose all the factual information they had retained
after then. Less severe patients retain semantic memory but mostly lose episodic memory.
Developmental amnesia - damage to hippocampus but not to the surrounding areas due
to loss of blood flow to the brain - they cannot recount any past experiences. They can
remember facts and new knowledge they gain but not the experience of gaining it. Thus,
shows how important hippocampus is for remembering episodic memory
Children acquire large amounts of semantic information in their first 4 years - not as
good at retaining episodic memory - inability to remember events from infancy and early
childhood is called infantile amnesia
Poor episodic memory in childhood and old age is related to prefrontal cortical
functioning - less developed in childhood and damaged in old age
Memory for Remembering
Encoding, storing, and retrieving information. Refer to Figure 9.17
Encoding:
Maintenance rehearsal is the process by which a person holds information in working
memory for a period of time
Encoding rehearsal is the process by which a person encodes information into the long-
term store
We remember things that capture our interest - the more deeply we think about
something, the more likely we are to remember it
Elaboration or elaborative rehearsal - to understand instead of just memorize to encode
into long-term memory - done by creating a sort of logic to remember things than just plain
rote - asking questions to learn more about it
Organization helps with encoding - create links among items to remember them - one
method is called chunking where adjacent items are grouped together which were initially
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Assessed through explicit tests - ask them to report it. Autonoetic/"self knowing" - can place oneself and recreate it. Can be called to mind at any time. Assessed through implicit tasks - ask them to show you how to do it. Cannot be called for voluntarily, only in the context of a task/problem. Episodic memory: o o o o explicit memory of one"s own past experiences integral part is of having experienced the event. More fleeting and less stable than semantic memory. Semantic memory: o o explicit memory that is not tied mentally to a particular past experience includes knowledge or word meanings, facts that constitute general understanding of the world o o. Also knowledge of oneself which is not tied to an experience. Apples are red, penguins are birds - all this knowledge of course had to be gained through experience but the memory of this does not tie to the experience of gaining this knowledge o.
