The Remembering Brain
This chapter considers different types of memory, how they are implemented in the brain and how they interact. The long-term store is considered to have essentially unlimited capacity within the inherent limitations of the brain. The chapter describes distinction between long-term and short-term or working memory. Global amnesics have memory problems both in terms of learning new information and remembering information prior to their brain damage. The chapter also considers different types of long-term memory and discusses amnesia in terms of this theoretical framework. Consolidation is the process by which moment-to-moment changes in brain activity are translated into permanent structural changes in the brain. The chapter discusses whether the hippocampus has a time-limited role, whether there are separate neural substrates for familiarity and recollection and the cognitive/neural mechanisms of forgetting. It also discusses frontal lobe contributions to memory.
Multiple Choice Questions
Flashcards
Memory for information currently held " in mind" ; it has limited capacity
Memory for information that is stored but need not be consciously accessible; it has an essentially unlimited capacity
Silently mouthing words while performing some other task (typically a memory task)
A system for the temporary storage and manipulation of information
Memories that can be consciously accessed and, hence, can typically be declared
Declarative memory/explicit memory
Memories that cannot be consciously accessed (e.g. procedural memory)
Non-declarative memory/implicit memory
Memory for skills such as riding a bike
Conceptually based knowledge about the world, including knowledge of people, places, the meaning of objects and words
Memory of specific events in one’s own life
Memory for events that have occurred after brain damage
Memory for events that occurred before brain damage
The process by which moment-to-moment changes in brain activity are translated into permanent structural changes in the brain
An increase in the long-term responsiveness of a postsynaptic neuron in response to stimulation of a presynaptic neuron
Long-term potentiation (LTP)
The observation that memories from early in life tend to be preserved in amnesia
Neurons that respond when an animal is in a particular location in allocentric space (normally found in the hippocampus)
Neurons that respond when an animal is in particular locations in an environment such that the responsive locations form a repeating grid-like pattern
A memory test in which participants must decide whether a stimulus was shown on a particular occasion
Participants must produce previously seen stimuli without a full prompt being given (compare recognition memory)
Context-free memory in which the recognized item just feels familiar
Context-dependent memory that involves remembering specific information from the study episode
Information that is processed semantically is more likely to be remembered than information that is processed perceptually
Levels-of-processing account
Events are easier to remember when the context at retrieval is similar to the context at encoding
Encoding specificity hypothesis
Retrieval of a memory causes active inhibition of similar competing memories
Retrieval-induced forgetting
Forgetting arising because of a deliberate intention to forget
The act of remembering construed in terms of making inferences about the past, based on what is currently known and accessible
The process by which retrieved memories are attributed to their original context
A memory that is either partly or wholly inaccurate but is accepted as a real memory by the person doing the remembering
