Set 3 (AMNESIA AND IMPLICIT MEMORY 2)

Learning

The process of acquiring new information through experience;

Memory

The outcome of learning resulting in stored information that can be retrieved later;

Encoding

The initial processing of incoming information that creates memory traces for storage;

Acquisition

The first stage of encoding in which sensory information enters short-term memory;

Consolidation

The process by which memory traces are stabilized over time to form long-term memories;

Storage

The maintenance of encoded information over time;

Retrieval

The process of accessing stored information to create conscious recollection or guide behavior;

Sensory memory

A very brief form of memory lasting milliseconds to seconds that holds incoming sensory information;

Short-term memory

A limited-capacity memory system lasting seconds to minutes that temporarily holds information;

Working memory

A limited-capacity system that maintains and manipulates information over short periods of time;

Long-term memory

A high-capacity memory system lasting days to years;

Medial temporal lobe (MTL) memory system

A network including the hippocampus

Hippocampus

MTL structure critical for forming new declarative memories and binding contextual details of experiences;

Entorhinal cortex

Major input and output gateway between hippocampus and neocortex;

Perirhinal cortex

MTL region involved in object recognition and familiarity processes;

Parahippocampal cortex

MTL region involved in contextual and spatial aspects of memory;

Fornix

Major output pathway of the hippocampus connecting to subcortical structures;

Mammillary bodies

Subcortical structures involved in declarative memory and part of the diencephalic memory system;

Anterior thalamic nuclei

Thalamic structures involved in declarative memory processing;

Anterograde amnesia

Loss of the ability to form new long-term declarative memories after brain damage;

Retrograde amnesia

Loss of memories formed before brain damage;

Temporal gradient

A pattern in retrograde amnesia in which recent memories are more impaired than remote memories;

Ribot’s Law

Principle stating that older memories are more resistant to disruption than newer memories;

Henry Molaison

Patient who developed profound anterograde amnesia after bilateral medial temporal lobectomy

Bilateral medial temporal lobectomy

Surgical removal of both medial temporal lobes resulting in severe declarative memory impairment;

Unilateral temporal lobectomy

Surgical removal of one medial temporal lobe

Digit span

A measure of short-term memory capacity assessing how many digits can be retained and repeated;

Double dissociation

A pattern in which two cognitive functions can be independently impaired

Declarative memory

Long-term memory for facts and events that can be consciously accessed and verbally reported;

Episodic memory

Declarative memory for personal experiences

Semantic memory

Declarative memory for general world knowledge independent of specific personal context;

Autobiographical memory

Memory for personally experienced life events;

Nondeclarative (implicit) memory

Memory expressed through performance rather than conscious recollection;

Procedural memory

A type of nondeclarative memory for motor and cognitive skills acquired through repetition;

Serial reaction time task

A procedural learning task in which participants implicitly learn repeating motor sequences;

Basal ganglia

Subcortical structures involved in procedural and motor skill learning;

Priming

Improved processing of a stimulus due to prior exposure without conscious awareness;

Perceptual representation system (PRS)

Neocortical system supporting perceptual priming independent of the medial temporal lobe;

Perceptual priming

Facilitated identification of previously encountered stimuli based on perceptual features;

Conceptual priming

Facilitated processing based on prior exposure to related conceptual information;

Semantic priming

Facilitated processing of a word when preceded by a semantically related word;

Classical conditioning

A form of associative learning in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus;

Delay conditioning

Form of classical conditioning in which the conditioned stimulus overlaps with the unconditioned stimulus;

Trace conditioning

Form of classical conditioning in which a time gap separates conditioned and unconditioned stimuli and requires hippocampal involvement;

Habituation

A decrease in response to a repeated

Sensitization

An increased response to a repeated stimulus;

Multiple memory systems view

The theory that different types of memory rely on distinct neural systems;