L10a Forgetting and the remembering brain II

What is the Competition Assumption in interference theory

memories associated to a shared cue automatically impede retrieval when the cue is presented

How does the number of competing memories (to a retrieval cue) affect interference?

Interference increases as the number of competitors a target memory has increases

Retroactive Interference (RI) - a ___ memory interferes with an _____ memory.

New, Older (previously learned) memory.

Proactive Interference (PI) - an ___ memory interferes with a _____ memory.

Old, Newer (recently learned) memory.

Is RI or PI more severe for recall than recognition

PI

What is required for RI to occur

related intervening experience, unrelated ones do not impair memory

Part-set cuing impairment is another cause of forgetting (related to interference) – what is this

recall can become impaired when retrieval cues provided are similar to the item in memory

Why does part-set cuing impair memory

presenting similar items as cues, strengthens their association the cue so competition increases

Slamecka (1968) gave participants some tree names as cues (e.g., Elm, Aspen, Palm). What happened to recall of the remaining trees?

Recall for the non-cued trees (e.g., Oak, Maple, Pine) was reduced — the cued items acted as competitors.

Retrieval-induced forgetting (RIF) is another cause of forgetting (related to interference) – what is it

selectively retrieving some items from a category causes forgetting of other related items from the same category that were not retrieved

In Anderson et al. (1994), participants practised retrieving "Fruits – OR…" (Orange). What happened to recall of Banana at the final test and unpractised Drinks items?

Banana recall dropped, compared to equal recall for unpractised Drink items

RIF has an important implication for studying – what is the key trade-off

retrieval practice strengthens practised memories but selectively practising causes forgetting of related unpractised material

According to the functional account, forgetting is not just a failure – it serves what purpose

it inhibits competing memories and facilitates future retrieval attempts of practiced/strengthened memories

What does forgetting serve (2 things)

goal-directed behaviour and decision-making

Working memory implies manipulation, whereas short-term memory implies maintenance – explain the difference between these terms

WK captures the idea that information currently in the mind is actively manipulated, whereas STM implies a static store

Name the 4 components of Baddley’s model of WM

central executive, visuospatial sketchpad, episodic buffer, phonological loop

What is argued to be the site of the central executive in Baddley’s model

PFC

Ranganath et al explored visual WM maintenance and long-term associative retrieval – category-selective regions of inferior temporal cortex were active during tasks, what are these specific regions (name 2)

FFA for faces and PPA for places

What does FFA stand for

fusiform face area

What does PPA stand for

parahippocampal place area

Ranganath et al. (2004) found that STM maintenance regions were functionally connected to ?___ and ?___ regions during the delay period.

Frontal and parietal regions.

What does delayed-response task measure in monkeys in Goldman-Rakic’s study

working memory

What do delayed-response tasks require animals to do

to retain the location of the unseen object during the delay period

what lesion affects animal’s ability to perform in delayed-response tasks

prefrontal lesions

PFC damage disrupts working memory (delayed-response task) but not associative memory (cued food task) – what does this tell us

the PFC deficit is specific to maintaining visuospatial information during a delay

This is the activity of PFC neurons during a WM task – PFC neurons are active during the delay period, what does this activity represent

represents a neural correlate of keeping a representative active after the triggering stimulus is no longer present/active

PFC delay-period neurons remain active only if the animal __???___ the information for a forthcoming action, otherwise they become responsive to a new set of stimuli

Needs to use

Do theorists believe that the PFC delay-related activity reflect the need to keep long-term representations active during the delay or the representation of the task goal

representation of the task goal (goal-directed maintenance)

Working memory relies on the interaction between PFC and ___???__ that contain ? and ? knowledge relevant to a goal

other parts of the brain, perceptual, long-term

According to Petrides’ Theory of Working Memory model, the PFC is divided into two functional subsystems – what and where are they

maintenance in the ventrolateral PFC and manipulation in the dorsolateral PFC

A PET study using the self-ordered pointing task found short-term spatial retention activated _____, but retention + updating new locations activated _____.

Ventrolateral PFC (VLPFC); Dorsolateral PFC (DLPFC).

PFC is also prevalent in what 2 LTM tasks

encoding and retrieval

Lateralised responses in PFC at encoding depend on the type of materials – encoding of what type of materials involve the left vs right PFC

words or semantic materials vs spatial information or faces

Dorsolateral PFC activation was predictive of subsequent ?___ ___?___ while ventrolateral PFC activation was predictive of subsequent ?__, whether clustered or non-clustered

semantic clustering, recall

PFC regions aid the process of retrieval – according to Fletcher and Henson, is the dorsolateral or ventrolateral PFC involved in evaluating what has been retrieved from LTM (monitoring of retrieval)

dorsolateral

Dorsolateral PFC activity increases under which 3 example conditions (where demands are higher/increased need for monitoring)

free recall, recall (vs recognition), low confidence memory judgments

Patients with PFC damage show more severe impairment in recall compared to recognition - why?

because free recall requires more strategic search, selection, and monitoring (all PFC-dependent), whereas recognition provides external cues that reduce the demand on these processes.

What is source monitoring

the ability to attribute retrieved memories to their original context

Why is the PFC involved in source monitoring

because playing a memory in its correct context requires active evaluation

What happens to source monitoring in patients with PFC damage

they can recognise they know something but fail to retrieve the correct source and are more likely to confabulate

What does it mean to confabulate

report narratives that include false memories, without intentional deception

Complete the main responsibilities of the PFC

working memory, information, focus, encoding, retrieval, evaluating