Memory

Alziehmers

a biological process that begins with the appearance of a buildup of proteins in the brain, causing brain cells to die and the brain to shrink over time

brain regions affected by Alziehmers

affects the hippocampus (formation of new memories + ability to retain recent info) cerebral cortex (planning, language, reasoning, decision making + communication) amygdala (emotion regulation for mood swings, anxiety + depression)

Symptoms of Alziehmers

repeat statements and questions, social withdraw + lack of trust, change in sleeping behaviours, anger/agressions + delusion

Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy

brain disease caused by repeated head injuries causes death of nerve cells within the brain due to build up of tau, tau becomes abnormally folded and causes clumps leading to cell death and brain atrophy

CTE effects

Behaviour: impulsive, aggressive

Emotion: apathy/depression, instability, suicidal thoughts

Thiamine Deficiency

common in people that consume excessive amounts of alcohol (have poor nutrition due to the inflammation of stomach lining which impedes bodys ability to absorb vitamins.

Wernicke-Korsakoff Syndrome

a brain disorder caused by a lack of thiamine, commonly caused by chronic alcohol misuse

Thiamine

helps brain cells produce energy from sugar

symptoms of WKS

memory loss, difficulty forming new memories, confusion

Behavioural Changes: motor impairment, visual problems, hallucinations, impaired planning and decision making

Emotional Changes: apathy, reduced motivation, emotional blunting, altered emotional responses

Brain Structures WKS

hippocampus and cerebellum most notably (movement, language, sleep, memory, motivation)

sensory register

basic information received from senses which can leave impressions even after the stimuli has disappeared

short term memory

the information you are aware of that can be held on to for a short period for conscious use

maintenance rehersal

remembering info for immediate use by increasing duration of STM, involves constant repetition

elaborative rehearsal

active processing and encoding of information by associating it with other info in LTM to make it more meaningful

long term memory

a relatively stable, permanent store of information that can be accessed and manipulated at will

declarative memory

stating how things are or what you remember, requires conscious effort for retrieval, involves facts, data and events

semantic memory

a form of declarative memory that stores general knowledge, memory for meanings

episodic memory

a form of declarative memory that stores information about specific scenes from your personal experience, knowing when, where and what

procedural memory

the memory of the process involved in how to complete a task

Working Memory Model

a model that represents the short term memory involved in temporarily storing and managing multiple pieces of information needed to carry out complex cognitive tasks

Central Executive

• suppresses irrelevant information

• deals with cognitive tasks like arithmetic and problem solving

• controlled by frontal lobes

Phonological Loop

• the part of the working memory that deals with spoken, auditory and written materials

• stores and processes sound of language (inner ear or phonological store)

• rehearses this silently (inner voice or articulatory control process)

Visual-Spatial Sketchpad

stores visual and spatial information, constructs and manipulates visual images like details of shapes, colours and motion, and represent visual maps

• displays and manipulates visual + spatial info held in LTM

• occipital lobe

Episodic Buffer

a temporary store that is capable of holding and integrating information from the phonological loop, the visuospatial sketchpad, and LTM into a single structure
ability to think about past, plan for future and solve problems relies on maintaining episodic representations

depth

the meaningfulness extracted from the stimulus

shallow memory

only involves maintenance rehearsal + leads to short-term retention of information (structural + phonemic)

structural

when we encode the physical qualities of something e.g. size, capital letters

phonemic

encoding the sound of the words

deep memory

involves elaboration where new info is remembered by linking it to existing information

semantic

processing the info by what it means, encode meaning + relate to words with similar meaning

latency

the time it takes to answer a question

sensation

the passive, physical process of receiving information/stimuli from the outside world into the sense organs, transduction or turning it into neural signals to send to the brain via transmission

reception

sensory organs detect physical stimuli

transduction

stimuli are converted into electrochemical energy (used to send messages to CNS)

transmission

the electrochemical energy is transferred to the brain/spinal cord (CNS) for processing

perception

the active psychological process of selecting, organising and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses

selection

the brain filters the stimuli and selects important/relevant features for processing, while ignoring unimportant/irrelevant features

organisation

group selected features of stimuli to form a whole, organise stimuli into patterns (sometimes called Gestalt)

interpretation

the brain interprets these wholes, giving them meaning, drawing on past experience and knowledge

sensory adaptation

reduction in sensitivity to a sensory stimulus after constant exposure to it

difference threshold

minimum difference in intensity of two stimuli necessary to detect they are different

parallel processing

the ability to deal with multiple stimuli simultaneously

signal detection theory

a model for predicting how and when a person will detect a weak stimuli, based on context

absolute threshold

minimum amount of stimulus energy present to be detected 50% of the time

encoding

the conversion of sensory information from environment into a form that can be processed by the brain

storage

the retention of information you have received from the environment and creating a permanent record of this

retrieval

the recovery of information stored in brain for use and manipulation

role of hippocampus

partial encoding and storage of declarative memories, takes in info, consolidates info, temporarily stores info, transfers info

consolidation

the process in which the brain forms a permanent represenation of memory and transfers to LTM

anterograde amnesia

damage to hippocampus but not cerebellum, can learn new skills but cannot remember anything from injury onwards

role of cerebellum

encodes, processes and stores implict and procedural memories

role of amygdala

involved in memory consolidation, sends info to hippocxampus to encode explicit memorys with emotional significance

remembering

refers to the cognitive process of retrieving info from memory, and involves bringing previously learned/experienced info into conscious awareness.

recall

the ability to retrieve a memory using minimal cues or prompts

serial recall

retreiving info in the order it is presented in

free recal

retrieving as much info as possible in no particular order

cued recall

retrieving info with the assistance of hints/prompts

recognition

identifying the correct info from a series of alternatives

relearning

the process of an individual learning information or skills again that they have previously learned and since forgotten

forgetting

a failure to retrieve previously stored information

retrieval faliure

incapacity to recover and access a particular piece of information from storage as retrieval internal or external cues are not present (only declarative not procedural)

retrieval cues

aspect of individuals physical and cognitive environment that can trigger the memory

internal cues

the physical or psychological state of the person when information is encoded and retrieved

external cues

anything from the external environment that reminds you of a previously stored memory

interference

forgetting occurs due to the competing presence of other information being stored

proactive interference

when old info hinders the encoding and storage of new info e.g. you have a new password but you can only remember old one

retroactive interference

new info hinders recall of old information e.g. learn new password and cant remember old password

motivated forgetting

the process of blocking out threatening, embarrassing or painful memories done consciously or unconsciously as a self-protection defence mechanism

repression

unwanted thought or impulses being unconsciously pushed out of awareness into our subconscious mind

suppression

the act of consciously forgetting memories

decay

a type of forgetting that occurs when memories fade or biologically degrade over time

Sensation

the passive, physical process of receiving information/stimuli from the outside world into the sense organs, transduction or turning it into neural signals to send to the brain via transmission

Reception

sensory organs detect physical stimuli

Transduction

stimuli are converted into electrochemical energy (used to send messages to CNS)

Transmission

the electrochemical energy is transferred to the brain/spinal cord (CNS) for processing

Perception

the active psychological process of selecting, organising and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses

Selection

the brain filters the stimuli and selects important/relevant features for processing, while ignoring unimportant/irrelevant features

Organisation

group selected features of stimuli to form a whole, organise stimuli into patterns (sometimes called Gestalt)

Interpretation

the brain interprets these wholes, giving them meaning, drawing on past experience and knowledge

sensory adaptation

reduction in sensitivity to a sensory stimulus after constant exposure to it

difference threshold

minimum difference in intensity of two stimuli necessary to detect they are different

parallel processing

the ability to deal with multiple stimuli simultaneously

signal detection theory

a model for predicting how and when a person will detect a weak stimuli, based on context

Absolute threshold

minimum amount of stimulus energy present to be detected 50% of the time

encoding

the conversion of sensory information from environment into a form that can be processed by the brain

storage

the retention of information you have received from the environment and creating a permanent record of this

retrieval

the recovery of information stored in brain for use and manipulation

role of hippocampus

partial encoding and storage of declarative memories, takes in info, consolidates info, temporarily stores info, transfers info

consolidation

the process in which the brain forms a permanent represenation of memory and transfers to LTM

Anterograde Amnesia

damage to hippocampus but not cerebellum, can learn new skills but cannot remember anything from injury onwards

role of cerebellum

encodes, processes and stores implict and procedural memories

role of amygdala

involved in memory consolidation, sends info to hippocxampus to encode explicit memorys with emotional significance

remembering

refers to the cognitive process of retrieving info from memory, and involves bringing previously learned/experienced info into conscious awareness.

Recall

the ability to retrieve a memory using minimal cues or prompts

serial recall

retreiving info in the order it is presented in

free recal

retrieving as much info as possible in no particular order

cued recall

retrieving info with the assistance of hints/prompts

recognition

identifying the correct info from a series of alternatives

relearning

the process of an individual learning information or skills again that they have previously learned and since forgotten

forgetting

a failure to retrieve previously stored information