Chapter 6: Long Term Memory Structure Part II and III

Types of Longterm Memory

episodic and semantic

Episodic Memory

tied to personal experience; “remembering”

- involves mental time travel

Semantic Memory

general knowledge and facts

- “knowing”

Evidence and Separation of Semantic and Episodic Memory

patients KC and LP

Patient KC

damaged hippocampus from motorcycle accident

- no episodic memory; cannot relieve past events

- semantic memory in tact; can remember general info and facts

Patient LP

woman who had suffered an attack of encephalitis

- impaired semantic memory

- episodic memory intact; can remember past events and create new memories

Episodic and Semantic Memory Interaction

knowledge (semantic) affects experience (episodic)

and autobiographical memory

Autobiographical Memory

memory for specific experiences from your life that include both episodic and semantic components

Personal Semantic Memories

semantic components of autobiographical memory

- includes facts associated with personal experience and semantic memories that have personal significance

Remember/Know Procedure

subjects presented with stimulus they have encountered before and are asked if they remember the circumstances or know if the stimulus seems familair

How Time Affects Memories

episodic can be lost, leaving only semantic and the remember/know procedure

Explicit Memories

conscious memories

- memories we are aware of

- consists of episodic and semantic memories

Implicit Memories

unconscious memories

- memories we are not aware of

- procedural memory, priming, and conditioning

Procedural Memory

perform procedures without being consciously aware of how to do them

- do not require attention

- people who cannot form new LTM can still learn new skills

- causes expert induced amnesia

Memory and Future

patients who lost episodic memory as a result of brain damage had difficulty imagining future events

Constructive Episodic Simulation Hypothesis

episodic memories are extracted and recombined to create simulations of future events

- helps us anticipate future needs and guide future behaviors

Expert Induced Amnesia

highly skilled individuals cannot remember or explain the specific actions that took place during the task

Priming

presentation of one stimulus (priming stimulus) affects performance on another stimulus (test stimulus)

- exposure to something once makes you faster or more accurate at processing it the next time

Repetition Priming

test stimulus is the same or similar to the priming stimulus

Propoganda Effect

people are more likely to statements they have heard as true just because of prior exposure to statements

Classical Conditioning and Implicit Memory

pairing neutral stimulus with reflexive response

- involves implicit memory when person has forgotton about original pairing of the stimulus and response