Physiological Psychology Chapter 11

Learning, memory and amnesia

Sensory memory

Initial stage that holds virtually all incoming information for fractions of a second

Short-term memory (STM)

Holds 5-7 items for about 15-20 seconds

Long-term memory (LTM)

Can hold large amounts of information for years or even decades

H.M. suffered from

Severe, intractable epilepsy, received bilateral medial temporal lobectomy

Minor Retrograde Amnesia

Inability to recall memory from the past

Profound Anterograde Amnesia

Inability to form new memories

The mirror-drawing task is evidence of

Implicit memory formation

Scientific contributions of HMs case

Medial temporal lobes are important for memory, different modes of memory storage, explicit vs implicit memories in LTM

Explicit memories

Conscious memory

Implicit memories

Unconscious memories

Semantic memories

Memory for general facts

Episodic memories

Memory for experience of specific life events

If episodic memory is damaged, you cannot invision

Past and future events about himself

Posttraumatic Amnesia

The amnesia that occurs after a closed-head TBI

Closed-head traumatic brain injuries (TBI’s) are identified as

The leading cause of amnesia

Consolidation

The process by which new, fragil memory becomes stronger over time

Reconsolidation

When you retrieve a memory it is fragile again

Hippocampal Place Cells fire when

An organism is in a specific place in an environment (place field)

Firing of place cells indicate

Where the brain thinks it is, not where it actually is

Entorhinal cortex

Region that sends signals to the hippocampus

Grid cells

Fire to multiple evenly spaced spots that form a grid

Head direction cells fire to

Head positions

Border cells fire

Only when approaching a border/boundary

Time cells

Involved in coding the temporal aspects of experiences

Social space

Social organization (heigherarchies)

Cognitive map

Coming together of all cells to create an understanding of the real and social world

Infantile Amnesia

Early childhood memories are not explicitly remembered, but implicit memories may persist

Incredible memory (photographic memory)

You remember everything, but does not mean you are intelligent