How we learn from experience Memory and Amnesia
Dec 22, 2015
How we learn from experience
Memory and Amnesia
Thorndike Puzzle box
KW 13-3
Pursuit rotor
KW 13-6
Verbal Memory
• Remember the following letters
• PBSFOXBETABCCBSMTVNBC
Recall as many letters as you can
Verbal Memory
• Remember the following letters
• PBS FOX BET ABC CBS MTV NBC
Recall as many letters as you can
Memory: Declarative vs Procedural
Declarative-the ability to state a memory in words: ABOUT THINGS
Example: Remembering your mother’s maiden name.
Procedural-the development of motor skills: HOW TO DO THINGS
Example: Riding a bicycle.
Episodic – life experiences; biographic details of own life;
Example: HS graduation ceremony
Memory: Explicit vs Implicit
Explicit-deliberate recall of information that one recognizes as a memory
Conscious use of memory
Example: taking a multiple choice test.
Implicit-the influence of recent experience on behavior, even if one does not realize that one is using memory
Unconcious or unintended influences on memory
Example: ethnic facial preferences
Please read the following words silently to yourself
• Spring
• Winter
• Car
• Boat
Please read the following words silently to yourself
• Trip
• Tumble
• Run
• Sun
Please write down a defintion for the following word
• Fall
Short-term and Long-term Memory
Short-term-events that have just occurred
Long-term-events from previous times
Memories that stay in short-term memory long enough are consolidated into long-term memory
Memory Model
Sensory registers
Short Termor
Working
Long Term
Loss Loss
Rehearsal
Consolidation
Retrieval
Short term
memory task
KW 13-13
Working Memory
Defined-the way we store information while working with it or attending to it
Components
Phonological loop-stores auditory info
Visuospatial sketchpad-stores visual info
Central executive-directs attention toward one stimulus or another
Action and
Color Words
Kw 13-7
Memory Areas
Amnesia
TestTodayCar crash
HS graduationJune 2000
High School Prom1999
New Home2001
Hippocampus and Amnesia
Anterograde Amnesia-loss of memories for events that happen after brain damage
Retrograde Amnesia-loss of memories that occurred shortly before brain damage
Boxing Blows
Case of H.M.
• Most studied person in psychology
• Most important case study
• H.M. had severe epilepsy in temporal lobes
• William Scoville, neurosurgeon at
Hartford Hospital operated on HM in 1953
• Removed ventral tips of temporal lobes
HM’s Brain
KW 13-8
Both sides
HM’s Temporal
Lobes
Effects on HM
• Recall events from childhood
• Can engage in conversations
• Good semantic memory
• Cannot recall events that have just happened
• Cannot recall any new facts
• Cannot remember new faces
Memory Model
Sensory registers
Short Termor
Working
Long Term
Loss Loss
Rehearsal
Consolidation
Retrieval
What is HM’s deficit
• Anterograde Amnesia for declarative memory: fact, events, people.
• No concept of amount of time that has passed.
• Still shows procedural memory: new tasks.
• Some implicit memory: realizes that his parents have died.
Temporal Lobe Memory Areas
Memory circuits
KW 13-10
Emotional Memory Circuit
KW 13-16
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Korsakoff’s Syndrome- brain damage caused by long-term thiamine deficiency (both retrograde and anterograde amnesia)
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s Disease- severe memory loss associated with aging
Amyloid beta protein accumulates in the brain and impairs neuron function
PlaquesTangles
Alzheimer’s Disease
KW p. 504
How does learning happen?
Function and structural changes
Changes in Function
• Existing brain cells
• Donald Hebb (1904-1985)
• Existing circuits start reverberatory circuits
• Eventually form cell assemblies
• Cell assemblies are memories
Enriched Environment
KW p. 514
Creating novel circuits over time
Cortex changes in experience
KW 13-20
Blood
Glial
Changes in motor cortex
KW 13-21
Memory
• Anterograde: malfunction in memory consolidation
• Retrograde: loss of “permanent” memories
most likely cell death on cortex
End