PS101 Dunne Exam 2 - Boston University

Functions of memory

Allows learning from experience Helps us to adapt to changing environments

Relaxed and Drowsy stage

Alpha Waves (8-12 cps)

Misconceptions about Marijuana

-Users become unmotivated and apathetic -Causes people to start using more dangerous drugs -No significant dangers with use

Circadian Rhythms

Daily biological cycles, affect homeostasis

State Dependent Memory

Ability to retrieve better when internal state at retrieval matches that at encoding

Decay

Long term physical trace in nervous system fades away over time and with disuse from Peterson

The Cognitive Unconscious

Presented by Reisberg in 1997, saying that conscious and unconscious work as a harmony. Involves both controlled processing (conscious use of attention, effort) and Automatic processing (performing tasks with little or no conscious awareness or effort)

Stage 4 sleep

Deep sleep. Characterized entirely by delta waves on an EEG Slow-wave sleep

Stage 3 sleep

Delta Waves (0.5-2 cps) deepen sleep

Stimulants

Drugs (such as caffeine, nicotine, and the more powerful amphetamines, cocaine, and Ecstasy) that excite neural activity and speed up body functions.

Elaborative Rehearsal

Focuses on information's meaning, expands upon information

Dangers of Marijuana

Has cancer-causing substances Negative changes in mood, sensory distortions, panic and anxiety Reaction time, thinking, memory, and learning impaired

REM Sleep

a stage of sleep characterized by rapid eye movements and a high level of brain activity (high arousal, frequent dreaming, increase in heart rate and etc)

Ecstasy (MDMA)

a synthetic stimulant and mild hallucinogen. Produces euphoria and social intimacy, but with short-term health risks and longer-term harm to serotonin-producing neurons and to mood and cognition.

Depth of Processing Model

a theory of memory suggesting that how deeply something is encoded has an effect on its memorability by Craik and Lockhart

Procedural memory

a type of implicit memory that involves motor skills and behavioral habits

Alcohol

depressant that decreases glutamate and increases GABA activity, depressing action of inhibitory control centers. It depresses CNS: lower inhibition, sexual arousal, ability to be more social. Impairs sympathetic nervous system: slowed reaction times, slurred speech, impaired motor skills, impaired coordination.

Manifest Content

according to Freud, the remembered story line of a dream

Latent Content

according to Freud, the underlying meaning of a dream

Short Term Memory

activated memory that holds a few items briefly, such as the seven digits of a phone number while dialing, before the information is stored or forgotten

Long Term Memory

all of our stored memories. Capacity and duration are limitless

misinformation effect

distortion of a memory by misleading post-event information

Cognitive-Process Dream Theory

dreams are the sleeping counterpart of stream of consciousness. Memory gets processed during REM Sleep. Foulkes

Depressants

drugs (such as alcohol, barbiturates, and opiates) that reduce neural activity and slow body functions

context dependent memory

easier to remember something in same environment where encoded

Psychoactive Drugs

chemicals that affect the central nervous system and alter activity in the brain

Why we forget

encoding failure, storage decay, retrieval failure (interference), Tip-of-Tongue State, Motivated Forgetting

3 stages of memory

encoding, storage, retrieval

Types of long term memory

explicit and implicit

Declarative memory

facts and events

Encoding Failure

failure to process information into memory due to lack of attention and lack of deep processing

motivated forgetting

forgetting that occurs when something is so painful or anxiety-laden that remembering it is intolerable

Schemas

helps to organize and interpret information. Developing schemas allows development of expert knowledge according to Boschker

Short Term Memory Storage

hold on average 5-9 units of meaningful information

Anterograde Amnesia

inability to form new memories

Two ways to retrieve information out of LTM

Recall, Recognition

Why do we sleep?

Restorative model (sleep recharges body, allows recovery from mental and physical fatigue), Evolutionary model (sleep-awake pattern to increase chance of survival)

Biology of Memory

STM: Dorsolateral pre-frontal cortex LTM: Hippocampus

Mood-Congruent Recall

Tend to recall information or events congruent with current mood

Sensory Memory

the immediate, initial recording of sensory information in the memory system

Memory

the process by which we encode, store, and retrieve information

Retreival

the process of getting formation out of memory.

Encoding

the processing of information into the memory system—for example, by extracting meaning.

Activation Synthesis Theory

theory provided by Hobson and McCarley saying that dreams are the outcome of brain trying to make sense of the neural activity happening during sleep

Memory as a Constructive Process

we actively organize and shape information as it is processed, stored, and retrieved.

Hallucinogens

psychedelic drugs, such as LSD, that distort perceptions and evoke sensory images in the absence of sensory input. Interferes with serotonin reuptake

Conscious memory

remembering that produces awareness - Recollection Tested through Direct (explicit) tasks e.g. recall and recognition

Nonconscious memory

remembering without awareness

Interference

information forgotten because other items in LTM impair ability to retrieve it from Postman & Underwood

5 stages of sleep

stages 1-4 and REM sleep stage

Automatic Memory

subconscious info stored in LTM, procedural memory

Circadian rhythm is affected by...

suprachiasmatic nuclei in the brain, which links to pineal gland where melatonin is produced

Mnemonic Devices

techniques for using associations to memorize and retrieve information

Retroactive Interference

new information interferes with old

Opiates

opium and its derivatives, such as morphine and heroin; depress neural activity, temporarily lessening pain and anxiety. it block pain and produce Euphoria

Retrograde Amnesia

or loss of memory for the past

Chunking

organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

consciousness

our moment to moment awareness of ourselves and our environment

Proactive Interference

past material interferes with recall of newer material

Serial Postion Effect

- Primacy Effect (Better recall for beginning of a list) - Recency Effect (Better recall for end of a list)

Implicit Memory

Memory influences behavior, no conscious awareness

Levels of consciousness by Freud (safe psychological place)

Conscious, preconscious, unconscious

Wish Fulfillment Theory

Freud believed dreaming was to fulfill wishes. Consisted of Manifest content and Latent Content

Encoding Specificity Principle

memory is enhanced when conditions present during retrieval match those that were present during encoding by Tulving and Thompson

natural hallucinogens

mescaline (Peyote), Salvia, and psilocybin (Mushrooms)

3 components of memory

sensory, short term, long term According to Atkinson and Shiffrin

Short Term Memory as Working Memory

"Mental workspace" Stores information, actively processes it, supports problem solving and planning -Phonological loop (auditory) -Visual-spatial sketchpad (Mental images and spatial information) -Central executive (directs attention, links the two together)

4 things that impact Effortful Processing

- Amount remembered is dependent on time spent learning - Information is better retained when rehearsal is distributed over time - spacing effect - Schemas - "mental framework"

Dreams are made up of...

- Day Residues - Wish Fulfillment - Hidden Urges - Unresolved Conflicts - Negative, unpleasant content being common - Content affected by cultural, personal background and current concerns

Factors that affect storage in LTM

- Depth of processing - Automatic vs. Effortful processing - Spacing effect - Schemas - Expertise - Distinctiveness (novelty) - Mneumonics - Imagery

Day Dreaming

- Fantasy prone personality - Usually less vivid, emotional, and bizarre than the night dreams - Content often shows current concerns

REM Sleep and Brain activity

- limbic system activity increases - Association areas near visual cortex active - Motor cortex actives but signal blocked - Decreased activity in prefrontal cortex

Why do we dream?

- no agreed upon theory - Wish Fulfillment Theory - Activation Synthesis Theory - Cognitive-Process dream theories

3 levels of information processing

- structural (featural information, shallow level of processing) - Phonemic (intermediate level of processing) - Semantic (requires us to focus on meaning of information, deepest level of processing)

Recognition

1 step process, only involves identification

Recall

2 step process, need to generate and identify information

Short term memory duration

20 seconds. Rehearsal helps extend the shelf life

Amphetamine

A drug that stimulates the central nervous system. Increases dopamine and norepinephrine activity. Can produce amphetamine psychosis

Stage 2 sleep

A sleep deeper than that of stage 1, characterized by a slower, more regular wave pattern, along with momentary interruptions of "sleep spindles."

Cocaine

A stimulant drug derived from the coca tree. Increases activity of norepinephrine, dopamine by blocking reuptake. Chronic use associated with increased risk of cognitive impairment, brain damage

Flashbulb memory

A vivid, clear memory of an emotionally significant moment or event.

2 ways to encode or record information

Automatic Processing, Effortful Processing

Awake and Alert stage

Beta Waves (15-30 cps)

Explicit Memory

Conscious or intentional memory retrieval

Sleep is driven by...

Circadian rhythms

Factors that enhance retrieval

Distinctiveness - novelty Context - encoding specificity principle Mood - state dependent memory Cues - Priming

Marijuana

Increase GABA, Dopamine activity

How are memories formed?

Information is held in short-term memory (in the hippocampus) via reverberating neuronal activity. If hippocampal activity is maintained for a period of time, synaptic changes will occur and the information will be stored long-term. This is known as Long Term Potentiation. During LTP - increased neurotransmitter release, increased receptor activity, and structural changes in the synapse.

Effortful Processing

Intentional and conscious

Synthetic Hallucinogens

LSD (Lysergic acid), PCP (Phencyclidine)

Arguments against decay theory

LTM remains intact for years without use Priming experiments Reminiscence - more info recalled on delay recall tasks than on immediate recall tasks

Tip-of-Tongue State

On verge of remembering but can't recall

Storing

Retaining the information over time

Ways to remember

Serial Position Effect Imagery Techniques Method of Loci Keywords Technique

Peterson task

Short-term forgetting task in which a small amount of material is tested after a brief delay filled by a rehearsal-preventing task.

Changes in sleep with aging

Sleep less REM sleep decreases during infancy and childhood, fairly stable thereafter Time spent in stages 3, 4 (slow-wave sleep) declines

Sedatives

Sleep-inducing drugs that tend to decrease central nervous system activation and behavioral activity. (Barbituates, Special K/Ketamine, Rufees)

retrieval cues

Stimuli that are used to bring a memory to consciousness or into behavior

Characteristics of Consciousness

Subjective and private Dynamic Self-reflective and central to sense of self Linked to Attention

Stage 1 sleep

Theta Wave (3.5-7 cps) light sleep

Changes in sleep patterns

Typically happens during night where stage 3 and 4 no longer occur and REM period becomes longer

Automatic Processing

Unintentional and requiring minimal attention

Suggestive Questioning

leading questions that could distort children's memories. The younger children are more susceptible

Amnesia

loss of memory

Maintenance Rehearsal

rote repetition of material and not an optimal method

Conscious is intimately connected with...

selective attention process

Measure of Consciousness

self-report, physiological measures, behavioral measures