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
