Real-World Applications
Based on the results of the study called "The Simple Act of Choosing Influences Declarative Memory," give a specific example of how an educator could use these findings to better engage their students.
Ex: An educator could incorporate more opportunities for students to make choices during lessons, which can increase their engagement and improve their memory retention of the material.
What does the Clayton et al. study on scrub jays suggest about the possibility of types of memory in non-human animals, and how does this challenge human-centric views of memory?
Possible answer: That because scrub jays may have the ability to recall specific events with temporal context, suggesting that episodic memory might not be unique to humans.
Why might episodic memories be more susceptible to distortion than semantic memories?
What is because episodic memories are context-dependent and involve reconstructive processes, making them more prone to interference and false recollections?
Which brain region is primarily associated with the encoding and consolidation of episodic memories?
What is the medial temporal lobe/hippocampus?
In the scrub jay study, what was the assumption made by the birds that allowed researchers to conclude that they possessed memory abilities previously thought unique to primates?
They assumed that the worms they buried earlier were bad after 124 hours, neglecting the areas where they hid the worms and going straight for nuts.
They remembered not only what they cached but also where and when they cached it.
Give an example of how an instructor could use the idea of depth of processing of memory to enhance long-term retention of information in students.
Possible answers: By using visual aides as opposed to words alone to explain concepts
By requiring notes/a summary of readings instead of assigning readings alone
According to the study on semantic representations in the temporal pole, how do false memories arise, and what role does the temporal pole play in this process?
False memories arise due to semantic interference, and the temporal pole plays a key role by using a similarity-based code that can lead to memory distortions when related concepts overlap.
How do proactive and retroactive interference affect memory recall? Give an example of both.
Proactive interference occurs when older memories interfere with the recall of newer information, while retroactive interference happens when new information interferes with the retrieval of older memories.
What does the term "anterograde amnesia" describe, and which brain structures are typically implicated in this condition?
What is the inability to form new episodic memories due to damage to the medial temporal lobes, including the hippocampus?
What is an example of a challenge that may arise when trying to study episodic memory in non-human animals, and how could (or have) researchers attempt(ed) to overcome this challenge?
Possible answer: Difficulty in assessing subjective experiences and specific events in animals, which researchers have addressed by designing tasks that require animals to recall specific details (e.g., food location and timing)
How might an understanding of episodic memory help improve the accuracy of eyewitness testimony in legal cases?
Possible answer: By emphasizing the importance of context and minimizing leading questions to reduce memory distortion
In the study called "Semantic representations in the temporal pole predict false memories," how does semantic relatedness of concepts contribute to the formation of false memories?
The semantic relatedness between list words and non-presented lure words triggers false memories, as the brain mistakenly recalls the related, but non-presented, word due to overlapping semantic representations.
Why might semantic memory be more resistant to the effects of aging and certain types of brain injury compared to episodic memory?
Because semantic memory, which stores general knowledge and facts, is often distributed across multiple brain regions and built over a lifetime, making it less vulnerable to localized brain damage and more stable than the context-dependent, often more fragile, episodic memories.
Damage to which region of the brain is thought to be responsible for source amnesia? What is an example of a mistake someone with source amnesia may make?
Damage to frontal cortices/frontal cortex, source amnesia involves confusing fantasy and reality.
How did the study using the radial maze task in rats help us understand episodic memory and its neural underpinnings?
Hint: It was the last study discussed in class!
By showing that healthy rats can remember which arms they have visited to find food, a task that is disrupted when the hippocampus is damaged.