Foundational Topics and Brief Memory Stores
What is a chunk?
A unit of grouped together items.
What term describes how new fragile memories are transformed into a more permanent state?
Consolidation
What is the encoding specificity principle?
Similar cues at encoding and retrieval lead to better memory.
What is inattention blindness?
When you don't notice details you don't attend to
What are the two main biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease?
Neurofibrillary tangles (tau protein) and amyloid beta plaques.
What are two types of implicit memory?
Procedural, priming, conditioning
What is an example of deep processing?
Self-reference effect, testing effect, generation effect, survival effect, etc.
What are two nutritional supplements that have historically been suspected as cognitive enhancers?
Ginko extract, Lion's Man, Ginseng, Omega-3 fats.
What does thought substitution refer to?
Redirect thoughts away from unwanted retrieval in the face of a cue.
What are 3 modifiable predictors for alzheimer's disease?
Physical inactivity, Diabetes, Low social contact, Excessive alcohol consumption, Traumatic brain injury, Air pollution, Less education, Hypertension, Hearing loss, Cigarette smoking, Obesity, Depression
What do we collectively call tasks used to measure working memory capacity?
Complex span tasks
In the hub-and-spoke model, what does the hub represent?
General representation of a concept.
What is reconsolidation?
Reactivating a memory makes it unstable. That memory then is consolidated again in a possibly altered state.
Where do we see less neural activity when encoding faces from other races?
fronto-parietal network.
What is another neural region (not hippocampus) that can result in amnesia if damaged?
Mammillary bodies, fornix, diencephalon
What is a downside to studying memory outside of the lab?
Less experimental control (more confounds!). Hard to draw causal conclusions.
What is the distributed practice effect?
Spaced repetition of information is a better way to study than massed repetition.
What are two differences between recollection and familiarity?
Familiarity is faster, automatic, and not context dependent. It relies more on the perirhinal cortex.
What changes in neural activity do we see during retrieval suppression?
Increased PFC activity and decreased hippocampal activity
What is a possible explanation for the memory deficit associated with PTSD?
Retrieval induced forgetting
What is long-term potentiation?
When signals between neurons are sent more efficiently. This is the neural basis for memory.
What region of the brain helps integrate new memories into existing knowledge?
Ventromedial PFC
What part of the brain does retrieval induced forgetting most clearly rely on?
PFC
What is the associative deficit hypothesis?
Aging issues are largely due to a decline in being able to associate items together while encoding them.
What is a common cause of transient global amnesia?
physical stress or exertion, possibly related to heart rate or blood flow issues.