How we learn from experience Memory and Amnesia

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 Rehearsal Sensory registers Short Term or Working Consolidation Long Term Retrieval Loss

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 High School Prom 1999 Car crash HS graduation June 2000 New Home 2001 Test Today

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 Both sides KW 13 -8

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 Rehearsal Sensory registers Short Term or Working Consolidation Long Term Retrieval Loss

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- brain damage caused by longterm thiamine deficiency (both retrograde and anterograde amnesia)

Alzheimer’s Disease- severe memory loss associated with aging Amyloid beta protein accumulates in the brain and impairs neuron function Plaques Tangles

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 Creating novel circuits over time KW p. 514

Cortex changes in experience Glial Blood KW 13 -20

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