Psy
342 Learning & Memory
Amnesia—Chapter
11
I. The Anatomy of
the Brain
III. Where are
Memories Located in the Brain?
A. Localized view—memories are located in specific sites in the brain
B.
Distributed view--memories are distributed across the brain.
IV.
Amnesia
A.
Case studies
1.
SP--stroke affected both medial temporal lobes, the left hippocampus, and other
neighboring areas
Severe
anterograde (except digit span) and retrograde amnesia.
Ability
to name objects was severely impaired
Lost
recent and remote autobiographical
Able
to learn new procedural
2.
Clive Wearing—encephalitis, an inflammation of the central nervous system
Problems in semantic memory
Severe losses in episodic memory
Lost
the capacity for new learning, but coined new definitions for words, remaining
consistent in their use
CT
and MRI scans revealed structural changes in both temporal lobes with dilations
of certain regions compared to their normal state.
Hippocampus
was severely damaged
B.
Performance Patterns in Amnesia
1.
Retrograde amnesia—losing past memories
In
differential retrograde amnesia, some types of information are lost, while
others are retained
Retrograde
amnesia is assessed by a variety of instruments to measure autobiographical
memory, semantic memory, and episodic memory
2.
Anterograde Amnesia—Problems acquiring new info.
If
injury is mild, can regain the ability to learn new info.
Have
patient learn new info.
Wechsler
Memory Scale
3.
Spared Memory Functions—Some retain ability to acquire perceptual skills,
motor skills, cognitive skills, and, under very specialized conditions, new
declarative knowledge.
Implicit
memory and memory for skills
Working Memory
Semantic Memory
Acquiring new declarative info.
C.
Explaining Amnesia
Consolidation hypotheses
V. Implicit
Memory
A.
Definitions
Learning
instructions—incidental or intentional
Type
of test—implicit or indirect vs. explicit or direct
Memory
used by S— implicit (nonconscious) or explicit (conscious)
Implicit
Learning—acquiring knowledge about stimuli without a conscious attempt.
B.
Explicit vs. implicit measures
Explicit
(direct) memory test—Ss are instructed to remember information
Examples—recall,
recognition
Implicit
(indirect) memory test—Ss perform a cognitive task which is facilitated by previous
experience with the material.
Examples—word-stem completion, word-fragment completion, repetition priming