PSYC 248 UIUC EXAM 3 QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Sources of amnesia from brain damage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Concussion
Shock
Lesions
Drugs
Alcohol
Korsakoff's Syndrome - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅A chronic memory disorder caused by severe deficiency
of thiamine (vitamin B-1) most commonly caused by alcohol misuse
Retrograde Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Loss of memory for events prior to the damage; loss is
greatest for time right before damage
Is retrograde amnesia a retrieval or storage deficit? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅You can usually recover
from retrograde amnesia, so it is a retrieval deficit
Winocur's experiment of retrograde amnesia on rats - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Phase 1: Rats learn to
associate a reward with a particular smell
Phase 2: Experimental group's hippocampus is lesioned either 1, 7, or 14 days after learning. Control
group is not lesioned
Results: Both groups had similar memory 14 days after testing but rats that were lesioned 1 day after
learning had the worst deficit in memory. *Shows that we only forget things for a few days before the
damage*
Butlers & Cermak (1986) experiment on retrograde amnesia in humans - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Patient
P.Z. a university professor developed amnesia in 1982 but had written an autobiography three years
earlier. When tested, he had the worst memory for the events right before his amnesia and the best
memory for events further back in his past
Anterograde Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Loss of memory for events after damage
, Does anterograde amnesia affect working memory or long term storage? (Baddeley & Warrington
experiment) - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesiacs and people with normal memory both scored the same
on items toward the end of a series on a serial recall test, but amnesiacs did not remember earlier items.
*Shows that amnesiacs do not have impaired WM, only impaired ability to convert WM to LTS*
Is anterograde amnesia due to a failure to transfer memories to LTS, or a failure to retrieve from LTS? -
CORRECT ANSWER✅✅If you recover from anterograde amnesia, you still can never retrieve the events
that happened while you had AA, therefore *anterograde amnesia is a failure to transfer to LTS*
What kind of LTS are lost and not lost by amnesia? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Lost: performance in explicit
memory tasks (recall, recognition), learning new vocabulary, learning new facts (semantic memory)
Not lost: implicit memory (e.g., stem completion), ability to learn new skills (procedural memory)
Milner (1965) study on amnesiacs learning new skill - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesiacs and people with
normal memory learned to trace a star using a mirror, amnesiacs learned as fast as normals. *Shows
that procedural memory and new skills are not lost*
Cohen's Tower of Hand Experiment - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Normals and amnesiacs must learn how to
solve the problem, and are able to learn task at the same speed. However, amnesiacs don't remember
having done the task.
*Shows that amnesiacs have normal ability to learn new skills*
Cohen's Procedural/Declarative Theory of Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesia is a disorder of
declarative memory (episodic memory and semantic memory), but procedural memory is okay since
amnesiacs perform well on skill learning and implicit memory tasks
What does the hippocampus do? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅It allows us to *combine* different types of
knowledge to make new memories
Sources of amnesia from brain damage - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Concussion
Shock
Lesions
Drugs
Alcohol
Korsakoff's Syndrome - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅A chronic memory disorder caused by severe deficiency
of thiamine (vitamin B-1) most commonly caused by alcohol misuse
Retrograde Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Loss of memory for events prior to the damage; loss is
greatest for time right before damage
Is retrograde amnesia a retrieval or storage deficit? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅You can usually recover
from retrograde amnesia, so it is a retrieval deficit
Winocur's experiment of retrograde amnesia on rats - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Phase 1: Rats learn to
associate a reward with a particular smell
Phase 2: Experimental group's hippocampus is lesioned either 1, 7, or 14 days after learning. Control
group is not lesioned
Results: Both groups had similar memory 14 days after testing but rats that were lesioned 1 day after
learning had the worst deficit in memory. *Shows that we only forget things for a few days before the
damage*
Butlers & Cermak (1986) experiment on retrograde amnesia in humans - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Patient
P.Z. a university professor developed amnesia in 1982 but had written an autobiography three years
earlier. When tested, he had the worst memory for the events right before his amnesia and the best
memory for events further back in his past
Anterograde Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Loss of memory for events after damage
, Does anterograde amnesia affect working memory or long term storage? (Baddeley & Warrington
experiment) - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesiacs and people with normal memory both scored the same
on items toward the end of a series on a serial recall test, but amnesiacs did not remember earlier items.
*Shows that amnesiacs do not have impaired WM, only impaired ability to convert WM to LTS*
Is anterograde amnesia due to a failure to transfer memories to LTS, or a failure to retrieve from LTS? -
CORRECT ANSWER✅✅If you recover from anterograde amnesia, you still can never retrieve the events
that happened while you had AA, therefore *anterograde amnesia is a failure to transfer to LTS*
What kind of LTS are lost and not lost by amnesia? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Lost: performance in explicit
memory tasks (recall, recognition), learning new vocabulary, learning new facts (semantic memory)
Not lost: implicit memory (e.g., stem completion), ability to learn new skills (procedural memory)
Milner (1965) study on amnesiacs learning new skill - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesiacs and people with
normal memory learned to trace a star using a mirror, amnesiacs learned as fast as normals. *Shows
that procedural memory and new skills are not lost*
Cohen's Tower of Hand Experiment - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Normals and amnesiacs must learn how to
solve the problem, and are able to learn task at the same speed. However, amnesiacs don't remember
having done the task.
*Shows that amnesiacs have normal ability to learn new skills*
Cohen's Procedural/Declarative Theory of Amnesia - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅Amnesia is a disorder of
declarative memory (episodic memory and semantic memory), but procedural memory is okay since
amnesiacs perform well on skill learning and implicit memory tasks
What does the hippocampus do? - CORRECT ANSWER✅✅It allows us to *combine* different types of
knowledge to make new memories
