psyc 382 final exam Questions and
Solved Solutions.
CHAPTER 9 - MEMORY - AnswerCHAPTER 9 - MEMORY
how do we test memory? - Answerfree recall: patient is told to report all the words on
the study list
cued recall: patient is told to report all the words from the study list that were examples
of buildings or began with the letter B
recognition tests: patient is given 15-word pairs, each containing one item from the list
and one novel item, and then patient asked which of these 2 words was on the study
list?
3 major pathways in the hippocampus - Answer1) info from a variety of brain regions
converges on the denate gyrus of the hippocampus via inout from the perforant pathway
from adjacent entorhinal cortex
2) mossy fibers
3) schaffer collaterals
describe H.M's amnesia...
- what is his functional reality?
- what can he recall?
- can he learn new skills? - AnswerH.M. (born 1926), had progressively worse
epilepsy since childhood, neurosurgeon William Scoville offered experimental surgical
therapy: bilateral resection of his medial temporal lobes
- he could not form new long term memories
- but short term memory was intact
After surgery, H.M. could recall...
- Some autobiographical details + any info about the world up to ~2 years prior to
surgery
- Had selective memory loss for personal events (episodic memory) up to 10 years prior
to surgery
- Normal short-term memory (sensory & working memory) + normal procedural memory
,- Normal digit span abilities (but not long-term digit memory tasks)
- Transfer of info from short to long term memory was bad = anterograde amnesia = no
new long-term memories
H.M. could learn some things...
- Tasks involving motor skills, perceptual skills, and procedures
- Became easier to learn over time, BUT he couldn't remember practicing the skills or
being asked to learn them = dissociation between remembering experience of learning
& actual learned info
H.M. proved memory is distinct from perceptual & intellectual processes...
- Medial temporal lobes necessary for long-term memory formation (but not formation &
retrieval of short term memories or long term memories that are nondeclarative &
involve learning procedures or motor skills)
**patients with amnesia can learn some new forms of info, procedures, motor skills &
perceptual skills
Some can learn new concepts & world knowledge (semantic) with extensive study, but
would have no recall of episodes of learning
does amnesia occur across modality and material? or is it just for certain types of
memories? - Answer**global nature of amnesia: amnesia resulting from hippocampal
damage is global with regard to modality & material
Modalities: visual, auditory, somesthetic, & even olfactory
Materials: verbal & nonverbal material, spatial & nonspatial, meaningful & nonsense
stimuli, etc.
(ex. H.M.'s amnesia affected visual & auditory = memory loss across multiple sensory
modalities)
Amnesia is a disorder of memory functions rather than perceptual, linguistic, or other
cognitive processing functions
- Damage to other cortical areas produce modality and/or material specific impairments
**unilateral damage to the hippocampal system can produce material-specific memory
disorders**
1) Left hemi hippocampal damage → impairments for verbal material
2) Right hemi hippocampal damage → impairments for non-verbal material
, 3) Bilateral hippocampal damage → general impairments across all types of material
can people encode new info with amnesia? - Answeryes
anterograde amnesia - Answerdeficit in learning new info after the onset of amnesia
Example: not being able to learn how to speak a newlanguage after the accident
retrograde amnesia - Answerimpairment in memory for info that was acquired prior to
the event that caused the amnesia
- Characterized by temporal gradient = greater compromise for more recent memories
than remote memories
Example: not being able to remember your boss's name even though you knew it before
the accident
do people with hippocampal amnesia show profound retrograde amnesia for very recent
or distant events? - Answervery distant events
what types of memories are likely disrupted in people suffering from retrograde
amnesia? - AnswerRetrograde amnesia usually affects episodic memories
(autobiographical)
what types of memories/ abilities remain intact?
- can they learn anything new? - Answer- they typically retain basic perceptual, motor,
linguistic, and intellectual abilities (ex. Piano skills in HM)
- they also retain info learned early in life about language, objects, and world in general
(semantic)
how does hippocampal amnesia affect working memory ability? - Answerworking
memory is unaffected by amnesia
- because patients with amnesia have intact working memory, they perform normally
when the delay between the exposure to info and the memory test is short, or when the
amount of material to be remembered is small
What are the typical results in a digit span task? what happens to performance if we
modulate the task, such as by introducing a delay? - Answerdigit span task:
participants have to report back a sequence of items such as digits, presented one at a
time by the experimenter
- Patients with amnesia have an intact working memory = perform well on digit span if
delay is short
Solved Solutions.
CHAPTER 9 - MEMORY - AnswerCHAPTER 9 - MEMORY
how do we test memory? - Answerfree recall: patient is told to report all the words on
the study list
cued recall: patient is told to report all the words from the study list that were examples
of buildings or began with the letter B
recognition tests: patient is given 15-word pairs, each containing one item from the list
and one novel item, and then patient asked which of these 2 words was on the study
list?
3 major pathways in the hippocampus - Answer1) info from a variety of brain regions
converges on the denate gyrus of the hippocampus via inout from the perforant pathway
from adjacent entorhinal cortex
2) mossy fibers
3) schaffer collaterals
describe H.M's amnesia...
- what is his functional reality?
- what can he recall?
- can he learn new skills? - AnswerH.M. (born 1926), had progressively worse
epilepsy since childhood, neurosurgeon William Scoville offered experimental surgical
therapy: bilateral resection of his medial temporal lobes
- he could not form new long term memories
- but short term memory was intact
After surgery, H.M. could recall...
- Some autobiographical details + any info about the world up to ~2 years prior to
surgery
- Had selective memory loss for personal events (episodic memory) up to 10 years prior
to surgery
- Normal short-term memory (sensory & working memory) + normal procedural memory
,- Normal digit span abilities (but not long-term digit memory tasks)
- Transfer of info from short to long term memory was bad = anterograde amnesia = no
new long-term memories
H.M. could learn some things...
- Tasks involving motor skills, perceptual skills, and procedures
- Became easier to learn over time, BUT he couldn't remember practicing the skills or
being asked to learn them = dissociation between remembering experience of learning
& actual learned info
H.M. proved memory is distinct from perceptual & intellectual processes...
- Medial temporal lobes necessary for long-term memory formation (but not formation &
retrieval of short term memories or long term memories that are nondeclarative &
involve learning procedures or motor skills)
**patients with amnesia can learn some new forms of info, procedures, motor skills &
perceptual skills
Some can learn new concepts & world knowledge (semantic) with extensive study, but
would have no recall of episodes of learning
does amnesia occur across modality and material? or is it just for certain types of
memories? - Answer**global nature of amnesia: amnesia resulting from hippocampal
damage is global with regard to modality & material
Modalities: visual, auditory, somesthetic, & even olfactory
Materials: verbal & nonverbal material, spatial & nonspatial, meaningful & nonsense
stimuli, etc.
(ex. H.M.'s amnesia affected visual & auditory = memory loss across multiple sensory
modalities)
Amnesia is a disorder of memory functions rather than perceptual, linguistic, or other
cognitive processing functions
- Damage to other cortical areas produce modality and/or material specific impairments
**unilateral damage to the hippocampal system can produce material-specific memory
disorders**
1) Left hemi hippocampal damage → impairments for verbal material
2) Right hemi hippocampal damage → impairments for non-verbal material
, 3) Bilateral hippocampal damage → general impairments across all types of material
can people encode new info with amnesia? - Answeryes
anterograde amnesia - Answerdeficit in learning new info after the onset of amnesia
Example: not being able to learn how to speak a newlanguage after the accident
retrograde amnesia - Answerimpairment in memory for info that was acquired prior to
the event that caused the amnesia
- Characterized by temporal gradient = greater compromise for more recent memories
than remote memories
Example: not being able to remember your boss's name even though you knew it before
the accident
do people with hippocampal amnesia show profound retrograde amnesia for very recent
or distant events? - Answervery distant events
what types of memories are likely disrupted in people suffering from retrograde
amnesia? - AnswerRetrograde amnesia usually affects episodic memories
(autobiographical)
what types of memories/ abilities remain intact?
- can they learn anything new? - Answer- they typically retain basic perceptual, motor,
linguistic, and intellectual abilities (ex. Piano skills in HM)
- they also retain info learned early in life about language, objects, and world in general
(semantic)
how does hippocampal amnesia affect working memory ability? - Answerworking
memory is unaffected by amnesia
- because patients with amnesia have intact working memory, they perform normally
when the delay between the exposure to info and the memory test is short, or when the
amount of material to be remembered is small
What are the typical results in a digit span task? what happens to performance if we
modulate the task, such as by introducing a delay? - Answerdigit span task:
participants have to report back a sequence of items such as digits, presented one at a
time by the experimenter
- Patients with amnesia have an intact working memory = perform well on digit span if
delay is short
