Memory Week 3 Biological Approach

Revision activity 3 groups – no notes please Nature of memory diagram/flow chart Multi Store Model diagram Working memory model diagram Must include evidence and evaluative points You will have 3 minutes to do as much as you can You will then move on and add to/complete the next model After 3 minutes you will move on again

Biological Biological Psychology is the study of the biological basis of behaviour and suggests that it is our physiology and our genetics that cause us to think, feel and behave as we do. Areas of the brain associated with STM & LTM MRI scans show that when a person is doing immediate memory tasks the prefrontal cortex is active BUT When doing LTM task the hippocampus is active Clinical evidence (patients like HM & Clive Wearing etc) supports distinction between STM & LTM

Memory and the Brain Hebb (1949) proposed that during the process of learning, we form an ‘engram’ which is a wordused for ‘memory trace’ Initially this is a fragile, ‘active trace’, but it is formed into a permanent ‘structural trace’ Engrams are means by which memory is stored in the brain An Engram is the hypothesized physical memory trace, that that is produced when information is stored in the brain Although the actual existence of memory "engrams" is still unproven How is memory stored? Trace Decay

Engrams & The Brain In 1931 Lashley (a neuroscientist) attempted to identify the location of the engram in rats using a maze task He trained rats to learn mazes and then remove sections of their brains Findings??? there was a relationship between the amount of material removed and the amount of forgetting that happened Can it be generalised to humans?

The Brain The brain is divided into two halves called hemispheres. An outer layer called the cortex covers the hemispheres. The cortex has many folds and convolutions thereby increasing the overall surface area of the brain. The cortex can be divided into areas (or lobes) according to their functions. Parietal Frontal Occipital Temporal

The brain Frontal Lobe involved in planning, initiative and voluntary motor control Parietal Lobe is involved in sensing and monitoring of body parts. Integrates information from different sensory areas; for example pairing up the sight and sound of an object Occipital lobe is involved in sight. Damage to the occipital lobe may cause a variety of visual disturbances, depending on where damage occurred.

The Brain Temporal lobe is involved in hearing, language and memory. Damage to the temporal lobe may cause impairment of any of these functions The temporal lobe also contains the Hippocampus. Research suggests that the hippocampus is vital for long-term memory. It is also vial for spatial memory. Spatial memory allows the individual to move within their environment, know where they are located and remember where things are. The temporal lobe contains the amygdala which is involved in the consolidation of long-term memories. Damage to the hippocampus may prevent the individual from being able to store new information Temporal Lobe – Hippocampus – Amygdala

STM/LTM – Different areas of the brain? One way to demonstrate the existence of two separate stores in memory is to link STM and LTM to specific areas of the brain MRI scans take images of the active brain and help us to see what region is active when a person is doing a task Research found that the prefrontal cortex is active when individuals are working on STM tasks (Beardsley, 1997) Where as the hippocampus is active when LTM is engaged (Squire et al, 1992) Support for Multi-store model

Internet research activity Scoville and Milner (1957) A study of HM Hippocampus and Memory Greek name for Seahorse is hippocampus

Scoville and Milner (1957) Study of HM 1953, HM had the hippocampus removed from both sides of the brain to control severe epilepsy Result: personality & intellect remained but memory affected – Lost his memory of 10 years prior to operation – Lost his ability to store new information – He had a 90 second memory span – effectively waking up every 90 seconds not knowing where he was – Procedural memory was fine (doing things) as was his semantic memory (knowing that) – For many years he said he was 27 and the year was 1953, but started to realise this was wrong – he re-read magazines/books with no loss of interest Conclusion: Demonstrates the importance of Hippocampus in LTM

Scoville & Milner - Evaluation Was it the loss of hippocampus or trauma of brain surgery that led to his subsequent behaviour? Ethics – informed consent? Evidence for MSM?

How does the study of HM demonstrate evidence for separate STM and LTM stores? Star study: A case study of HM by Scoville & Milner (1957) p.35/36 STM intact but could not form new long-term memories – Could memorise a number & recall it 15 mins later, but if given another task during that time, he wouldn’t remember the number He could still talk and show previous skills (procedural memory) But his episodic memory (for past events) and semantic memory (e.g. word meanings) was affected more than the procedural memory Evidence for different stores for STM & LTM

Hippocampus & Spatial Memory Maguire et al (2000) Navigation-related structural changes in the hippocampi of taxi drivers Research Question: Can changes in the brain be detected in those with extensive navigation experience? Remember that the hippocampus is vital for LTM and spatial memory The hypothesis: That the hippocampi in London Taxi drivers will be structurally different to the hippocampi in non-taxi drivers

Maguire et al, 2000 London Taxi Drivers ‘the knowledge’. It takes two years to train to become a London Taxi driver and they must memorise thousands of routes They are tested by police before a license is issued Method: Natural experiment 2 groups of 16 participants (their brain) – All right handed – matched for age (av. 44years) IV: London Taxi driver brain (av years experience) Non taxi driver brain DV: Structure & volume of hippocampi Comparison of analysis of MRI scans

Maguire et al (2000) Procedure Firstly: MRI scans of brains of 50 healthy, right handed, male, non taxi drivers aged were analysed to establish a comparison data base of ‘average hippocampi’ MRI scans of brains of 16 taxi drivers and of 16 matched controls were analysed and compared to the data base of images CONTROL: the expert conducting the analysis did not know whether MRI scan was taxi driver brain or not….why? – To reduce bias of those assessing the scans

Maguire et al (2000) Findings / Conclusion Increased volume of grey matter in both the right & left hippocampi in taxi driver brains Volume (size) of right posteria (back part) hippocampus increased as length of time as taxi driver increased Conclusion: – That the structure of the brain changes in response to environmental demand – That the mental map of the city of London is stored in the posteria hippocampi

The Case of KF (Shallice and Warrington, 1970) In the 1970s, KF was in a motorcycle accident, resulting in brain damage to his left occipital lobe (pictured right). STM was damaged but LTM was normal He remembered words better if presented visually as opposed to auditorally. Therefore, impairment was mainly for verbal information - his memory for visual information was largely unaffected. This case study suggests separate visual and spatial systems thus supporting the existence of the visuo- spatial sketchpad in working memory. Evidence that the Occipital Lobe is important for visual memory Evidence that the Occipital Lobe is important for visual memory

Neuropsychological evidence Some of the strongest evidence to prove that STM and LTM are separate stores comes from the study of people who have suffered brain damage. Loss of memory is usually selective – it affects one type of memory but not another. Clive Wearing

The case of Clive Wearing watch?v=OmkiMlvLKto watch?v=OmkiMlvLKto watch?v=WmzU47i2xgw watch?v=WmzU47i2xgw

Temporal and frontal lobes were damaged by viral encephalitis. He remembers nothing at all; his entire experience is restricted to the minute or two available through working memory Every time Mr. Wearing is distracted, he awakens to an entirely new and unfamiliar reality. For years, Mr. Wearing has kept a diary. Each entry contains the current time and a record of the profound realization that he is now, for the first time, alive and conscious. He then notices the previous entries. Pages of them. All making the same claim. All in his own familiar handwriting. All written by some unremembered stranger. He goes back, systematically crosses out these false entries, and underlines the current entry. The first true entry. He sets the diary down, glances out the window, and awakens for the first time. Clive Wearing

What a storyWhat a story – website link Group Work: How does this show there are different memory stores? Evidence of LTM: Procedural memory (play piano) & Semantic memory (knows his wife) No STM – continually thinks he’s is waking up for the first time Cannot retain new information and pass it on to LTM through rehearsal Good evidence for STM and LTM being different stores

Link to Models of Memory? Biological Approach worksheet

Practice Essay – group plan Explain the topic of Memory using two psychological approaches and/or theories – 14 Marks