Memory and motor skill …and other forms of memory

What to look for Where is memory?  One place or several? How are memories stored?  One method or several? Are memories for all things equal?  If not, how are they different? What can all this tell us about teaching and learning motor skills?

The basics Red box game  How does performance change over time?  What is being used to guide performance change?  Is it different for the observers and the performer? -What is anticipation? -Long and short term stores?

The basics Short vs long term memory  William James: Short-term, or primary memory: Long-term, or secondary memory:

The basics Short term memory performance  Digit span test

The basics Short Term memory  Limited capacity, used for retrieval Working memory = short term memory + processes used to work with the information

The basics Working memory function  Rehearsal, perseveration  Chunking – phone #, SS#, etc.  Strategies for digit span!

The basics The three stage model – storage, transfer and retrieval

The basics Long term memory  Imagine all associations being stored in some way How would this affect memory performance and behavior?

The basics Answer these 2 questions:  What continent is Kenya in?  What are the two colors of the pieces in a game of chess? Name any animal

The basics Features expected of a memory that learns by association  Priming  Encoding-retrieval compatibility (Tulving)  Transfer  False generalization

The basics Learning new memories  Consolidation  Reconsolidation  Confabulation – confusion of events  False positives - getting it wrong Witness problems

The basics Learning new memories  Reconsolidation  Chan and LaPaglia (2012):

The basics Types of long term memory

The basics Types of long term memory  Declarative vs procedural  Declarative vs. non-declarative  Declarative vs. dispositional  Explicit vs. Implicit  Conscious vs. Unconscious  Combining these, we get…

The basics Types of long term memory – more detail

The basics Other reliable memory phenomena  Primacy-recency effect  Depth of processing (Craik and Lockhart)  Deficient processing  Brown-Peterson, Peterson-Peterson paradigms

Cognitive Neuroscience of Memory Given all the preceding, what do we know of how all that stuff works?  Neural systems responsible for memory  Recent research on how these systems work

Memory storage - History Lashley (1929) – memories stored throughout cortex. Hebb (1949) – distributed but features stored in different places.  General picture still of memory integrated with other functions within all regions of brain

Memory storage - History Scoville & Milner (1957)  “citation classic” (around 2,500 and counting)  Patient “H.M.”

Memory storage - History Scoville & Milner (1957)  Patient “H.M.”  Bilateral medial temporal lobe resection  Severe anterograde amnesia  Some retrograde amnesia  Memory is a “distinct cerebral function”

Memory storage - History Scoville & Milner (1957)  Patient “H.M.”  Structures removed: hippocampus, amygdala, and part of hippocampal gyrus.  Structures subsequently associated with memory:  Research relied often on case studies (R.B., L.M, W.H.)

Memory storage - History Patient “H.M.”  Principles arising from the case study  1. Could still learn motor skills Memory is not a single thing

Memory storage - History Patient “H.M.”  Principles arising from the case study  2. structures required for the impaired memory don’t appear to be needed for intellect or perception H. M. was still lucid and capable after surgery.  3. Immediate memory and working memory not impeded H. M. could still selectively attend and rehearse information Lost memories when distracted (therapy situation)  4. Long term memories unaffected Provided a long time prior to surgery Lost structures aren’t the ultimate storage sites for memory The structures seem to lead to a series of synaptic changes resulting in storage elsewhere

Memory storage - History Multiple Memory Systems  Motor learning can still proceed (Milner (1962).  What of other tasks?  Perceptual and cognitive skills persist E.g. skill of reading words in mirror improves with practice (Cohen and Squire, 1980)  Priming intact (Tulving and Schacter, 1990)  Leads to overall separation of procedural and declarative memory systems.

Memory storage - History Immediate memory  Drachman & Arbit (1966)  Digit strings presented until correctly repeated  Controls: first error at 8 digits (!), strings as long as 20 remembered (up to 25 reps needed)  H.M.: 6 digits correctly remembered (preop level) Never succeeded at 7, despite over 25 attempts given.

Memory storage - History Immediate memory  Jeneson et al. (2010)  Objects (1-7) presented on a table top. Immediately had to reproduce array on neighboring table  Controls: as many as 7 objects placed correctly after few trials (up to 10 reps allowed)  G. P.: 1-3 objects correctly remembered Never succeeded at more than 3, despite over 10 attempts given.

Memory storage - History Immediate memory  These amnesics can do anything provided it only requires immediate memory functions.  Anything requiring some form of longer term memory is severely impaired

Memory storage - History Remote Memory and Consolidation  H.M. tested at famous face memory ( )  Did poorly in post-morbid period (1950s, 1960s)  Did better than controls (age matched) for pre-morbid ( )  Medial temporal lobe not the site of memory storage  Hence “remote” memory  Early autobiographical memory also largely intact

Memory storage - History Memory in the Neocortex  Consolidation and reconsolidation  Disparate regions activated at encoding  Same disparate regions reactivated at retrieval Newly formed memories use hippocampus to reactivate distant areas of cortex Older memories activated without hippocampus  Each region only stores particular aspects of the experience Extensive evidence from specific distal lesions » Achromatopsia, prosopagnosia, amusia. Inability to sense color Inability recognize faces Problems perceiving pitch and impaired musical memory

Memory in perception Freeman (1991 and others)  Examined changes in olfactory bulb activity when learning a new stimulus (smell) 31

Memory in perception Freeman (1991 and others)  Examined changes in olfactory bulb activity when learning a new stimulus (smell)  The point is the intervening smell changes the phase portrait of the original  Each new memory changes the way existing memories are represented  The representations are dynamic (chaotic) in nature… 32

Memory in perception Freeman (1991 and others)  Examined changes in olfactory bulb activity when learning a new stimulus (smell) 33

Memory in perception Freeman (1991 and others)  Examined changes in olfactory bulb activity when learning a new stimulus (smell)  Freeman goes on to suggest that other areas of the brain share this processing slant  Chaotic attractors are everywhere, and they exhibit all the classic signs of self-organization 34

Conclusions & Question Overall conclusions  “independent” memory systems  Medial temporal lobes involved in declarative memories  Immediate and dispositional memories separate Question:  If they are separate, does asking one to influence the other do harm? See next week’s readings.

Cortical areas and associated memory systems: