5/16/17

Sonata for two pianos in D

Memory major, K.448 by Mozart.

This piece of music has been

shown to improve memory in
college students before a test.

What do humans ________?

• Human faces
Why do London taxicab drivers •  Human interactions
have an enlarged ___________? •  Surprising events
•  Emotional events
•  Interesting things
•  Processed information
•  Repeated information

What do humans have difficulty What do you remember?

remembering?
Short-term memory
__________
•  Everything you are taught in college. Long-term memory

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Your brain _______

S.
unimportant information
• Appeared to have a _______ memory.
• All information went into his long-term
• Experiences are easy to remember.
memory. • Videos mimic real experiences.
• Suggests that the human brain is • Readings and lectures are difficult to
capable of remembering everything. remember.
•  Was his limitless memory due to an
extraordinary brain or to a damaged
brain?

How should you _________? What is the _______way to study?

• Start studying right after the lecture; don’t
wait until you forget most of it three weeks
later. Facts Concepts
• Eliminate distractions; focused attention is
required for consolidation.
• After you review the material, try to replicate
it either verbally or in written form. Repeat.
• Correct any misunderstandings before the
next lecture.

Rehearsing Repeated Rehearsing Repeated

in short-term testing in short-term testing
memory memory

________
• Memory improves with an emotional
response, or norepinephrine.
• Sometimes memory for a traumatic event is Remarkable autobiographical
too strong: post traumatic stress disorder.
• Soldiers are often taking norepinephrine
memory
stimulants (Adderall), which may increase
their PTSD risk.
• You can block bad memories from
consolidating by blocking norepinephrine
beta receptors.
• Recalled long-term memories must be
reconsolidated, allowing you to erase them
with beta blockers.

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Savants Are exceptional memories ______?

• Prior to practice,
Combination of limited mental memory span is
abilities and extraordinary normal (about 7
memories. digits).
• After 2 years of
practice, it increased
to 84 digits using
strategies linking
numbers to
architectural details.

__________: H.M. had his hippocampus

removed and developed
memory impairment
__________ amnesia
• Retrograde amnesia: can’t remember H.M.’s brain Normal brain
past memories.
• Anterograde amnesia: can’t form new
memories.
• Global amnesia (dementia): both kinds
of memory loss.

Hippocampus damage produces Hippocampus

a memory deficit for new ______
• Not the site of ___________ memory.
• Hippocampus is not needed for short-
term memory.
• Needed to convert short-term to long-
term memory (consolidation).
• Required for new memories of facts,
not for other forms of memory.

Facts Skills

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Why do London taxicab drivers

have an enlarged hippocampus?

The longer they have been drivers, the

larger their hippocampus.
You can make _________ better too.