Online textbook link

Yo,

Here's a link for the online textbook:

https://pearsonactivelearn.com/

KOP!

Schmolck et al (2002) - AO1 summary info

Yo,

Here is a good summary for the AO1 part of Schmolck's study:

Schmolck (2002)

Aim

To look at the relationship between performance on semantic memory tasks and the extent of temporal lobe damage to find out to what extent is it involved in semantic memory

Specifically to look at HM’s performance to see what was different from the performance of the other patients with brain damage

Procedure:

 

Participants

Six patients with amnesia were compared to eight ‘normal’ participants

3 patients had encephalitis leading to their amnesia (EP, GP, GT) who had large medial temporal lobe damage and varying damage to their anterolateral temporal cortex (MTL+)

HM- who had lateral MTL damage

2 patients with amnesia caused by damage in their hippocampal formation (HF)

They gave semantic knowledge tests to patients who had damage to the MTL and to the ALTC (they varied in damage, measured by an MRI scan or fMRI scan).

They also used patients with damage to the hippocampal formation (which is within the MTL)…so they looked at those who had whole MTL damage and those who just had damage to one part.

Testing procedure:

They conducted 9 tests over 5 different sessions

Seven were from the semantic test battery and two constructed by the researcher

48 items were used – 24 objects and 24 animals. These were further categorised into categories: domestic land animals, foreign land animals, water animals, birds, electrical household items, non-household electrical items, vehicles, and musical instruments (these are the ‘objects’ or ‘drawings’ etc in the tests)

 

Results

Tasks 1-9:

•       Those with Hippocampus damage (HF) were able to name, point out, and answer questions about objects they were given with considerable accuracy. (Similarly to the control group)

•       Those with MTL+ performed less well. They also had difficulty thinking of examples from a category e.g. dog breeds

 

•       HM did the worst (in MTL group)

•       The MTL+ found it most difficult to identify and recall facts about living objects compared to non-living objects in all tasks.

Tasks 10-13

-MTL+ performed well (but one made 8 errors)

-All MTL+ scored well on the colouring task

MTL+ & HM scored below 90% on the palm tree task

MTL+ produced regular plurals and verbs but performed less well at producing irregular verbs and plurals. HM was fine in both

 

Conclusions

The MTL+ patient data shows that damage to the anterolateral temporal cortex is consistent with loss of semantic knowledge that results in ‘blurring’ or overlap of conceptual knowledge that leads to confusion.

Semantic knowledge is associated with the anterolateral region and not the medial temporal lobe.

 

 

 

KOP!

 

 

 

 

 

FA2

Yo,

It's all on cognitive and research methods... there will be a revision session prior to the FA2 where I'll try and cover as much as possible!

KOP!

Working Memory Model - Baddeley and Hitch (1974)

Yo,

Baddeley and Hitch suggested that memory is comprised of different systems and these systems are involved when we use our memory (hence the term 'working memory'). There model had 3 systems: the central executive, the phonological loop, and the visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP).

The Central Executive:

This is a limited capacity (see overload below) system for general processing of information in memory. It was originally seen as a homunculus (a very small human) that guides the activity of the 2 slave systems (so called because they are not independent of the central executive) and how they function. It was also thought to be modality free - it can handle information in different forms (i.e. visual, sound, touch).

The Phonological Loop:

This is one of the slave systems that deals with the temporary storage of verbal information. Inside the phonological loop are 2 components - the rehearsal system and phonological store. The store can only hold a small amount of verbal information (which we will test in the lesson) for a few seconds, this duration can be increased by the rehearsal system (the inner voice, just like rehearsal in the MSM).

The Visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP):

This slave system deals with verbal AND spatial (i.e. the location or position of something) information. The VSSP can either process information directly (by looking at it) or getting visual information from LTM (i.e. remembering a friend's face). The VSSP maintains visual information, it allows up to observe the world and understand it by relying on visual information in LTM. There is a limited capacity to the VSSP, which we will investigate in the lesson.

Overload:

Working memory is seen as limited capacity because it can affected by distraction (someone talking to you whilst trying to remember a number), overload (trying to remember a list that is too long), and overwork (trying to perform complicated calculations in your mind). This has been demonstrated in dual task experiments (expt's that involved completing tasks that use either the same slave system, or 2 different slave systems) - ppts are asked to do 2 verbal tasks at the same time (i.e. repeat a string of numbers out loud whilst answering true or false questions)

BUT the WMM does explain why people can do well at dual task experiments. When asked to do a verbal and a spatial task at the same time, ppts performance is not as poor.

Experiments - some key definitions

Yo,

Add these definitions into your white RM booklets:

experiment - investigations where a variable is manipulated or altered, and its effect can be measured, while maintaining control over other variables that might affect the situation
lab experiment - an experiment conducted in a controlled environment
field experiment - a piece of research that takes place in the setting where the behaviour would naturally occur
operationalisation - defining the variables specifically so they are directly measured and tested
independent variable - the variable manipulated (changed) by the researcher to show a difference between the conditions
dependent variable - the variable that is measured or the results of the experiment

Remember to have examples for each key term - this is worth a mark in any 'define' exam question

KOP!

Episodic and Semantic memory

Yo,

Here is the information you need to know about this theory of memory. Make sure you understand what the two types are memory are - come up with some examples. Also, how the two types of memory are related. The evidence from studies will form our evaluation - you do not NEED notes on them but I would suggest thinking about how they might be useful for evaluation.

KOP!

Phrenology - a potted history

Yo,

Franz Joseph Gall was born in Baden, Germany, on March 9, 1758. Gall studied medicine in Vienna, Austria. He became a well known neuroanatomist and physiologist. He was one of the first to study the localization of mental functions in the brain.

Gall believed that there was a relationship between the size and shape of the skull and mental faculties and character. Although the ideas of phrenology were different, it gained wide acceptance. Gall began his lectures on phrenology in 1796. In 1802 the government and Roman Catholic Church ordered him to stop his lectures. He was forced to leave Vienna and go to France. He continued study phrenology in Paris.

Many people condemned Gall because he could not provide real scientific proof of his theory. Phrenology was also considered a money making fraud. Gall’s phrenological theories were best accepted in England, where the ruling class used it to justify the inferiority of colonial subjects. Phrenology became popular in the United States from 1820 to 1850.

Phrenology was based on head reading and character analyses as well as looking at the interactions between the faculties of the brain.  Most phrenologists would run their bare finger tips over a head to distinguish any elevations or indentations. Gall thought they should use their palms when doing the readings. Gall believed the bumps on the skull represented specific personality characteristics. 

The invention of the psychograph came from the study of Phrenology. The psychograph was invented by Lavery and White. It was a machine that could do a phrenological reading complete with a printout. Many people who had the phrenological readings were satisfied and felt that the results were extremely accurate.

Gall's idea of phrenology was based on several concepts:

• the brain is the organ of the mind
• the brain is a collection of organs representing the characteristics of the person
• these functions are located in specific parts of the brain
• the size of each organ is representative of its power
• the shape and size of the skull relate to the shape and size of the underlying organs and is representative of the individual's mental faculties.

Since the mid-19th century, phrenology has been remembered as a very controversial science. This was even true during the height of phrenology. Today, the ideas behind Phrenology have been absorbed into many other disciplines making some aspects still alive today. The idea of phrenology lived on in other sciences of measuring and comparing human heads- most notoriously the attention to cranial size, forehead shape etc. used by late 19th and early 20th century racial anthropologists to confirm their belief that Europeans were superior to other humans. Phrenology was also used to determine whether or not someone was a criminal. Could you imagine deciding this just by the shape and size of a persons head?

Ironically, most of phrenology's basic premises have been justified. For example, the idea that many functions are localized in the brain is now a common idea. There is much research being done on the localization of brain activity.  Also, areas of the brain that are more frequently used may become enlarged with use.  This is what phrenologists believed to be true. Modern brain imaging techniques, such as functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) make the localization of functions something that we can witness and are not just guessing at. To this day there are still self-appointed experts who work, talk, teach and write on the "scientific" aspects of phrenology. Many of the past phrenologists were not able to pass down the ideas to the next generation because it had been already discredited. Despite the fact that phrenology had been widely discredited, the British Phrenological Society was only disbanded in 1967.

The idea that different areas of the brain are associated with different functions has been tested and supported through today's research. Phrenologists also said that the areas used the most would become enlarged which has also been found to be true. Gall's area for speech and verbal memory was located very closely to today's Broca's and Wernicke's speech areas.

KOP!