Subjects are asked to identify the novel object, and to do so, they need to remember which one was shown previously. There is a pause and then two objects are shown again, one of which is new and the other having been shown previously. The test involves presenting a subject with two different objects and they are asked to remember those objects. This test is also good because, as we will see later, it can even be used on animals. One is the object recognition test (Figure 7.3) to test declarative memory. To avoid these problems, psychologists have developed other memory tests. The word list gives insights into memory processing and retrieval, but it is not a really good test of “raw” memory ability because it can be affected by distortions and biases. They cannot make the normal associations involved in the recall of a memory. Individuals with Alzheimer’s disease generally do not say that “sweet” was on the list. “Failing” this test is actually not a bad outcome. The reason so many individuals incorrectly believe that “sweet” was on the list is because there were so many other words on the list that had a sweet connotation. The memory is then recalled by reconstructing the memory from the individual fragments of the memory. But memory is more like taking a picture and tearing it up into small pieces and putting the pieces in different drawers. We like to think that memory is similar to taking a photograph and placing that photograph into a filing cabinet drawer to be withdrawn later (recalled) as the “memory” exactly the way it was placed there originally (stored). It was not meant to be a trick, but to illustrate a very interesting and important feature about memory. This memory test called the DRM test after its creators James Deese, Henry Roediger and Kathleen McDermott. Sorry, you have to put your pen down for this test and do not read further in the Chapter until you complete the test. The test (Figure 7.2) will present a list of 15 words, then there will be a pause and you will be asked whether you remember some of those words. Įveryone is interested in knowing how well they remember so let us take a simple memory test. Declarative memory is "knowing what" and nondeclarative memory is "knowing how". Sensitization will be discussed in detail later in the Chapter. They include the memories for skills and habits (e.g., riding a bicycle, driving a car, playing golf or tennis or a piano), a phenomenon called priming, simple forms of associative learning, and finally simple forms of nonassociative learning such as habituation and sensitization. Nondeclarative memory, also called implicit memory, includes the types of memory systems that do not have a conscious component but are nevertheless extremely important. A fact like 'Paris is the capital of France', or an event like a prior vacation to Paris. It is the memory system that has a conscious component and it includes the memories of facts and events. The declarative memory system is the system of memory that is perhaps the most familiar. Psychologists and neuroscientists have divided memory systems into two broad categories, declarative and nondeclarative (Figure 7.1). Third, how does memory work? What types of changes occur in the nervous system when a memory is formed and stored, are there particular genes and proteins that are involved in memory, and how can a memory last for a lifetime? Fourth, is the issue of importance to many people, especially as we age: How can memory be maintained and improved, and how can it be fixed when it is broken? A second possibility is that our memories are distributed and stored in different regions of the brain. First, what are the different types of memory? Second, where in the brain is memory located? One possibility is that human memory is similar to the memory chip in a personal computer (PC), which stores all the memory in one location. This Chapter will discuss four issues that are central to learning and memory. Thirty years ago little was known about how memory works, but now we know a great deal. The analysis of the anatomical and physical bases of learning and memory is one of the great successes of modern neuroscience.
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