All flashcards
Flashcard 1: What is confabulation in memory disorders?
Answer: Unintentional fabrication of memories to fill recall gaps. Brain creates false memories without awareness of inaccuracy.
Flashcard 2: What is the defining cognitive feature of Alzheimer disease?
Answer: Progressive decline in memory and other cognitive functions. Neurodegeneration causes memory loss before other symptoms.
Flashcard 3: What is long-term potentiation (LTP) in neural plasticity?
Answer: Long-lasting increase in synaptic strength after repeated activation. Cellular mechanism underlying learning and memory formation.
Flashcard 4: What is synaptic pruning in neural development and plasticity?
Answer: Elimination of weaker synapses to strengthen frequently used pathways. Brain optimizes connections by removing unused synapses.
Flashcard 5: What is proactive interference?
Answer: Old information disrupts recall of newly learned information. Prior learning interferes forward in time with new material.
Flashcard 6: What is the recency effect attributed to in the serial position curve?
Answer: Recent items remain available in working (short-term) memory. Last items haven't been displaced from STM buffer yet.
Flashcard 7: What is synaptic pruning in neural development and plasticity?
Answer: Elimination of weak synapses to increase network efficiency. Refines neural circuits by removing unnecessary connections.
Flashcard 8: Which memory system primarily explains the primacy effect?
Answer: Long-term memory encoding via rehearsal. Early items get more rehearsal time for LTM consolidation.
Flashcard 9: Which memory system primarily explains the recency effect?
Answer: Short-term (working) memory availability. Recent items remain active in STM during immediate recall.
Flashcard 10: What is anterograde amnesia?
Answer: Inability to form new long-term explicit memories after onset. Can't transfer new experiences from STM to LTM.
Flashcard 11: What is long-term potentiation (LTP)?
Answer: Persistent strengthening of synapses after repeated stimulation. Cellular basis of learning through enhanced synaptic transmission.
Flashcard 12: What is the decay theory of forgetting?
Answer: Memory traces fade over time when not actively used. Based on the idea that unused neural connections weaken.
Flashcard 13: What is retroactive interference in forgetting?
Answer: New learning disrupts recall of previously learned information. Later material interferes backward with earlier learning.
Flashcard 14: What is proactive interference in forgetting?
Answer: Old learning disrupts recall of newly learned information. Earlier material interferes forward with later learning.
Flashcard 15: What is retrieval failure as a cause of forgetting?
Answer: Information is stored but cannot be accessed due to missing cues. Memory exists but lacks retrieval pathways or triggers.
Flashcard 16: What is cue-dependent forgetting?
Answer: Failure to recall due to absence of cues present at encoding. Environmental or internal cues needed for retrieval are missing.
Flashcard 17: What is state-dependent memory?
Answer: Recall improves when internal state matches the state at encoding. Mood or physiological state acts as a retrieval cue.
Flashcard 18: What is context-dependent memory?
Answer: Recall improves when external environment matches encoding context. Physical location serves as a powerful retrieval cue.
Flashcard 19: What is the serial position effect in free recall?
Answer: Better recall for early (primacy) and late (recency) list items. Middle items lack the rehearsal and recency advantages.
Flashcard 20: What is the primacy effect, and which memory store mainly explains it?
Answer: Better recall for early items; primarily due to long-term memory. Early items get more rehearsal time, entering LTM.
Flashcard 21: What is the recency effect, and which memory store mainly explains it?
Answer: Better recall for last items; primarily due to short-term memory. Recent items remain active in working memory buffer.
Flashcard 22: Identify the forgetting mechanism: old French vocabulary impairs learning Spanish words.
Answer: Proactive interference. Old French knowledge interferes with new Spanish learning.
Flashcard 23: Identify the forgetting mechanism: new phone number makes old number hard to recall.
Answer: Retroactive interference. New number overwrites or blocks access to old number.
Flashcard 24: What is retrograde amnesia?
Answer: Loss of explicit memories formed before the onset of amnesia. Past memories are lost while new memory formation remains intact.
Flashcard 25: Which brain structure is most classically linked to anterograde amnesia when damaged?
Answer: Hippocampus (medial temporal lobe). Critical for consolidating new explicit memories.
Flashcard 26: What is Korsakoff syndrome, and which deficiency most commonly causes it?
Answer: Amnestic disorder from thiamine (B1) deficiency, often in alcoholism. Chronic alcohol depletes thiamine, damaging memory circuits.
Flashcard 27: What is confabulation in the context of memory disorders?
Answer: Unintentional fabrication of memories to fill gaps in recall. Brain creates false memories to maintain coherent narrative.
Flashcard 28: What is Alzheimer disease characterized by at the neural pathology level?
Answer: Beta-amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (tau) with cortical atrophy. Protein deposits disrupt neural function and cause cell death.
Flashcard 29: What is synaptic pruning in neural development?
Answer: Elimination of weak synapses to increase network efficiency. Refines neural circuits by removing unnecessary connections.
Flashcard 30: What is the key memory deficit in Alzheimer disease early in the course?
Answer: Impaired formation of new explicit (episodic) memories. Hippocampal damage affects recent memory consolidation first.