Study Guide: Amnesias

What is lost or disrupted? -> all personal (episodic and semantic) memories........................................................................... Common causes -> strong psychological trauma but no obvious physiological injury

What is lost or disrupted? -> episodic memories for events in early childhood ........................................................................... Common causes -> possibly immaturity of the brain areas that encode episodic memories, lack of a cognitive sense of self, and/or absence of language skills

What is lost or disrupted? -> the ability to retrieve existing episodic memories ........................................................................... Common causes -> broad damage to the medial temporal lobes and beyond

What is lost or disrupted? -> the context describing where or when an episodic memory was acquired ........................................................................... Common causes -> possibly damage to the frontal cortex; also can occur intermittently in healthy people

What is lost or disrupted? -> anterograde (and possibly retrograde) memory, usually for a day or less ........................................................................... Common causes -> head injury, hypoglycemic episode, or brief interruption of blood flow to the brain

Better memory when retrieval and encoding contexts match. Applies to external & internal contexts

Retrieval is more likely if cues at encoding and recall are similar.

Loss of semantic knowledge linking object perception with its identity.

Evidence for Consolidation Period