What is sensory memory?
Sensory memory is our ability to retain impressions of sensory information even though the original stimulus has already dissipated.
This is an interesting phenomenon; two intriguing experiments were performed on by Johann Andreas Segner, and the other by Sperling. Segner attached a glowing coal to a cartwheel and rotated the wheel at increasing speed until an unbroken circle of light was perceived by the observer. He calculated that the glowing coal needed to make a complete circle in under, 100ms to achieve this effect.

Sperlings’ study included presenting a grid of three rows of four letters for 50ms to volunteers. In one condition he asked subjects to report as many letters as they could remember after the letters had been presented. Then he presented the letters and asked the participators to report letters in a specific row. The participants could only present up to 4 letters in the first condition, and in the second he found that they could usually recall all of the letters in the specified row. His conclusion was that for a brief period of time the whole grid was accessible to the participants as sensory memory. Sensory memory is considered to last for under 1 second.

What memory system is known as “the gateway to consciousness?
Sensory memory is considered to be outside of conscious control, however, it is considered to be the gateway to the consciousness.

By what means is sensory information transferred to short-term memory?
Selective attention is the key to transferring sensory memory to short-term memory

If not attended to what happens to the information in the sensory memory?
The information fades away if you do not attend to it.

What is short-term memory?
Short term memory stores a limited amount of information for a limited amount of time (roughly 30-45 seconds).

In relation to short tem memory what is the key factor to that prevents information from being forgotten?
Rehearsal can prevent information from being forgotten.

What is maintenance rehearsal?

What is the elaborative rehearsal?

What is chunking and how does it affect short term memory.
Chunking refers to a strategy for making more efficient use of short term memory by recoding information. For example, instead of trying to understand the individual letters A,B,C,A try to chuck them together to form the word “ABCA.”
Chunking increases the capacity of information in the short term memory.

What is long term memory?
Long term memory as little as 30 seconds or as long as decades, and has an unlimited storage capacity.

How is long term memory organized?
Long term memories are typically divided up into two major categories, declarative memory and procedural memory. Long term memories are organized in different parts of the brain.

How does priming play a part in relation to long term memory?
Priming refers to activating particular representation or associations in memory just before carrying out an action or task. These associations are often regarded as unconscious. For example, After studying 20 words containing the word “milk” a subject may be ask to recall the words by telling them that a clue is “mil” This is called priming.

Can priming take place unconsciously?
Yes, priming can take place unconsciously.

What are the 3 main biological bases of memory?
The 3 main biological bases of memory are: Sensory memory, short term memory, and long term memory.

What is the decay theory?
The Decay theory states that when something new is learned, a neuro-chemical or memory trace is formed, but over time this trace tends to disintegrate.

What is the interference theory?
The Interference theory states that people forget not because memories are actually lost from storage, but because other information gets in the way of what people want to remember.

What is Retroactive interference?
Retroactive interference occurs when the material learned later disrupts retrieval of information leaned earlier. (New information interferes with Old information).

What is Proactive interference?
Proactive interference occurs when information learned earlier disrupts the recall of material leaned later. (New information interferes with Old information).

What are procedural memories?
Procedural memories are the implicit long term memory of skills and procedures, or how to knowledge.

What is declarative memory?
Declarative memory is the aspect of memory that stores facts and events.
Declarative memory is divided into episodic memory, and semantic memory.
What is episodic memory?
Episodic memory is the explicit memory of events. It included time, place, and associated emotions, which effect the quality of memorization.

What is Semantic memory?
Semantic is the memory of facts and concepts.

What are explicit memories?
Explicit memory is a type of memory that involves conscious memory, its sub-categories
Are Episodic memory, and Semantic memory.

What are implicit memories?
Implicit memories are memories that are recalled unconsciously, like riding a bike, using a pencil, or swimming. Procedural memory is implicit memories.

What is Anterograde amnesia?
Anterograde amnesia is a form of amnesia, or memory loss, where new events are not transferred to long-term memory after the onset of the disorder.
The suffer of the Anterograde amnesia will not be able to remember explicitly, anything that occurs after his or her attention is shifted away from one subject for more than a few seconds.
(Can remember old memories but can not form new memories).

What is Retrograde amnesia?
Retrograde amnesia is a form of amnesia where someone will be unable to recall events that occurred before the onset of amnesia.

Are memories infallible?
No memories can be distorted because of confabulations, and interference. Confabulation is a process by which a person confuses their imagination with memory, or confusing true memories with false memories.

What is the impact of leading or suggestive questioning when dealing with memory?
Leading questions can create false memory recall, because people tend to feel in the blanks. Examples of leading questions would be: What color was his coat, instead of was he wearing a coat?

What are the different concerns set forth about eye witness testimony?
Eye witness testimonies remain the strongest form of evidence in the court room. But some psychologists suggest that it can create false convictions. Many concerns about eye witness testimony are generated on the basis that memory is not infallible, and people’s memories can be distorted, confabulated or even constructed during the process of questing.

Are repressed memories true or false?
Repressed memories can be true. Like Fraud suggested, the reason that some memories are suppressed is because they are very traumatic and it would not be good for our organism to recall them.

The Limbic system is associated with what aspects of our behavior?
The limbic system is associated with emotions, learning, and memory.

What are some of the structures that make up the limbic system?
The Limbic system is composed of the hippocampus, amygdale, cingulate gyrus, fornicate gyrus, archicortex, and hypothalamus.

What is the significance of the hippocampus?
The hippocampus is a part of the brain located inside the temporal lobe. It forms part of the limbic system and plays a part in memory and navigation.

In defining emotions, do we know the direction of causation between our physiological responses and our emotions?
We don’t know the actual cause, but some theories such as the James-Lang theory suggest that the stimulus causes the change in the bodily function and that in tern creates the notion that I am afraid or, I am angry, I am happy ext…
Another theory called the Cannon-Bard theory is one that says that the Thalamus is activated by stimuli, and then sends a message to the cerebral cortex and simultaneously you are scared, and your heart beats faster.

How does Maranon define emotions?

How does Schachter and Singer theory, what does it highlight?

How does the James-Lang theory define emotions?

How does it differ from the Schachter and Lange theory?

What are drawl backs of the James-Lang theory?

How does the Cannon-Bard theory define emotion?

What are the adrenal glands? Where are the adrenal glands located?
Adrenal glands are located in the kidneys, the produce hormones that are responsible for emotions.

What is the significance of the amygdala?
The amygdala is a warning center, it is believed to play a key role in emotions.
It is linked to both fear and pleasure responses.

Does it analyze the incoming information?
NO
Once the amygdale is activated, what system is triggered? What does this system contribute to?
The SNS is activated, this system activates the adrenal gland located in the kidney, this system prepares a person for fight or flight.

Where is the amygdale located?
The amygdala is located in the temporal lobe of the brain, and is part of the limbic system.

What is the significance of the thalamus?
The thalamus acts like a post office, it sends the incoming stimuli to the proper areas of the brain.

What is the cortical pathway?
The cortical pathway is a set of incoming neuro impulses that are transferred directly from the thalamus, to the cerebral cortex (Same as the high road).

What is the thalamic pathway?
The thalamic pathway is a set of neuo impulses that are transferred directly to the amygdala (Same as the low road).

What advantage does the thalamic pathway have over the cortical pathway?
The thalamic pathway saves time, when it comes to the fight or flight concept.
However, the stimuli is not processed and, therefore, has a higher probability of being a false representation of reality.

Once the amygdala is activated it sends information to what structure in order to activate the autonomic nervous system?
One the amygdale is activated it sends neuro impulses to the hypothalamus, this in turn activates the autonomic nervous system.

Hippocampus is involved in what type of memory?
The hippocampus is involved in declarative memory, which is somatic, and episodic (or conscious memory).

Hippocampus damage leads to what type of amnesia?
When the hippocampus is damaged it can lead to Anterograde amnesia. The deduction is that if the hippocampus is involved in declarative (explicit memories) then a damaged hippocampus would mean that the subject would not be able to recall new information, a characteristic of Anterograd amnesia?

What part of the brain is involved in procedural memory?
The cerebellum is involved in procedural (Implicit memory).

What part of the brain is involved in decision making?
The prefrontal cortex is involved in decision making.

Neurons and its stuctures

Neurons are structures; they are the basic unit of the nervous system. It is estimated that the nervous system contains over 11 billion neurons. The neuron, which is covered by a cell membrane consist of: dendrites, cell body, and axons. Dendrites are branched appendages that carry information the cell body. The cell body contains the nucleus. An axon conveys information away from the cell body. Some axons are covered with myelin sheath. The myelin sheath is interspersed with spaces called nodes of Ranvier. The nodes of Ranvier help aid in the neural transmission. Neurons are surrounded by glial cells. Glial cells nourish the neurons and hold them in place; these cells are the basis of the myelin sheaths. Axon terminals are branched and contain terminal buttons. Terminal buttons are tiny swellings that in turn contain synaptic vesicles. Synaptic vesicles are filled with chemicals called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters assist in transmission of information to other neurons.

Types of neurons

There are three types of neurons; including: Sensory neurons, Motor neurons, and Interneurons. Sensory neurons are located in the body’s sense organs, such as, the eye, ear or nose. Sensory neurons send information from these organs to the brain. Motor neurons convey information from the nervous system to the body’s organs, glands, and muscles. Interneurons transmit information from one neuron to another within the nervous system.

Components of Neural Transmission

The function of a neuron is to transmit information within the nervous system. Neural transmission occurs when a neuron is activated, or fired. Activation of the neuron takes place when the neuron is stimulated by pressure, heat, light, or chemical information from other cells.

The fluid inside a neuron is separated from the outside by a polarized cell membrane that contains electrically charged particles known as ions. When a neuron is sufficiently stimulated to reach the neural threshold depolarization, or a change in cell potential occurs.

The term potential refers to a difference in electrical charges. Neurons have two types of potentials, a resting potential and a action potential. The neural threshold must be reached before a change from a resting to action potential occurs.

The resting potential is the potential maintained by the inactive neuron. When unstimulated, a neuron is like a small battery and has a measurable negative electrical charge called the resting potential (70 millivolts).

The action potential is the potential produced when appropriate stimulation is high enough to reach the neural threshold and causes the neuron to fire. Alteration of membrane permeability allows a change of electrical charges this is known as polarization, (from negative to more positive). These charges run along the entire cell membrane.

The rate of neural transmission is independent of the level of stimulation. That means, if the neural threshold is not reached, the neuron will not fire. Also, if the threshold is reached or exceeded, the amplitude of the action potential is the same regardless of the level of stimulation. This idea is known as the all or none principle. Once the neuron is triggered to fire (its action potential has reached 65 millivolts) the action potential continues the length of the axon without diminishing because the action potential depends upon cell membrane permeability, a cell characteristic, and not upon the strength of the triggering stimulus.

After the neuron reaches its action potential, however there is a short period of time called, refractoriness, which affects neuron firing. During the first part of the refractory period, the neuron will not fire again no matter how great the stimulation. This is known as the absolute refractory period. During this period a stronger than usual stimulus is required to trigger the action potential before the neuron returns to its resting state. After the refractory period, the neuron will fire when it reaches its neural threshold.

Components of Synaptic Transmission

The synapse is the name given for the junction between the neurons where information is exchanged. The action potential causes information to be transmitted from the axon of the first neuron called the presynaptic neuron to the dendrites or cell body of the second neuron called the postsynaptic neuron by secreting chemicals called neurotransmitters.

Where The Neurotransmitters Stored

Neurotransmitters are stored in small containers called vesicles located in knoblike structures called terminal buttons on the tip of the axons. The axon of the presynaptic neuron does not touch the dendrites or the postsynaptic neuron. It is separated from them by a space called the synaptic cleft. Stimulation of the presynaptic neuron produces an action potential and causes the release of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft. Most neurotransmitters combine with special sites called receptor sites located on the dendrites and cell body of the postsynaptic neuron. Left over neurotransmitters are taken up by the presynaptic, a process called reuptake.

Combining Neurons with Receptor sites

The combination of the neurotransmitters molecules to the receptor sites in the postsynaptic cell membrane produces a change of potential in the postsynaptic neuron, called postsynaptic potential. The postsynaptic potential allows ions to enter or leave the cell membrane. When ions move in and out of the postsynaptic neuron it changes the polarity of the neuron. Thus increasing or decreases the probability of the neuron reaching its action potential.

Two Different Types of Postsynaptic Potentials

There are two types of Postsynaptic Potentials, excitatory and, inhibitory. Excitatory Postsynaptic Potentials increase the likelihood that the postsynaptic neuron will reach its action potential, thus causing it to fire. The inhibitory postsynaptic potential decreases the likelihood that the postsynaptic neuron will reach its action potential, thus inhibiting it from firing. Excitatory adds positive charged ions and Inhibitory add negative charged ions in to the cell body of the postsynaptic neuron.

Types of Neurotransmitters

Many different types of drugs can affect the level of neurotransmitters. Some disorders are associated with either neurotransmitter deficiencies or excesses. There several types of neurotransmitters, which include: Acetylholine, Biogenic amines, GABA, Glycine, Endorphins, and Substance P.

Looking At Acetylholine

Acetylcholine is a neurotransmitter that occurs throughout the nervous system and is the only neurotransmitter found in the synapses between the motor neurons and voluntary muscle cells. There are theories that claim that the Degeneration of the cells that produe Acetylcholine is associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Looking At Biogenic Amines

This type of neurotransmitters include three neurotransmitters, which are: norepinephrine, dopamine, and serotonin. Some theories in the scientific community suggest that the deficiency of dopamine is associated with Parkinson’s disease. In addition certain types of depression is related with having low levels of norepinephrine. It does not seem that much is known about serotonin, except that when taking LCD the levels of serotonin is increased.

Looking at GABA

Gamma aminobutyric acid appears to produce only inhibitory postsynaptic potentials. Many tranquilizers work by increasing the inhibitory actions of GABA.

Looking at Endorphins

Endorphins modulated the activity of other neurotransmitters and are called neuromodulators. They tend to function in the same way as opiates such as morphine. In other words, when someone is walking really fast and they feel high, the cause tends to be related to an increase their endorphins.

Looking at Substance P

Substance P is a neurotransmitter in many neural circuits. Substance P has been associated with causing pain.