PSY111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Neurotransmitter, Operant Conditioning, Anterograde Amnesia
Forgetting
- The inability to recall previously learned information
- Ebbinghaus documented the rate of forgetting of information.
Theories of forgetting
- Decay theory: memory is like a fading neural trace that is weakened with disuse
- Interference theory: conflict between new and old memories
- Proactive: old interferes with new Retroactive: new interferes with old Motivated
forgetting implies that forgetting can avoid painful memories.
Repressed vs. false memories
- It is almost impossible to distinguish between false and recovered memories.
- It is important to be aware that a distressing memory, whether false or recovered,
is still distressing!
Memory disorders
- Anterograde amnesia: inability to retain new memories.
- Retrograde amnesia: loss of memories formed prior to injury.
Psychopathology
- Psychopathology refers to problematic patterns of thought, feeling and
behaviour.
- Disrupted functioning at home, work, and in the person’s social life
- Patterns that cause distress in the person or in others
- Psychopathology literally means sickness of the mind
- Psychopathology varies between and within cultures.
- The notion of abnormality includes the presumption that we can define what is
and is not abnormal
- Labelling theory argues that diagnoses of abnormality are labels for people
considered deviant
- Rosenhan study: ‘Pseudo’ patients claimed to hear voices and were admitted to
psychiatric hospitals.
- No hospital detected them as fakes.
Psychodynamic perspective
Document Summary
The inability to recall previously learned information. Ebbinghaus documented the rate of forgetting of information. Decay theory: memory is like a fading neural trace that is weakened with disuse. Proactive: old interferes with new retroactive: new interferes with old motivated. Interference theory: conflict between new and old memories forgetting implies that forgetting can avoid painful memories. It is almost impossible to distinguish between false and recovered memories. It is important to be aware that a distressing memory, whether false or recovered, is still distressing! Anterograde amnesia: inability to retain new memories. Retrograde amnesia: loss of memories formed prior to injury. Psychopathology refers to problematic patterns of thought, feeling and behaviour. Disrupted functioning at home, work, and in the person"s social life. Patterns that cause distress in the person or in others. Psychopathology literally means sickness of the mind. The notion of abnormality includes the presumption that we can define what is and is not abnormal.
