PSYCH101 Lecture : Forgetting and Amnesia These notes are very concise and only contain information outside of his lecture slides. I find that reading over his slides first and then studying these additional information to be more efficient than clumping a whole mass of mat

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Colin Mac Leod

Document Summary

As long as memory was encoded into long-term memory, you don"t really forget it. Decay passive process decay to memory as rust to car memory rust memories are forgotten spontaneously with the passage of time. Inhibition of neurons not same as inhibiting a thought. Only in children (under 5% of all children) mostly girls, gone by puberty. Only one case in adults in human records. Doesn"t seem to be related to intelligence. Can"t be learned but can be unlearned. May get memories back with time but not the moment right before injury (never got learned); usually shows recovery. Anterograde amnesia is also not very common but happens more frequently than retrograde; unable to learn anything new. Hippocampus & area around it in the temporal lobe is critically important to memory. Epileptic seizures usually originate from the temporal lobe; theory: if lesioned, will improve condition. H. m. came, had seizures originated in both temporal lobes, so doctors lesioned both sides.