Deck 11: Learning, Memory, and Amnesia

Question 1

K.C., the man who can't time travel, experienced a severe deficit in __________ memory.

A) implicit
B) semantic
C) episodic
D) short-term
E) none of the above

Answer 1

episodic

Question 2

If you were going to illustrate the extent of H.M.'s lesion, you could accomplish this best if you drew H.M.'s brain from __________ perspective.

A) an inferior
B) a dorsal
C) a posterior
D) a lateral
E) a dorsolateral

Answer 2

an inferior

Question 3

The brain operation performed on H.M.is called a

A) unilateral temporal lobectomy.
B) bilateral prefrontal lobotomy.
C) bilateral temporal lobotomy.
D) bilateral medial temporal lobectomy.
E) none of the above

Answer 3

bilateral medial temporal lobectomy.

Question 4

H.M.'s postsurgical digit span was found to be

A) 109.
B) 125.
C) 112.
D) 114.
E) none of the above

Question 5

H.M.showed no long-term retention on the

A) digit-span +1 test.
B) mirror-drawing test.
C) rotary-pursuit test.
D) incomplete pictures test.
E) Pavlovian conditioning test.

Question 6

On which of the following tests did H.M.display substantial long-term memory as indicated by improved performance?

A) Pavlovian conditioning test
B) block-tapping +1 test
C) mirror-drawing test
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 7

A major contribution of H.M.'s case was the following: It

A) was the first to strongly implicate the medial temporal lobes in memory.
B) effectively challenged the view that memorial functions are diffusely and equivalently distributed throughout the brain.
C) provided support for the view that there are distinct modes of short-term and long-term storage.
D) provided evidence of memory without conscious awareness.
E) all of the above

Question 8

H)M.is

A) a famous neuropsychologist.
B) a person with epilepsy.
C) an Egyptian.
D) a famous physiological psychologist.
E) a sad product of prefrontal lobotomy.

Question 9

Following his surgery, H.M.seemed to experience

A) an extreme retrograde amnesia for remote events.
B) a complete disruption of short-term memory.
C) a mild retrograde amnesia for events of the 2 years preceding the surgery.
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 10

The most commonly employed test of short-term verbal memory is the

A) block-tapping test.
B) digit-span test.
C) digit-span +1 test.
D) WAIS.
E) paired-associate test.

Question 11

The shaded areas on this drawing of the inferior surface of the brain illustrate the position of the

A) hippocampuses.
B) amygdalas.
C) striatums.
D) medial parietal lobes.
E) medial temporal lobes.

Question 12

Which of the following is a correct statement about medial temporal lobe amnesics? They often have

A) medial temporal lobe pathology.
B) difficulties forming long-term semantic memories.
C) a profile of mnemonic deficits similar to that of H.M.
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 13

H)M.'s surgery was a success in that

A) the incidence of his seizures was markedly reduced.
B) his IQ was increased.
C) it became possible to reduce the level of his anticonvulsant medication.
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 14

The tests commonly used to assess implicit memory in neuropsychological patients are

A) object recognition tests.
B) repetition priming tests.
C) digit span tests.
D) episodic tests.
E) delayed nonmatching-to-sample tests.

Question 15

After his surgery, H.M.'s IQ

A) dropped to 68.
B) dropped slightly.
C) dropped to 89.
D) stayed about the same.
E) increased.

Question 16

One of the major turning points in the study of the neuropsychology of memory was the year H.M.had his operation:

A) 1923.
B) 1934.
C) 1953.
D) 1983.
E) 1991.

Question 17

In a nutshell, H.M.'s main problem seems to be that he

A) has no long-term memories.
B) can form no new long-term memories.
C) can form no new explicit long-term memories.
D) has a devastating retrograde amnesia for remote events.
E) can form no new implicit long-term memories.

Question 18

Explicit memories for the particular events or experiences of one's life are __________ memories.

A) semantic
B) procedural
C) episodic
D) remote
E) implicit

Question 19

Why do we have two memory systems - explicit and implicit - that are both capable of learning the same material? What advantage is there in having a second, conscious system? Recent evidence suggests that the answer is

A) ischemia resistance.
B) evolution.
C) greater flexibility.
D) direct motor control.
E) the advantage of bilateral systems.

Question 20

H)M.'s greatest postsurgical problem is his

A) anterograde amnesia.
B) retrograde amnesia.
C) deficit in short-term memory.
D) loss of remote memory.
E) drop in IQ.

Question 21

The study of which of the following amnesic subjects seemed to provide particularly strong evidence of the involvement of the hippocampus in memory?

A) R.B.
B) N.A.
C) R.M.
D) J.P.
E) K.C.

Question 22

R.B.'s amnesia was similar to

A) H.M.'s. amnesia, but less severe.
B) H.M.'s. amnesia, but more severe.
C) Korsakoff's amnesia.
D) Alzheimer's amnesia.
E) other c-auses of cerebral ischemia.

Question 23

The main source of the brain's acetylcholine is the

A) frontal cortex.
B) hippocampus.
C) basal forebrain.
D) mammillary bodies.
E) substantia nigra.

Question 24

Alzheimer's amnesia is usually studied in

A) monkeys.
B) predementia Alzheimer's patients.
C) advanced cases of Alzheimer's disease.
D) neuropsychological patients with mediodorsal nucleus damage.
E) neuropsychological patients with medial temporal lobe damage.

Question 25

Cerebral ischemia is

A) a condition characterized by cancerous brain tumors.
B) a type of cerebral hemorrhage.
C) a shortage of blood to the brain.
D) an area of brain damage.
E) an area of brain damage caused by a toxin.

Question 26

Which of the following amnesic patients suffered what appeared to be selective bilateral damage to the CA1 subfield of the hippocampal pyramidal-cell layer?

A) H.M.
B) P.B.
C) J.P.
D) R.B.
E) K.C.

Question 27

With respect to the study of amnesia, R.B.is to the pyramidal cell layer of the hippocampus as

A) N.A. is to the medial dorsal nucleus of the hippocampus.
B) N.A. is to the medial diencephalon.
C) R.M. is to the medial diencephalon.
D) aspirations are to infarcts.
E) H.M. is to the medial diencephalon.

Question 28

It is difficult to differentiate between anterograde and retrograde amnesia in Korsakoff patients because

A) the damage associated with Korsakoff's syndrome is diffuse.
B) the damage associated with Korsakoff's syndrome is not diffuse.
C) Korsakoff's syndrome has a gradual onset.
D) the anterograde deficits are so much milder than the retrograde deficits.
E) the retrograde deficits are so much milder than the anterograde deficits.

Question 29

In the brains of Alzheimer's patients, the level of __________ is greatly reduced.

A) epinephrine
B) norepinephrine
C) acetylcholine
D) dopamine
E) serotonin

Question 30

The mediodorsal nuclei, which are often damaged in cases of Korsakoff's amnesia, are nuclei of the

A) thalamus.
B) hypothalamus.
C) hippocampus.
D) cerebellum.
E) mammillary bodies.

Question 31

Which of the following subjects suffered ischemia-produced hippocampal damage?

A) H.M.
B) R.B.
C) P.B.
D) K.C.
E) N.A.

Question 32

The reduction of cholinergic activity in the brains of predementia Alzheimer patients results from damage to the

A) basal forebrain.
B) frontal cortex.
C) mediodorsal nuclei.
D) rhinal cortex.
E) mammillary bodies.

Question 33

An MRI of N.A.'s brain revealed

A) extensive medial diencephalic damage.
B) selective damage to the mammillary bodies.
C) selective damage to the mediodorsal nuclei.
D) total destruction of the thalamus.
E) deficits in forming new explicit memories.

Question 34

One major difference between the amnesia associated with advanced Korsakoff's syndrome and that associated with bilateral medial temporal lobe damage is that patients with advanced Korsakoff's syndrome have

A) a retrograde amnesia that can extend back into childhood.
B) a mild retrograde amnesia for recent events.
C) deficits in consolidation.
D) anterograde amnesia.
E) difficulty forming new explicit long-term memories.

Question 35

Which of the following medial diencephalic structures are commonly damaged in Korsakoff patients?

A) thalamus
B) mediodorsal nuclei
C) mammillary bodies
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 36

Korsakoff's syndrome is typically associated with

A) amnesia.
B) chronic alcohol consumption.
C) diffuse damage to the medial diencephalon.
D) confusion and personality changes.
E) all of the above

Question 37

The case of N.A.had a major impact on theories of amnesia because

A) he died soon after his accident, and this enabled his physician to perform a postmortem examination of his hippocampus.
B) a CT scan revealed the full extent of his lesion in the hippocampus.
C) the foil penetrated the CA1 subfield of the hippocampus.
D) by chance, his lesion was bilaterally symmetrical.
E) none of the above

Question 38

Damage to the brains of Alzheimer patients is often apparent in the

A) medial temporal lobe structures.
B) basal forebrain.
C) prefrontal cortex.
D) all of the above
E) both A and C

Question 39

In addition to the memory deficits commonly observed in medial temporal lobe amnesics, predementia Alzheimer's patients commonly experience deficits in

A) short-term memory.
B) implicit memory for verbal and perceptual material.
C) implicit memory for sensorimotor learning.
D) all of the above
E) both A and B

Question 40

The first theories of Korsakoff's amnesia attributed it to mammillary body damage, but later evidence suggested that damage to the __________ is a major contributing factor.

A) frontal cortex
B) hippocampus
C) mediodorsal nuclei
D) temporal infarction
E) cribriform plate

Question 41

In an experimental investigation of the retrograde effects of ECS on one-trial conditioning (Pinel, 1969),

A) amnesia was negligible if more than one ECS was administered.
B) amnesia was negligible unless five or more ECSs were administered at once.
C) retrograde amnesia for the conditioning was greater at longer conditioning-ECS intervals.
D) rats explored the niche during the test significantly less than did no-ECS control rats if they had received ECS 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 10 minutes after the conditioning trial.
E) rats explored the niche during the test significantly more than did no-ECS control rats if they had received ECS 10 seconds, 1 minute, or 10 minutes after the conditioning trial.

Question 42

The study of Alzheimer's disease has implicated

A) the hippocampus in memory.
B) cholinergic neurons in memory.
C) the amygdala in memory.
D) amyloid in memory.
E) dopamine in memory.

Question 43

In one test commonly used to study medial-temporal-lobe amnesia in macaque monkeys,

A) the sample appears over the central food well during the test phase of each trial.
B) food is available under both objects during the test phase of each trial.
C) food is available under the nonsample object during the test phase of each trial.
D) no food is available during the sample-presentation phase of each trial.
E) no food is available during the test phase of each trial.

Question 44

Because H.M.'s surgery seemed to disrupt only those retrograde memories acquired shortly before his surgery, it was widely believed that the hippocampus

A) stores most long-term memories.
B) stores all long-term memories.
C) temporarily stores memories before they are transferred to a more permanent storage site.
D) stores spatial memories.
E) temporarily consolidates short-term memories.

Question 45

In Alzheimer's disease, the brain damage is

A) diffuse.
B) restricted to the basal ganglia.
C) restricted to the basal forebrain.
D) unilateral.
E) contralateral.

Question 46

In retrospect, the major reason for the initial difficulty in developing an animal model of human medial temporal lobe amnesia was that efforts focused on

A) implicit memory tests.
B) explicit memory tests.
C) the hippocampus.
D) both A and C
E) both B and C

Question 47

Islands of memory following concussion are memories of

A) a few things from lists that have been otherwise forgotten.
B) events that occurred during periods of time for which there is otherwise total amnesia.
C) implicit events that occurred during a background of amnesia for explicit events.
D) vacations to Hawaii.
E) of early childhood.

Question 48

According to the reconsolidation notion, long-term memories are temporarily susceptible to posttraumatic amnesia when they are

A) recalled.
B) transferred to the cortex.
C) transferred to the hippocampus.
D) transferred to LTP.
E) consolidated.

Question 49

In an innovative series of experiments, Squire and his colleagues assessed the retrograde amnesia of patients following ECT.They assessed the patients' memory for television shows that

A) had played for more than 5 years.
B) had played for more than 3 years.
C) were currently playing during the experiment.
D) had played for only one season.
E) were first shown in other countries.

Question 50

Which of the following has been used extensively in the assessment of object-recognition memory in monkeys?

A) radial arm maze
B) one-trial appetitive learning paradigm
C) nondelayed matching-to-sample task
D) delayed nonmatching-to-sample task
E) delayed matching-to-sample task

Question 51

The retrograde amnesia associated with closed-head injury has been frequently studied in laboratory animals by

A) hitting them on the head with a little rubber hammer.
B) administering acetylcholine agonists.
C) administering electroconvulsive shock.
D) using multiple-trial learning tests that must be learned over several days.
E) both B and D

Question 52

Research has consistently shown that memory consolidation usually takes about

A) 1 minute.
B) 10 minutes.
C) 1 hour.
D) 2 years.
E) none of the above

Question 53

Electroconvulsive shock is commonly used in studies of memory because it

A) improves semantic memory.
B) has amnesic effects similar to those produce by concussion.
C) causes hippocampal damage.
D) is an effective form of therapy for anxiety.
E) produces no retrograde effects on memory.

Question 54

Monkeys with large medial-temporal-lobe lesions displayed deficits on the __________ similar to those displayed by H.M.

A) digit-span +1 test.
B) WAIS.
C) incomplete-pictures test.
D) delayed nonmatching-to-sample test.
E) digit-span test.

Question 55

Amnesia that is produced by a blow to the head that does not penetrate the skull is called __________ amnesia.

A) postconcussion
B) posttraumatic
C) retrograde
D) anterograde
E) postepisodic

Question 56

A change in the brain that stores a memory is called

A) LTP.
B) an engram.
C) a memorial.
D) a stilton.
E) synaptic facilitation.

Question 57

The human medial temporal lobe includes the

A) hippocampus.
B) amygdala.
C) rhinal cortex.
D) CA1 subfield.
E) all of the above

Question 58

Illustrated here is the time course of events occurring before and after

A) concussion.
B) contusion.
C) consolidation.
D) islands of memory.
E) none of the above

Question 59

The long-term progressive increase in the resistance of memories to disruption by electroconvulsive shock was demonstrated in a study by Squire, Slater, and Chace (1975)in which the memory for __________ was assessed.

A) digits
B) faces
C) shocks
D) television shows that played for only one year
E) names

Question 60

At delays of a few minutes or less, healthy control monkeys score about __________ correct on the delayed nonmatching-to-sample task

A) 90%
B) 80%
C) 70%
D) 60%
E) 5%

Question 61

Some hippocampal neurons become active only when the subject is

A) remembering.
B) forgetting.
C) in a particular place.
D) thinking.
E) eating.

Question 62

In early studies of medial-temporal-lobe amnesia in monkeys, the cortex underlying the hippocampus and amygdala was always damaged because the lesions were

A) electrolytic.
B) epileptic.
C) cryogenic
D) made by aspiration.
E) bilateral.

Question 63

Rats can perform the delayed nonmatching-to-sample task

A) only at chance levels.
B) at levels that are only slightly above chance.
C) at levels that are not significantly above chance.
D) almost as well as monkeys at retention delays up to a minute or so.
E) as well as humans when food is involved.

Question 64

Hippocampal cells that become active only when the subject is in particular locations are called

A) location cells.
B) place cells.
C) complex cells.
D) simple cells.
E) spot cells.

Question 65

Hippocampal lesions in rats reliably disrupt the performance of tasks that involve memory for

A) Pavlovian conditioning.
B) time.
C) spatial location.
D) instrumental conditioning.
E) objects.

Question 66

Memory for general principles and skills required to perform a task is called __________ memory.

A) complex
B) reference
C) working
D) place
E) inclusive

Question 67

Illustrated here is one phase of the delayed nonmatching-to-sample task.It is the

A) delay phase.
B) recall phase.
C) sample phase.
D) recognition phase.
E) choice phase.

Question 68

Mumby and his colleagues showed that object-recognition deficits that were caused in rats by cerebral ischemia could be prevented by the bilateral removal of the

A) hippocampus.
B) amygdala.
C) rhinal cortex.
D) cingulate.
E) reinforcement.

Question 69

The ability to refrain from visiting an arm of the radial arm maze more than once on a given test is a measure of __________ memory.

A) semantic
B) episodic
C) working
D) reference
E) spatial

Question 70

Rats have one advantage over monkeys in the study of medial temporal lobe amnesia:

A) In rats, the hippocampus can readily be aspirated without substantial rhinal cortex damage.
B) Rats live longer.
C) Rats learn object-recognition tasks more readily.
D) Rats have better episodic memories.
E) Rats have a subcortical hippocampus.

Question 71

Here is an illustration of coronal section of a monkey brain cut through the hippocampus and amygdala.The shaded area indicates the position of the

A) hippocampus.
B) rhinal cortex.
C) amygdala.
D) parietal cortex.
E) none of the above

Question 72

Which of the following tasks is commonly used to study the spatial abilities of rats?

A) Morris water maze
B) radial-arm maze
C) Mumby box
D) all of the above
E) both A and B

Question 73

Bilateral lesions of the rhinal cortex that do not damage the hippocampus or amygdala produce

A) slight object-recognition deficits in rats.
B) no object-recognition deficits in monkeys.
C) slight object-recognition deficits in monkeys.
D) both A and C
E) none of the above

Question 74

Monkey and rat experiments on the effects of medial-temporal-lobe lesions on nonrecurring-items delayed nonmatching-to-sample suggest that __________ damage contributes substantially to the amnesic effects of bilateral medial-temporal lobectomy.

A) rhinal cortex
B) hippocampus
C) amygdala
D) both A and C
E) both B and C

Question 75

Strong evidence that the object-recognition deficits produced by cerebral ischemia do not result from hippocampal damage comes from

A) the case of R.B.
B) a demonstration that hippocampal lesions can prevent ischemia-produced object-recognition deficits.
C) demonstrations that the deficits are the result of CA1 damage.
D) the case of N.A.
E) demonstrations that ischemia can prevent the amnesic effects of hippocampal lesions.

Question 76

The location in a test environment in which a subject must be for a place cell to become active is called its

A) place field.
B) area of activity.
C) location field.
D) playing field.
E) area of sensitivity.

Question 77

One area of rhinal cortex is the

A) entorhinal cortex.
B) perirhinal cortex.
C) introrhinal cortex.
D) all of the above
E) both A and B

Question 78

Mumby and his colleagues showed that large hippocampal lesions blocked the object-recognition deficits caused in rats by cerebral ischemia when the lesions were

A) unilateral but not bilateral.
B) contralateral but not ipsilateral.
C) made 1 hour, but not 1 week, after the ischemia.
D) ipsilateral but not contralateral.
E) made 1 week, but not 1 hour, after ischemia.

Question 79

Hippocampectomy in rats almost always involves damage to a small area of overlying __________ so that the aspiration can be performed.

A) parietal cortex
B) rhinal cortex
C) amygdala
D) entorhinal cortex
E) temporal cortex

Question 80

The Mumby-box is an apparatus that has been frequently used to study

A) delayed matching-to-sample in monkeys.
B) delayed nonmatching-to-sample in rats.
C) delayed matching-to-sample in mice.
D) delayed nonmatching-to-sample in monkeys.
E) nondelayed matching-to-sample in rats.