Memory and Drugs

• Memory is the cognitive process of encoding, storing, and retrieving information
• Memory can be affected by drugs
• Drugs can impact memory formation, storage, and retrieval
• Different types of drugs can have varying effects on memory
• Some drugs can enhance memory, while others can impair it
• Alcohol is a drug that can impair memory function
• Stimulants like caffeine can have mixed effects on memory
• Illegal drugs like marijuana can also impact memory
• Prescription drugs may have side effects that affect memory
• It is important to be aware of the potential effects of drugs on memory
• Consulting a healthcare professional is recommended before taking any drugs that may impact memory
• The measure of retention that Caitlin will use to remember her second-grade teacher's name is recall
• Wilbur's effortful connection of new material to what he has learned in the past is best described as working memory
• Hazel's difficulty in remembering all the numbers in the right order when entering a new phone number into her contacts is best explained by the 10-digit number being beyond Miller's "magic number"
• The most likely to be encoded automatically is the side-angle-side geometry theorem
• Thinking about how words relate to your own life is most likely to lead to semantic encoding of a list of words
• The links between emotion, stress, and learning reveal that both stress and emotion make events more memorable
• An example of the serial position effect is remembering the beginning and end of your grocery list but not items in the middle
• The main type of memory problem that people with dementia including Alzheimer's typically have is called anterograde amnesia
• Hermann Ebbinghaus discovered that forgetting occurs most quickly one day after learning information
• In the model of memory where memories are simultaneously created and stored across a series of mental networks that are "stretched" across the brain is the parallel distributed processing model
• Pauline's learning process is being inhibited by proactive interference
• The phenomenon where retrieval of words learned underwater is higher when the retrieval also takes place underwater is called context/state-dependent learning
• Fill in the blanks questions often seem harder because it requires the use of recall where memories are retrieved with few or no external cues
• Multiple choice questions require looking at information and linking it to what is already in memory which is called recognition
• To remember something, we must get information into our short-term memory, encode/store the information, and later retrieve the information from memory
• Automatic memory processing that occurs without conscious recall involves implicit or non-declarative memories and is processed in the cerebellum or basal ganglia
• Effortful memory processing that occurs with conscious recall involves explicit or declarative memories and is processed in the hippocampus and/or frontal lobe
• The limbic brain area that responds to stress hormones by helping to create stronger memories is the amygdala
• Freud believed that we repress unacceptable memories to minimize anxiety
• The neural basis for learning and memory is called long-term potentiation
• Memory consolidation occurs when the hippocampus, together with surrounding areas of the cortex, registers and briefly holds aspects of explicit memories before moving them to other brain regions for long-term storage
• Implicit memory remains intact as demonstrated by her ability to tie her shoes. There is likely to be damage to the hippocampus due to her experience of a kind of anterograde amnesia
• Strategies that can help study smarter and retain more information include adequate spacing of study over a period of time and linking what is being learned to knowledge the learner already has
• The basic premise of linguist Noam Chomsky's work on language development is that language is a uniquely human cognitive capacity and that language learning involves the unconscious construction of rules based on innate principles
• Opioids are neuromodulators that bind to opioid receptors in the body and mimic the action of endorphins produced in the brain. All opioids will act to produce pleasure or block pain, produce euphoria or joy and relaxation, and suppress heart rate
• The phenomenon of an increasing amount of a drug being required to achieve a similar pharmacological effect is called tolerance
• Opioids work by modifying the electrical properties of target neurons, making these neurons difficult to excite. Opioids also work by preventing the release of substance P from presynaptic neurons
• Opioids affect critical areas in the brain responsible for the reward pathway, including the mesolimbic reward pathway. Opioids also modify the brain's executive pathway by which we perform self-regulation and control involving the prefrontal cortex
• Opioids as a group include substances derived from the poppy plant, such as morphine, heroin, and fentanyl