Deck 11: Learning, Memory, and Amnesia

Question 1

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

Answer 1

both A and C

Question 2

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.

Answer 2

increased.

Question 3

If you were going to illustrate the extent of H.M.'s bilateral 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 3

an inferior

Question 4

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 5

H.M. was

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

Question 6

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 7

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

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

Question 8

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 9

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 10

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 11

The brain operation performed on H.M. was a

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

Question 12

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 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

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

A) medial temporal lobe pathology.
B) no ability to form 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 15

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

Question 16

H.M.'s greatest postsurgical problem was his

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

Question 17

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 18

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 19

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 20

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 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

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

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

Question 23

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 24

In the brains of Alzheimer's patients, the level of __________ is greatly reduced, resulting from degeneration of the basal forebrain.

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

Question 25

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 26

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 27

Korsakoff's syndrome is typically associated with

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

Question 28

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

A) medial temporal lobe structures.
B) basal forebrain.
C) prefrontal cortex.
D) all of the above
E) none of the above

Question 29

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 30

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 31

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 causes of cerebral ischemia.

Question 32

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 33

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

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

Question 34

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 35

An MRI of N.A.'s brain later 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 36

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 37

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 38

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 39

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

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

Question 40

The up-the-nose 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 hippocampal lesion was bilaterally symmetrical.
E) none of the above

Question 41

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 42

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 43

The identification of basal forebrain degeneration Alzheimer's disease implicated

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

Question 44

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 45

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 46

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 47

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 48

The human medial temporal lobe includes the

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

Question 49

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 50

The long-term progressive increase in the resistance of memories to disruption by electroconvulsive shock was demonstrated in a classic 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 51

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 52

Because H.M.'s surgery seemed to disrupt only those retrograde memories acquired shortly before his surgery, it was once 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 53

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 54

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 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

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

A) 90%
B) 76%
C) 70%
D) 60%
E) 5%

Question 57

Which of the following has been used extensively in the assessment of explicit object-recognition deficits 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) Mumby box

Question 58

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 59

Currently, consolidation is thought to last

A) 10 seconds.
B) 2 minutes.
C) 10 minutes.
D) 2 days.
E) a very long time, if not indefinitely.

Question 60

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 61

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 62

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) medial temporal cortex
B) hippocampus
C) amygdala
D) both A and C
E) both B and C

Question 63

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

A) parietal cortex
B) frontal cortex
C) amygdala
D) medial temporal cortex
E) temporal cortex

Question 64

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 65

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 66

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 67

Bilateral lesions of the medial temporal 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) major object recognition deficits in both rats and monkeys.
E) both A and C

Question 68

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 portion of the medial temporal cortex.
C) amygdala.
D) parietal cortex.
E) none of the above

Question 69

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 70

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 71

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 72

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 73

The hippocampus appears to play a special role in memory for

A) spatial location.
B) sounds.
C) names.
D) faces
E) odors.

Question 74

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 75

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 76

Some hippocampal neurons become active only when the subject is

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

Question 77

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.

Question 78

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 79

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 80

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 medial temporal 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.