Insight 2011

[HiddenUser]

An individual who suffered a brain trauma and then found it difficult to complete a task such as cooking a meal is likely to have suffered damage to the hippocampus because:

A. the hippocampus is responsible for storing procedural memories.
B. the hippocampus aids in the carrying out of an extended sequence of actions as it helps the individual to plan and recall what the plan entailed. (ANSWER)
C. the hippocampus is responsible for storing semantic memories such as what ingredients to use in a recipe.
D. the hippocampus is responsible for the consolidation of all new memories.

I chose C seeing as how the hippocampus stores Explicit memories, but apparenlty it doesn't store Semantic memories. If not, then where are they stored?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Question 31
Baddely also proposed that working memory has an episodic buffer. This is responsible for:

A. integrating information from the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial sketchpad with information stored in LTM.
B. organising LTM into procedural or declarative memories.
C. aiding in the ordering of visual and auditory information so that it can be perceived in a sequence, for example, in a movie or story. (ANSWER)
D. aiding in the ability to shift between cognitive tasks as incoming sensory information is processed.

I'm still a bit confused as to the main difference between episodic buffer and the central executive. I chose A. I knew that was the central executives role but I also didnt feel any of the other alternatives were a role of the episodic buffer. Can you please explain how Episodic Buffer does C.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

ALSO, has anyone actually done this exam. I saw that the extended response was 13 MARKS! To describe key elements of the restorative theory for sleep.

I didn't know 13 marks worth of information. And when I saw the answer sheet there was dot pointed facts (1 mark each) Ive never even heard of. I know this isn't VCAA but considering they did a similar thing with alzheimer's last year, do you think they could do something like it this year?

[Genericname2365]

An individual who suffered a brain trauma and then found it difficult to complete a task such as cooking a meal is likely to have suffered damage to the hippocampus because:

A. the hippocampus is responsible for storing procedural memories.
B. the hippocampus aids in the carrying out of an extended sequence of actions as it helps the individual to plan and recall what the plan entailed. (ANSWER)
C. the hippocampus is responsible for storing semantic memories such as what ingredients to use in a recipe.
D. the hippocampus is responsible for the consolidation of all new memories.

I chose C seeing as how the hippocampus stores Explicit memories, but apparenlty it doesn't store Semantic memories. If not, then where are they stored?

It's believed the hippocampus has an important role in forming new explicit memories, but it is not believed to be a storage site for LTM; rather, it is proposed different components of explicit LTM are first temporarily held, processed and formed in the hippocampus and then gradually transferred to cortical areas in the brain specialised for LTM storage of that info.

As for the rest, the following posts should help. I found the extended response to be undoable as well.

Episodic buffer question: MC answer A is wrong, it is the function of the central executive. This is not the episodic buffer's function. The episodic buffer: on instruction from the central executive, retrieves info from LTM to associate with info already in working memory, before selecting and encoding (recommitting) modified memory back into LTM. I like to think of the episodic buffer as a flap in the door of a house through which the cat comes in and goes back out as an analogy. It's best to also think of this visually, so google Baddeley and Hitch's model of working memory to see what it looks like - you'll see that all the verbal and visual info from the two storage components (phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad) and from LTM through link of episodic buffer gets 'dumped' or transferred to the central executive.

Yeah - I've done this practice exam too and the extended response answer did include all that stuff about the hormones. There's no harm in learning it, but I didn't bother because it would result in added stress. Plus, I have enough to tackle any question on the theories of sleep.

Yeah the episodic buffer question got me too - in my trial exam I did an explanation for the EB saying it integrates info from the subsystems etc... and my teacher made a point to tell the class that you can't say INTEGRATE, because that's actually what the central executive does. The correct word to use is it BINDS information from the subsystems when the central executive instructs it to.
So pretty much, if it has integrates information it's wrong.