Amnesia is a loss of memory, usually caused by damage to the brain.

Define anterograde amnesia.

Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new long-term memories after a brain injury or illness.

Describe the main symptoms of retrograde amnesia.

A person with retrograde amnesia cannot recall events or people from before the damage. Recent memories are usually lost more than older ones.

Can a person with only retrograde amnesia still learn new information?

A person with only retrograde amnesia can usually form new memories normally. The loss affects only memories from before the damage.

Why are older memories often better preserved than recent ones in retrograde amnesia?

Older memories have been stored in long-term memory for longer and are well consolidated. Recent memories may not have been fully consolidated when the damage occurred.

Edexcel GCSE Psychology 1PS0

Development

Topic overview Early brain development Piaget's theory of cognitive development Dweck's mindset theory and Willingham's learning theory The three mountains task and Gunderson's praise study The development of morality

Memory

Topic overview Information processing, duration and capacity Retrograde and anterograde amnesia Bartlett's theory of reconstructive memory The multi-store model, reductionism and holism War of the Ghosts and the Peterson and Peterson study

Psychological Problems

Topic overview Symptoms of depression and addiction Incidence and effects of mental health problems Explaining depression Explaining addiction Treating depression and addiction Key studies and the nature–nurture debate

The Brain and Neuropsychology

Topic overview Lobes of the brain and the effects of damage Lateralisation and Sperry's split-brain study Neurons, synapses and the central nervous system Phineas Gage and how brain research has changed

Social Influence

Topic overview Conformity to majority influence Obedience to authority Bystander intervention Crowd behaviour, society and culture Piliavin's subway study and the Stanford prison study

Criminal PsychologyOptional topic

Topic overview Operant conditioning and social learning explanations of crime Eysenck's criminal personality theory Punishment, recidivism and rehabilitation Bandura's Bobo doll study and Charlton's St Helena study

The SelfOptional topic

Topic overview Self-concept and influences on self-esteem Erikson's identity stages and belief in free will Rogers' and Maslow's humanistic theory Measuring personality and trait theory Vohs and Schooler's cheating study and Van Houtte and Jarvis's pet study

PerceptionOptional topic

Topic overview Depth cues, visual illusions and constancies Gibson's direct theory and Gregory's constructivist theory Perceptual set The Haber and Levin and Carmichael studies

Sleep and DreamingOptional topic

Topic overview Sleep stages and the sleep cycle Influences on sleep and sleep disorders Freud's theory of dreaming and activation synthesis theory Freud's Little Hans and Siffre's cave study

Language, Thought and CommunicationOptional topic

Topic overview Piaget and Vygotsky on language and thought Linguistic relativism and determinism Human and animal communication Non-verbal communication and Darwin's evolutionary theory The Yuki and Boroditsky studies

Research Methods

Topic overview Variables, hypotheses and controls Sampling methods Experiments and experimental designs Interviews, questionnaires and types of data Correlations, case studies and observations Ethical issues in psychological research Evaluating studies and the core areas of psychology Averages, calculations and graphs

Memory

Retrograde and anterograde amnesia

3 things to know
Paper 1

Overview

The symptoms and causes of retrograde and anterograde amnesia, why older memories survive, and the cases of HM and Clive Wearing.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Your recallNot started

Key term

How does retrograde amnesia affect new learning, older memories and recent memories?

Key term

What is amnesia?

Key term

Define retrograde amnesia.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1
What is amnesia?
Model answer
Amnesia is a loss of memory, usually caused by damage to the brain.
2
Define retrograde amnesia.
Model answer
Retrograde amnesia is the loss of memories formed before a brain injury or illness.
3
Define anterograde amnesia.
Model answer
Anterograde amnesia is the inability to form new long-term memories after a brain injury or illness.
4
Describe the main symptoms of retrograde amnesia.
Model answer
A person with retrograde amnesia cannot recall events or people from before the damage. Recent memories are usually lost more than older ones.
5
Can a person with only retrograde amnesia still learn new information?
Model answer
A person with only retrograde amnesia can usually form new memories normally. The loss affects only memories from before the damage.
6
Why are older memories often better preserved than recent ones in retrograde amnesia?
Model answer
Older memories have been stored in long-term memory for longer and are well consolidated. Recent memories may not have been fully consolidated when the damage occurred.

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Development

Memory

Psychological Problems

The Brain and Neuropsychology

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Long-term memory can last for a .

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Short-term memory can hold about 7 ± 2 items at once.

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