6-Learning, Biology and the Brain

Question 1

3 requirements for natural selection to occur

Answer 1

1. all individuals of a species vary behaviourally and physiologically
2. some variations are heritable genetically
3. intraspecies competition for important resources

Question 2

Taste aversion learning

description + what is in an example of

Answer 2

An organism learns to avoid a specific food after a single negative experience with it

example of an adaptive mechanism

Question 3

One-trial aquisition

description + example

Answer 3

when a single pairing of a stimulus and response triggers a learned association

eg: taste aversion learning - getting food poisoning once causes a person to avoid the food, as they now associate it with illness

Question 4

Delayed Conditioning

description + example

Answer 4

When a conditioned response is formed despite a significant delay between the conditioned and unconditioned stimuli

eg: taste aversion learning - can get an aversion to a specific food even when illness occurs hours or even a day after consumption

Question 5

study hindbrain, midbrain and forebrain sections from 1FF3

Answer 5

Hindbrain
- medulla oblongata
- pons
- cerebellum

Midbrain
- tectum
- tegmentum

Forebrain
- diencephalon
- telencephalon
- basal ganglia
- limbic system

Question 6

H.M. case study

injury + treatment + results

Answer 6

injury: bicycle accident eventually led to epileptic seizures

treatment: removed portions of temporal lobes, hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus

results: unable to form new memories but his prior memories were intact (eg: language, childhood experiences…)

Question 7

Long term potentiation (LTP)

description

Answer 7

When synapses are strengthened - postsynaptic neuron can more easily respond to signals from the presynaptic neuron

Can be triggered via high frequency neural stimulation

Question 8

Long term depression (LTD)

Answer 8

When synapses are weakened - postsynaptic neuron response is reduced/inhibited to signals from the presynaptic neuron

Can be triggered via low frequency neural stimulation

Question 9

Habituation vs Sensitization

Answer 9

Habituation
- reduced neural response (LTD)
- eg: no longer reacting strongly to a pain stimulus

Sensitization
- strengthened neural response (LTP)
- eg: developing a strong and fast fear response to loud noises

Question 10

learning

Blocking

definition + experiment + results

Answer 10

When a previous CS conditioning process prevents conditioning to another CS

experiment with rats:
- control: no previous training
- blocking: conditioned noise –> shock
- both groups undergo conditioning: noise + light –> shock
- both groups shown the light, response measured

results:
- control: learned that light –> shock (froze, showing fear response)
- blocking: did not learn light –> shock (behaved normally when light presented)

Question 11

4 forms of learning

list

Answer 11

1. Perceptual
2. Stimulus-Response
3. Motor
4. Relational

Question 12

Perceptual learning

description + example

Answer 12

Recognizing and locating people, objects and other stimuli in our environment. Includes recognizing changes in familiar stimuli and recognizing entirely new stimuli

eg: learning to recognize your friends’ faces, noticing they got a haircut…

Question 13

Stimulus-Response learning

description + example

Answer 13

Learning an automatic response to a stimulus (classical conditioning)

eg: locking the door after you leave the house

Question 14

Motor learning

description + example

Answer 14

Coordinated movements or integration of sensory input and motor output (muscle memory) (instrumental conditioning)

eg: speaking, playing instruments, sports…

Question 15

Relational learning

Answer 15

long term memories???
girly i don’t get it

Question 16

Broken drawings and HM

what happened + what does it show

Answer 16

HM showed an improvement in identifying objects represented by broken drawings that he’d seen before, despite being unable to recall he had seem them before

Shows that his implicit memory (nondeclarative) was intact, despite his lack of explicit memory (declarative)

Question 17

what is nondeclarative memory?

Answer 17

also called implicit memory

memory formation that does not depend on the hippocampus

includes perceptual, stimulus-response and motor memory

Question 18

which brain structure is believed to “store” memories?

Answer 18

the ventromedial prefrontal cortex

Question 19

How does the relative activity between the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus change after learning?

Answer 19

VMPC: starts low while memory of learning is explicit, activity increases as memory of learning becomes implicit

Hippocampus: starts high and decreases as the explicit context behind the learning is forgotten