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MCAT Behavioral Sciences > C3 - Learning And Memory > Flashcards

C3 - Learning And Memory Flashcards

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1
Q

What is habituation?

A

The repeated exposure to the same stimulus that can cause a decrease in response

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2
Q

A stimulus too weak to elicit a response is called?

A

subthreshold stimulus

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3
Q

What is dishabituation?

A

The recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred

Is temporary and always refers to changes in response to the original stimulus, not the new one

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4
Q

What is associative learning?

A

The creation of a pairing, or association, either between 2 stimuli or between a behavior and a response

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5
Q

What is classical conditioning?

A

A type of associative learning that takes advantage of biological, instinctual responses to create associations between 2 stimuli

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6
Q

What is often a famous research experiment done that involves classical conditioning?

A

Ivan Pavlov and his experiment on dogs

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7
Q

Some stimuli cause an innate or reflexive physiological response - any stimulus that brings about such a reflexive response is called? And the innate or reflexive response is called?

A

An unconditioned stimulus

And an unconditioned response

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8
Q

Many stimuli do not produce a reflexive response and are known as…

A

Neutral stimuli

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9
Q

In Pavlov’s dog expirement the unconditioned stimulus, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, and conditioned response was what?

A

-The unconditioned stimulus was meat

-the conditioned stimulus was the bell

-The unconditioned response was salivation to the meat

-The conditioned response was salivation to the bell

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10
Q

The bell in Pavlov’s dog experiment was ultimately turned into a conditioned stimulus, but what was it at the beginning of the experiment?

A

Neutral stimulus

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11
Q

A normally neutral stimulus causing a reflexive response through association is called?

A

Conditioned stimulus

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12
Q

The process of using a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus is called?

A

Acquisition

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13
Q

What is extinction?

A

The loss of a conditioned response

Can occur if the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus

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14
Q

Extinction of a response is not always permanent, after some time, presenting subjects again with an extinct conditioned stimulus will sometimes produce a weak conditioned response; a phenomenon called…

A

Spontaneous recovery

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15
Q

What is generalization regarding learning?

A

A broadening effect by which a stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response

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16
Q

What is the opposite of generalization regarding learning?

A

Stimuli discrimination - it is when an organism learns to distinguish between similar stimuli

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17
Q

What does operant conditioning study?

A

The ways in which consequences of voluntary behaviors change the frequency of these behaviors

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18
Q

What famous researcher is often associated with operant conditioning?

A

B.F. Skinner, who is considered one of the founders of behaviorism - the theory that all behaviors are conditioned

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19
Q

Almost all animals will innately search for recourses in their environment; this is what kind of behavior?

A

Reward-seeking behavior

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20
Q

What is reinforcement?

A

The process of increasing the likelihood that an animal will perform a behavior

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21
Q

What do positive reinforcers do?

A

Increase the frequency of a behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive following the desired behavior

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22
Q

What are negative reinforcers?

A

They act similarly to positive reinforcers by increasing the frequency of a behavior, but they do so by removing something unpleasant

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23
Q

Negative reinforcement can be subdivided into…

A

Escape learning and avoidance learning

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24
Q

What is escape learning?

A

Describes a situation where the animal experiences the unpleasant stimulus and, in response, displays the desired behavior in order to trigger the removal of the stimulus

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25
Q

When does avoidance learning occur?

A

When the animal displays the desired behavior in anticipation of the unpleasant stimulus, thereby avoiding the unpleasant stimuli

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26
Q

Differences between avoidance and escape learning?

A

Whether the unpleasant stimuli occurs or not

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27
Q

Avoidance learning often develops from multiple experiences of…

A

Escape learning

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28
Q

What is a primary reinforcer?

A

Something that naturally satisfies a basic biological need, like food, water, or sleep

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29
Q

What is a secondary reinforcer also called?

A

Conditioned reinforcer

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30
Q

What is a secondary reinforcer?

A

A reinforcer that gains it’s value through the association with a primary reinforcer or another secondary reinforcer, it doesn’t satisfy a basic need directly but becomes reinforcing due to its link with something that does

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31
Q

What is a discriminative stimulus?

A

A type of stimulus that indicates that a reward or reinforcement is potentially available - this stimulus signals to the individual that a specific behavior, when performed in the presence of that stimulus, may lead to a positive outcome or reinforcement

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32
Q

What is punishment?

A

A way of using conditioning to reduce the occurrence of a behavior

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33
Q

What is positive punishment?

A

A way of adding an unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior to reduce that behavior

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34
Q

Sometimes positive punishment is referred to as

A

Aversive conditioning

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35
Q

What is Negative punishment?

A

Removing a stimulus in order to cause reduction of a behavior

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36
Q

What are 2 key factors to reinforcement schedules?

A

Whether they are fixed or variable and whether the schedule is based on a ratio or an interval

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37
Q

Reinforcement of a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior is what type of schedule?

A

Fixed-ratio (FR) schedule

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38
Q

Behavior being rewarded every time it is performed is what type of schedule?

A

A continuous reinforcement - type of fixed-ratio schedule

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39
Q

Reinforcement of a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant. What type of schedule is this?

A

Variable - ratio (VR) schedule

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40
Q

Reinforcement the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed is what type of schedule?

A

Fixed-interval (FI) schedule

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41
Q

Reinforcement of a behavior the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time is what type of schedule?

A

Variable-Interval (VI) schedule

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42
Q

Of all the reinforcement schedules what works fastest for learning a new behavior, and the most resistant to extinction?

A

Variable-Ratio (VR) schedule

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43
Q

What is operant conditioning in the concept of shaping?

A

The process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors that become closer to a desired response

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44
Q

What is latent learning

A

the acquisition of knowledge or skills without an immediate incentive or reward, with the understanding becoming apparent when the information is needed or relevant later on. It’s like learning something without consciously realizing it until you use that knowledge.

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45
Q

What is the classical experiment involving latent learning?

A

Rats running through a maze

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46
Q

Many animals are predisposed to learn or not learn behaviors based on their own natural abilities and instincts, this predisposition is known as what?

A

Preparedness

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47
Q

When animals revert to an instinctive behavior after learning a new behavior that is similar, the animals have undergone what?

A

Instinctive (or instinctual) drift

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48
Q

What is observational learning?

A

The process of learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching others

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49
Q

What is the most famous and perhaps most controversial study on observational learning?

A

Albert Banduras Bobo doll expirement

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50
Q

Describe Albert Banduras bobo doll expirement?

A

It involved children watching an adult in a room full of toys kicking and inflatable clown toy, later the children were allowed to play in the room, many of them ignored the other toys in the room and inflicted similar violence on the bobo doll just as they had seen the adult do.

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51
Q

What are mirror neurons?

A

They are neurons located in the frontal and parietal lobes of the cerebral cortex and fire both when an individual performs an action and when that individual observed someone else performing that action

52
Q

Formation of memories can be divided into what 3 major processes?

A

Encoding
storage
retrieval

53
Q

What is encoding?

A

The process of putting information into memory

54
Q

Information gained without any effort is what type of processing?

A

Automatic processing - it’s unintentional and passively absorbed

55
Q

What type of processing is actively working to gain information known as?

A

Controlled (effortful) processing

56
Q

With practice controlled processing can become…

A

Automatic processing

57
Q

What is elaborative encoding?

A

Linking it to knowledge that is already in memory

58
Q

What is semantic encoding?

A

Put into meaningful context

59
Q

What is the strongest and weakest encoding?

A

Strongest is semantic encoding, while weakest is visual encoding

60
Q

We tend to recall information best when we can put it into the context of our own lives, a phenomenon called…

A

The self-reference effect

61
Q

What is maintenance rehearsal?

A

The repetition of a piece of information to either keep it within working memory, or to store it in short term.

Used to memorize information for a short period

Not as good for long term memory

62
Q

What is the method of Loci?

A

It involves associating each item in a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized

63
Q

What is the Peg-Word system?

A

It associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers

64
Q

What is chunking (clustering) in terms of memory tricks?

A

It is a memory trick that involves taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning

65
Q

Following encoding, information must be ___ if it is to be remembered

A

Stored

66
Q

What is sensory memory?

A

It is information in its original sensory form with high accuracy and lasts only a very short time, generally less than 1 second

67
Q

What are the 2 main types of sensory memory?

A

Iconic memory and echoic memory

68
Q

How long is short term memory(STM)?

A

STM fades over the course of approximately 30 seconds without rehearsal

69
Q

Memory capacity is limited to what?

A

Approximately seven items, usually known as the 7 +/- 2 rule

70
Q

STM is housed primarily where

A

The Hippocampus

71
Q

What is responsible for consolidation of STM to LTM?

A

The Hippocampus

72
Q

What is Working memory?

A

A type of memory that is closely related to STM, similarly supported by the Hippocampus, enables us to keep a few pieces of information in our consciousness simultaneously and to manipulate that information

73
Q

With enough rehearsal STM moves to…

A

LTM

74
Q

What is Elaborative rehearsal?

A

The association of the information to knowledge already stored in LTM

Closely tied to self-reference

Good for LTM

75
Q

Memories over time are moved where?

A

The cerebral cortex

76
Q

What are the 2 types of LTM?

A

Implicit (non declarative) memory, and Explicit (declarative) memory

77
Q

Main difference between implicit and explicit memory?

A

Implicit memory does not require conscious recall, explicit memory does

78
Q

What is procedural memory?

A

The unconscious memory of the skills required to complete procedural tasks

79
Q

What is priming related to learning and memory?

A

Priming refers to the phenomenon where exposure to a stimulus (such as a word, image, or idea) influences the way an individual responds to a subsequent related stimulus.

80
Q

What is positive priming?

A

When exposure to the first stimulus improves processing of the second stimulus

gets decreased response time, or decreased errors

81
Q

What is negative priming?

A

The first stimulus interferes with the processing of the second stimulus

gets slower response times, and more errors

82
Q

How can explicit memory be further divided?

A

Episodic memory
Semantic memory

83
Q

What is episodic memory?

A

Refers to our recollection of life experiences

84
Q

What is semantic memory?

A

Refers to ideas, concepts, or facts that we know, but are not tied to specific life experiences

85
Q

What is autobiographical memory?

A

Our explicit memories about our lives and ourselves

86
Q

What is flashbulb memory?

A

The detailed recollection of stimuli immediately surrounding, an important or emotionally arousing event

87
Q

Go through all the divisions of human memory and provide key characteristics of each or memory times

A

STM (<1min) - working memory

Sensory memory (<1sec)

LTM (lifetime) - both explicit memory (conscious) and implicit memory (unconscious)

Implicit memory - procedural memory (skills, and tasks)

Explicit memory - both episodic memory (events, and experiences) and semantic memory (facts, and concepts)

88
Q

What is retrieval?

A

The name given to the process of demonstrating that something that has been learned has been retained

89
Q

The larger the amount of time between sessions of relearning, the greater the retention of the information later on, Ebbinghaus dubbed this phenomenon what?

A

The spacing effect

90
Q

What is the semantic network?

A

A way the brain organizes memory and ideas which concepts are linked together based on similar meaning

91
Q

When one node of our semantic network is activated what else is activated?

A

Other linked concepts around it are activated unconsciously, a process called spreading activation

92
Q

What is the context-dependent memory effect?

A

Where Memory is aided by being in the physical location where encoding took place

93
Q

What is source monitoring?

A

A part of the retrieval process that involves determining the origin of memories, and whether they are factual or fiction

94
Q

What is state dependent memory (state dependent effect)?

A

A retrieval cue based on performing better when in the same mental state when the information was learned

95
Q

Studies on list memorization have indicated that an items position in the list affects participants ability to recall, Ebbinghaus termed this what effect?

A

The Serial-position effect

96
Q

Participants have much higher recall for both the first few and last few items in a list called…

A

First few = primacy effect
Last few = recency effect

97
Q

Overtime people show strong recall for the first/last few items while recall of the first/last few items fades

A

First then last

98
Q

What is amnesia?

A

A significant loss of memorized information

99
Q

What is source amnesia?

A

Inability to remember where, when, or how one has obtained knowledge

100
Q

What is Alzheimer’s disease?

A

A degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of acetylcholine in neurons that link to the hippocampus, although it’s exact causes are not well understood

101
Q

What is dementia?

A

A loss of cognitive function

102
Q

What are some symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease?

A

Loss of cognitive function, memory loss, with atrophy of brain

103
Q

Memory loss for Alzheimer’s is in a retrograde fashion meaning what?

A

Loss of most recent memories before distant ones

104
Q

Microscopic findings in Alzheimer’s disease includes…

A

Neurofibrillary tangles, and B-amyloid plaques

105
Q

What are B-amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s disease?

A

They are incorrectly folded copies of the amyloid precursor protein, in which insoluble B-pleated sheets form and then deposit in the brain

106
Q

In individuals with middle-late stage Alzheimer’s experiencing sundowning is common; what is sundowning?

A

An increase in dysfunction in the late afternoon and evening

107
Q

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome? And some symptoms

A

Another form of memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in the brain

  • marked by both retrograde, and anterograde amnesia,
  • another common symptom is confabulation - process of creating vivid but fabricated memories, typically thought to be an attempt made by the brain to fill in the gaps of the missing memories
108
Q

What is agnosia?

A

A loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds, though usually only 1 of the 3

109
Q

Agnosia is usually caused by what?

A

Physical damage to the brain such as that caused by a stroke, or a neurological disorder such as MS

110
Q

What does the Ebbinghaus retention function also called the curve of forgetting show?

A

That for a day or 2 after learning the list, recall fell sharply but then leveled off

111
Q

What is interference (AKA interference effect)?

A

A retrieval error caused by the existence of other, usually similar information

112
Q

What is proactive and retroactive interference?

A

Proactive interference - old information is interfering with new learning

Retroactive interference - is when new information causes forgetting of old information

113
Q

What is prospective memory?

A

Remembering to perform a task at some point in the future

114
Q

What is reproductive memory?

A

Ability to recall information exactly as it was learned or experienced

115
Q

What is reconstructive memory?

A

Process of recalling and piecing together past events based on general knowledge and expectations, often leading to the incorporation of inaccuracies or biases

116
Q

What is a false memory?

A

A memory that incorrectly recalls actual events or recalls events that never occurred

117
Q

Some psychologists believe that repressed memories can be brought back, such memories are called…

A

Recovered memories

118
Q

What is the misinformation effect?

A

When exposure to incorrect misleading information after an event can lead to distorted memories of that event

119
Q

What are intrusion errors?

A

mistakes in memory recall where incorrect information, often related to other memories, is inserted into a person’s recollection of a particular event or experience

120
Q

What is the main difference between intrusion error and misinformation effect?

A

Intrusion errors are from internal error, while misinformation is from an outside source

121
Q

What is source-making error

A

A memory mistake where a person misattributes the source of a memory, often confusing where, when, or how they encountered certain information or experiences

122
Q

What is neuroplasticity?

A

The brains ability to recognize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life, allowing it to adapt to expectations, learn, and recover from injury

123
Q

What is synaptic pruning?

A

The phenomenon that as we grow older, weak neural connections are breaking while strong ones are bolstered, increasing the efficiency of our brains ability to process information

124
Q

What type of glutamate receptor has been associated with the strengthening of LTM?

A

NMDA receptor

125
Q

The strengthening of neural connections through repeated use is known as…

A

Long-term potentiation

MCAT Behavioral Sciences (3 decks)

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