Ch 3 - Learning and Memory

Question 1

learning

Answer 1

• way in which we acquire new behaviors
• stimulus - anything an organism can respond to
• stimuli and responses result in behavioral learning

Question 2

habituation

Answer 2

• repeated exposure to the same stimulus can cause decrease response
• dishabituation - recovery of response to a stimulus after habituation has occured
  
  • may occur due to sudden change in environment

Question 3

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

• type of associative learning
• instinctual response to create association between 2 unrelated stimuli
• Pavlov dog
  
  • unconditioned stimulus - causes a natural, reflexive response (unconditioned response)
  • neutral stimuli - does not produce natural reaction
  • conditioned stimulus - a previously neutral stimulus that now triggers a conditioned response
• acquisition - turning a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus

Question 4

extinction

Answer 4

• conditioned stimulus is presented too many times without the unconditioned stimulus
  
  • conditioned response may stop
• spontaneous recovery - weak conditioned response after extinction has occured

Question 5

generalization

Answer 5

• broadening effect where stimulus similar to conditioned stimlus produces the conditioned response
• little albert
• discrimination - opposite of generalization
  
  • can distinguish between similar stimuli

Question 6

operant conditioning

Answer 6

• link voluntary behaviors to consequences
• BF Skinner
• behaviorism - all behaviors are conditioned
• reinforcement - increase likelihood of behavior
  
  • positive reinforcer - add positive consequence
  • negative reinforcer - remove negative consequence
• punishment - decrease occurence of behavior
  
  • positive punishment - add unpleasant
  • negative punishment - remove pleasant

Question 7

operant conditioning - Reinforcers

Answer 7

• negative reinforcers
  
  • escape learning - reduce unpleasantness of something that already exists
  • avoidance learning - prevent unpleasant thing from happening
• classical + operant conditioning
  
  • primary reinforcer - a positive reinforcement due to natural response. ex. fish for a dolphin
  • conditioned reinforer (secondary reinforcer) - a positive reinforcer due to classical conditioning. ex. clicker for a dolphin that has conditioned to mean fish
  • discriminative stimulus - reward is potentially available. ex. dolphin trainer

Question 8

Operant conditioning - reinforcement schedule

Answer 8

• Fixed ratio (FR) - reinforce behavior after specific number of performances of behavior
  
  • continuous reinforcement - reinforce everytime behavior occurs
• Variable ratio (VR) - reinforce after variable number of performances (average to the same number of behaviors)
• Fixed interval (FI) - reinforce first time then a specified time after that
• Variable Interval (VI) - first time then varying intervals after
• VARIABLE RATIO IS FASTEST FOR LEARNING A NEW BEHAVIOR
  
  • most resistant to extinction

Question 9

Shaping

Answer 9

• reward increasingly specific behaviors
• allow to train complex behaviors

Question 10

latent learning

Answer 10

• learning without a reward but is spontaneously demonstrated when a reward is introduced
• ex. rats in maze experiment
• some rats ran the maze even without food reward

Question 11

problem solving

Answer 11

• trial and error until a reward is reached
• outside of behavioralist approach
• older people will avoid this and observe situation and make decisive action instead

Question 12

Preparedness

Answer 12

• predisposed to learn behavior based on natural ability and instinct
• reward birds with food for when they peck … this is natural anyway
• instinctive drift - difficult to teach animals against their instinct

Question 13

Observational learning

Answer 13

• learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching others
• not simply imitation
• can also be used to avoid behaviors

Question 14

mirror neurons

Answer 14

• part of observational learning
• frontal and parietal lobes
• fire when an individual performs an action AND when they observe someone else performing the action
• motor processes, empathy, vicarious emotions
• imitative learning in primates

Question 15

Associative learning

Answer 15

• creation of pairing or association
• between 2 stimuli or between a behavior and response
• classical conditioning
• operant conditioning

Question 16

modeling

Answer 16

• observational learning by seeing what are acceptable behaviors performed by others
• model what people do more than what the model says

Question 17

encoding

Answer 17

• putting new info into memory
• automatic processing - information gained without effort
  
  • observations during daily routines
• controlled (effortful) processing - active memorization
  
  • studying
• controlled can become automatic after extensive practice

Question 18

types of encoding

Answer 18

• visual - visualize info
• acoustic - how it sounds
• semantic - meaningful context
• semantic >> acoustic >> visual
• self reference effect - semantic encoding that is in the context of our own lives

Question 19

maintenance rehearsal

Answer 19

• repetition of information to keep it in working memory and eventually move it to long term memory

Question 20

memorization techniques

Answer 20

• mnemonics - acronyms or rhyming phrases
• method of loci - associate items with locations
• peg word - associate numbers with items that rhyme or resemble numbers
• method of loci and peg word are serial and can be used for long lists
• chunking (clustering) - group together with related meaning

Question 21

sensory memory

Answer 21

• iconic - visual
• echoic - auditory
• lasts for very short time - take in lots of detail
• maintained by occipital and temporal lobes
• lost easily if not used
• whole report - ask for entire scene. Participant unable to answer
• partial report - ask for only specific part. Participant answers correctly
  
  • whole memory exists, but dimishes in the time it takes to answer the first part of the whole report

Question 22

short term memory

Answer 22

• fades over course of 30 seconds
• 7 + - 2 rule : capacity of about 7 items
  
  • increased by clustering info
• extend duration by maintenance rehearsal
• hippocampus - also consolidates to long term memory

Question 23

working memory

Answer 23

• related to short term memory
• hippocampus
• few pieces of info used to manipulate and consciously think about
  
  • mental math
• frontal and parietal lobes

Question 24

elaborative rehearsal

Answer 24

• association of information to knowledge that is already in long term memory
• linked to self reference effect
• long term memories moved to cortex instead of hippocampus

Question 25

Long term memory

Answer 25

• implicit (nondeclarative/procedural) - skills/tasks and conditioned responses
• explicit (declarative) - require conscious recall
  
  • semantic - facts we know
  • episodic - experiences

Question 26

retrieval

Answer 26

• retrieval - process of demonstrating that something that has been learned has been retained
  
  • recall - retrieval and statement of previously learned info
• recognition - identifying information that was previously learned
  
  • multiple choice
• relearning - information stored but not available for recall
  
  • spacing effect - longer amount of time between relearning led to more retention

Question 27

Organization of memories

Answer 27

• semantic network - concepts are linked together based on similar meaning
• spreading activation - seeing one part of the network will unconsciously activate a linked concept
  
  • priming - recall aided by word or phrase linked to the concept
• context effect - retreival cue
  
  • memory aided by being in physical location of encoding
• state dependent effect/memory - mental state as cue to recall
• serial position effect - learning lists
  
  • primacy/recency effect - recall first and last few items on list better than middle items
  • during later recall last items fade and first items still recalled, due to last items in short term memory
    *

Question 28

Alzeimers disease

Answer 28

• loss of acetylcholine in neurons linked to hippocampus
• progressive dementia - loss of cognitive function, memory loss, atrophy of brain
• loss recent memories first
• neurofibrillay tangles
• Beta-amyloid plaques
• sundowning - increase dysfunction in evening

Question 29

Memory disorders

Answer 29

• Korsakoff’s syndrome - thiamine deficiency
  
  • retrograde amnesia - loss previous memories)
  • anterograde amnesia - inability to form new memories
  • confabulation - vivid but fabricated memories
• agnosia - loss ability to recognize objects, people, sounds
  
  • loss one of three
  • caused by physical damage to brain (stroke)
• decay - recall falls sharply after a day or 2 then levels off

Question 30

Interference

Answer 30

• proactive interference - old info interfere with new learning
• retroactive interference - new info causes forgetting of old info
  
  • reduce interfering events

Question 31

Aging and Memory

Answer 31

• old people most vividly remember their 20s
  
  • sign of intense encoding during teens and 20s
• limited loss of recognitiona dn skill based memory
• semantic memory easily recalled
• prospetctive memory - remember to perform a task at some point in the future. Remains strong
  
  • ex. buy milk when walk by it at the store
• time based prospective memory - dimishes
  
  • remember to take medication at 7am everyday

Question 32

memory construction

Answer 32

• memory influenced by thoughts and feelings
• false memories
  
  • confabulation
  • misinformation effect - wording of a question can effect the recall of a memory. suggestion of memory can cause false confirmation of that information
  • sourfce monitoring error - confuse semantic and episodic memory
    
    • remember details but confuse the context

Question 33

neuroplasticity

Answer 33

• neural connnections form rapidly at a young age
• greater plasticity at a young age
  
  • synapses can reorganize in the event of injury

Question 34

long term potentiation

Answer 34

• neurophysiological basis of long term memory
• stimulus is repeated and the neurons become more efficient at releasing NT, receptor sites increase and strengthen