Ch 3 - Learning and Memory

Question 1

What is habituation?

Answer 1

the process of becoming used to a stimulus

Question 2

What is dehabituation?

Answer 2

can occur when a second stimulus intervenes, causing a resensitization to the original stimulus

Question 3

What is associative learning?

Answer 3

a way of pairing together stimuli and responses, or behaviors and consequences
- 2 types: classical and operant conditioning

Question 4

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 4

• an unconditioned stimulus that produces an instinctive, unconditioned response is paired with a neutral stimulus
• with repetition, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces a conditional response

Question 5

What is operant conditioning?

Answer 5

behavior is changed through the use of consequences

Question 6

How does reinforcement affect behavior? What is the difference between positive and negative?

Answer 6

increases the likelihood of behavior

• pos: increase behavior by adding a positive consequence following desired behavior
• neg: increase behavior by removing something unpleasant

Question 7

How does punishment affect behavior? What is the difference between positive and negative?

Answer 7

decreases the likelihood of a behavior

• pos: adds an unpleasant consequnce in response to a behavior to reduce that behavior
• neg: the reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed

Question 8

How do schedules affect the outcome in operant conditioning?

Answer 8

• the schedule of reinforcement affects the rate at which the behavior is performed
• schedules can be based either on a ratio of behavior to reward or on an interval amount of time and can be either fixed or variable
• behaviors learned through variable-ratio schedules are the hardest to extinguish

Question 9

What is observational learning?

Answer 9

• modeling
• the acquisition of behavior by watching others
• affected mostly by mirror neurons

Question 10

What is encoding and how is it divided?

Answer 10

• the process of putting new information into memory

- can be automatic or controlled (active memorization)

Question 11

Which is the strongest type of encoding?

Answer 11

• semantic encoding is strongest (put into meaningful context)
• acoustic
• visual (weakest)

Question 12

What are short term memory and sensory memory and what are they based on

Answer 12

they are transient and based on neurotransmitter activity

• sensory: most fleeting using all senses (iconic - visual, echoic - auditory), but lasts only a short time (under 1 second)
• short term: fades after about 30 seconds, limited to 7 items, housed primarily in hippocampus

Question 13

What is working memory and what does it require?

Answer 13

• enables us to keep few pieces of information in our consciousness simultaneously and to manipulate that information (allows simple math in head)
• requires short term memory, attention, and executive function to manipulate information

Question 14

What is long term memory and what does it require?

Answer 14

• elaborative rehearsal and is the result of increased neuronal connectivity
• primarily hippocampus but move to cerebral cortex overtime

Question 15

What are the types of long term memory?

Answer 15

• implicit (nondeclarative): stores skills and conditioning effects
• explicit (declarative): stores facts and stories
• -> semantic (facts that we know)
• -> episodic (experiences)

Question 16

How are facts stored?

Answer 16

via semantic netoworks

Question 17

Which is stronger between recognition and recall?

Answer 17

recognition

Question 18

What is retrieval of information based on?

Answer 18

priming interconnected nodes of the semantic network

Question 19

How can memories be lost?

Answer 19

• through disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease, Korsakoff’s syndrome, or agnosia;
• decay;
• interference

Question 20

What influences memories?

Answer 20

highly subject to influence by outside information and mood both at the time of encoding and at recall

Question 21

What do learning and memory rely on?

Answer 21

• changes in brain chemistry and physiology, the extent of which depends on neuroplasticity, which decreases with age

Question 22

What is long term potentiation?

Answer 22

• responsible for the conversion of short term to longer term memory
• the strengthening of neuronal connections resulting from increased neurotransmitter release and adding of receptor sites

Question 23

What is learning?

Answer 23

the way in which we acquire new behaviors

Question 24

What is a stimulus?

Answer 24

anything to which an organism can respond

Question 25

Difference between conditioned and unconditioned stimulus and responses?

Answer 25

• unconditioned stimulus: brings about a reflexive response

- neutral stimulus: do not produce reflexive response, can be converted to conditioned stimulus

Question 26

What is acquisition and extinction?

Answer 26

• a: creating a conditioned stimulus/response

- e: removal of a conditioned stimulus/response

Question 27

What is generalization and discrimination?

Answer 27

• g: a broadening effect by which a stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response
• d: learns to distinguish between 2 similar stimuli (discriminative stimulus indicates potential reward)

Question 28

What are the 2 types of negative reinforcement?

Answer 28

• escape learning: role of behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists
• avoidance learning: prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen

Question 29

What are the type of reinforcement schedules and which works fastest?

Answer 29

• fixed-ratio: reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
• variable ratio (fastest): reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive an award is relatively constant (rat press bar quickly hoping next press will be the right one)
• fixed interval: reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed
• variable interval: reinforce a behavior the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time
• fixed schedules have brief moment of no response (rat stops hitting lever until it wants another pellet, once behavior determined for pellet)

Question 30

What is latent learning?

Answer 30

occurs without a reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced

Question 31

What is indistinctive drift?

Answer 31

difficulty to overcome instinctual behavior

Question 32

Maintenance rehearsal?

Answer 32

the repetition of a piece of information to either keep it within working memory or to store it in shore term and eventually long term memory

Question 33

Method of loci?

Answer 33

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

Question 34

Peg work system?

Answer 34

associated numbers with the items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers

Question 35

Chunking?

Answer 35

• clustering

- taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning

Question 36

What are the different types of retrieval cues?

Answer 36

• spreading activation: thinking one word unconsciously activates related words
• context effect: taking test in room you studied
• state dependent memory: emotion while studying
• serial position effect: remembering first and last items best on list

Question 37

Pruning?

Answer 37

removing weak neural connections

Question 38

What do elderly individuals have the most trouble recalling?

Answer 38

• most trouble with time based prospective memory, remembering to do an activity at a particular time
• other forms of memory are generally preserved