Chapter 13

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Acquire new and relatively enduring information, behavior patterns, or abilities, characterized by modifications of behavior as a result of practice, study or experience

Question 2

Memory

Answer 2

1. ability to learn and neurally encode information, consolidate the information for longer term storage, retreive or reactivate the consolidated memory at a later time
2. The specific information that is stored in the brain

Question 3

Amnesia

Answer 3

Severe impairment of memory

Question 4

Retrograde/Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 4

Retro-Difficulty in retrieving memories formed before the onset of amnesia
Antero-Difficulty in forming new memories beginning with the onset of a disorder

Question 5

H.M.

Answer 5

Henry Molaison, patient who was unable to encode new declarative memories because of surgical removal of the medial temporal lobe structure

Question 6

Hippocampus

Answer 6

Medial temporal love structure that is important for learning and memory

Question 7

Declarative memory

Answer 7

Memory that can be stated or described

Question 8

Nondeclarative memory

Answer 8

“Procedural memory” memory that is shown by performance rather than by conscious recollection

Question 9

Delayed non-matching-to-sample task

Answer 9

A test in which the subject must respond to the unfamiliar stimulus in a pair of stimuli

Question 10

Patient N.A.

Answer 10

Still-living patient who is unable to encode new declarative, because of damage to the dorsomedial thalamus and the mammilary bodies

Question 11

Dorsomedial thalamus

Answer 11

Limbic system structure that is connected to the hippocampus

Question 12

Mammilary body

Answer 12

One of a pair of limbic system structures that are connected to the hippocampus

Question 13

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 13

A memory disorder, caused by thiamine deficiency, that is generally associated with chronic alcoholism

Question 14

Confabulate

Answer 14

To fill in a gap in memory with falsification. Confabulation is often seen in Korsakoff’s syndrome.

Question 15

Patient K.C.

Answer 15

Kent Cochrane, a patient who sustained damage to the cortex that rendered him unable to form and retrieve episodic memdores

Question 16

Episodic memory

Answer 16

“autobiographical memory” Memory of a particular incident or a particular time and place

Question 17

Semantic Memory

Answer 17

Generalized declarative memory, such as knowing the meaning of a word

Question 18

Skill learning

Answer 18

Process of learning to perform a challenging task simply by repeating it over and over

Question 19

Basal ganglia

Answer 19

A group of forebrain nuclei, including the caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and putamen, found deep within the cerebral hemispheres. They are crucial for skill learning.

Question 20

Priming

Answer 20

Also called repetition priming. Phenomenon by which exposure to a stimulus facilitates subsequent responses to the same or a similar stimulus

Question 21

Associative learning

Answer 21

Type of learning in which an association is formed between two stimuli or between a stimulus and a response. It includes both classical and instrumental conditioning.

Question 22

Classical Conditioning

Answer 22

“pavlonian conditioning” associative learning type which an originally neutral stimulus acquires the power to elicit a conditioned response when presented alone

Question 23

Cerebellum

Answer 23

Structure located at the back of the brain, dorsal to the pons, that is involved in the central regulation of movement, and in some forms of learning

Question 24

Instrumental conditioning

Answer 24

Also called operant conditioning. A form of associative learning in which the likelihood that an act (instrumental response) will be performed depends on the consequences (reinforcing stimuli) that follow it.

Question 25

Cognitive Map

Answer 25

Mental representation of the relative spatial organization of objects and information

Question 26

Place cell

Answer 26

Neuron in the hippocampus that selectively fires when the animal in a particular location.

Question 27

Sensory buffer

Answer 27

Very brief type of memory that stores the sensory impression of a scene. In vision, it is sometimes called ionic memory

Question 28

Short Term Memory (STM)

Answer 28

“working memory” A form of memory that usually lasts only seconds, or as long as rehearsal continues

Question 29

Long Term Memory (LTM)

Answer 29

Enduring form of memory that lasts days, weeks, months, or years and has a very large capacity

Question 30

Encoding

Answer 30

First process in the memory system, in which the information entering sensory channels is passed into short-term memory

Question 31

Consolidation

Answer 31

The second process in the memory system, in which information in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory

Question 32

Retrieval

Answer 32

The third process of the memory system in which a stored memory is used by an organism

Question 33

Postraumatic stress disorder

Answer 33

A disorder in which memories of an unpleasant episode repeatedly plague the victim

Question 34

Primacy effect

Answer 34

Superior performance seen in a memory tast for items at the start of a list. It is usually attributed to long-term memory

Question 35

Recency effect

Answer 35

The superior performance seen in a memory task for items at the end of a list. Usually attribute

Question 36

Memory trace

Answer 36

Persistent change in the brain that reflects the storage of memory

Question 37

Reconsolidation

Answer 37

Return of a memory trace to stable long-term storage after it has been temporarily made changeable during the process of recall

Question 38

Neuroplasticity

Answer 38

“neural plasticity” The ability of the nervous system to change in response to experience or the environment

Question 39

Standard condition (SC)

Answer 39

The usual environment for labratory rodents with a few animals in a cage and adequate food and water

Question 40

Impoverished condition (IC)

Answer 40

Isolated condition, environment which each animal is housed singly in a small cage without complex stimuli

Question 41

Enriched condition (EC)

Answer 41

Complex environment, for lab rodents in which animals are group-housed with a wide variety of stimulus objects

Question 42

Nonassociative learning

Answer 42

Type of learning in which presentation of a particular stimulus alters the strength or probability of a response. Includes habituation

Question 43

Habituation

Answer 43

Form of nonassociative learning in which an organism becomes less responsive following repeated presentations of stimulus

Question 44

Hebbian synapse

Answer 44

A synapse that is strengthened when it successfully drives the postsynaptic cell

Question 45

Tetanus

Answer 45

An intense volley of action potential

Question 46

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 46

A stable and enduring increase in the effectiveness of synapses following repeated strong stimulation

Question 47

Dentate gyrus

Answer 47

A strip of gray matter in the hippocampal formation

Question 48

Glutamate

Answer 48

An amino acid transmitter; the most common excitatory transmitter

Question 49

NMDA receptor

Answer 49

Glutamate receptor that also binds the glutamate agonist NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) and that is both ligand-gated and voltage sensitive

Question 50

AMPA receptor

Answer 50

Fast-acting ionotropic glutamate receptor that also binds the glutamate agonist AMPA

Question 51

Retrograde transmitter

Answer 51

A neurotransmitter that is released by the postsynaptic region, diffuses back across that synapse, and alters the functioning of the presynaptic neuron.