Chapter 14: Learning & Memory Terms

Question 1

Define:

Amnesia

Answer 1

Partial or total loss of memory.

Question 2

Define:

Anterograde Amnesia

Answer 2

The inability to remember events subsequent to a disturbance of the brain such as head trauma, electroconvulsive shock, or neurodegenerative disease.

Question 3

Define:

Associate Learning

Answer 3

The linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response.

Question 4

Define:

Behavioral Sensitization

Answer 4

Escalating behavioral response to the repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant such as amphetamine, cocaine, or nicotine; also called drug-induced behavioral sensitization and sometimes simply sensitization.

Question 5

Define:

Conditioned Response [CR]

Answer 5

In Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus [CS].

Question 6

Define:

Conditioned Stimulus [CS]

Answer 6

In Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus [UCS], triggers a conditioned response [CR].

Question 7

Define:

Consolidation

Answer 7

The process of stabilizing a memory trace after learning.

Question 8

Define:

Declarative Memory

Answer 8

The ability to recount what one knows, by detailing the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia.

Question 9

Define:

Dyslexia

Answer 9

An impairment in learning to read and write; probably the most common learning disability.

Question 10

Define:

Emotional Memory

Answer 10

Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events.

Question 11

Define:

Entorhinal Cortex

Answer 11

The cortex located on the medial temporal lobe surface; provides a major route for neocortical input to the hippocampal formation; often degenerates in Alzheimer disease.

Question 12

Define:

Epidermal Growth Factor [EGF]

Answer 12

Neurotrophic factor; stimulates the subventricular zone to generate cells that migrate into the striatum and eventually differentiate into neurons and glia.

Question 13

Define:

Episodic Memory

Answer 13

Autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts.

Question 14

Define:

Explicit Memory

Answer 14

Conscious memory: subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know the retrieved item is the correct one.

Question 15

Define:

Eyeblink Conditioning

Answer 15

Experimental technique in which subjects learn to pair a formerly neutral stimulus with a defensive blinking response.

Question 16

Define:

Fear Conditioning

Answer 16

Conditioned emotional response between a neural stimulus and an unpleasant event, such as a shock, that results in a learned association.

Question 17

Define:

Habituation

Answer 17

A learned behavior in which the response to a stimulus weakens with repeated presentations.

Question 18

Define:

Implicit Memory

Answer 18

Unconscious memory, includes skills, conditioned responses, or recall of events prompting that is not intentional.

Question 19

Define:

Korsakoff Syndrome

Answer 19

The permanent loss of the ability to learn new information [anterograde amnesia] and to retrieve old information [retrograde amnesia] caused by diencephalic damage resulting from chronic alcohol use disorder or malnutrition that produces a vitamin B1 deficiency.

Question 20

Define:

Learning

Answer 20

Relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior as a result or experience.

Question 21

Define:

Learning Set

Answer 21

The rules of the game; implicit understanding of how a problem can be solved with a rule that can be applied in many different situations.

Question 22

Define:

Long-Term Depression [LTD]

Answer 22

Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.

Question 23

Define:

Long-Term Potentiation [LTP]

Answer 23

Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.

Question 24

Define:

Memory

Answer 24

The ability to recall or recognize previous experience.

Question 25

Define:

Metaplasticity

Answer 25

The interaction among different plastic changes in the brain.

Question 26

Define:

Nerve Growth Factor [NGF]

Answer 26

Neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and in some cases promotes the survival of neurons.

Question 27

Define:

Neuritic Plaque

Answer 27

An area of incomplete necrosis [dead tissue] consisting of a central protein core [amyloid] surrounded by degenerative cellular fragments; often seen in the cortex of people with neurocognitive disorders such as Alzheimer disease.

Question 28

Define:

Operant Conditioning

Answer 28

A learning procedure in which the consequence [such as obtaining a reward] of a particular behavior [such as presenting a bar] increases or decreases the probability of the behavior occurring again; also called instrumental conditioning.

Question 29

Define:

Parahippocampal Cortex

Answer 29

Cortex that surrounds the hippocampus; located in the medial temporal lobe.

Question 30

Define:

Pavlovian Conditioning

Answer 30

Learning achieved when a neutral stimulus [such as tone] comes to elicit a response after its repeated pairing with some event [such as delivery of food]; also called classical conditioning or respondent conditioning.

Question 31

Define:

Perirhinal Cortex

Answer 31

The cortex lying next to the rhinal fissure on the ventral surface of the brain.

Question 32

Define:

Priming

Answer 32

Using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a stimulus stimulus.

Question 33

Define:

Procedural Memory

Answer 33

The ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act of behavior.

Question 34

Define:

Reconsolidation

Answer 34

The process of restabilizing a memory trace after the memory is revisited.

Question 35

Define:

Retrograde Amnesia

Answer 35

The inability to remember events that took place before the onset of amnesia.

Question 36

Define:

Sensitization

Answer 36

Learned behavior in which repeated administration of a stimulus results in the progressive amplification of a response.

Question 37

Define:

Unconditioned Response [UCR]

Answer 37

Unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus [UCS]; such as salvation when food is in the mouth.

Question 38

Define:

Unconditioned Stimulus [UCS]

Answer 38

Stimulus that naturally and automatically [unconditionally] triggers an unconditioned response [UCR].

Question 39

Define:

Visuospatial Memory

Answer 39

The use of visual information to recall an object’s location in space.