Chapter 14: Learning & Memory Terms Flashcards
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Amnesia
Partial or total loss of memory.
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Anterograde Amnesia
The inability to remember events subsequent to a disturbance of the brain such as head trauma, electroconvulsive shock, or neurodegenerative disease.
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Associate Learning
The linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response.
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Behavioral Sensitization
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.
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Conditioned Response [CR]
In Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus [CS].
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Conditioned Stimulus [CS]
In Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus [UCS], triggers a conditioned response [CR].
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Consolidation
The process of stabilizing a memory trace after learning.
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Declarative Memory
The ability to recount what one knows, by detailing the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia.
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Dyslexia
An impairment in learning to read and write; probably the most common learning disability.
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Emotional Memory
Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events.
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Entorhinal Cortex
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.
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Epidermal Growth Factor [EGF]
Neurotrophic factor; stimulates the subventricular zone to generate cells that migrate into the striatum and eventually differentiate into neurons and glia.
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Episodic Memory
Autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts.
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Explicit Memory
Conscious memory: subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know the retrieved item is the correct one.
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Eyeblink Conditioning
Experimental technique in which subjects learn to pair a formerly neutral stimulus with a defensive blinking response.
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Fear Conditioning
Conditioned emotional response between a neural stimulus and an unpleasant event, such as a shock, that results in a learned association.
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Habituation
A learned behavior in which the response to a stimulus weakens with repeated presentations.
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Implicit Memory
Unconscious memory, includes skills, conditioned responses, or recall of events prompting that is not intentional.
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Korsakoff Syndrome
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.
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Learning
Relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior as a result or experience.
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Learning Set
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.
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Long-Term Depression [LTD]
Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.
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Long-Term Potentiation [LTP]
Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.
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Memory
The ability to recall or recognize previous experience.
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Metaplasticity
The interaction among different plastic changes in the brain.
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Nerve Growth Factor [NGF]
Neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and in some cases promotes the survival of neurons.
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Neuritic Plaque
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.
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Operant Conditioning
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.
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Parahippocampal Cortex
Cortex that surrounds the hippocampus; located in the medial temporal lobe.
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Pavlovian Conditioning
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.
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Perirhinal Cortex
The cortex lying next to the rhinal fissure on the ventral surface of the brain.
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Priming
Using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a stimulus stimulus.
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Procedural Memory
The ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act of behavior.
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Reconsolidation
The process of restabilizing a memory trace after the memory is revisited.
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Retrograde Amnesia
The inability to remember events that took place before the onset of amnesia.
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Sensitization
Learned behavior in which repeated administration of a stimulus results in the progressive amplification of a response.
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Unconditioned Response [UCR]
Unlearned, naturally occurring response to an unconditioned stimulus [UCS]; such as salvation when food is in the mouth.
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Unconditioned Stimulus [UCS]
Stimulus that naturally and automatically [unconditionally] triggers an unconditioned response [UCR].
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Visuospatial Memory
The use of visual information to recall an object’s location in space.