Chapter 3: Learning and Memory

Question 1

Habituation

Answer 1

Repeated exposure to the same stimulus can cause a decrease in response.

This is seen in many first-year medical students: students often have an intense physical reaction the first time they see a cadaver or treat a severe laceration, but as they get used to these stimuli, the reaction lessens until they are unbothered by these sights.

Question 2

Dishabituation

Answer 2

Dishabituation is often noted when, late in the habituation of a stimulus, a second stimulus is presented. The second stimulus interrupts the habituation process and thereby causes an increase in response to the original stimulus.

Question 3

What is associative learning? And what are the two types?

Answer 3

Associative learning is the creation of a pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response.

Classical and Operant

Question 4

Classical Conditioning

Answer 4

Takes advantage of biological, instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli.

Generally causes reflexive and innate responses.

ex: Pavlov Dog experiment

Question 5

What kind of stimuli do not create a reflexive response?

Answer 5

Neutral stimuli.

Pavlov ex: ringing bell before training. it produces no response at first.

Question 6

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 6

Any stimulus that brings about a reflexive response is called an unconditioned stimulus.

Pavlov ex: Meat

Question 7

Unconditioned response

Answer 7

The innate or reflexive response is called an unconditioned response.

Pavlov ex: salivation when meat is seen

Question 8

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 8

A normally neutral stimulus that, through association, now causes a reflexive response.

Pavlov ex: Ringing bell after dogs have been trained.

Question 9

Conditioned response

Answer 9

Pavlov ex: Dogs salivating after bell has been rung.

Question 10

If the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus enough times what happens?

Answer 10

Extinction.

Question 11

Generalization

Answer 11

Broadening effect by which a stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response.

In one famous experiment, researchers conditioned a child called Little Albert to be afraid of a rat by pairing the presentation of the rat with a loud noise. Subsequent tests showed that Little Albert’s conditioning had generalized such that he also exhibited a fear response to a white stuffed rabbit, a white sealskin coat, and even a man with a white beard.

Question 12

Discrimination

Answer 12

An organism learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli. This is the opposite of generalization.

Pavlov’s dogs could have been conditioned to discriminate between bells of different tones by having one tone paired with meat, and another presented without meat.

Question 13

Operant Conditioning

Answer 13

Links voluntary behaviors with consequences in an effort to alter the frequency of those behaviors.

Question 14

B.F. Skinner

Answer 14

The father of behaviorism, the theory that all behaviors are conditioned.

Question 15

Reinforcement

Answer 15

Increases the likelihood of a behavior.

Question 16

Punishment

Answer 16

Decreases the likelihood of a behavior.

Question 17

Positive reinforcers

Answer 17

Increase a behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive following the desired behavior.

Question 18

Negative reinforcers

Answer 18

They increase the frequency of a behavior, but they do so by removing something unpleasant.

Question 19

Avoidance Learning

Answer 19

Prevents the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen.

Question 20

Positive Punishment

Answer 20

Adds an unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior to reduce that behavior; for example, a thief may be arrested for stealing, which is intended to stop him from stealing again.

Question 21

Negative Punishment

Answer 21

The reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed. For example, a parent may forbid her child from watching television as a consequence for bad behavior, with the goal of preventing the behavior from happening again.

Question 22

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

Answer 22

Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior. For example, in a typical operant conditioning experiment, researchers might reward a rat with a food pellet every third time it presses a bar in its cage.

Question 23

Variable-Ratio Schedule

Answer 23

(Most effective!) Reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant.

With this type of reinforcement schedule, researchers might reward a rat first after two button presses, then eight, then four, then finally six.

Question 24

Fixed-Interval Schedule

Answer 24

Reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed.

For example, once our rat gets a pellet, it has to wait 60 seconds before it can get another pellet. The first lever press after 60 seconds gets a pellet, but presses during those 60 seconds accomplish nothing.

Question 25

Variable-Interval Schedule

Answer 25

Reinforce a behavior the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time. Instead of waiting exactly 60 seconds, for example, our rat might have to wait 90 seconds, then 30 seconds, then three minutes.

Question 26

Shaping

Answer 26

The process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors. For example, if you wanted to train a bird to spin around in place and then peck a key, you might first give the bird a treat for turning slightly to the left, then only for turning a full 90 degrees, then 180, and so on.

Question 27

Encoding

Answer 27

The process of putting new information into memory. It can be automatic(without effort) or controlled (with effort).

Question 28

Latent Learning

Answer 28

Learning that can occur without a reward but is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced.

Question 29

What is the difficulty in overcoming instinctual behaviors called?

Answer 29

Instinctive drift.

Question 30

Mirror Neurons

Answer 30

Fire both when an individual performs an action and when that individual observes someone else performing that action.

Question 31

What are different ways to encode the meaning of information?

Answer 31

We can visualize it (visual encoding), store the way it sounds (acoustic encoding), or put it into a meaningful context (semantic encoding).

Of these three, semantic encoding is the strongest and visual encoding is the weakest.

Question 32

Self-Reference effect

Answer 32

Taking info and putting it into the context of our own lives.

Question 33

Maintenance Rehearsal

Answer 33

The repetition of a piece of information to either keep it within working memory.

Question 34

Method of loci

Answer 34

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

Question 35

Peg-word System

Answer 35

Associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers.

For example, one might be associated with the sun, two with a shoe, three with a tree, and so on.

Question 36

Chunking (aka Clustering)

Answer 36

A memory trick that involves taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning.

Question 37

Sensory memory

Answer 37

Consists of both iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory. Sensory memory lasts only a very short time (generally under one second).

Question 38

Short-Term Memory

Answer 38

Similar to sensory memory, short-term memory fades quickly, but over the course of approximately 30 seconds.

In addition to having a limited duration, short-term memories are also limited in capacity to approximately seven items, usually stated as the 7 ± 2 rule.

Question 39

Working Memory

Answer 39

It enables us to keep a few pieces of information in our consciousness simultaneously and to manipulate that information.

This form of memory allows us to do simple math in our heads.

Question 40

Long-term memory

Answer 40

Requires elaborative rehearsal and is the result of increased neuronal connectivity.

Question 41

Implicit (nondeclarative or procedural)

Answer 41

Consists of our skills and conditioned responses.

Question 42

Explicit (declarative) memory

Answer 42

Consists of those memories that require conscious recall.

Explicit memory can be further divided into semantic memory (the facts that we know) and episodic memory (our experiences).

Question 43

Recall vs. Recognition

Answer 43

Recall is the retrieval and statement of previously learned information.

Recognition is “the process of merely identifying a piece of information that was previously learned. It is far easier than recall.

Question 44

Priming

Answer 44

Recall is aided by first being presented with a word or phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory.

Question 45

Context Effects

Answer 45

Memory is aided by being in the physical location where encoding took place. Psychologists have shown a person will score better when they take an exam in the same room in which they learned the information.

Question 46

State-dependent Memory

Answer 46

People who learn facts or skills while intoxicated, for example, will show better recall or proficiency when performing those same tasks while intoxicated than while sober.

Question 47

Serial Position Effect

Answer 47

When researchers give participants a list of items to memorize, the participants have much higher recall for both the first few and last few items on the list.

Question 48

Neuroplasticity

Answer 48

Both learning and memory rely on changes in brain chemistry and physiology, the extent of which depends on neuroplasticity, which decreases as we age.

Question 49

Long-term potentiation

Answer 49

Responsible for the conversion of short-term to long-term memory, is the strengthening of neuronal connections resulting from increased neurotransmitter release and adding of receptor sites.