Chapter 3: Learning and Memory Flashcards
Stimulus (Define)
Anything an organism can respond to.
Habituation
Repeated exposure to the same stimulus which causes a decrease in response.
Dishabituation:
The recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred. A second stimulus (new) interrupts habituation and causes an increase in response.
Associative Learning
The creation of pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response.
What are the two types of associative learning?
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
What was Ivan Pavlov responsible for?
Explaining Classical conditioning with his dog experiment
Unconditioned Stimulus
Any stimulus that brings results in a reflexive response
Unconditioned Response
The innate or reflexive response to an unconditioned stimulus.
Neutal Stimuli
Stimuli that do not produce a reflexive response.
Neutral stimuli can be referred to as ____ if they have the potential to be used as a ____.
Signaling Stimuli
Conditioning Stimulus
Pavlovs Experiment (Classical Conditioning) Unconditioned Stimulus: Unconditioned Response: Neutral Stimulus: After a while Conditioned Stimulus: Conditioned Response:
Unconditioned Stimulus: Meat
Unconditioned Response: Dog Salivating
Neutral Stimulus: Bell Ringing
After a while
Conditioned Stimulus: BELL (neutral stimulus -> Signaling Stimulus) started to make the dogs salivate even if there was no meat around.
Conditioned Response: Dogs salivating by hearing the bell.
Discrimination (Classical Conditioning Definition)
Organism learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli.
Generalization (Classical Conditioning Definition)
broadening effect by which a stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response.
Generalization (Classical Conditioning Example)
Evan is afraid of white rats. Therefore, he now hates things that are white such as a white rabbit, doctors in white coats.
Discrimination (Classical Conditioning Definition)
Pavlov’s soms could have been conditioned to discriminate between bells of different tones by having one paired with meat and the other one without.
Who is responsible for Operant Conditioning?
B.F. Skinner
What is Operant conditioning about?
Reinforcement and Punishment
Reinforcement (Define)
the process of increasing the likelihood that an individual will perform a behavior.
Positive Reinforcement (Define) Example
increases behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive following the desired behavior.
Money: employees will continue to work if they are paid.
Negative Reinforcement (Define) Example
increase the frequency of a behavior, but they do so by removing something unpleasant.
Taking an aspirin reduces a headache, so the next time you have an headache, you are more likely to take an aspirin.
Reinforcement always ____ behavior.
Continues/increases
Taking an aspirin is an example of what type of learning?
Escape Learning.
You are escaping that headache.
Studying hard for the MCAT so you won’t get a bad scores is what type of learning>
Avoidance learning
Punishment (Define)
conditioned to reduce behavior.
Positive Punishment (Define) Example
Adds an unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior to reduce that behavior.
In some countries a thief may be beaten for stealing, which is intended to stop him from stealing again
Negative Punishment (Define) Example
The reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed.
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.
Fixed-ratio (FR) Schedules (Define)
Example
Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior.
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.
Variable-ratio (VR) schedules (Define)
Example
reinforce 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.
Researchers might reward a rat first after two button presses, then eight, then four, then finally six.
Fixed-interval (FI) Schedules (Define)
Example
reinforce the first instance of behavior after a specific time period has elapsed.
Once the rat gets a pellet, it has to wait 60 seconds before it can get another pellet.
Variable-Interval (VI) Schedules (Define)
Example
reinforce a behavior the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time.
Instead of waiting exactly 60 seconds. The rat might have to wait 90 secs, then 30 secs, then 3 mins.
____ schedules have the fastest response rates!
Variable-ratio (VR)
____ schedules often have a brief moment of no responses after the behavior is reinforced.
Fixed
Shaping (Define)
Example
The process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors.
Giving a bird a treat after making it do a trick.
Latent learning
learning that occurs without a reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced.
Rats were taught how to run a maze, but when a reward was introduced they did it better/faster.
Encoding (Define)
putting new information into memory.
Automatic Processing (Define) Example
Information gained without effort.
As you walk down the street, you are constantly bombarded with information that seeps into your brain. You notice the temperature. Keep track of the route you’re taking, might notice someone at a job has been working everyday.
Controlled (effortful) Processing (Define)
Example
Actively memorizing things.
Studying neurotransmitters for the MCAT
Define each
- Visual Encoding
- Acoustic Encoding
- Semantic Encoding
- Visual Encoding: store through visualization
- Acoustic Encoding: store through sound
- Semantic Encoding: store through meaningful context
Which is the strongest and weakest?
- Visual Encoding
- Acoustic Encoding
- Semantic Encoding
Semantic: strongest
Visual: weakest
Self-reference effect
memorizing things better when we put it into the context of our own lives.
Mnemonics (Define)
technique that aids in memory recall. Particularly list
Method of loci (Define)
Example
Associating each item in a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized.
Memorizing a grocery list, someone might picture a carton of eggs sitting on their doorstep, a person spilling milk in the front hallway, a giant stick of butter in the living room. Later, when the person wishes to recall the list, they simply take a mental through the locations and recall the images they formed earlier.
Peg-Word (Define)
Example
System associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers.
Number one might be associated with the sun, two with a shoe, and three with a tree.
Chunking (Define)
memory trick that involves taking individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning.
Sensory Memory (Define)
Visual (iconic) and auditory (echoic) stimuli briefly stored in memory; fades very quickly unless attention is paid to the information.
Short-term memory
memory that fades quickly over the course of about 30 seconds without rehearsal.
what brain structure is short-term memory found in?
Hippocampus
Working memory (Define)
Form of memory that allows limited amounts of information in short term memory to be manipulated.
What is used to transfer information from short term memory to long term memory and aids in long term storage?
Elaborative Rehearsal
Implicit memory (non-declarative)
Memory that does not require conscious recall
Procedural Memory
skills, tasks
Explicit Memory (declarative)
Memory that requires conscious recall.
Declarative Memory
facts, events
Episodic Memory
Events, our experiences
Semantic Memory
the facts/concepts we know
Retrieval
The process of demonstrating that information has been retained in memory, includes recall, recognition, and relearning
The brain usually organizes ideas in into a ____.
Semantic Network
Semantic Network (Define) Example
concepts are linked together based on similar meaning.
The color red might be linked to a fire truck or other colors such as orange
Context Effects (Define) Example
A retrieval cue by which memory is aided when a person is in the location where encoding took place.
A person that learned something underwater will better recall it underwater.
State-dependent memory (state-dependent effect)
Example:
a retrieval cue by which memory is aided when a person is in the same state of emotion or intoxication as when encoding took place
People that learn facts or skills while intoxicated will show better recall or proficiency when performing those same tasks while intoxicated.
A degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of acetylcholine in neurons that link to the hippocampus. (Memory loss disease)
Alzheimers disease
Progressive ____ causes alzheimers.
Dementia
Microscopic findings of Alzheimers include ____ and ____.
Neurofibrillary Tangles
Beta-Amyloid Plaques
Form of memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in brain. Marked by retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, and confabulation (Providing unreliable accounts of ones own life)?
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Retrograde Amnesia
The loss of previously formed memories
Anterograde Amnesia
The inability to form new memories
Agnosia
The loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds, though usually one of the three.
Interference (Interference Effect)
a retrieval error caused by the existence of other, usually similar information.
Proactive Interference
Example
old information is interfering with new learning.
Think back to a time when you moved to a new address. You may have trouble recalling the new address because you were used to the old one.
Retroactive Interference
Example
When new information causes forgetting of old information.
At the beginning of the school year, teachers learning a new set of students names often find that they can no longer remember the names of the previous years’ students.
List the three modes in which information can be encoded, from strongest to weakest.
1.
2.
3.
- Semantic
- Acoustic
- Visual
In what ways is maintenance rehearsed different from elaborative rehearsal.
Maintenance rehearsal os the repetition of information to keep it within short term memory for near -immediate use.
Elaborative Rehearsal is the association of information from short-term to long-term memory.
In terms of recall, why might it be a bad idea to study for the MCAT while listening to music.
Because you will be taking the MCAT in a quiet room, studying under similar circumstances will aid recall due to contact effects. Music may also compete for attention, reducing your ability to focus on the relevant study material.
What are some factors that might cause eyewitness courtroom testimony to be unreliable.
Several factors can affect the accuracy of eyewitness courtroom testimony, including the manner in which questions are asked; the nature of information shared with the witness by police, lawyers, and other witnesses following the event; the misinformation effect; source-monitoring error; and the amount of time elapsed between the event and trial. Even watching crime dramas, the new, or witnessing similar events can cause source-monitoring effect.
