Exam 1 Flashcards
your memory stores:
personal experiences, emotions, preferences/dislikes, motor skills, world knowledge, language
define neurobiology of learning and memory
field that seeks understanding of how the brain stores and retrieves information about experiences
learning and memory processes cannot be _______ but instead are ______ to exist
observed
inferred
learning and memory are theoretical concepts that are proposed to explain…
that our behaviour is influenced by our past experiences
define learning compared to memory
learning is a set of processes initiated by experience
memory is the product of that process (learning), refers to persistence of that new information that comes from learning
Explain the 2 general goals of the psychological approach
- create set of principles that describe how the variation/change in experience influences behavior
- provide theoretical description/explanation that can explain the observed facts
What is the goals of neurobiology
want to understand how the brain acquires, stores, and maintains representations of experience, that is persistent that allows the information to be retrieved and influence behaviour
Hermann Ebbinghaus developed the first scientific method for…
assessing the acquisition and retention of a controlled experience
in order for Ebbinghaus to study “pure memory” we need to separate…
what did he invent to use in testing pure memory
what the subject already has learned from what the subject was now being asked to remember
therefore invented nonsense syllables - meaningless non-words
Who creating Forgetting Curves and what are they
Hermann Ebbinghaus
It is an influential memory model that shows how learned info slips out of our memories over time unless action is taken
Explain the description of the first memory curve
most of the forgetting occurs during the first hour, but after that it is a fairly stable decline
Explain the description of the first memory curve
most of the forgetting occurs during the first hour, but after that it is a fairly stable decline
what are the labelled axes of a forgetting curve and what is the relationship
explains the trace strength (accessibility of memory at given time) vs. time.
decline as a function between time and trace strength (the less time has paced, the higher the trace strength)
Explain the dual trace theory in relation to the forgetting curve
proposes that there are 2 separate memory traces: short term is rapidly acquired and has steep decline/ decay rate and long term has more gradual decay and is slowly acquired/established
Explain the single trace theory
strength of a single memory trace declines as a function of time between learning and the retention test
Explain the difference between psychologists and neurobiologists when studying memory
psychologists study at single level, interested in relationship between experience and behaviour
while neurobiologists study at multiple level approach, understand experience and behaviour, but ALSO the brain systems, altering of synapses by experience, and the molecules within neurons that support memories
What are 3 reasons that provide evidence to say that we are in the midst of a neurobiological revolution
- field is matured - accumulation of bodies of evidence in many different fields
- maturation of theories and conceptual models
- onslaught of technological advances, mostly in animals
What time was considered the Golden age of memory
last decade of the 19th century
What 2 ideas did Theodule Ribot propose
- dissolution of memory
- ribot’s law
Explain the dissolution of memory theory
that during pathology or injuries to the brain, memories disappear in an orderly fashion:
recent memories, personal memories, skills/habits, and emotional memories
Explain Ribot’s law
that old memories are more resistant to disruptive influences than newer memories
What book did Ribot publish
Diseases of Memory
Define antrograde amnesia
inability to retain memories of new experiences
define retrograde amnesia
loss of memories acquired before the onset of diseases
Korsakoff proposed amnesia could be due to ____ or ____
storage failure or retrieval failure
What leads to/results from korsakoff syndrome
- poor eating habits
- difficulty converting vitamins/thiamine into active form
- difficulty storing the converted vitamins, impact on internal organs such as stomach lining and liver
What did Serge Korsakoff propose
Korsakoff syndrome - alcoholism
What is william james the founder of and what is it
The functionalist movement
which deals with the causal relationships between a person/s mental processes which enable the individual to adapt to the environment
William James was strongly influenced by…
Darwin’s doctrine of evolution
William James also emphasized the important of ______
studying psychology scientifically
What did William James push for/emphasize (2 things)
- emphasize that humans were both rational and irrational (emotions)
- pushed for the study of animals to learn about humans
What idea did William James propose in relation to memories
That memories emerge in stages
What are the stages in which William James believed that memories occur
after image, primary memory, and then secondary memory
Define after image and how it is retained (graph)
briefly lasting sensation that is very shortly retained (immediate decline)
Define primary memory and how it is retained (graph)
persisting representation of an experience, and forms part of a stream of consciousness. initial slope of being able to be retained but then declines and disappears
Define secondary memory and how it is retained (graph)
record of experiences that receded from stream of consciousness, but can be retrieved. slower increase and slower decrease, but always stays
What did Golgi propose and invent
Proposed the reticulum theory - that the brain functions like a spider web and that everything in the NS was connected (disproved by the neuron doctrine)
Invented Golgi Stain to help visualize components of neurons
Cajal realized that the entity stained by Golgi stain was…
the entire nerve cell
Cajal realized that the entity stained by Golgi stain was…
the entire nerve cell
What were Cajal’s two big ideas
- Neuron Doctrine
- Synaptic Plasticity Hypothesis
Define neuron doctrine
that the brain is made up of discrete cells called nerve cells, each with an external membrane. the NS is not an interconnected system, but individual cells
Define the synaptic plasticity hypothesis
the strength of a synaptic connection is not fixed, and can be modified by experience and how commonly it is used
What were Cajal’s 3 major contributions and briefly explain each
- neuron is an independent unit - not interconnected web
- Figured out logic of brain’s wiring diagram - how axons could travel short of long, but always terminate at dendrites
- The synapse - how axons and dendrites were contiguous but not physically fused together
Who named the synapse
Sir Charles Sherrington
What does the neuron doctrine further go on to state (5)
- neuron is the fundamental unit/structure of the NS
- composed of 3 parts: dendrite, soma, axon
- are discrete, non continuous with other cells
- points of connections between neurons are synapses
- law of dynamic polarization
Define the law of dynamic polarization
that electrical activity flows through the neuron in one direction, from axon to dendrite
What did Thorndike publish
“Animal Intelligence: an experimental study of the associative processes in animals”
(how animals learning the consequences of their actions and then how to adapt after
Define Connectionism
(Thorndike)
the association between sensory information and an action/response. was interested in what held the stimulus and response together
To Thorndike, the most basic form of learning was…
trial and error
What methodology did Thorndike develop and what is it
The first methodology of studying how we learn about the consequences of our actions called instrumental conditioning. This is learning that a reward or reinforcement is the result of/connected to a certain behaviour
Explain Thorndike’s experiment he invented for studying instrumental learning
Invented the puzzle box, putting an animal in a crate and in order for the escape door to open, they needed to push a lever
Explain the results of the puzzle box experiment
That time decreased as a number of successive trails increased. He concluded that learning was direct and not mediated by thinking or reason
What is Thorndike’s Law of Readiness (before 1930)
it is satisfying when someone is ready to learn and is permitted
it is annoying when someone is ready to learn but are prevented or when they are not ready to learn and are forced
Define the two parts of the law of exercise
- law of use - stimulus and response connection strengthened from use
- law of disuse - stimulus and response connection weakened when practice is discontinued or not used
Explain the Law of Effect
stimulus leads to response then reinforcement, then S-R connection strengthened
stimulus leads to response then punishment, S-R connection is weakened
Explain the multiple response theory
that learning involves multiple ways of responding and if the first response is not immediately reinforced or satisfies the problem, then the organism will remain active and keep trying to solve the problem
Define the secondary concept, set or attitude
recognizing the importance of individual differences that the learner brings to learning situations
Explain the prepotency of elements theory
refers to that some elements of situations govern behaviour over others, the environment is always complex and therefore we can only respond to some aspects
What laws after 1930, did Thorndike revise because it was inaccurate
The revised law of exercise (basically renounced) and the Law of effect (only found to be half true)
What is the revised theory of law of effect
reinforcement increases the strength of a connection whereas punishment does nothing to the strength of a connection
After 1930, what theory did Thorndike add to his major theoretical concept
Spread of effect - reinforcement not only increases probability of that response, but of neighbouring responses, even though they may have been punished
What are the 4 conditions that punishment needs in order to work
- intensity of punishment
- # of conditioning trials
- interval of time between response and punishment (most important)
- sequence of conditioned stimulus to unconditioned stimulus
What was Thorndike criticized for
criticized for assuming determinism - that all events are determined by previously existing causes and destroys human values and free will
Define multiple memory systems
brain contains specialized systems that are designed to store and utilize the different kinds of information contained in our experiences
1. complete understanding of memory only achieved by recognizing the content of experience is important
2. memories are segregated into different brain regions according to content
what does the example of shaking someone who is amnesic’s hand with a pin and then attempting to do it again but they say no but dont know why
indicates that brain regions that support ability to recall episodes are not needed to establish emotional based behavioral responses
What does amnesic person not remember the training sessions but show they have gained skills/ ability in the instrument, etc.
skillful behaviours is outside of the region of the brain that supports our ability to remember the training
What book did Larry Squire write
Learning and Memory Difference
Define short term memory
focus of current attention that occupies the stream of thought and does not need to be retrieved
Define long term memory
knowledge, facts, etc., that don’t take up the current stream of consciousness
Define engram
set of changes in the nervous system that represents stored memory because memory must involve a persistent change in the relationship between neurons
What contributions did Karl Lashley have
was credited for the first attempt to locate the engram but was unsuccessful, found that the amount of tissue he removed was more important than the location
What figures provided the first convincing evidence for the existence of multiple learning and memory systems
Scoville and Milner
looking at H.M.
Explain the background information of the patient H.M
bike accident, epilepsy, alleviate problem hippocampus, amygdala and surrounding cortical tissue, result in amnestic
H.M’s retrograde amnesia _____ and his antergrade amnesia ____
extended back to childhood
was permanent
What tests did H.M participate in
Delayed comparison task
Maze learning task
Mirror Drawing Task
Mirror Drawing Task results
short term was intact, but couldn’t convert short into long term episodic. he could still acquire new skills but couldn’t remember practicing
tracing star through a mirror
4 important contribution that resulted from H.M’s memory research
- we know the specific location of his brain damage
- specific regions of the brain may be critical to memory
- memory functions could be separated from other cognitive abilities
- amnesia was restricted to certain kinds of content
Define episodic memory system
memory system that extracts and stores the content of our personal experiences in a manner that allows them to be consciously retrieved
What did the removal of the medial temporal lobes mostly effect
the episodic memory
What were the 3 main conclusions of H.M research
- a type of learning and memory was promoted by medial temporal lobe neural structures and another type was not
- milner concluded hippocampus critical site
- provided evidence for hemispheric specialization for right and left temporal lobes
What defects result from damage to the right temporal lobe and left lobe
left = verbal learning and memory defect
right = defect in recall of nonsense figures, faces, spatial relations
Current knowledge about lesions/removal/sparing about what parts of H.M’s brain?
- ventral hippocampal sparing in one hemisphere
- entorhinal sparing but not connected to hippo
- unilateral damage to orbital frontal cortex
Explain the contribution of patient R.B
damage to CA1 region in hippocampal circuit that has outflow of information to entorhinal cortex. difficulty acquiring new information, had antrograde amnesia. failed many paired associate learning and delayed recall tasks
What contributions did patient N.A make
fencing accident that caused damage to left side of mediodorsal thalamus. only have verbal retrograde amnesia
What two people contributed to animals models in testing memory impairment
Kimble and Wickelgren
What did Kimble and Wickelgren test in animals and why is there problems/difficult to test episodic memories in animals
both looked at rats hippocampal lesions, Kimble looked at brightness discrimination and Wickelgren looked at runway task
showed no impariments because rats aren’t as complex as humans. also used simple stimulus-response tasks that even H.M could do. were looking at anterograde amnesia not episodic.
also can’t test when animals actually retained information because they can’t speak
What kind of behavior does Tolman explain in his theory
goal-directed behaviour - learns by pursuing signs to a goal, acquired through meaningful behavior)
What is the chief characteristic for Tolman’s behaviour theory
Molar behaviour - purposeful behaviour is always directed toward a goal. ex. action of walking to school is directed towards goal of learning/getting good grade
Tolman was called a ___-____ theorist instead of stimulus-reaction because…
stimulus-stimulus
learning was an ongoing process from stimulus to stimulus
disagreed with thorndike, skinner, hull
Define Tolman’s cognitive map
believed that there is an internal representation of the external environment, landmarks. acquire large number of cues that build up mental image of environment
The concept of _____ was unimportant to Tolman as a learning variable
reinforcement
similarity between what tolman calls ____ and behaviourists call reinforcement
confirmation
Explain how a cognitive map is developed
expectations are hunches about what leads to what. expectations are hypotheses which are confirm by experience or not. if confirmed, they are retained, if not they are abandoned. through this a map develops
What characteristic of rates was noted in the maze to support Tolman’s cognitive interpretation of learning
instead of behavioural trial and error (thorndike), he believed in vicarious trial and error
Define vicarious trial and error
rats would pause at a choice point and look around as if thinking about various alternatives available to it
tested cognitively not behaviourally
How did Tolman distinct between learning and performance
that information can exist (is learned) but only utilized under certain conditions (performance)
performance can be thought of as the translation of learning into behaviour
Define latent learning
learning that is not translated into performance, remains dormant until manifested in behavior/performance
Tolman and Hoznik had experiment relating to what idea
latent learning - 3 groups of rats learning to solve a maze
Explain the 3 different groups in the latent learning experiment
- never reinforced for correct doing maze
- always reinforced
- not reinforced until 11th day of the experiment (most interested group)
What was the prediction for the latent learning experiment
Tolman believed that animals learn where things are, wheres behaviourilist believed that responses are learned specific to stimuli
Tolman, ritchie, kalish created what apparatus
plus maze
used two groups of rats
Explain the two different groups in the plus maze experiment
Group 1 - sometimes started at 1 or 2, always had to turn in same direction to be reinforced (response learning group)
Group 2 - always fed at same place, if started at 1 had to turn left to be reinforced, if started at 2 then had to turn left to be reinforced. (place learning group)
What were the results between the response and place learning group
criterion was 10 successive errorless trials
response: 3/8 rats in response reached criterion
place learning: all 8 rats reached criterion
Another Tolman, Ritchie, and Kalish experiment
animals trained in apparatus and had to learn to follow route, then apparatus was removed and replaced with a different apparatus
Results of the changing apparatus experiment
went to say “area” even though different apparatus’
Define Tolman’s reinforcement expectancy theory
predicted that if reinforcers were changed, behaviour would be disrupted because those reinforcers would become part of what is expected
What was the experimental design for the reinforcement expectancy
2 groups of rats:
1. trained to run maze for bran mush
2. trained to run same maze for sunflower seeds
on 10th day, group trained on bran mush changed reinforcement to sunflower seeds which disrupted performance
What was the result of the maze reinforcement experiment and what did it conclude
What were Tolman’s 4 contributions/main experiment
latent learning, spatial/relational learning
antagonist against dominance of S-R theories of learning
reinforcement as information
O’keefe and Nadel proposed that learning and memory was supported by two systems:
- locale system - dependent on intact hippocampus and supported cognitive mapping
- taxon system - not reliant on hippocampus and supported stimulus response learning or habit learning
what two functions are dependent on damage to the locale system upon cognitive mapping
- exploration
- place learning
Place hypotheses allow for ___,____ and ___. while taxon hypotheses lack all of these properties
flexibility, rapid change, and the retrieval of context-specific information
Hirsh formulated a theory concerning the role of the hippocampal function in mammalian learning and memory and called it…
Contextual Retrieval Theory
Define the contextual retrieval theory
that expression of memories depends upon the context in which a memory is retrieved, proposed that hippocampus participated in this process
proposed two learning systems: 1. contextual retrieval system dependent upon hippocampus 2. performance line system that was independent of hippocampus
Explain the results of the contextual retrieval theory
independent of the contextual retrieval processes, learning supported the performance line and reflected simple S-R and inflexible
learning supported by the contextual retrieval system was much more flexible (rapidly store and adjust changes in environment)
absence of context. because of hippocampal damage, performance was governed by simply summation of current and previous reinforcement
What was Mishkin and Murrays proposal
mediating recognition memory, amygdala and hippocampus seem to be coequal, substituting for the other
What test/experiment did Mishkin and Murray invent and what were they testing
Delayed Nonmatching to Sample Task - shown object and then time passes and given a new parterning object and must choose the new object
to test episodic memory in monkeys
What did Mishkin find from the results of the DNMST
neither hippocampus or amygdala damage impaired performance, but damage to both regions at the same time seriously impaired performance
What did Larry suggest about impaired performance of DNMS
suggested it is the cortices surrounding the hippocampus that are responsible for DNMS performance. Only damage to the rhinal cortex impaired performance
Based on results of DNMS task have to conclude 1 of 2 things
- hippocampus is not part of episodic memory system
- (likely correct) DMNS task has solution that does not depend on episodic memory
Define the dual process theories of recognition memory that resulted from DNMS task
DNMS task does not depend only on episodic memory system. Has two solutions, one with hippocampus, one without.
Monkeys complete DNMS without hippocampus because still have neural system (perirhinal cortex)
Some researchers believe episodic memory belongs to a broader term called _______ memory which includes not only episodic but ______ memory
declarative
semantic
What does semantic memory do
supports our memory for facts and generalizations. content is context free and not tied to the place it was acquired
What are the two views of the role of the hippocampus in episodic and semantic memory
Unitary View - system is needed to support both episodic and semantic memory
Modular View - the entire system is required for episodic memory but that semantic memory does not require the hippocampus
Example of modular MTH system
kids between age 4-9 didn’t have hippocampus’. had very impaired episodic memory but developed normal language and social skills. were able to read, write, and acquire new factual information (the semantic system was still intact)
Explain patient VJ in relation to the MTH modular system
