Exam 2 Flashcards
conciousness
a person’s subjective awareness; thoughts, perception, experience, self-awareness
Difficult to define and study due to subjectivity
biological rhythms of consciousness
different rhythms have different times
Circadian rhythms – internally driven daily cycles; last 24 hours
o Sleep and wakefulness – regulate psychological and behavioural processes at different times of the day
circadian rhythms
- effected by
- influences
Effected by:
- Time of day & amount of light
- Retina is stimulated by light -> communicates info to SCN (hypothalamus) -> pineal gland -> regulates melatonin release (related to feelings of sleepiness) -> hypothalamus stimulated by melatonin
- Creates feedback loop that regulates melatonin release - Hunger
- Concentrations
Bidirectional influences – rarely only body influencing, usually external cues
- Entrainment – biological (circadian) rhythms become synchronized to external cues/world
- Outside stimuli affect biological rhythms, they are not entirely regulated by body
- ex. time, temp, clocks - endogenous rhythms – biological rhythms generated by our body independent of external cues
- ex. man who lived in cave – studied endogenous rhythm; 24hr is fairly appropriate for humans
- polysomnography
set of objective measurements used to examine physiological variables during sleep (respiration, body temp, muscle activity)
- Electroencephalogram (EEG)
measures excitatory and inhibitory activity in groups of neurons in the brain
Waveform – represents amount of activity in a particular area; frequency and amplitude
Examining populations of neurons – not just one
Types of waves & stages of sleep:
Awake:
1. Beta waves – high frequency (15-30Hz); low amplitude
o Wakefulness – alert and awake; focussed on something
- Alpha waves – lower frequency (8-14Hz); slightly higher amplitude than beta (still low)
o Daydreaming, meditating, falling asleep, losing interest & unfocussed; calm and relaxed
o Discovered these first (hence alpha)
Sleeping – 4 stages; constantly moving through 4 stages throughout the night
1. Theta waves (stage 1-2) – just fallen asleep; lower frequency (4-8Hz); higher amplitude
o Breathing, BP, and HR decrease
o Still sensitive to external stimuli
a) Stage 2 – may be important in memory formation and maintaining sleep
- Sleep spindles – clusters of high-frequency, low amp waves; wakeful patterns
- K complexes – clusters of large amp waves
- Delta waves (stages 3-4) – deep sleep; low frequency (<3Hz), high amp
o Deepest sleep in first 3-4 hours - REM sleep – waves look like you’re awake
o Characterized – high frequency waves, inhibited body mvmt, rapid eye mvmt
o 20-25% of total sleep
o Dreaming likely occurring
2 theories of sleep
2 complimentary hypotheses about why we sleep (do not contradict one another)
- Restore and repair hypothesis – our bodies need to restore energy levels and repair wear and tear of daytime activities
a. Lack of sleep – cognitive decline, emotional disturbances, impaired immune functioning
b. Brain level – sleep helps clearing of waste products and excess proteins from the brain - Preserve and protect hypothesis – sleep is important for preserving energy and protecting organisms from harm
a. Where and when we sleep – prey sleep in safe locations while predators are awake and hunting
- Animals higher on food chain sleep more
- Lower animals sleep less to be less vulnerable
b. Humans – 8hrs (1/3 of day); makes us vulnerable but we are higher on food chain
sleep deprivation vs displacement
Deprivation – occurs when an individual cannot or does not sleep; external and internal factors
- Difficulty multitasking, maintaining attention, quick decision making, risk assessment, impaired memory, inhibits control, temporal organization (time events)
- Impaired coordination – missing 1 night sleep = blood alcohol of 0.07 in driving simulation studies
- Long haul truckers and healthcare staff – often sleep deprived to levels of 0.1 alcohol
Displacement – when individual is prevented from sleeping at their normal time; same amount of sleep may occur but at different times
- Internal and external factors – work schedule, travel, caffeine
- Jetlag – sleep cycles are not aligned with light/darkness
- Switching day to night shifts
- Similar difficulties of sleep deprivation
2 approaches to dreaming
- Psychoanalytical approach – Freud viewed dreams as unconscious expression of wish fulfillment; a way to access unconscious mind
a. Primal urges – sex and aggression; things we want to do but can’t due to societal norms
b. 2 categories
i. Manifest content – images and storylines we dream about; description of physical aspects of dream (tip of iceberg)
ii. Latent content – symbolic meaning of a dream; usually sex and aggression (beneath the water) - Activation-synthesis hypothesis – suggests dreams arise from brain activity; bursts of excitatory neurons from the pons
a. Activation:
Pons – associated with wakefulness brainstem; can affect other areas of the brain
- Explains REM – eye mvmts and EEG patterns; muscles are being activated by pons
- Stimulation of occipital and temporal lobes could produce sights and sounds
b. Synthesis:
Different regions of the cortex trying to make sense of info
- Frontal lobe – key role in synthesizing coherent story by picking up on different activation and organizing to make sense of it
3 sleep disorders
- Insomnia – extreme lack of sleep; 17% of canadian adults; out of your control
a. 3 categories
i. Onset – extreme difficulty falling asleep
ii. Maintenance – waking through the night
iii. Terminal/early morning – can’t fall back asleep
b. Secondary insomnia – often related to other conditions; psychiatric disorders - Nightmares – vivid and disturbing dreams occurring during REM sleep; 85-95% of adults
- Night terrors – intense panic and arousal that wake individual and induce a heightened emotional state; 1% of adults and 1-6% of children
a. Occurs during non-REM sleep
b. Not one-time occurrence – impairs regular sleep schedule
3 movement disturbance disorders
- REM behaviour disorder – condition that does not show the restriction of mvmt typically seen during REM
a. Individuals act out content of dream
b. Not sleep walking – you are making mvmt correlating to dream - Somnambulism/sleepwalking – involves wandering and performing other activities while asleep
a. Unrelated to dreams – people don’t recall dreaming
b. During non-REM sleeping; occurs during deep sleep (stages 3-4)
c. Prevalent in childhood
d. Waking up a sleepwalker will be confusing and disorienting for sleeper - Sexomnia (sex sleep) – engagement in sexual activity, vocalizations during non-REM sleep
a. Occurs during deep sleep (stages 3-4)
b. Unknown to them
sleep apnea
characterized by an obstruction of air flow; temporarily causes inability to breathe during sleep
Causes snoring and non-restful sleep (difficulty entering deep sleep)
Treatments
o Dental devices holding mouth in specific condition
o Weight loss
o CPAP machine – continuous positive air pressure
Can be caused by brain’s inability in regulate breathing
o Medulla – responsible for controlling chest muscles when breathing
narcolepsy
extreme daytime sleepiness and sleep attacks
Can last few seconds or minutes – enter into REM immediately
Associated with intense emotion – laughing can cause you to fall asleep
- Emotional parts of brain are very active during or shortly before sleep attack
Treated with medication
Causes
- Low levels of orexin – hormone maintains wakefulness; difficulty creating or controlling
- hypothalamus – controls release of orexin; may not have effective control of brain areas related to emotion
- amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens – show increased activity during emotion induced narcolepsy
hypnosis
- types of suggestions
- 2 theories
- cognitive hypnotherapy
procedure for inducing a heightened state of suggestibility (not a trance/magic/control you)
types of suggestions
a. ideomotor – perform a specific action
b. challenge – do not perform a specific action
c. cognitive perceptual – remembering or forgetting specific info; experiencing altered perception
- ex. reducing pain sensation
- Freud – used to recall forgotten memories from childhood
2 theories
1. Dissociation theory – hypnosis is a unique state in which consciousness is divided into 2 parts
2 parts
a. Low level system – perception and mvmt
o Automatic system of mvmt
b. Executive system – evaluates and monitors these behaviours
o Decision making and manual process
o Hypnosis cuts out this process – reduced activity in anterior cingulate cortex (frontal lobe)
Suggestion -> executive process (removed) -> perception and mvmt
- Social cognitive theory – the degree to which beliefs and expectations contribute to increased suggestibility
- Response expectancy – placebo effect
- People conform to what they expect – even when they’re not hypnotized
- Could be mere compliance
Often paired with other psychotherapies – cognitive hypnotherapy
Cognitive hypnosis = cognitive behavioural theory (CBT) + hypnosis
a. Used to treat: Depression, anxiety, eating disorders, hot flashes of cancer survivors, IBS, smoking cessation
b. Pain – 60-75% report relief (more effective with acute; not chronic)
• Used in addition to medication
Connection involving the anterior cingulate gyrus – differ between hypnotizable people and non
o Anterior cingulate gyrus – involved in perception of pain
o Gyrus – out folding portion of brain (sulcus is between gyrus’)
mind wandering
unintentional redirection of attention from the current task to an unrelated thought
Associated with poor memory retention in university
Active networks in mind wandering (Network – light up and shut down together)
1. Default mode network – network of brain regions that most active when an individual is awake but not responding to external stimuli
Includes:
• Medial prefrontal cortex
• Posterior cingulate gyrus
• Medial and lateral regions of the parietal lobe
- Frontoparietal network (in frontal and parietal) – goal directed thinking (planning for future) and attention to control
- Tend to think about the future more than present or past when mind wandering
- Potential benefit – planning for future
disorders of consciousness
lack full consciousness; can be due to trauma; unable to fully experience sensation and perception
Brainstem – highly implicated in varying levels of consciousness
o Pons – wakefulness & alertness
o Medulla – life maintaining; breathing and HR
6 levels of consciouness
- Consciousness
- Locked in syndrome – patient is aware and awake; unable to move body
a. Can be caused by damage to pons
- Appears unconscious – “locked” inside of body
b. People have miraculously come out of it - Minimally conscious state (MCS) – individuals are able to show some behaviour; suggests partial consciousness even on an inconsistent basis
a. Simple commands
- Yes/no
- Physical and emotional reactions
b. Neuroimaging shows some activity in higher order sensory and cognitive regions - Persistent vegetative state – minimal to no consciousness; some functions may still be controlled by the brain
a. Eyes may be open; may develop sleep/wake cycles
b. Typically due to extensive brain damage – grey and white matter in both hemispheres - Coma – complete loss of consciousness
a. Typically due to
i. Damage to brainstem
- Supressed reflexes (ex. pupillary response)
ii. Widespread damage to both hemispheres
b. Possible to recover high levels of consciousness within 2-4 weeks
- Longer = lower likelihood of recovery
c. Biological functions can be maintained artificially - Brain death – brain (inc brainsteam) does not function; no chance of recovery
a. Potential for certain biological functions to be maintained artificially
ways to access consciousness
Testing reflexes
ex. Pupil response related to brainstem damage
o Pupil dilation/constriction – tests comatose state with flashlight; no response indicates damage to brainstem
Glasgow coma scale
Brain imaging
Glasgow coma scale
score on scale indicates level of consciousness
- Tests if eyes – open at all, in response to pain, open in response to speech, or spontaneously
- Language abilities
- Movement abilities – responses to pain; obey commands
Brain imaging to access consciousness
case studies
can see brain activity even if patient is nonresponsive
Case study 1
- 23 yr old patient in vegetative state (minimal to no consciousness)
- Mental imagery task – imagine playing tennis or imaging the rooms in their house
- Scan brain in response to these requests
• Tennis – activity in brain areas related to movement
• House – activity spatial network (parahippocampal gyrus and parietal lobe)
Confirms a certain level of consciousness & brain activity
- they are listening & able to follow instructions
- If distinct areas don’t light up in response to mental imagery tasks – could indicate lack of consciousness/brain activity
Case study 2
Brain activity during a mental imagery task used as a yes/no response
• Yes – imagine playing tennis
• No – imagine rooms in house
Use this technique to ask participant questions (ex. are you in pain
drug
change in psychological experience related to drug use
Short term physical and psychological side effects of drug use
- where does main nt come from
Alters amount of nt released into synapse
a. Agonist – causes more; amplifies
- Direct – binds to receptor; replaces nt
- Indirect – prevent reuptake; causes increased activity of nt
b. Antagonist – cancels out message of nt
- Block receptor that the nt would normally bind to
Dopamine – most often influenced by drugs; reward and pleasure feelings
- Released by – nucleus accumbens & ventral tegmental area
- Produces high associated with drugs
- Pleasure feelings reinforce behaviour – increased usage; anticipation can be enough to release dopamine
Setting
o Novel setting – creates more powerful effects (Overdose often occurs because body is not prepared)
o Place associated with drug use – body prepares for metabolization of drug
Previous experience with drug
o First use – body was unprepared and effects were not fully felt
o Subsequent uses – more potent; body learns drug and how to react; pathways are put into motion quicker and easier (Curve eventually dies up – we build up tolerance)
Expectations
o Know what to expect/expect stronger high – more likely to receive high
Long-term physical and psych effects
Tolerance – repeated use of drug results in need for higher dose to obtain intended effect
- Brain is trying to maintain stable levels of nt
- Down-regulation – decrease in receptor sensitivity in the synapse; post synaptic cells are not as stimulated by nt
Dependency
a. Physical – need to ward off unpleasant physical withdrawal symptoms (nausea, increased HR, increased BP, hallucinations and delirium)
- Body relies on drug to produce necessary amount – no longer makes enough internally
b. Psych – emotional need for drugs without any underlying physical dependence
- Can occur with drugs not considered classically addictive
- Ex. weed & alcohol – assists with anxiety and is associated with fun social setting
Biopsychosocial model – factors and effects
o Bio – specific gene related to drug taking behaviour and dependence
o Psych – cognitive factors (memory cues), emotional relationship
o Sociocultural – family attitudes, religion, social isolation (Addiction is more common in people with small social circles)
Psychoactive drugs & types
affect thinking, behaviour, perception, emotion
- stimulants
- hallucinogenics
- opiates (narcotics)
- sedatives
- alcohol
- marijuana
Stimulants
speeds up activity of NS; enhance wakefulness and alertness; high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops quickly
Neurotransmitters – increased dopamine, serotonin, norepinephrine
- Caffeine – temporarily increases energy levels and alertness
a. Adenosine antagonist (binds and blocks receptors)
- Adenosine – slows neural activity in the brain; makes sleepy; inhibitory; nt are broken down or reuptaken
b. Stimulates adrenal gland – releases adrenaline (energy) - Cocaine
a. Dopamine agonist – blocks reuptake in reward centers of brain (indirect)
b. Influences serotonin and norepinephrine
- Serotonin – feel good
- Norepinephrine – arousal and excitement - Amphetamines
a. Prescription drugs – Ritalin, Provigil
b. Methamphetamine
- Dopamine agonist
- Stimulates release from presynaptic cells (instead of reuptake inhibition)
- Can cause structural abnormalities in frontal lobe – effects decision making and ability to quit using - Ecstasy/MDMA – classified as stimulants; also hallucinogenic
a. Serotonin agonist – blocks reuptake
b. Medicinal uses
- SSRI – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (ex. Prozac)
- PTSD – may be beneficial
Hallucinogens (psychedelics)
produce perceptual distortions (visible, audible, or tactile); low likelihood of dependence; powerful emotional response (euphoria to panic)
occurs in nature (psilocybin & mescaline/peyote cactus); tolerance develops slowly
Neurotransmitters – increased serotonin & decreased glutamine
- LSD – laboratory made
a. triggers unusual sensory experiences
b. Increased activity in visual brain areas
- also activates non visual areas – visual areas are getting input from other areas creating illusions
c. reduced connectivity between temporal and parietal lobes – feelings of ‘losing self’ and finding ‘altered meanings’
d. medicinal
- used to treat anxiety associated with terminal illnesses - ketamine – originally develop as short term surgical anesthetic
a. induces dream like state, memory loss, dizziness, confusion, distorted sense of body ownership
b. glutamine antagonist – blocks receptors; important for memory
- very common nt – many brain processes are interrupted - DMT – occurs naturally in some tree bark & skin surfaces of toads; small amounts are naturally produced in human NS
a. Intense spiritual experiences – feelings of connectivity to universe and other around you
b. Medicinal – used to help reduce tobacco and alcohol addiction - Salvia divinorum – herb is grown in central and south America
a. Induces intense but short lived hallucinogens when smoked or chewed
b. Dissociative experiences – separation of self and body
Opiates (narcotics)
reduce pain and induce extreme and intense feelings of euphoria; high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops quickly
Ex. heroin, morphine, fentanyl, oxycodone (oxytocin)
Endorphin direct agonist – binds to endogenous endorphin receptors
i. Endorphins – reduce pain and increase pleasure
ii. We have natural receptors
Sedatives
depressive of CNS; high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops quickly
a. Barbiturates – early form of medication; used to treat anxiety and promote sleep
- ‘downers’; high potential for abuse
- targets brainstem to reduce activity – high doses shut down brain functions
b. Benzodiazepines – newer; Xanax, Ativan, valium
- GABA agonist – inhibitory function
- Rarely fatal – doesn’t target brainstem
- Does impair attention, reaction time, coordination
Alcohol
moderate to high likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops gradually
a. Cyclic process
- Initially – stimulates GABA receptors; relaxation; causes impaired balance and coordination
- Inhibition of frontal lobe – decision making and impulse control; lowered inhibition
- Subsequently – stimulates opium/endorphin & dopamine; euphoria and reward seeking
b. Alcohol myopia – nearsightedness; don’t think about future, only moments occurring
Marijuana
- nt
- effects
- teen brain
produces a combination hallucinogenic, stimulant, relaxing (narcotic) effects; low likelihood of dependence; tolerance develops slowly
a. Anandamide agonist
- Anandamide – endogenous cannabinoid; chemical that occurs naturally in brain and PNS
- Cannabinoid receptors – for endocannabinoids/anandamides
- THC – mimics anandamide & stimulates cannabinoids receptors
b. Effects - euphoria, relaxation, reduced pain, heightened and distorted sensory experience, stimulates appetites
c. Memory and cognition – impairs short term and long term memory & executive functions (decision making and attentional control)
i. Frontal lobe – decreased activity; decision making
ii. Wider network of brain regions required to perform memory task at equal levels
iii. Cannabinoid receptors are in hippocampus and medial frontal lobes
- Hippocampus – memory
- Frontal lobe – memory retrieval
d. Teen brain
i. Impairs development of frontal lobes – mature later in brain development
ii. Disrupts white matter pathways in the brain
iii. Impairs cognitive abilities such as memory and executive function
Learning
process by which behaviour or knowledge changes as a result of experience
Occurs at neuronal level
o Limb coordination and controlling mvmt
Not just learning and understanding facts – we must learn to navigate the world
3 types of learning
- Classic conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Cognitive and observant learning
Classic conditioning
- Pavlov’s dogs
- components
- Hebb’s rule
- terms
learning by association
Pavlovian conditioning – Pavlov’s dogs
i. Noticed dogs would salivate when he prepared things in labs associated with food
ii. Introduced metronome – dogs associated with food & would salivate
Event A and B occur together – forms associative learning in which we learn to associate a neutral stimulus with a biologically relevant stimulus; changes response to previously neutral stimuli
Components
i. Unconditioned stimuli – produces reflexive response without prior learning (ex. food, pain, sex)
ii. Unconditioned response – reflexive, unlearned reaction caused by US (ex. salivation)
iii. Neutral stimuli – doesn’t automatically produce (or prevent) a reflexive response; no learned relationship and doesn’t produce UR
iv. Conditioned stimuli – a once neutral stimulus now produces conditioned response due to historical association with US (ex. metronome)
v. Conditioned response – newly learned response to the conditioned stimuli (ex. salivation)
Hebb’s rule – if a weak connection between neuron A and B fire at the same time as a strong connection between C and B, the weak connection (A and B) becomes stronger
i. Wire together fire together
ii. Ex. blinking (UR) due to puff of air (US) – associated with beep (CS); blinking becomes CR
iii. Neurons initially associated by third party will now have a stronger connection and fire without the third stimuli
Terms – associated with strengthening synapses
i. Acquisition – initial phase of learning in which a response is established; NS is repeatedly paired with US
- Predictability is important – paired often, sometimes, rarely
ii. Extinction – reduced CR with CS and US are no longer paired
- Networks in the brain may be preserved
- Spontaneous recovery – reoccurrence of a previously extinguished CR
iii. Generalization – a response that originally occurred for a specific stimulus also occurs for similar but different stimuli
- May result when activation of our brain’s representation of the stimulus also activates representation of a related stimulus
- Ex. if food still appears when beep is slightly different – will produce stimulus generalization
iv. Discrimination – responds to one original stimulus but not to different stimuli that may be similar
- If related stimuli are presented without the US – discrimination is more likely
- Ex. if food does not appear with different sounding beeps – will discriminate which beeps are associated with food and which are not
Conditioned emotional response
component of classical conditioning
emotional and physiological responses that develop from specific object/situation (not a biological response)
Ex. little albert experiment – made baby afraid of white rats by associating with loud noise
- Baby generalized to other white furry things (ex. bunnies, santa claus mask)
- Generalized stimulus – emotional, not biological response
- Loud noise was US, fear was UR, white rat was NS turned CS that produced CR (fear)
Contextual fear conditioning – amygdala and hippocampus
- Associating emotions with particular places (ex. revisiting place of trauma)
Evolutionary role of fear conditioning
component of classical conditioning
facilitated survival; put ourselves in danger less frequently
- Preparedness – biological disposition to quickly learn a response to a particular type of stimuli; we establish fear response to something that has been evolutionarily dangerous
Ex. administered shocks with specific CS
a. 3 types
i. Non-threatening
ii. Acquired threat – relatively new
iii. Biological threat – around historically
b. Measured sweat on palms related to fear of shock
i. Non-threatening – low CR
ii. Acquired threat – moderate CR
iii. Biological threat – high CR
Ex. cats are scared of cucumbers without ever having seen a snake (biological response)
- Conditioned taste aversion – acquired dislike or disgust of food or drink because it was paired with illness
- Ex. food poisoning; black listed alcohol
- Evolutionary – distaste for foods that made us ill facilitate survival
Operant conditioning
- 2 components
- terms
learning through consequences of voluntary actions
2 components
i. An action/response to a situation
ii. Consequence of action (reward or punishment) required for learning
terms – associated with patterns of dopamine release
i. Discriminative stimulus – a cue that indicates whether or not a response will be reinforced
- Ex. tag with name on it
ii. Discrimination – responding to one original discriminative stimulus, but not to new stimuli that may be similar
- Ex. tag with your name on it will give you reward; tag with brothers name will not
iii. Generalization – operant response occurs in response to a new stimulus that is similar to the stimulus present during original learning
- Ex. tag with sisters name who you are similar to will also give reward
iv. Extinction – weakening of operant response when reinforcement is no longer available; motivation to response lessens without reward
contingency
associated with operant conditioning
consequence depending on action
Effect of law – responses followed by satisfaction will occur again in the same situation; responses not followed by satisfaction will be less likely to occur again
- Pos – reward/punishment is added
- Neg – reward/punishment is taken
Reinforcement – increases behaviour; event or reward that follow a response increasing the likelihood of that response occurring again
- Reinforcer – a stimuli/reward that is presented after a particular response that increases the probability of responding that way again
a. Pos – strengthens behaviour by increasing/adding stimuli (ex. money; praise)
b. Neg – strengthens behaviour by removing/decreasing stimuli (ex. taking medication; getting out of jail)
i. Avoidance learning – removes possibility that stimulus will occur; avoiding negative consequences (ex. presumptively taking advil before game)
ii. Escape learning – removes a stimulus that is already present; escaping current neg consequences (ex. taking advil after game)
2 types of reinforcers
a. Primary – satisfies basic motivational need that effects ability to survive and reproduce (ex. food, water, sexual contact)
b. Secondary – become reinforcers after we learn they have value (ex. money, likes on social media)
Punishment – decreases behaviour
- Punisher – a stimuli/punishment that is presented after a particular response that decreases the probability of responding that way again
a. Pos – behaviour decreases because unpleasant stimulus was added (ex. being scolded)
b. Neg – behaviour decreases because it removes a desirable stimulus (ex. getting toy taken)
Shaping
Chaining
ABA
component of operant learning
Shaping – reinforcing successive approximations of a specific operant response; step by step to desired fully learned response
- Ex. training dog to get into car by giving successive treats throughout the process
Chaining – linking together two or more shaped behaviours into a more complex action or sequence of actions
Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) – uses close observation, prompting, and reinforcement to teach behaviours
- Often used with difficulties experienced due to developmental conditions (ex. autism)
Brain regions in operant learning
Nucleus accumbens – becomes activated when processing any kinds of rewards; lots of dopamine
- Variability in this area – differences in motivational drives (ex. thrill seekers skydiving)
Reward also triggers dopamine release in
- Basal ganglia – lateral to thalamus
- Medial frontal lobe
Schedules of reinforcement
rules that determine when reinforcement is available/provided
- Continuous reinforcement – every response is reinforced
- Partial/intermittent reinforcement – only some responses are reinforced
4 types (intervals take longer to learn than ratio):
a. Fixed ratio – reinforcement is delivered after a specific number of responses has been completed
b. Variable ratio – number of responses required to receive reinforcement varies according to an average
- Highest rate of response in animal studies – mechanism behind slot machines
- Ex. average is 5: 7+2+6 = 15/3 = 5
c. Fixed interval – reinforces the first response occurring after a set amount of time passes
- Affects behaviour leading up to response/action
- Ex. exam every 3 weeks – you study for 1 week before (you know exam is coming)
d. Variable interval – first response is reinforced following a variable amount of time; varies around an average
- Ex. every 3 days average – 4 days + 2 days = 6/2 = 3 days
Partial reinforcement effect
organisms that have been conditioned under partial reinforcement resist extinction longer than those conditioned under continuous condition
a. Continuous – quicker to assume they will not get reinforcement in the future if reinforcement is absent once
b. Partial – not as quick to assume; may just need to learn new ratio/interval
Involved in gambling – you don’t assume you won’t win at all if you don’t win once
Cognitive and observant learning
- 2 theories
Stimulus response (S-R) theory – thoughts were based on stimulus response pattern that is learned throughout life
a. Individual differences in responding can be explained by different learning histories
- Classic conditioning & operant learning
b. Thinking is a form of behaviour (behaviourism)
- Internal processes were studied – thoughts are based on stimulus
- Incomplete
Stimulus organism response (S-O-R) theory – each organism will think about a situation in a different way, based on their cognitive interpretation
a. Differences are based on unique interpretation of an even or stimulus (ex. mood, alertness, presence of others)
b. We are constantly changing – something may have changed internally since we last responded
Latent learning
Observational learning
Mirror neurons
component of cognitive and observant learning
- learning that is not immediately expressed by a response until organism is reinforced; suggests more ‘thinking’ than classic or operant conditioning studies
- Organisms may possess certain behaviour/ability but does not express until reward is available
- Ex. mice going though maze – showed they knew the maze after food was offered for completing it - changes in behaviour and knowledge that result from watching others; important in child development
4 processes:
a. Attention – focussing
b. Memory – remembering what they did
c. Reproduction of behaviour – immediate practice
- Imitation – recreating behaviour or expression; usually to accomplish goal
d. Motivation – must be motivated to learn - associated with planning actions; become active when performing an action and when observing others perform action (ex. neurons to reach for cup are firing when you watch someone else do it)
- Are sensitive to purpose or goal of imitated action – different neurons fire with different intentions even if action is the same
- Ex. reaching for cup to drink from vs to clean up
- Facilitates observational learning – if mirror neurons firing allows us to easier imitate them
- Tied to empathy and theory of mind – understanding’s someone’s sadness, emotional states
memory
2 main theories
Memory – collection of several systems that store info in different forms for differing amounts of time
- Atkinson-Shiffrin model (1960s) – basic framework
- The working memory model: an active STM system
Atkinson-Shiffrin model (1960s)
inc. spotlight
basic framework
Control process – shifts info from one store to another
o Attention – moves from sensory to STM; selects important info
o Rehearsal – manipulation that assists in encoding
o Encoding – moves from STM to LTM
o Retrieval – moves from LTM to STM
3 memory stores – retains info in memory without using for a specific purpose
- Sensory – collecting input; much is lost (retaining everything is too complicated)
a. Temporary retention
- Iconic/visual memory – 0.5s
- Auditory/echoic memory – 5-10s
b. Spotlight for attention – small amounts of info from sensory sent to STM for processing
- Outside of spotlight – unlikely to remember
- Only captures what we are focussed on and unlikely to notice change
- Ex. change-blindness – focussing on counting balls; miss the gorilla suit - Short term – limited capacity and duration (approx.. 30s)
a. Magic number: 7 (+/- 2) units of info that is passed on from sensory info to STM
b. Techniques to retain more info – won’t necessarily assist in LTM, but longer and more accurately in STM
- Chunking – organizing smaller units of info into larger, more meaningful units (ex. phone number groupings) - Long term – holds info for extended periods, sometimes permanently
a. Info is organized into
• Semantic (meaningful) categories
• How the word “sounds” and “looks” categories
(Tip of the tongue – able to retrieve similar sounding words/start with the same letters, but not correct word)
Serial position effect
Serial position effect – people are generally able to recall first few and last few items, but not middle
2 types of interference
- Proactive interference – first info learned occupies memory and is processing moving into LTM; leaves less resources for new info to be remembered
- First words are encoded - Retroactive interference – recently learned info blocks older memories that have not yet been fully encoded into LTM; new words replace older ones too quickly
- Last words are still in STM
The working memory model
an active STM system
Working memory – a model of STM that includes a combination of memory components that can temporarily store small amounts of into for a short period of time (pieces and types of info are important)
Stimuli are encoded simultaneously in a number of ways – not a single unit of info
3 storage components in STM
1. Phonological loop – storage components that rely on rehearsal; stores info as sounds/auditory code
• Ex. remembering phone number on radio station
2. Visuospatial sketchpad – storage component that maintains visual images and spatial layouts in a visuospatial code; what is going on around you
• Ex. driving while listening to radio
3. Episodic buffer – combines the phonological/sounds and visuospatial/images into a story like episode; allows you to organize and make sense of incoming stimuli (editor – splices the sound with images)
Central executive – control center of working memory
o Coordinates attention and exchange of info among 3 storage components
o Focusses attention on the component that is most relevant to goals, interests, and prior knowledge
o Controlled by frontal lobe regions (executive control and decision making)
Explains how we process input into STM to create experience (not LTM) – processing as it happens
Long term memory systems
- Declarative/explicit memories – we are consciously aware of and can speak about
a. Semantic memory – facts about the world (trivia; the sky is blue)
- Semantics – meanings
b. Episodic memory – personal experiences; organized into episodes; first person perspective
- Episodes – tells the story of your life - Nondeclarative/implicit memories – unconscious behaviour
a. Procedural memory – learned patterns of muscle mvmt (walking and talking)
b. (Classical) conditions – potentially unconscious learned associations between two paired stimuli/events
Cognitive neuroscience of memory
Long term potentiation
Consolidation
Long term potentiation (LTP) – increase in connectivity and communication between nerve cells that fire together (Hebb’s law)
a. Strengthening synapses – may be underlying mechanism for memory formation; allows memory to be retrieved
- Connecting the dots – new connections related to other concepts and ideas (associative retrieval)
b. Use it or lose it – if you don’t use the connections, you lose the memory
Consolidation – converting STM to LTM of brain (made stronger)
o Cellular consolidation – connections between neurons becoming more permanent (via LTP)
Amnesia
a significant loss of at least one form of memory
- Anterograde amnesia – inability to form new memories for events occurring after a brain injury (STM to LTM)
a. Ex. patient H.M – medial temporal lobes removed due to seizures (inc. hippocampus and amygdala); couldn’t transfer new declarative memories from STM to LTM; knew who he was and could retain things from his past - Retrograde amnesia – memory for events preceding trauma (LTM) is lost; often episodic memory (semantic is usually maintained); nondeclarative is usually still intact
a. Memory loss depends on area of brain damaged
Long term memory storage in brain
time and manner in which info is retained between encoding and retrieval
Active process – stored memories can be updated, changed, reformed, and reconstructed
- Reconsolidation – hippocampus functions to update, strengthen, or modify existing long-term memories
- Not necessarily permanent or accurate
Cross-cortical storage – long term declarative memories are distributed throughout the cortex, not localized to one region (you will not lose all your memories with damage to one area)
- New memories – not yet established networks; are more likely to be lost
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octothorpe
Attaching meaning helps us recall info – extending network within memory; more connection make retrieval easier
- Octo = 8
- Thorpe = group of houses in village (looks like map zoomed out)
Rehearsal (2 types)
repeating info in STM; assists in encoding; manipulation of ideas
How we rehearse is more important than how long
• Maintenance rehearsal – simply repeating; not as good for encoding
• Elaborative rehearsal – thinking about the meaning of info; better for encoding
Levels of processing (LOP) framework
2 types of processing
ability to recall info is most directly related to how that info was initially processed
- Shallow processing – encoding superficial properties of stimuli (ex. sound or spelling of word)
- Deep processing – encoding info about an item’s meaning or function; extra steps integrate meaning
• Self reference – how does the info relate to you
2 types of retrieval
Recognition – identifying a stimulus or piece of info when it is presented to you (ex. multiple choice questions)
Recall – retrieving info when asked but without that info being present during retrieval process (ex. short answer)
encoding specificity principle
retrieval is most effective when the conditions at the time of encoding and retrieval are the same
Retrieval cues – the environment/context in which you’re trying to retrieve a memory; matching components to bring info our of LTM
3 perspectives (improves recall, not recognition)
- Context dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when it takes place in that same physical setting as encoding
- Activity in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex
- Studying in same place as testing - State dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when your internal states matches time of encoding
- Ex. study drunk, test drunk - Mood dependant memory – retrieval is more effective when your mood matches during encoding
- Study sad, test sad
Emotional memories
- areas of brain
- flashbulb
Emotion related aspects can enhance memory for events – especially negative emotions (better able to remember emotional context of sad photos
- We tend to focus on emotional context of scene over physical attributes
- Ex. weapon focus – we remember the gun, not the person holding it
- Emotion likely contributes to memory consolidation
Temporal lobes
a. Hippocampus
b. Amygdala – activated by emotional responses
- Influences activity in temporal lobes – info to hippocampus
- Sends info to cortex – plays a role in how memories are processed
Flashbulb memories – extremely vivid and detailed memory about an event and conditions of how we learned of event (emotionally charged snapshot)
o Not necessarily more accurate than ‘regular’ memories – more confident they remember it entirely accurately
o Impactful historical events – where they were, things about the scene
Ex. 9/11 – people remember where they were
Forgetting curve
most forgetting occurs immediately
Rate of forgetting eventually slows to the point of usually not forgetting
o As more time passes, the things you remember you will not likely forget
Mneumonics
technique intended to improve memory of specific information; memory, not understanding
- Method of loci – connects words along a familiar path
- Ex. assigning meaning to things in your house; ‘walk through’ your house during text - Acronyms – pronounceable words whose letters represent the initials or a phrase
- Ex. SCUBA, NASA, CBC - First letter techniques – using first letter of a set of items to create another sentence
- Ex. north, east, south, west -> never eat soggy waffles - Dual coding – info is saved in more than one form; leads to deeper processing; making connections that allow activation in other areas
Desirable difficulties
making studying slower and more effortful; results in better overall remembering and understanding
Ex. making your own practice questions for exams
Schemas
- self schema
- constructive memory
organized clusters of memories that constitute a person’s knowledge or beliefs about events, objects, and ideas; has clusters and connections within our thoughts
A conceptualized idea of how we retrieve information – no particular neurons in an area of brain that activate certain schema
o Personal collection of concepts and memories
o Not ‘one box one memory’ – a schema is activated, and we find pieces of info we want within the activated schema
Ex. ‘do you have a dog’ – activates dog schema; remembering dog, previous dogs, what is a dog, your parents dog
Self schema – used to organize and encode self relevant info; process info about ourselves and understand ourselves
o Ex. depression – influences self schema; may only be able to activate schema with negative concept
Constructive memory – process of remembering events; first recall generalized schema, then recall more specific details
o Ex. seeing dad – remembering what you last talked about, what time he finishes work, etc.
Flaws in memory
unstable and have the potential to change; not photographs
How motivations effect memory
influence what schema we access; can bias our memory reconstruction
Ex. you had a fight with friend and are buying them a birthday present – they like clothes vs ‘they were interested in this one jacket …’
False memories
remembering events that did not occur; incorrectly recalling details
Misinformation effect – info encoded after an event can later become part of your memory of original event
ex. ‘eye witness testimonies’ – flaws in judicial system
Loftus and Palmer experiments
1974 study – showed video of car accident
a. How fast do you think cars were going – asked using different words
(When cars smashed, bumped, collided, made contact)
- Smashed – faster
- Made contact – slower
b. The way it was asked influenced how fast they recalled them going
- Judicial system – leading questions leak into memory schemes and cause false recollection
1975 study – video of car stopping at stop or yield sign; asked what colour sign was & where did they stop
- It was a stop sign – experimenters used the word “yield sign” and participants remembered there being a yield sign
- Same with reverse
Imagination inflation
Guided imagery
Imagination inflation – increased confidence in a false memory of an event following repeated imagination of an event
- Does not increase accuracy, only confidence (like flash)
Guided imagery – technique used to help people recover details of events they are unable to remember
- Clinicians & judicial system
- Can create new or false memories with leading questions
- Incorrect shifts – imagination reinforces; they remember it happening that way
Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm
Hot air balloon experiment
- Participants studied a list of related words with missing ‘critical lure’ (obvious word missing)
• Participants remembered critical lure as part of the list – intrusion - Photoshopping image of you as a child into a hot air balloon – you remember it; especially if your parents are there
Recovered memory
a true (?) memory of a traumatic event that is suddenly recovered after blocking the memory of that event for a long period of time; our subconscious tends to block out traumatic events
Controversy – debate regarding validity
- Leading questions, imagination, influence – can create false memories
- Applying added focus to ‘recovered memory’ – solidifies false memories
concepts
categories
Concept - mental representation of an object, event, or idea
Category – clusters of interrelated concepts; connections based on interrelatedness
o Can be broad or specific
o Conceptual idea – not anatomical; no specific neurons connecting different concepts together
2 types of categorization
- Rule based categorization – categorizing objects or events according to rules & features; criteria that make them related
a. Dictionary definition – right angle within triangle within shape category - Comparison based categorization
a. Prototype – mental representation of an average category member; not real
Ex. mental image of a dog
b. Exemplar – specific and real example that best represents a category; matches prototype very well
Ex. dog that closely matches our prototype dog
c. Graded membership – some concepts appear to make better category members than others; doesn’t match prototype as well as exemplar does
Ex. 3-legged dog
Semantic networks
- hierarchal organization
- priming
- basic level categories
‘meaning’; interconnected set of nodes/concepts joined by links to form a category with different levels/hierarchies of specificity
Hierarchical organization tested using reaction time – you are faster to make associations to closer hierarchal levels
o Ex. a robin is a bird is faster than a robin is an animal (greater degree of hierarchal separation)
Priming – activation of individual concepts in long-term memory; can influence which concepts and categories are referenced depending on level of familiarity
o You may reference a specific concept faster than others in the same category due to previous experience; creates modified connections with some relationships being stronger than others
Basic level categories – the level of hierarchy that people are most familiar with and that people will reference most often in conversation and is easiest to pronounce; not too specific or vague
o The level at which most thinking occurs
o Ex. bird instead of animal or robin
3 ways we categorize
- Experience and categorization – our experiences help us compare and categorize stimuli quickly and accurately
a. can lead to bias – different cultures have different relationships, you will reference your concepts and categories - the brain and categorization
a. temporal lobe damage – difficulty identifying objects, still able to describe features; functions in recognition (attaching meaning/representation to objects)
- category specific visual agnosia – difficulty identifying stimuli from a specific category; contradicts idea of specific area in brain for specific category but suggests specialized networks for categories that have been important for evolutionary success (not seen with recent developments)
ex. animals, fruits, same species members, tools - culture and categorization
a. ex. ‘folk biology’ – how the natural world is conceptualized and categorized differently across cultures
- categories are similar – basic level categories may differ (ex. hunter gatherers will have more specific basic level categories for nature)
b. differences in perceived relatedness of objects
ex. north americans focus on single object characteristics (individualistic thinking); Japanese tend to focus on objects in relation to their environment
ex. cow, chicken, grass
a. Americans – cow and chicken go together
b. east Asian – cow and grass go together
neuroimaging shows different areas are activated
a. object area – more active in east Asians
b. background area – more active in westerners
Problem solving (& 2 strategies)
accomplishing a goal when the solution or path to the solution is not clear; overcoming mental hurdles
2 strategies – useful to switch between; start with logical and later heuristic when we are more familiar
- algorithms – more logical; problem solving based on a series of rules; time consuming and inefficient
- heuristics – problem solving strategies that use prior experiences to provide an educated guess about the most likely solution; using shortcuts from previous experience from encounters
Mental set
functional fixedness vs flexibility
- component of problem solving
a cognitive obstacle (problem solving a specific thought) that occurs when you try to solve a new type of problem using a routine, familiar, and incorrect solution
- previously established problem solving rules and strategies can impair problem solving if the new problem is slightly different than the old one
ex. showing two types of people ‘tough love’ – can help one, can hurt other - functional fixedness – identifying an object or technique that could solve a problem, but only thinking of its most obvious function
o functional flexibility – opposite; using for other than its intended purpose
o ex. 2 string problem
conjunction fallacy
the mistaken belief that finding a specific member in 2 overlapping categories is more likely than finding any member of one of the larger, general categories
o ex. linda – more likely a bank teller than a bank tellers who is a feminist
representative heuristic
making judgements of likelihood based on how well an example represents a specific category rather than logical or mathematical probability; still mathematically more likely to be apart of one larger, general category
ex. linda sounds like a feminist – represents category of bank tellers who are feminist
- still mathematically more likely a bank teller because there will always be more bank tellers (base rate) than there are feminist bank tellers (feminist bank tellers are included in our count of bank tellers)
availability heuristic
mean world syndrome
estimating the frequency of an event based on how easily examples of it come to mind; if examples are readily available, we assume it is a frequent occurrence
o mean world syndrome – if you spend a lot of time on the internet, you’ll get the sense that people are bad/the world is scary because that is what is reported (ex. dying in plane crash; blood clots due to covid vaccine)
belief perseverance
confirmation bias
belief perseverance – remaining committed to a decision or belief even when provided with evidence against it; occurs when information is presented
confirmation bias – searching for/only paying attention to evidence that will confirm a belief instead of evidence that may disconfirm your belief; actively finding info that backs your claim
Aphasia (and types)
language disorder caused by damage to brain structures that support using and understanding language/producing speech
- Broca’s Aphasia – damage to Broca’s region of the left frontal lobe that controls our ability to articular speech sounds that compose words; motor area (Paul Broca)
- Wernicke’s Aphasia – damage to Wernicke’s area; most associated with understanding words and language; comprehension and coherent speech (Carl Wernicke)
o Still able to speak but words often don’t make sense – implies a feedback loop between ability to understand others and ability to make sense to others
Language
form of communication that involves the use of spoken, written, and gestural symbols combined in a rule based form
- Discrete units of differing complexity
- Allows us to combine units of sound into an infinite number of meanings and combinations (human vocal tracts can produce approx. 200 sounds)
basic components of language
Phonemes – most basic units of speech and sound; typically do not have meanings themselves; English contains approx. 40 sounds
o ex. t = ‘tuh’
Morphemes – smallest meaningful units of language; combined phenomes; can’t break it down into more than once meaning
o ex. box, mail, er = boxer, mailbox (not morphemes)
semantics – study of how people understand the meaning of words
combining components of language
Syntax – rules for combining words and morphemes into meaning phrases and sentences
o Basic units – nouns (person/place/thing) and verbs (action/occurrence)
o Rules for combination determine message delivery – question vs statement
o We understand intuitively and unconsciously – not constantly calculating how to combine words to form sentences
Pragmatics – the study of non-linguistic elements; emphasizing the speaker’s behaviour and social situation; how something is said is more important that what is said
- Inferences – what you mean vs what you say (metaphors)
- Flouting – disregarding language rules in an obvious way
• Ex. ‘the goalie stood on his head’ – not literal; hockey metaphor - Speaker and listener must understand when rules are being flouted and agree on what type of rules are being used
infants and language acquisition
2 months – show preference for speech over non-speech sounds (human voice vs coffeemaker); prefer to hear words that follow the rules of their language; hear what people say and pick up on the sounds that are used
6 months – infants show preference for content/meaningful words; words they can interact with; nouns and verbs (ex. bottle & home vs the & is)
8-10 months – infants begins perceiving sounds in a way consistent with their native language; recognizing sounds of that which were raised in (differ across languages)
o There are different ways we make certain sounds in the same language but it has no relevance to actual meaning; later on we no longer perceive those differences
20 months – children are able to use newly developed perceptual categories to quickly learn new words
a. ‘naming explosion’ – rapid increase in vocabulary size at this stage
- Fast mapping – the ability to map words onto concepts or objects after only a single exposure
(2 biological explanations)
- Localization of language related functions in left hemisphere – Broca’s and Wernicke’s; more specialized
- Increase in axon myelination – increased speed of neuronal communication
producing language
early psych vs now
Early psychologists – behaviourism; language is learned by imitating sounds and the associated reinforcements
- Doesn’t fully capture complexity of language development in infants
ex. Children often mispronounce things
• They do not learn this from parents (imitation doesn’t explain)
• they are corrected but continue to mispronounce (pos and neg reinforcement doesn’t explain)
language acquisition – instead of language ‘learning’; they acquire rules and conventions; developmental and more than just a skill that is learned
a. children acquire skills around same time regardless of language (milestones) – some languages are much more complex
- 1-2 months – cooing
- 4-10 months – babbling (consonants start)
- 8-16 months – single word stage
- 24 months – two word stage
- 24+ months – complete; meaningful phrases together
b. we acquire language as children; we learn language as adults
bilingualism
Children – smaller vocabulary in each language than unilingual; same overall ‘quantity’
Adults – slower at naming pictures/alphabetical word lists; more than one way of saying something
Benefits
o Greater executive functioning and attention (infancy to old age) – better divided attention and fine tuned inhibition control
o Greater frontal lobe connectivity – protects against dementia and alzheimer’s; more pathways allow for thoughts to be formulated in multiple ways
Genetics and evolutionary pressures of language
led to development of brains capable of language
o increased efficiency, information transmission, communication of social needs and desires
FOXP2 gene – related to language function
o Mutations – difficulty turning thoughts to words; know what they want to say but difficulty saying it; requires greater activation in other areas, less localized activity in Broca’s area
o Found in many species
o May play a role in a component of language
Animals and language
- potential
- limitations
many of our language related components are found in other species
Shows potential:
a. Songbirds – similar language related genes as humans
b. Monkeys – connections between brain areas analogous to Broca’s and Wernicke’s area
- Control of facial and throat muscles; other monkey vocalization (understanding noises and making noises in return)
c. Chimpanzees – able to learn sign language (up to 200); communicate using symbols (lexigrams) representing complex ideas and phrases (up to 350); can recognize up to 3000 spoken words
- Ability to learn and communicate using similar rules humans use in language
Limitations:
a. Limited evidence of syntax – using symbols doesn’t communicate as adequately to convey meaning
b. Apes don’t pass on skills to other apes/children – we use language to converse and pass on
c. Limited productivity
- Productivity – creating new words (gestures) or using existing gestures to name new objects/events
d. Suggests they aren’t learning language – only repeating back (monkey see monkey do)
