Exam 2

Question 1

Path integration involves navigation via which cues?

Answer 1

idiothetic (internal)

Question 2

Which of the following sources of information is recorded in the dessert ant’s odometer?

Answer 2

steps taken

Question 3

Servomechanisms reduce the discrepancy between intended state and goal state via which of the following?

Answer 3

Negative Feedback loop

Question 4

An animal’s specific knowledge of its pack or troop members is an example which type of memory?

Answer 4

Declarative

Question 5

One fundamental aspect of memory, revealed by delayed matching tasks, is that animals will have worse memory for items as what increases?

Answer 5

Retention interval/delay duration

Question 6

The shape of the serial position function can be changed by modifying certain factors such as time or list length. What happens to the shape of the function when you increase the retention interval (delay duration)?

Answer 6

Memory for the first item in the list gets better

Question 7

In surprise tests of episodic memory, animals can only make the correct response if they encode memories in what way?

Answer 7

implicitly

Question 8

The classic shape of the serial position function is…

Answer 8

U

Question 9

What is primacy effect?

Answer 9

Improved memory for items at the beginning of a list

Question 10

What is recency effect?

Answer 10

Improved memory for items at the end of a list

Question 11

Tue or False: Interference is a cause of forgetting where competing memories block the ability to remember something specific.

Answer 11

true

Question 12

3 W’s of episodic memory

Answer 12

• what
• where
• when

Question 13

What was the incidentally remembered information in the Zhou et al. surprise test?

Answer 13

Food in the Radial Arm maze

Question 14

What cognitive abilities modulates information seeking?

Answer 14

metamemory

Question 15

How do bees demonstrate metamemory?

Answer 15

They improve performance when they opt out

Question 16

What brain structure in animals and humans is associated with episodic memory?

Answer 16

hippocampus

Question 17

Proactive and Retroactive interference together account for which aspect of memory?

Answer 17

serial position function

Question 18

Tue or False: The recency to primacy shift with delay effect is general across all taxa.

Answer 18

true

Question 19

What does MTS test?

Answer 19

working memory and short-term memory abilities

Question 20

What do mazes test?

Answer 20

spatial memory and navigation abilities

Question 21

What factors affect how long memories are stored?

Answer 21

• Ecological context
• Episodic memory
• Metamemory
• Implicit memory

Question 22

Proactive interference

Answer 22

old information interferes with the learning of new information

Question 23

retroactive interference

Answer 23

tendency of later learning to hinder the memory of previously learned information

Question 24

implicit memories

Answer 24

not consciously accessible
ex: motor skills

Question 25

explicit memories

Answer 25

consciously accessible
ex: features of others individuals

Question 26

what causes forgetting?

Answer 26

• decay
• interference

Question 27

What are two main lines of research for episodic memory?

Answer 27

• What- Where-When
• Implicit coding

Question 28

Clayton’s Scrub Jay experiment results

Answer 28

• When they expected the worm to be rotten, they showed a preference for nuts
• When they expected the worm to be fresh, they preferred the worms

Question 29

implicit encoding is…

Answer 29

automatic and umprompted

Question 30

explicit encoding is…

Answer 30

intentional and prompted

Question 31

What converging evidence do we have on the importance of the hippocampus?

Answer 31

1) Patient HM: had huge portions of hippocampus removed -> resulted in anterograde amnesia
2) Lidocaine in rat hippocampus: failed surprise tests

Question 32

environmental geometry

Answer 32

spatial relationships between landmarks, boundaries, and other features in the environment

Question 33

what do animals construct using environmental geometry?

Answer 33

cognitive maps

Question 34

what errors can animals make when utilizing environmental geometry?

Answer 34

• misjudging distances
• wrong turns
• repetitive patterns

Question 35

path integration

Answer 35

continuously updating an internal representation of one’s position and orientation relative to a starting point by integrating self-motion cues, such as speed, direction, and distance traveled

Question 36

beacons

Answer 36

Environmental features that indicate/locate a goal location

Question 37

landmarks

Answer 37

Relies on recognizable features in the environment as reference points
(Landmarks are distinctive and easily recognizable objects in the environment)

Question 38

sun compass

Answer 38

relies on the sun’s position relative to the observer to establish direction
-> must have some form of an internal clock to work