Exam 4 Flashcards
What is learning
Process by which new information is acquired for storage
Properties of learning
It is initiated by experience
Selects information that enters memory
Filters experiences, separating out relevant stimuli for retention
What is memory
information extracted from experience and stored ofr latrer recovery
Properties of memory
it persists after the remembered experience ends
it can enter a latent state before being reactivated by a retrieval process
The content of memory reflects the experience that created it
Ebbinghaus and forgetting curve
tested his own retention of something new to him,
he showed that most forgetting occurs right away anf the continues at a slower rate over a longer period
Multi-stage process of memory
Multiple independent ‘traces’ are initiated simultaneously and last for different amounts of time: Sensory buffering, short term memory and long term memory
short term memory
no latent state, so it goes to an active state of memory, then it can turn into rapid decay or it is vulnerable to disruption (happens because of a shift in attention can also cause less recollection.
Long term Memory
Inactive state (allows to keep info without decay), this causes either slow decay and/or less vulnerable to disruption
requires consolidation
Consolidation
process by which a long term memory stabilizes for storage over an extended period of time.
it is why long term memory endures in an inactive state
Declarative Memory
Conscious recollection of previous experience (what happened to you where and when, Known as an episodic memory)
Explicit- you can describe the contents of memory using language.
Accessing it- you are aware that you are in the process of remembering.
Non-Declarative Memory
Includes learned motor skills (Muscle memory, known as procedural memory
Implicit- difficult to describe using language
accessing it- autonomic, you dont feel yourself recalling anything.
Amnesia
Strong memory impairment
Retrograde amnesia
Loss of previously acquired memories (memory lost from injury)
Anterograde amnesia
inability to form new mems
Shallow retrograde amnesia
usually after blow to head. forgetting of the brief perioud leading up to it.
Patient HM
had seizures so thy removed part of his brain that was causing it, they removed his hippocampus.
woke up different after the surgry
Learning is the process by which new information is acquired for storage. Learning is —- by experience and it —- he information that enters into memory.
Initiated, selects
Memory is information extracted from experience and stored for later recovery/use. Memory persists after the remembered experience ends, can enter a latent state before activating the retrieval process, and the content of memory reflects the experience that created it.
According to Ebbinghaus, forgetting occurs (right away/after some delay) and then continues at a (faster/slower) rate over a longer period of time. (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
right away, slower
William James proposed a multi-stage process of memory.
Draw a flow-chart that explains the difference between short- and long-term memory, as discussed in lecture.
Short term → (no latent state) Active sight→ Rapid decay and Vulnerable disruption (distraction can make a loss of recollection
What is consolidation?
Is the process that long term memory stabilizes storage over extended period of time (cement drying)
Differentiate between the two broad types of human memory discussed in lecture.
Declarative: conscious recollection of previous experience (episodic memory). Its explicit you can make yourself remember and describe when you are trying to remember
Non-declarative: learned motor skills (muscle memory). Implicit you don’t describe you remembering to walk.
——– amnesia is a loss of previously acquired memories, whereas ——– amnesia is an inability to form new memories.
Retrograde, Anterograde
How does Ribot’s law apply to dementia?
Memories just prior to dementia are lost before childhood memories
What did Brenda Milner find during her neuropsychological assessments of HM?
He had shallow retrograde amnesia with intact mems of childhood and early 20s, had intact short-term episodic memory- he could remember what happened a few moments ago
HM’s problems are explained by a ———— deficit.
consolidation
Explain the systems consolidation model of memory.
Basic function. Once a memory is consolidated the hippocampus has no role
Permanent memory storage is distributed across the cortex. The HYppocampus guides this process. The hippocampus is thought too do this by recreating patterns of brain activity that occurred during experience called replay
Observed in rem and non rem sleep
What does HM and the mirror-drawing task tell us about memory?
Procedural mem was completely intact. Showed Hippocampus plays no role in procedural memory
Learning is different and you can still do it even if your memory is lost
How is a procedural memory acquired?
Through implicit, associative learning proccessies (how you understand patterns)
Reward prediction errors involve (increased/decreased) activity in dopamine neurons. (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
increased
Describe the Law of Effect.
Description of how the consequences of an action change its likely hood
If an out come is satisfying the connection between stemulus and response will be strengthened making the response more likely to reoccur
Define synaptic plasticity.
Persistent changes in the function os synaos some external event causes changes in the way neurons communicate, this change stores mem about an experience
The Hebbian synapse allows neurons that —- together to —- together.
fire, wire
An inhibitory/excitatory LFP is a change in the voltage of the extracellular fluid that occurs as positively charged ions enter neurons. (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
excitatory
Explain the process of long-term potentiation (LTP).
NMDA receptors are blocked by magnesium ion → intense AMPA
What are the two changes that result from calcium entering the synapse via NMDA
The initial induction of LTP requires (NMDA/AMPA/NMDA+AMPA) receptors, but maintenance of LTP is due to changes in the function and density of (NMDA/AMPA/NMDA+AMPA) receptors (choose the terms that best completes the statement.).
NMDA+AMPA, AMPA
Define consciousness.
Subjective first person experience, in humans it includes awareness of the world around you (conscious perception)
Differentiate between the easy problem of consciousness and the hard problem of consciousness.
Easy: Understanding which brain systems, circuits and Activity patterns that contribute ti con
Hard: Understanding how those systems… patterns produce quilla or the elements of subjective experience.
What are the three Tulving-defined types of consciousness?
Anoetic: Subjective experience of the external environment in the immediat present only. No conscious knowledge or judgment. No self awareness
Noetic: awareness of the environment, as well as conscious knowledge (semantic memory- remembering that something is factually true, as opposed to re-experiencing it via episodic memory) Not just passive experience of the external world (as in anoetic), but involves the ability to consciously make choices. However, does not require self awareness
Autonoetic: an inner, self aware form of subjective experience (humans are conscious of the fact that they are conscious). Involves the ability to ruminate on one’s own experience by consciously recollecting the past or imagining your future (Tulving dubbed this mental time travel
What type of consciousness did Patient KC’s brain injury shift him to?
He seem to switch to a Noetic. He didnt seem to ruminate. Lost the ability to inner consciousness
Important to note: regardless of whether you are awake or asleep, there is a pattern of brain wave activity that is associated with conscious experience
Provide a brief summary of the integrated information theory of consciousness
Cortex is given to experience consciousness, the cortex can do this because Cortical regions are richly inter connected
According to the theory, consciousness is related to the ability of cortical regions to communicate and generate information earlier stages of stimulus processing
The degree to which one cortical region is able to influence activity in another is correlated with consciousness.
If TMS is applied to the cortex, it can influence EEG signals over a wide area. In sleeping subjects who later report that they were not dreaming, this EEG effect is (smaller/larger). In waking subjects or sleeping subjects who report dreaming, this EEG effect is (smaller/larger). (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
smaller, larger
What did Francis Crick argue about consciousness?
Conductor theory, that does not initiate or actually plays the neurons, instead it just tells it to get going.
What is significant about propofol?
Tiny molecule that interacts with receptors in the brain to alter neural activity, thus providing a casual demonstration of the relationship between consciousness and brain activity
Define attention.
Process of selecting which stimuli to focus on and which to ignore. Attention is a filter, selecting which stimuli you are most consciously aware
Differentiate between overt and covert attention.
Overt- occurs when focas coincides with sensory orientation
Covert- occurs when focus does not coincide with sensory orientation
Attention is a(n) (limited/unlimited) resource. (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
limited
Define inattentional blindness.
The failure to perceive and remember the parts of an experience that you do not pay attention to.
Reflexive attention is usually (covert/overt/covert or overt), while voluntary attention is usually (covert/overt/covert or overt). (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
overt, covert or overt
Salience involves the ——- properties of a stimulus that capture attention.
sensory
The value of a stimulus can produce (voluntary/reflexive) attention in a way that distracts from goals and is unrelated to salience (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
reflexive
Note: If something makes a loud noise just outside of your field of vision, SC moves the eyes and head so that the retina is directed at that stimulus
Which region of the parietal lobe is involved in voluntary attention?
Inferior Parietal Lobule (IPL)
When do top-down cognitive processes occur?
When later phase of stimulas processing (attention) influences and earlier phase (perception) via feedback
What is the default mode network, and what areas of the brain are involved in it?
DMN is a system of structures in the brain that becomes active during the waits, rests and other periods of down time that are part of many brain imaging studies
Areas of the brain: prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate gyrus, and medial temporal lobe
Define language. What makes it exceptional?
Rule bound arrangements of Symbols (spocken written, signed)
Exceptional because it is: Dynamic (meaning and usage change over time)
Arbitrary (there is no inherent relationship between a word and the meaning it conveys)
Grammatical (expressed according to series of rules that dictate structure usage)
Do animals use language? Is there any evidence of nonhuman species practicing linguistic communication in the wild?
The vocalisations are used for specific things most of the time, monkies make a specific sound for food
What are 4 characteristics that all languages have?
Phonemes: the basic sounds of speech
Morphems: made out of phonems, basic units of meaning. In some languages, most morphemes are words, in different languages morphemes can incluse distinct let alone words and thingss like prefixes and suffixes
Early-life/late-life brain injury has less impact on language (choose the term that best completes the statement.)
Early-life
What percentage of humans speak more than one language?
40-50%
What are two proposed explanations for how kids learn language?
BF Skinner: all reinforcement. Parents and other care givers provide feedback in response to vocalizations if that feedback is positively reinforced, vocalisation reoccurs
What are the symptoms of developmental verbal dyspraxia?
Defects in speech from an inability to exicute complex, coordinated motor commands involved in speaking aloud (breath control, movement of lips and tongue, etc)
Which hemisphere is the planum temporale larger in?
left
Explain how the results of the Wada Test can give causal evidence for left lateralization of language?
Delivery of a fast acting anestetic to one himspheria, loss of language into the left carotid artery gives evidence of the left lateral of language
What unique procedure have split-brain patients had done on their brain?
Corpus callosum
How do split-brain patients provide evidence that the left hemisphere has an interpreter function?
They will not verbally report a word presented in the left visual field (procesed by the right side of the brain)
Describe Broca’s aphasia. (expresion)
Patience can comprehend there issue with creating words, left hemisphere has an Interperetur function: it elaborates upn what it observes to create a story or a narrative that explains behavior. They can comprehend what you are saying but cant find the words to respond
Describe Wernicke’s aphasia. (comprihension)
Difficulty understanding language. They respond and can put sentences together but there is no way of knowing that they can comprehend what you are saying to them
What in the brain allows Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area to communicate?
Arcuate fasiculus
Global aphasia, a total loss of language function, has a very (good/poor) prognosis (choose the term that best completes the statement.).
poor
