exam 4

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

• process by which new info is acquired for storage
• initiated by experience
• selects info that enters into memory (filters experience, separating out relevant stimuli for retention)

Question 2

Memory

Answer 2

• the info extracted from experience and stored for later recovery/use
• Persists after remembered experience ends
• Can enter a latent state before being reactivated by a retrieval process
• Content reflects experience that created it

Question 3

Ebbinghaus & the forgetting curve

Answer 3

tested his own retention, which showed that most forgetting occurs right away and then rate decreases (nuh vag boc)

Question 4

William James

Answer 4

multi-stage process of memory, in which multiple independent “traces” are initiated simultaneously and last for a different period of time
* Sensory buffering -> short term memory -> long-term memory

Question 5

Consolidation

Answer 5

• long term memory enters latent/inactive state for storage
• Begins with original learning experience (LE)
• Occurs in parallel with short term memory
• The reason why long term memory endures in an inactivate state (white short term memory is always vulnerable to disruption)

Question 6

Declarative memory

Answer 6

your conscious recollection of previous experience
* aka: episodic memory- what happened to you, where, and when
* Explicit- you can describe the contents of memory

Question 7

Non-declarative memory

Answer 7

learned motor skills
* Aka procedural memory- like muscle memory and driving (acquired through implicit, associative learning)
* Implicit- you know that you can show by doing, not using language (ex: typing code to the door) (feels more automatic)

Question 8

Amnesia

Answer 8

strong memory impairment

Question 9

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 9

• loss of previously acquired memories
• Shallow retrograde amnesia- memory of event itself is lost, as well as a brief period leading up to it (ex: concussion)

Question 10

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 10

• inability to form new memories
  Early stages of dementia

Question 11

Ribot’s Law

Answer 11

newer memories are less resistant to disruption than older ones. So memories just prior to the onset of dementia are lost before childhood memories 1

Question 12

Patient HM Henry Molaison

Answer 12

• found shallow retrograde amnesia with intact long-term episodic memory. But profound anterograde amnesia (couldn’t form new long-term episodic memories)
• Problem: surgery disrupted memories still in process of consolidation (hence the shallow retrograde amnesia)

Brenda Milner found shallow retrograde amnesia with intact long-term episodic memory. But profound anterograde amnesia (couldn’t form new long-term episodic memories)
Problem: surgery disrupted memories still in process of consolidation (hence the shallow retrograde amnesia)
Surgery prevented consolidation of new long term memories (hence inability to form anything other than a short term trace)
Unlike his episode memory, his procedural memory was completely intact → hippocampus does not play a role in procedural memory (mirror-tracing task test)
Proved episodic memory is related to hippocampus

Question 13

hippocampus in episodic memory

Answer 13

• role is temporary
• through replay
• Once a memory has been consolidated, hippocampus has no role

Question 14

Bechara

Answer 14

• demonstrated conscious recollection of a scary event, and the aversive associations between stimuli (implicit) encountered during that event are processed separately
• Damage to the hippocampus prevents formation of an episode and damage to the amygdala prevents formation of an aversive association

Question 15

Law of effect

Answer 15

• EL Thorndike how consequences shape actions
• A given stimulus in the environment can elicit a variety of behavioral responses

Question 16

BF Skinner

Answer 16

• Built on Thorndike, with terms like “reinforcement” and “punishment”
  *

Question 18

Mechanisms of positive reinforcement (Olds & Miner)

Answer 18

• Stimulation of septum only lightly reinforcing
• Stimulation of medial forebrain bundle (MFB) is so reinforcing that rats will choose MFB over food, water, sex, their offspring

Question 19

MFB

Answer 19

fiber tract that carries axons of dopamine neurons from midbrain to basal ganglia

Question 20

Synaptic Plasticity Hypothesis of Memory

Answer 20

• persistent changes in the function of synapses
• Some external event causes a change in the way neurons communicate, and this change stores remembered info about that experience

Question 21

Hebbian synapse

Answer 21

• connection between pre and postsynaptic neurons becomes stronger if they repeatedly fire
• “Neurons that fire together to wire together” <3

Question 22

Bliss & Lomo- Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 22

• Placed 1 stimulating electrode perforant path (major input to dentate gyrus) and 1 recording electrode in local field potential (in dentate gyrus)
• excitatory LFP- change in voltage of the extracellular fluid that occurs as positively charged ions enter neuron
• Indicated increased synaptic stimulation and higher activity among the population of neurons around the recording electrode

Question 23

LTP

Answer 23

1. NMDA receptors blocked by magnesium ion
2. AMPA receptor activation depolarizes membrane and unlocks NMDA receptors
3. Influx of calcium ions through NMDA receptor
4. Once stimulation ends, magnesium ion returns and NMDA blocked again

Question 24

NMDA

Answer 24

• receptors for formation of LTP
• If blocked, animal can still access memory
• Blocker: D-AP5

Question 25

AMPA

Answer 25

• blocked, animal cannot access memory
• Blocker: CNQX

Question 26

Consciousness

Answer 26

subjective, first-person experience (awareness of the world around you as well as your inner world)

Question 27

Qualia

Answer 27

elements of subjective experience (ex: the shade of the color red, flavor of fav food)

Question 28

Endel Tulving

Answer 28

episodic memory

Question 29

3 types of consciousness

Answer 29

1. Anoetic- subjective experience of the external environment in the immediate present only. No conscious knowledge or judgment. No self awareness
2. Noetic- awareness of the environment, as well as conscious knowledge (semantic memory
3. Autonoetic- inner, self-aware form of subjective experience (conscious of the fact they are conscious)

Question 30

Integrated Information theory of Consciousness

Answer 30

• Guilo Tononi
• Consciousness is related to the ability of cortical regions to communicate and generate info by integrating earlier stages of stimulus processing

Question 31

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)

Answer 31

uses magnetic pulses to control activity of neurons
TMS applied to the cortex. In sleeping subjects not dreaming: EEG effect smaller

Question 32

Claustrum theory of consciousness

Answer 32

Francis Crick
Integrated nature of consciousness required a conductor (Claustrum) to coordinate all the fractionated elements of perception into a single subjective experience

Question 33

Ptopofol

Answer 33

• facilitates action of GABA at GABAa receptor and may block Na channels for action potentials
• to anesthetize patients for surgery

Question 34

Attention

Answer 34

process of selecting which stimuli to focus on and which to ignore (filter)

Question 35

overt vs. covert attention

Answer 35

Overt- focus coincides with sensory orientation (ex: eye gaze, turning ear)

Covert- focus does not coincide with sensory orientation (occuring in your head; others don’t know) (ex: focus on peripheral instead of

Question 36

Inattention blindness

Answer 36

• failure to perceive and remember parts of an experience that you do not pay attention to
• Experiment: 58% of people didn’t see monkey

Question 37

reflexive vs. voluntary attention

Answer 37

Reflexive- focus is directed rapidly and automatically to a stimulus (usually overt)
- Tends to last less
- Superior colliculus

Voluntary- Focus given by choice to a stimulus
Takes longer to initiate, but can be sustained for longer periods
-Cover and overt
- Inferior parietal lobe

Question 38

Salience

Answer 38

the sensory properties of a stimulus that grab your attention (ex: intensity, contrast, loud noise)

Question 39

Goal-directed attention

Answer 39

stimuli associated with desired or sought-after outcomes capture attention at the expense of stimuli unrelated to goals

Question 40

Value-driven attention

Answer 40

• stimuli that predict positive or negative outcomes capture attention
• Controls both salience and goal-directed attention
• Value you give to a stimuli can produce reflexive attention in a way that distracts from goals and is unrelated to salience

Question 41

Superior colliculus-

Answer 41

• talks to motor neurons directly; initiates motor commands
• Midbrain sensorimotor structure
• Orients vision toward attention-grabbing stimuli in periphery (overt attention)