exam 4 Flashcards
Learning
- 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)
Memory
- 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
Ebbinghaus & the forgetting curve
tested his own retention, which showed that most forgetting occurs right away and then rate decreases (nuh vag boc)
William James
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
Consolidation
- 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)
Declarative memory
your conscious recollection of previous experience
* aka: episodic memory- what happened to you, where, and when
* Explicit- you can describe the contents of memory
Non-declarative memory
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)
Amnesia
strong memory impairment
Retrograde amnesia
- 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)
Anterograde amnesia
- inability to form new memories
Early stages of dementia
Ribot’s Law
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
Patient HM Henry Molaison
- 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
hippocampus in episodic memory
- role is temporary
- through replay
- Once a memory has been consolidated, hippocampus has no role
Bechara
- 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
Law of effect
- EL Thorndike how consequences shape actions
- A given stimulus in the environment can elicit a variety of behavioral responses
BF Skinner
- Built on Thorndike, with terms like “reinforcement” and “punishment”
*
Mechanisms of positive reinforcement (Olds & Miner)
- 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
MFB
fiber tract that carries axons of dopamine neurons from midbrain to basal ganglia
Synaptic Plasticity Hypothesis of Memory
- 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
Hebbian synapse
- connection between pre and postsynaptic neurons becomes stronger if they repeatedly fire
- “Neurons that fire together to wire together” <3
Bliss & Lomo- Long-term potentiation (LTP)
- 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
LTP
- NMDA receptors blocked by magnesium ion
- AMPA receptor activation depolarizes membrane and unlocks NMDA receptors
- Influx of calcium ions through NMDA receptor
- Once stimulation ends, magnesium ion returns and NMDA blocked again
NMDA
- receptors for formation of LTP
- If blocked, animal can still access memory
- Blocker: D-AP5
AMPA
- blocked, animal cannot access memory
- Blocker: CNQX
Consciousness
subjective, first-person experience (awareness of the world around you as well as your inner world)
Qualia
elements of subjective experience (ex: the shade of the color red, flavor of fav food)
Endel Tulving
episodic memory
3 types of consciousness
- Anoetic- subjective experience of the external environment in the immediate present only. No conscious knowledge or judgment. No self awareness
- Noetic- awareness of the environment, as well as conscious knowledge (semantic memory
- Autonoetic- inner, self-aware form of subjective experience (conscious of the fact they are conscious)
Integrated Information theory of Consciousness
- Guilo Tononi
- Consciousness is related to the ability of cortical regions to communicate and generate info by integrating earlier stages of stimulus processing
Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
uses magnetic pulses to control activity of neurons
TMS applied to the cortex. In sleeping subjects not dreaming: EEG effect smaller
Claustrum theory of consciousness
Francis Crick
Integrated nature of consciousness required a conductor (Claustrum) to coordinate all the fractionated elements of perception into a single subjective experience
Ptopofol
- facilitates action of GABA at GABAa receptor and may block Na channels for action potentials
- to anesthetize patients for surgery
Attention
process of selecting which stimuli to focus on and which to ignore (filter)
overt vs. covert attention
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
Inattention blindness
- failure to perceive and remember parts of an experience that you do not pay attention to
- Experiment: 58% of people didn’t see monkey
reflexive vs. voluntary attention
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
Salience
the sensory properties of a stimulus that grab your attention (ex: intensity, contrast, loud noise)
Goal-directed attention
stimuli associated with desired or sought-after outcomes capture attention at the expense of stimuli unrelated to goals
Value-driven attention
- 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
Superior colliculus-
- talks to motor neurons directly; initiates motor commands
- Midbrain sensorimotor structure
- Orients vision toward attention-grabbing stimuli in periphery (overt attention)
