How do we learn and remember?

Question 1

implicit memory

Answer 1

Unconscious memory: subjects can demonstrate knowledge, such as a skill, conditioned response, or recalling events on prompting, but cannot explicitly retrieve the information.

Question 1

procedural memory

Answer 1

Ability to recall a movement sequence or how to perform some act or behavior.

Question 2

anterograde amnesia

Answer 2

Inability to remember events subsequent to a disturbance of the brain such as head trauma, electroconvulsive shock, or certain neurodegenerative diseases.

Question 3

eye-blink conditioning

Answer 3

Commonly used experimental technique in which subjects learn to pair a formerly neutral stimulus with a defensive blinking response.

Question 3

neuritic plaque

Answer 3

Area of incomplete necrosis (dead tissue) consisting of a central protein core (amyloid) surrounded by degenerative cellular fragments; often seen in the cortex of people with senile dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease.

Question 3

traumatic brain injury (TBI)

Answer 3

Damage to the brain that results from a blow to the head.

Question 4

conditioned stimulus (CS)

Answer 4

In Pavlovian conditioning, an originally neutral stimulus that, after association with an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), triggers a conditioned response.

Question 5

learning

Answer 5

Relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior as a result of experience.

Question 6

operant conditioning

Answer 6

Learning procedure in which the consequences (such as obtaining a reward) of a particular behavior (such as pressing a bar) increase or decrease the probability of the behavior occurring again; also called instrumental conditioning.

Question 6

reconsolidation

Answer 6

Process of restabilizing a memory trace after the memory is revisited.

Question 7

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 7

Permanent loss of the ability to learn new information (anterograde amnesia) and to retrieve old information (retrograde amnesia) caused by diencephalic damage resulting from chronic alcoholism or malnutrition that produces a vitamin B1 deficiency.

Question 7

unconditioned response (UCR)

Answer 7

In classical conditioning, the unlearned, naturally occurring response to the unconditioned stimulus, such as salivation when food is in the mouth.

Question 8

episodic memory

Answer 8

Autobiographical memory for events pegged to specific place and time contexts.

Question 8

Pavlovian conditioning

Answer 8

Learning procedure whereby a neutral stimulus (such as a tone) comes to elicit a response because of its repeated pairing with some event (such as the delivery of food); also called classical conditioning or respondent conditioning.

Question 9

perirhinal cortex

Answer 9

Cortex lying next to the rhinal fissure on the base of the brain.

Question 10

dyslexia

Answer 10

Impairment in learning to read and write; probably the most common learning disability.

Question 11

memory

Answer 11

Ability to recall or recognize previous experience.

Question 12

consolidation

Answer 12

Process of stabilizing a memory trace after learning.

Question 13

long-term depression (LTD)

Answer 13

Long-lasting decrease in synaptic effectiveness after low-frequency electrical stimulation.

Question 15

emotional memory

Answer 15

Memory for the affective properties of stimuli or events.

Question 16

long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 16

Long-lasting increase in synaptic effectiveness after high frequency stimulation.

Question 18

entorhinal cortex

Answer 18

Located on the medial surface of the temporal lobe; provides a major route for neocortical input to the hippocampal formation; often degenerates in Alzheimer’s disease.

Question 20

amnesia

Answer 20

Partial or total loss of memory.

Question 22

epidermal growth factor (EGF)

Answer 22

Neurotrophic factor that stimulates the subventricular zone to generate cells that migrate into the striatum and eventually differentiate into neurons and glia.

Question 23

explicit memory

Answer 23

Conscious memory: subjects can retrieve an item and indicate that they know that the retrieved item is the correct item.

Question 24

conditioned response (CR)

Answer 24

In Pavlovian conditioning, the learned response to a formerly neutral conditioned stimulus (CS).

Question 24

visuospatial learning

Answer 24

Using visual information to recall an object’s location in space.

Question 26

behavioral sensitization

Answer 26

Escalating behavioral response to the repeated administration of a psychomotor stimulant such as amphetamine, cocaine, or nicotine; also called drug-induced behavioral sensitization.

Question 27

retrograde amnesia

Answer 27

Inability to remember events that took place before the onset of amnesia.

Question 28

fear conditioning

Answer 28

Learned association, a conditioned emotional response, between a neutral stimulus and a noxious event such as a shock.

Question 30

nerve growth factor (NGF)

Answer 30

Neurotrophic factor that stimulates neurons to grow dendrites and synapses and, in some cases, promotes the survival of neurons.

Question 31

unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Answer 31

A stimulus that unconditionally, naturally and automatically triggers a response.

Question 33

associative learning

Answer 33

Linkage of two or more unrelated stimuli to elicit a behavioral response.

Question 34

priming

Answer 34

Using a stimulus to sensitize the nervous system to a later presentation of the same or a similar stimulus.

Question 35

declarative memory

Answer 35

Ability to recount what one knows, to detail the time, place, and circumstances of events; often lost in amnesia.

Question 36

metaplasticity

Answer 36

Interaction among different plastic changes in the brain.

Question 37

learning set

Answer 37

The ‘rules of the game;’ implicit understanding of how a problem can be solved with a rule that can be applied in many different situations.

Question 38

parahippocampal cortex

Answer 38

Cortex located along the dorsal medial surface of the temporal lobe.