Kap 13. Learning and Memory

Question 1

The information-processing model of memory provides an overall summery of the basic steps linking to learning and memory.

Learning procedures change in the nervous system by:

Answer 1

Encoding the new information to be learned

The encoding process includes consolidation (strengthens changes associated with the initial information that is learned, helping to make a more permanent change in the nervous system (memory)).

Stored and maintained via persistent changes in the nervous system

Retrieval process of accessing and using the information

Question 2

Learning takes at least four basic forms:

Answer 2

Stimulus-response learning

Motor learning

Perceptual learning

Relational learning

Question 3

Explain the difference between operant and classical conditioning

Answer 3

Operant and classical conditioning involves different types of behavior (involuntary and voluntary). Classical conditioning involves an association between two stimuli (tone and food) while operant conditioning involves an association between a stimulus and response (tone and lever-pressing behavior)

Question 4

Reinforcement

Answer 4

causes changes in an individual’s nervous system that increase the likelihood that a specific stimulus will elicit a particular response behavior.

Question 5

PERCEPTUAL LEARNING

Answer 5

The ability to learn and to recognize stimuli that have been perceived before.

Perceptual learning appears to be accomplished primarily by changes in the sensory association cortex.

Question 6

RELATIONAL LEARNING

Answer 6

Involves learning the relationships among individual stimuli.

When we hear a sound of a cat meowing in the dark, we can imagine what a cat looks like and how it would feel to touch its fur.

Question 7

The process of forming memories occur three general stages :

Answer 7

The sensory system

Short-Term

Long term

Question 8

SENSORY MEMORY

Answer 8

Information is first processed by sensory memory. Sensory memory is a brief period of time (ranging from fractions of a second to a few seconds). Sensory memory occurs in each of the senses and allows an individual to retain the experience of the sensation slightly longer than the original stimulus. Sensory experiences can also be remembered by echoing.

Question 9

SHORT-TERM MEMORY

Answer 9

Just a small fraction of information passes from sensory memory to short-term (second stage of memory information).

This stage is longer than sensory memory, but still limited to seconds or minutes. The memory capacity of short-term memory is limited to a few items, such as the digits in a PIN or the letters in a name. The length of short-term memory can be extended through rehearsal and chunking.

Question 10

LONG-TERM MEMORY

Answer 10

This stage is the final stage, relatively permanent and can last for minutes, hours, days or decades. The information that will retain from short-term is consolidated into long-term.

Not all information from short term memory makes it to long-term memory. The memories in long-term memory can be retrieved throughout a lifetime and strengthened with increased retrieval.

Question 11

There are two major categories of long-term memory: Name and explain

Answer 11

Nondeclarative and declarative memory.

Nondeclarative (implicit memory) includes memories that we are not necessarily conscious of. Like driving a car, or turning pages in a book.

Declarative memory (explicit memory) includes memories of events and facts that we can think and talk about. It includes distinct forms of episodic and semantic memories.

Episodic memories involve context, specific to a particular time and place in a given episode.

Semantic memories involve facts, but do not include information about the context in which facts were learned.

Question 12

Long-term potential (LTP)

Question 13

Transcortical pathways

Answer 13

are involved in acquisition of declarative, episodic memories in conjunction with the hippocampus. The transcortical connections are also involved in the acquisition of complex behaviors that involve deliberation or instruction.

Question 14

Basal ganglia pathways.

Answer 14

Learned behaviors become automatic and routine when they are transferred to the basal ganglia.

The process is like this: As we deliberately perform a complex behavior, the basal ganglia receive information about the stimuli that are present and the responses we are making. At first Basal ganglia are passive “observers” of the situation, but as the behaviors are repeated again and again, the basal ganglia begin to learn what to do. Eventually they take over most of the details of the process, leaving the transcortical circuits free to do something else – we don’t need to think about what we are doing.

Question 15

Lesions of the basal ganglia disrupt ….

Answer 15

operant conditioning but do not affect other forms of learning.

Question 16

Dorsal vs ventral steam

Answer 16

The ventral steam (involved with object region, continues ventrally into the inferior temporal cortex), and the dorsal steam (involved with perception of the location of objects, continues dorsally into the posterior parietal cortex.

Ventral steam = what of visual cortex (down)

Dorsal steam = where (up)

Question 17

anterograde amnesia

Answer 17

inability to learn new information

Question 18

retrograde amnesia

Answer 18

inability to remember vents that happened before the brain damage occurred

Question 19

Where is the the entorhinal cortex?

Answer 19

In the hippocampus

Question 20

semantic dementia

Answer 20

, the brain areas responsible for storing and processing this knowledge (especially in the temporal lobes) become damaged over time.

Question 21

Describe the four basic forms of learning: (a) perceptual learning, (b) stimulus-response learning, (c) motor learning, and (d) relational learning. Give a brief example of each in your answer.

Answer 21

Perceptual learning allows us to recognize stimuli. An example would be knowing that a photo is that of your aunt.

Stimulus-response learning involves connections between perceptual and motor systems. Classical conditioning would be an example of a form of this type of learning (which involves a neutral stimulus taking on the capacity to elicit a reflexive response).

Motor learning involves changes in neural circuits that control the muscles. An example would be the changes that occur when a person first learns to drive a car.

Relational learning is the most complex form and can include the ability to recognize a stimulus using different sensory modalities or to recognize the relative location of an object among other objects in an environment.