Learning and memory

Question 1

Learning

Answer 1

Process of acquiring new information

Question 2

Memory

Answer 2

Long-term changes in the nervous system that occur after learning

Question 3

Steps of memory

Answer 3

Encoding, consolidation, storage, retrieval

Question 4

Types of learning

Answer 4

Stimulus-response, motor learning, perceptual learning, relational learning

Question 5

Stimulus-response learning

Answer 5

classical and operant conditioning

Question 6

Unconditioned stimulus

Answer 6

Stimulus that produces defensive or operative response (dog food)

Question 7

Unconditioned response

Answer 7

the response to the unconditioned stimulus (dog salivating)

Question 8

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 8

when paired with an unconditioned stimulus during training comes to elicit a learned response (the bell)

Question 9

Conditioned response

Answer 9

response to the presentation to the conditioned stimulus (salivating at the ringing of the bell)

Question 10

Operant conditioning

Answer 10

Change in behavior based on consequences

Question 11

How operant conditioning works

Answer 11

It selectively strengthens connections between neural circuits that produce a particular response. Neural circuits begin in the sensory association cortex (perception) and ends in the motor association cortex of the frontal lobe (movement)

Question 12

Two pathways of operant conditioning

Answer 12

transcortical pathway and basal ganglia and thalamic pathway

Question 13

Transcortical pathway

Answer 13

direct connections between different areas of the cerebral cortex. Involved w/ declarative, episodic memories, complex perceptual memories of sequences

Question 14

Basal Ganglia and Thalamic pathways

Answer 14

learned behaviors become automatic/habitual/routine

Question 15

motor learning

Answer 15

a type of stimulus response learning. Learning to make a new response through the establishment of changes within the motor system
The more novel the behavior, the more neural circuits in the motor systems must be modified.
Involves the cortex and the basal ganglia

Question 16

Perceptual learning

Answer 16

Involves learning to recognize things you’ve perceived before.
We can learn that spec stimuli are found in spec locations
We can learn sequences of episodes/ events
The cortex plays an important role

Question 17

Role of the cortex in perceptual learning

Answer 17

Perceptual learning is mediated by the extrastriate cortex (vision) and involves the dorsal and ventral system

Question 18

Relational learning

Answer 18

complex learning involving associations between stimuli
It is involved in most learning
The hippocampus plays a major role
Without the hippocampus, there would just be individual isolated memories without context

Question 19

Sensory memory

Answer 19

a brief period that the initial sensation of environmental stimuli that is initially remembered

Question 20

Short-term/working memory

Answer 20

longer than sensory, but still brief time that info is meaningful. Capacity is limited to a few items like digits in a phone number. Length can be extended through rehearsal or chunking

Question 21

Long-term memory

Answer 21

Declarative (explicit) and non-declarative (implicit/procedural)

Question 22

Declarative memory

Answer 22

Things you can tell others, conscious

Question 23

2 types of declarative memory

Answer 23

episodic and semantic

Question 24

episodic memory

Answer 24

memories about events that you’ve experienced

Question 25

semantic memory

Answer 25

factual knowledge that is acquired over a lifetime

Question 26

Non-declarative memory

Answer 26

things you can show by doing; hard to describe

Question 27

3 types of non-declarative memory

Answer 27

Skill learning (knowledge of how to do things), priming (exposure to one stimulus influences response to subsequent stimulus) and conditioning

Question 28

The hippocampus

Answer 28

The hippocampus receives info from sensory and motor association cortexes and other regions. The hippocampus modifies memories being consolidated there. The hippocampus then links memories together to help us remember relationships among elements of memory. It is involved with consolidation and retrieval of memories, but not the location of the memories.

Question 29

Anterograde amnesia

Answer 29

difficulty learning new information; damage to the hippocampus produces difficulty with consolidation

Question 30

Retrograde amnesia

Answer 30

inability to remember events before the brain damage; a problem of retrieval and does not include hippocampus

Question 31

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 31

severe

Question 32

Hebb’s rule

Answer 32

if a synapse repeatedly becomes active at bout the same time that the postsynaptic neuron fires, changes will take place in the synapse that will strengthen that connection. (Confirmed by LTP)

Question 33

Long term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 33

Process by which synaptic connections between neurons becomes stronger with frequent activation
2) involves NDMA and AMPA receptors
3) Activation of NMDA receptors increase the number of postsynaptic AMPA receptors

Question 34

In the hippocampus, LTP depends on what

Answer 34

The activation of NMDA receptors