learning and memory Flashcards
Declarative memory
Storage and retrieval of material that is available to consciousness
Remembering lyrics to a song, a past event, or an answer on your test
daily episodes, words and their meanings, history
Non-declarative memory
Storage and retrieval of information that is not available to consciousness
How to ride a bike, sing a song, or swing a tennis racket
motor skills, associations, priming cues, puzzle-solvong skills
Temporal categories of memory
Classifying memory over the time that it is remembered
Still under debate in both psychology and neuroscience
immediate, working, and long-term meory
Immediate memory
Holding information for fractions of a second
Very large capacity
Sensory independence
ex. list of numbers flashed on screen
working memory
Hold and manipulate information for seconds to minutes
Used to achieve a particular goal, such as holding onto a phone number
Limited capacity of 7 +/- 2 chunks of information
Must continually be updated
Long term memory
Holding information for days to years
Very large capacity
Likely a result of changes in the efficacy of synaptic connections and/or the growth and reordering of neuronal synapses
Memory consolidation
Consolidation
The process by which immediate and short-term memories are gradually encoded as long term memories
Can be studied using priming like being shown a list of words the day before increases the chances of putting those words on a stem completion test.
Resistant to brain injury, aging and dementia
Like all memory, it is fallible
systematic errors in memory
lumping a list of words regarding baking into just “yeah I heard things about baking, so I must have heard the word chocolate yesterday”
Recognition
Recognition is usually easier than recall
Unless false items closely resemble the correct one (which is why your multiple choice tests can be a little tricky)
Visual recognition is especially impressive
90% Correct recognition with 2500 slides
Bahrick et al 1975
Recognition vs. Recall
Bahrick et al., (1975) demonstrated the superiority of recognition in a classmates identification task
When asked to pick out former classmates (by name or picture) recognition was around 90% accurate, even after many years
When asked to list classmates, people did quite badly even after only a few years
How is association important in information storage?
you can store a lot more pieces of information if you can associate it all with a “chunk”
ex. chess player can recreate a board if they see two major “moves” whereas a novice just sees a ton of chess pieces with no rhyme behind them.
What is conditioned learning?
Category of nondeclarative memory intensively studies for over 100 years
The generation of a novel response that is elicited by pairing a novel stimulus with a stimulus that normally elicits the behavior being studied
Describe classical conditioning
The process by which a previously neutral stimulus acquires the capacity to elicit a response through association with a stimulus that already elicits a similar or related response
Unconditioned stimulus (US)
Elicits a response in the absence of learning
Unconditioned response (UR)
The reflexive response to a stimulus in the absence of learning
A neutral stimulus is then regularly paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
An initially neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned response (CR)
A response that is elicited by the conditioned stimulus
Occurs after the CS is associated with the US
Is usually similar to US
wears off over time.
What is operant conditioning
The process by which a response becomes more or less likely to occur depending on its consequences
A neutral consequence does not increase or decrease the probability that the response will recur
Reinforcement strengthens the response or makes it more likely to recur
Does not necessarily have to be a positive thing!
Punishment weakens a response or makes it less likely to recur
An aversive stimulus
primary reinforcer in operant conditioning
A stimulus strengthens or increases the probability of the response that it follows
Primary reinforcers are inherently reinforcing and typically satisfy a physiological need
Food, water, physical contact
secondary reinforcer in operant conditioning
Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that have acquired reinforcing properties through associations with other reinforcers
Money, praise, applause
positive reinforcement in operant conditioning
when a pleasant consequence follows a response, making the response more likely to occur again
negative reinforcement in operant conditioning
when a response is followed by the removal of something unpleasant, making the response more likely to occur again
why wouldn’t we want to remember everything (how is forgetting beneficial)?
Memories are not like saving information on a hard drive!
Unimportant or repeated information is not retained
Forgetting is on a continuum, most people show normal decay
Luria’s Patient ‘S’ had problems introduced by having too great of a memory!
Marilu Henner: great memory but could also function normally because she only had great recall on demand.
anterograde amnesia
difficulty retrieving memories established after neuropathological insult (can’t encde new info)
retrograde amnesia
difficulty retrieving memories prior to neuropathological insult
pathological amnesia
anterograde, retrograde, but most often both.
usually issues with declarative expicit memories
(ex. learning the piano when you have amnesia is still possible)
What two brain structures are really important in the establishment of new declarative memories?
midline diencephalic and medial temporal lobe structures (especially the hippocampus)
The water maze experiment verified the importance of what brain region in forming new memories?
medial temporal lobe
couldn’t figure out where their platform was even after 40 trials
Engrams
the way memories are represented in the brain
neuronal firing patterns
location isn’t important, so much as more complicated things take up more cortex.
Why was the most complicated maze hard for cortex-ablated mice to remember?
required a large percent of the cortex to remember, which was disrupted through lesions
Retrieving memories involves..
fontal association cortex
memory reactivation recruits similar regions to perception of memory
What’s a possible storage site for declarative memories
hippocampus
What brain regions are involved in nondeclarative memory?
basal ganglia
prefrontal cortex
amygdala
sensory association cortices
cerebellum
NOT medial temporal lobe and diencephalon (like the declarative)
Why do patients with huntingtons disease (untreated) do poorly on motor skill-learning tasks?
causes atrophy of the caudate and putamen and perform poorly on skill-learning tasks
Remember doing them, never get any better.
Why do patients with parkinsons do poorly in skill learning tasks?
abnormal signaling within basal ganglia (dopamine issues)
if they’re on L-dopa they can kind of be ok
Damage to the cerebellum following infarcts of the superior cerebellar artery or the posterior inferior cerebellar artery causes what deficit
eye-blink conditioning
leaves declarative memory formation and retrieval intact
What is meant by double-dissociation between neurological substrates of declarative and non-declarative memory
means one can be damaged and one can be fine
reflects spacial separation
How does aging affect our brain
weight of brain decreases from adulthood ot death
synapses in cerebral cortex decrease
neurons remain relatively constant, but connections between neurons likely decrease
since engrams are stored throughout the brain, this loss of connectivity could explain memory difficulties as a result of natural aging
detriment can be offset by recruiting additional processing resources!!
