learning and memory

Question 1

Declarative memory

Answer 1

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

Question 2

Non-declarative memory

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Temporal categories of memory

Answer 3

Classifying memory over the time that it is remembered
Still under debate in both psychology and neuroscience

immediate, working, and long-term meory

Question 4

Immediate memory

Answer 4

Holding information for fractions of a second

Very large capacity

Sensory independence

ex. list of numbers flashed on screen

Question 5

working memory

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Long term memory

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Memory consolidation

Answer 7

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

Question 8

systematic errors in memory

Answer 8

lumping a list of words regarding baking into just “yeah I heard things about baking, so I must have heard the word chocolate yesterday”

Question 9

Recognition

Answer 9

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

Question 10

Bahrick et al 1975

Answer 10

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

Question 11

How is association important in information storage?

Answer 11

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.

Question 12

What is conditioned learning?

Answer 12

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

Question 13

Describe classical conditioning

Answer 13

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.

Question 14

What is operant conditioning

Answer 14

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

Question 15

primary reinforcer in operant conditioning

Answer 15

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

Question 16

secondary reinforcer in operant conditioning

Answer 16

Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that have acquired reinforcing properties through associations with other reinforcers

Money, praise, applause

Question 17

positive reinforcement in operant conditioning

Answer 17

when a pleasant consequence follows a response, making the response more likely to occur again

Question 18

negative reinforcement in operant conditioning

Answer 18

when a response is followed by the removal of something unpleasant, making the response more likely to occur again

Question 19

why wouldn’t we want to remember everything (how is forgetting beneficial)?

Answer 19

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.

Question 20

anterograde amnesia

Answer 20

difficulty retrieving memories established after neuropathological insult (can’t encde new info)

Question 21

retrograde amnesia

Answer 21

difficulty retrieving memories prior to neuropathological insult

Question 22

pathological amnesia

Answer 22

anterograde, retrograde, but most often both.

usually issues with declarative expicit memories

(ex. learning the piano when you have amnesia is still possible)

Question 23

What two brain structures are really important in the establishment of new declarative memories?

Answer 23

midline diencephalic and medial temporal lobe structures (especially the hippocampus)

Question 24

The water maze experiment verified the importance of what brain region in forming new memories?

Answer 24

medial temporal lobe

couldn’t figure out where their platform was even after 40 trials

Question 25

Engrams

Answer 25

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.

Question 26

Why was the most complicated maze hard for cortex-ablated mice to remember?

Answer 26

required a large percent of the cortex to remember, which was disrupted through lesions

Question 27

Retrieving memories involves..

Answer 27

fontal association cortex

memory reactivation recruits similar regions to perception of memory

Question 28

What’s a possible storage site for declarative memories

Answer 28

hippocampus

Question 29

What brain regions are involved in nondeclarative memory?

Answer 29

basal ganglia

prefrontal cortex

amygdala

sensory association cortices

cerebellum

NOT medial temporal lobe and diencephalon (like the declarative)

Question 30

Why do patients with huntingtons disease (untreated) do poorly on motor skill-learning tasks?

Answer 30

causes atrophy of the caudate and putamen and perform poorly on skill-learning tasks

Remember doing them, never get any better.

Question 31

Why do patients with parkinsons do poorly in skill learning tasks?

Answer 31

abnormal signaling within basal ganglia (dopamine issues)

if they’re on L-dopa they can kind of be ok

Question 32

Damage to the cerebellum following infarcts of the superior cerebellar artery or the posterior inferior cerebellar artery causes what deficit

Answer 32

eye-blink conditioning

leaves declarative memory formation and retrieval intact

Question 33

What is meant by double-dissociation between neurological substrates of declarative and non-declarative memory

Answer 33

means one can be damaged and one can be fine

reflects spacial separation

Question 34

How does aging affect our brain

Answer 34

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!!