Learning and Memory

Question 1

habituation

Answer 1

dec in response over time as one adapts and gets used to something

Question 2

subthreshold stimulus

Answer 2

stimulus too weak to elicit a response

Question 3

dishabituation

Answer 3

• recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred
• happens when a second stimulus is presented, which interrupts the habituation process

Question 4

associative learning

Answer 4

creation of association between stimuli or behavior and response

2 types: classical, operant

Question 5

classical conditioning

Answer 5

• can build connections between two unrelated stimuli

Question 6

unconditioned stimulus/response

Answer 6

• reflexive in nature

Question 7

neutral stimuli

Answer 7

do not produce a reflexive response

Question 8

Pavlov’s experiment

Answer 8

• dogs trained to associate a ringing bell with receiving meat
• turned neutral bell stimulus into a conditioned one

Question 9

acquisition

Answer 9

• process of using a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus

Question 10

extinction

Answer 10

• loss of a conditioned response which occurs when the conditioned stimulus begins to lack unconditioned stimulus

Question 11

spontaneous recovery

Answer 11

• after some time, presenting subjects again with an extinct conditioned stimulus will sometimes produce a weak conditioned response

Question 12

generalization

Answer 12

• broadening effect in which a stimulus close enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response

Question 13

stimuli discrimination

Answer 13

being able to distinguish between similar stimuli

Question 14

operant conditioning

Answer 14

• the ways in which consequences of voluntary behaviors change the frequency of those behaviors
• added stimulus continuous behavior~ positive reinforcement
• added stimulus stopped behavior~ positive punishment
• removed stimulus continuous behavior~ negative reinforcement
• removed stimulus stopped behavior~ negative punishment

Question 15

behaviorism

Answer 15

the theory that all behaviors are conditioned

Question 16

positive vs negative reinforcers

Answer 16

adding positive consequence vs removing something negative

Question 17

escape learning

Answer 17

• animal displays a behavior to escape a negative stimulus

Question 18

avoidance learning

Answer 18

• animal displays the desired behavior in anticipation of the unpleasant stimulus, thereby avoiding the unpleasant stimulus

Question 19

primary reinforcer vs conditioned reinforcer

Answer 19

natural reinforcer vs the stimulus which is associated w the primary one

Question 20

discriminative stimulus

Answer 20

the reward potentially available in an operant conditioning paradigm

Question 21

aversive conditioning

Answer 21

• use of positive punishment

Question 22

reinforcement schedules

Answer 22

FR
continuous
VR
FI
VI

Question 23

shaping

Answer 23

rewarding increasingly specific behavior until it becomes closer to a desired response

Question 24

latent learning

Answer 24

• learning that occurs without a reward, but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced

Rats and a maze

Question 25

problem solving

Answer 25

trial and error until reward is yielded

Question 26

Preparedness

Answer 26

Animals are most able to learn behaviors that coincide with their natural behaviors

Question 27

instinctive drift

Answer 27

Animals reverting to an instinctive behavior after learning a new behavior that is similar

Question 28

Observational learning

Answer 28

mirror neurons are located in the frontal and parietal lobes of the cerebral cortex and fire both when an individual performs an action AND when that individual observes someone else performing that action

Question 29

strongest form of controlled processing

Answer 29

Semantic

Question 30

weakest form of controlled processing

Answer 30

Visual

Question 31

Self reference effect

Answer 31

We tend to recall information best, and we can put it into the context of our own lives

Question 32

Method of loci

Answer 32

associating each item in a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized

Question 33

peg-word system

Answer 33

associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers

Question 34

chunking

Answer 34

grouping together elements of a list to have a related meaning

Question 35

sensory memory

Answer 35

preserve info in original form w high accuracy for a short period (lasts less than a second)

iconic or echoic

Question 36

iconic

Answer 36

sensory memory
fast decaying memory of visual stimuli

Question 37

echoic

Answer 37

sensory memory
fast decaying memory of auditory stimuli

Question 38

short term memory is stored in the

Answer 38

hippocampus

Question 39

alzheimer’s bio basis

Answer 39

neurofibrillary tangles and B-amyloid plaques

Question 40

Korsakoff’s syndrome

Answer 40

thiamine deficiency
retrograde and anterograde amnesia
confabulation