Learning And Memory Flashcards
What is memory?
The encoding of the learning experience
Physical basis of memory is the change in the brain
Explain the 2 types of learning?
Associative learning - based on association between different phenomena
Dissociative learning - not based on association based on habituation (repeated exposure to stimuli that offers no threat or benefit)
Give an example of associative learning?
Pavlov, operant and classical conditioning
Where in the brain does classical conditioning occur?
Conditioned and unconditioned stimulus
Karl lashley looked for the what in the brain?
Engram = a physical representation of what has been learned
What did lashey discover by cutting rats brains?
Equipotentiality = all parts of the cortex contribute equally to complex behaviours
Mass action = cortex works as a whole
Modern searches for the engram was made by who and what did he find?
Richard Thompson and classical conditioning
What colour nucleus is crucial for conditioned response but not learning
Red
Where does learning occur?
Lateral interpositus nucleus (LIP) in cerebellum - area of learning
Red nucleus - performance of learned behaviour
What is learning?
A behavioural experience associated with change
Where change allows some form of adaptation
What’s the working memory (baddeley and hitch 1974)?
Stores information that is still in use
Information that’s still relevant
Information crucial for complex cognitive activities
How would you find out which brain areas are used for working memory?
Delayed response task
What’s the brain part associated with working memory?
Pre-frontal cortex
What 2 things change at cellular level during learning?
Habituation (decrease in response time to a stimulus that is repeatedly presented)
Sensitization (increased response to unpleasant stimuli after a shock)
Herb (1949) the hebbian synapse
What is it?
Synapses consolidate memories by strengthening connection
What are the 2 cellular basis of learning? More responsive less responsive
Long term potentialisation (LTP)
- leaves synapses more responsive
Long term depression (LTD)
- response reduced
Hippocampus and amnesia
Explain patient HM
Severe epilepsy
Bilateral ablation of hippocampus
Reduced seizures
But severe memory impairment
Intellect and language intact
Working memory intact
Impaired forming new long term memories
What’s poor declarative memory?
Impaired ability to state memory in words, conscious memory
Semantic memory (specific facts) Episodic memory (personal experience)
What’s poor explicit memory?
Impaired ability to recall information deliberately
What’s the hippocampus important for?
New memories and declarative explicit memories
What’s the hippocampus not important for?
Procedural implicit memories and old memories
What are the 3 roles of the hippocampus?
Specialised for declarative memory
Specialised for spatial memory
Specialised for configural learning
What are the symptoms of Korsakoff’s syndrome?
Amnesia
Shrinkage of Neurons in the brain
Executive functions are affected
What is confabulations?
Remembering guesses as true facts
What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
Genetic component
Environmental component
State 3 similarities with Korsakoff’s and Alzheimer’s
Both associated with widespread damage
Cortical damage and hippocampal damage
Lose previous memories and ability to form new ones
