Learning and Memory Flashcards
Learning Definition
the way in which we acquire new behaviours
Stimulus
anything an organism can respond to
-includes all the sensory inputs
Habituation
Decrease in response following repeated exposure to a stimulus
Dishabituation
Recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred due to the presentation of a second stimulus that “interrups” habituation
- temporary
- refers to change in response to the original stimulus
Associative learning
creation of pairing between two stimuli of between a behaviour and a response
Classical conditioning
Uses instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli
-Ivan Pavlov and his puppers
Unconditioned stimulus
any stimulus that brings about a reflexive response
Unconditioned response
innate or reflexive response to certain stimuli
Neutral stimuli
stimuli that do not produce reflexive responses
Pavlovs experiment (stimuli)
Neutral stimulus: bell ringing
Unconditioned stimulus: meat
Conditioned stimulus
normally neutral stimulus that is made to cause a reflexive response through association
-causes a conditioned response
Acquisition
taking advantage of a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
Extinction
Habituation to the conditioned stimulus
-occurs if the conditioned stimulus is presented without the unconditioned stimulus too many times
Spontaneous recovery
Some time after extinction occurs, presenting the extinct conditioned stimulus again will sometimes result in a weak conditioned response
Generalization
Stimulus similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can produce the conditioned response
Discrimination
Organism learns to distinguish between 2 similar stimuli
Operant conditioning
Links voluntary behaviours with consequences in an effort to alter the frequency of certain behaviours
-B.F. Skinner & Behaviourism
= theory that all behaviours are conditioned
Positive reinforcement
Increases behaviour by adding a stimulus
-ex getting money for working
Negative reinforcement
Increases a behaviour by removing a stimulus
-ex: getting rid of a headache by taking advil
Subdivided into escape leaning and avoidance learning
Positive punishment
Adds an unpleasant stimulus in order to reduce a behaviour
-ex: arrested for stealing
Reinforcement
Process of increasing the likelihood of a behaviour
Escape learning
role of behaviour is to reduce the unpleasantness of an existing stimulus
-advil example
Avoidance learning
behaviour to prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen
-studying to avoid failing an exam
Negative punishment
Removing a stimulus in order to reduce a behaviour
-ex: taking away toys from kids for bad behaviour
Fixed ratio schedules (FR)
reinforce a behaviour after a specific number of performances of the behaviour
Continuous reinforcement
A type of FR schedule where the behaviour is rewarded every time
Variable ratio schedules (VR)
reinforce a behaviour after a varying number of performances
- average # of performances is usually constant
- have the fastest response rate
- most resistant to extinguishing
Fixed interval schedules (FI)
reinforce the first instance of a behaviour after a specific time period has elapsed
Variable interval schedules (VI)
reinforce the first instance of a behaviour after a variable interval of time
Shaping
Process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviours
Latent learning
learning that occurs without reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated when a reward is introduced
Problem-solving
Trial and error approach, testing behaviours until they yield a rewards
-humans and chimps tend to avoid this and analyze the situation first
Prepardness
animals are most able to learn behaviours that coincide with their natural behaviours
Instinctive drift
Difficulty in overcoming instinctual behaviours
-animals don’t tend to do well with behaviours that counteract their natural instincts
Observational learning
Learning a new behaviour/gaining info by watching others
-ex: Alberto Bandura and the Bobo doll
*not just imitation, can be used to teach individuals to avoid behaviour as well
Mirror neurons
Located in the frontal and parietal lobes
- fire when an individual performs an action and when they observe someone else performing that action
- largely involved in motor processes
- related to empathy and vicarious emotions
Modeling
Observational learning by watching others perform actions
-children tend to model actions more than what people say
Encoding
Process of putting new information into memory
Automatic processing
form of encoding that happens spontaneously, information is gained without effort
Controlled (effortful) processing
Actively working to gain information
Visual encoding
visualizing the meaning of information
-weakest form of encoding
Acoustic encoding
storing the way information sounds
Semantic encoding
Putting the information into a meaningful context
-strongest
Self-reference effect
Tend to recall information best when we put it into the context of our own lives
Maintenance rehearsal
repetition of a piece of information to keep it in your working memory or to store it in short or long term memory
Mnemonics
acronyms or rhyming phrases that provide organization for the information
Method of loci
Associating each item in the list with a location along a previously memorized route (through a building or down a street)
Peg-word system
associated numbers with items that rhyme or resemble the numbers
-eg. one and sun
Chunking/clustering
Involves taking individual elements of a large list and lumping them into groups with related meaning
Sensory memory
First and most fleeting form of memory
- consists of iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory
- only lasts 1 second, will fade unless attended to
- memory is maintained by the major projection area of each sensory system
Whole report vs. partial report experiment
If a 3x3 list of letters is flashed on a screen, participants can correctly identify 3-4 letters when asked to list all the letters (whole report) but can very accurately list any of the rows of letters immediately after (partial report)
Short term memory
Fades quickly, usually after 30 seconds unless rehearsed
- limited to ~7 items (7+/- 2 rule)
- space can be increased by clustering and time extended by maintenance rehearsal
Housed primarily in the hippocampus
Working memory
Enables retention of a few pieces of information and manipulation of that information
- need to integrate short term memory, attention, and executive function
- supported by the hippocampus
- frontal and parietal lobes are also involved
Long-Term Memory
Limitless storage for the information moved here from short term memory
-done through elaborative rehearsal = association of the information to knowledge already stored in long term memory (tied to the self reference effect)
Controlled by the hippocampus but some very long term memories are moved to the cerebral cortex
2 types
- Implicit (nondeclarative or procedural)
- Explicit (declarative)
Implicit memory
Also called non-declarative or procedural
- consists of skills/tasks and conditioned responses
- “unconscious memory”
Explicit memory
Also called declarative memory
- consists for memory that require conscious recall
- further divided into:
1. semantic memory (known facts)
2. episodic memory (experiences)
Retrieval
process of demonstrating that something has been learned and retained
- not simply recall
- applies to the recognition or quick relearning of info
Recall
retrieval + statement of previously learned information
Recognition
Process of identifying a piece of info that was learned
Relearning experiment
Hermann Ebbinghaus and the list memorization
-found that the more times he studied a list of words the better he could remember them AND the longer the time between study sessions, the better the recall
Spacing effect
Longer time between sessions of relearning equates better retention of the information later on
Semantic network
Concepts/memories are linked together in the brain based on similar meaning
Spreading activation
When one node of a semantic network is activated, the other linked concepts are also subconsciously activated
-linked to priming
Priming
Recall is aided by presenting someone with a word/phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory
Context effects
Memory is aided by being in the physical location where the encoding took place
State-dependent memory
Mental state can alter recall
- being drunk means you will recall tasks/facts better when you’re drunk
- bad mood primes negative memories (helping the mood persist)
Serial position effect
In learning lists, people have a higher recall for the first few items and the last few items on the list
- early items = primacy effect
- later items = recency effect
*when asked to remember the list later, show strong recall for first items but recall of later ones fade
Alzheimer’s disease
Degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of acetylcholine in neurons that links to the hippocampus
- dementia
- memory loss
- brain atrophy
Dementia
progressive loss of cognitive function
Memory loss in alzheimer’s tends to proceed in _____?
Retrograde fashion
-loss of recent memories before distant memories
5 brain pathologies of alzheimer’s
- Neurofibrillary tangles
- ß-amyloid plaques (incorrectly folded precursor proteins)
- Shrunken hippocampus
- Shrunken cerebral cortex
- Enlarged ventricles
Sundowning
Increase in dysfunction in the late afternoon/evening in Alzheimer’s patients
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in the brain
- causes both retrograde and anterograde amnesia
- also causes confabulation (creation of vivid but false memories)
Agnosia
loss of ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds
- usually only one of the 3
- caused by physical damage to the brain like stroke or MS
Decay
Loss of memories naturally over time due to fading of neurochemical trace
Ebbinghaus’s curve of forgetting
For a day or 2 after learning a list, the recall falls down sharply but then levels out
Interference
Retrieval error caused by the existence of other, similar information
-proactive and retroactive
Proactive interference
Old information prevents the learning of new, similar information
-ex: new address after moving
Retroactive interference
New information causes the forgetting of old information
-can be reduced by minimizing the # of interfering events
Memory change with age
- Recognition & skill based memory does not decline
- Semantically meaningful recall does not decline
- Prospective memory (remembering to perform a task in the future) remains intact when event based (primed by a trigger event)
- time based prospective memory (ie. pills) does tend to decline with age
Misinformation effect
People will remember being shown things a certain way if misleading information is provided (ie cat being in a picture if they were told it was)
applies to recall as well. People will remember something as more intense than it was if they are asked about it using more descriptive and intense language
Source monitoring effect
Confusion between episodic and semantic memory
-can remember the details of an event but confusion about the source
Neuroplasticity
Ability of our brain to form rapid neural connections in response to stimuli
Synaptic pruning
Weak neural connections are broken while strong ones re bolstered as we grow older
-increases the brain’s efficiency in processing info
Long term potentiation
Neurophysiological basis of long term memory
Neural activity forms a memory trace by repeated or rehearsal of a stimulus
-stimulated neurons become more efficient at releasing their neurotransmitters
-receptor neuron density is increased
Memory pathway
- Sensory memory in the projection area of a sensory modality
- Sensory memory is maintained and moved as a short term memory into the hippocampus (temporal lobe)
- Can be manipulated via working memory while in the hippocampus (in tandem with the frontal and parietal lobes) AND/OR stored for later recall
- Over very long times memories are gradually moved from the hippocampus to the cerebral cortex
