Learning And Memory Flashcards
Dis habituation
- The recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred.
Associative learning
- Creation of a pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response
Classical conditioning
- Type of associative learning that takes advantage of biological, instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli
- Ex: Pavlov’s dog experiments (stimuli causing innate or reflexive physiological response)
Unconditioned stimulus
Any stimulus causing a physiologically reflexive response
Unconditioned response
- The innate or reflexive response to an unconditioned stimulus
Conditioned stimulus
- A normally neutral stimulus that, through association, now causes a reflexive response
Acquisition
aka classical conditioning
- the process of taking advantage of a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
Generalization
Broadening effect by which a stimulus is similar enough to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response
Discrimination
An organism learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli
Operant conditioning
Links voluntary behaviors with consequences in an effort to alter the frequency of those behaviors
Reinforcement
Process of increasing the likelihood that an individual will perform a behavior
Positive reinforcers
Increase a behavior by adding a positive consequence of incentive following the desired behavior (ex: money)
Negative reinforcers
Increase the frequency of a behavior but they do so by removing something unpleasant (ex: aspirin to reduce headache)
Escape learning
- Subdivision of negative reinforcers
- the role of the behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists (like a headache)
Avoidance learning
- Subdivision of negative reinforcers
- Meant to prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen (practicing for mcat)
Punishment
Uses conditioning to reduce the occurrence of a behavior
Positive punishment
Adds an unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior to reduce that behavior (thief arrested for stealing)
Negative punishment
Reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed (Kid can’t watch TV as consequence for being bad)
Fixed Ratio schedules
Reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
Continuous reinforcement
Fixed ratio schedule in which the behavior is rewarded every time it is performed
Variable ratio schedule
Reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant
- Very rapid and very resistant to extinction
Fixed interval schedules
Reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed
Variable interval schedules
Reinforce a behavior the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time
Shaping
Process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors
Latent learning
Learning that occurs without a reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced
Instinctive drift
Difficulty in overcoming instinctual behaviors
Observational learning
Process of learning a new behavior or gaining information by watching others
Mirror neurons
Located in frontal and parietal lobes of cerebral cortex, and fire both when an individual performs an action and when that individual observes someone else performing that action
- Largely involved in motor processes
Modeling
Observational learning through modeling is an important factor in determining an individual’s behavior throughout his or her lifetime
Encoding
The process of putting new information into memory
Controlled (effortful) processing
Actively working to gain information (i.e. Flashcards for mcat)
Different ways of encoding information
- visual encoding
- acoustic encoding (storing the way it sounds)
- semantic encoding (put into meaningful context)
(Semantic encoding is the strongest, visual the weakest)
Self reference effect
Putting information into the context of our own lives (allowing us to recall it better)
Maintenance rehearsal
The repetition of a piece of information to either keep it within working memory (to prevent forgetting) or to store it in short term and eventually long term memory
Method of loci
Involves associating each item in the list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized (i.e. Picture a carton of eggs from a grocery list sitting on their doorstep)
Peg-word system
Associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers (one with sun, two with a shoe)
Sensory memory
- first and most fleeting kind of memory storage
- consists of both iconic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory
- Sensory memories maintained by major projection areas of sensory system, such as occipital (vision) and temporal lobes (hearing)
Short term memory
Fades quickly, over the course of ~30 secs without rehearsal
- limited to about seven items (7 +/- 2 rule)
- short term memory housed primarily in hippocampus
Working memory
Closely related to short term memory, and similarly supported by hippocampus
- Allows us to keep a few pieces of info temporarily and manipulate that that info (do simple math in our heads)
- Involves integration of short term memory, attention, and executive function (frontal and parietal lobes are involved)
Long-term memory
Able to recall information on demand
- Elaborative rehearsal: the association of the information to knowledge already stored in long-term memory
Implicit (nondeclarative/procedural) memory
Consists of our skills/tasks and conditioned responses
- Unconscious
Explicit (declarative) memory
Consists of those memories that require conscious recall
- Can be divided into semantic (the facts/concepts we know) and episodic memory (our experiences/events)
Retrieval
Process of demonstrating that something has been learned and retained
Relearning
Another way of demonstrating that information has been stored in long-term memory
Spacing effect
The longer amount of time between sessions of relearning, the greater the retention of the information later on
Spreading activation
When one node of our semantic network is activated, the other linked concepts around it are also unconsciously activated
Priming
Recall is aided by first being presented with a word or a phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory
Context effects
Retrieval clue that shows memory is aided by being in the physical location where the encoding took place (test better in same room information was learned in)
State-dependent memory
Mental state; i.e. People who learn facts while intoxicated will have better recal when retrieving those same facts while intoxicated than while sober
Serial Position Effect
Retrieval clue that appears while learning lists; higher recall for first few (primacy effect) and last few (recency effect) items on the list
Alzheimer’s disease
Degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of Ach in neurons that link to the hippocampus
- marked by dementia, memory loss (recent memories before distant ones), with atrophy of the brain
Korsakoff’s syndrome
Form of memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in the brain
- marked by retrograde amnesia (loss of previously formed memories) and anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories)
- Confabulation is common symptom (vivid, but fabricated memories)
- Common with alcohol
Agnosia
Loss of ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds though usually only one of the three
- Usu. caused by damage to brain (stroke, MS)
Interference
Retrieval error caused by existence of other (usually similar) information
Proactive vs Retroactive interference
Proactive (old info interfering with new learning - moving to new address)
Retroactive (new info causes forgetting of old info - teachers forget old students names when get new ones)
Prospective memory
Remembering to perform a task at some point in the future
False memories
Ex: confabulation (fill gaps in our memories such that with enough rehearsal our memories of the event can change drastically)
Misinformation effect
Recalling information about incidents, i.e. A car accident
Source monitoring error
Involves confusion between semantic and episodic memory; a person remembers the details of an event, but confuses the context under which those details were gained
Neuroplasticity
The formation of neural connections in response to stimuli
Synaptic pruning
Weak neural connections are broken while strong ones are bolstered, increasing the efficiency of our brains ability to process information
Long-term potentiation
Neurophysiological basis of long-term memory
- as stimulus is repeated, stimulated neurons become more efficient at releasing NTs, while receptor sites on other side of synapse increase, increasing receptor density
Habituation
- A decrease in response caused by repeated exposure to the same stimulus
