Learning and memory Flashcards
habituation
Decrease in response after repeated stimulus
dishabituation
Recovery of response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred.
associative learning
creating association between 2 stimuli or behavior and response
types of associative learning
classical conditioning and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning
Taking advantage of biological, instinctual responses
unconditioned stimuli
any stimulus that brings reflexive response such as loud noise, smell of food, sexy woman, etc
unconditioned response
innate/reflexive response
neutral stimuli
stimuli that do not produce any reflexive response
Pavlov’s experiment
Associating Neutral stimulus(bell) and Unconditioned stimulus(food) to create unconditioned response to conditioned response
Conditioned stimulus
a normally neutral stimulus that causes reflexive response via association
Conditioned response
response to Conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
creating association between neutral stimuli and unconditioned stimuli to create conditioned response
Extinction
loss of response to conditioned stimulus after not being presented with an unconditioned stimulus, via habituation
Spontaneous Recovery
Weak conditioned response showing after extinct conditioned stimulus presented again
Generalization
Broadening effect of stimulus, by using similar stimulus to the conditioned stimulus
Discrimination
opposite of Generalization; distinguishing between similar stimulus
Operant conditioning
Type of associative learning; behavior is changed via use of consequences(reward/punishment)
Reinforcement
increase likelihood of a behavior
Punishment
decrease likelihood of a behavior
Positive reinforcer
increase behavior with incentives ex. money
Negative reinforcer
increase behavior by removing unpleasant obstacles
Positive punishment
decrease likelihood of the behavior by unpleasant consequence(Direct)
Negative punishment
decrease likelihood of the behavior by taking away something that a subject likes
Escape learning
type of negative reinforcer; reduce unpleasantness that is currently happening by doing a behavior. ex) taking ASA for HA
Avoidance learning
Type of negative reinforcer; preventing unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen ex) studying for the mcat to avoid poor score
Primary reinforcer
incentive that is acting as a uncondtioned stimulus to provoke reflexive response and increasing the likelihood of behavior
Secondary reinforcer
aka Conditioned reinforcer; neutral stimulus that can increase the likelihood of behavior
What are the different types of Reinforcement schedule?
fixed or variable + ratio or interval
Fixed ratio schedule
reinforcement given after a specific number of the desired behavior
Variable ratio schedule
reinforcement after a varying number of performances of the behavior
Fixed interval schedule
reinforcement every certain time frame passed
Variable interval schedule
reinforcement with varying time frame passed
Which type of reinforcement schedule is most effective?
Variable ratio most effective and resistant to extinction
Continuous reinforcement
behavior rewarded every time
Latent learning
learning that is demonstrated when incentive is introduced
Problem solving
understand the situation first and avoiding trial-and-error
Preparedness
explains why certain associations are learned more readily than others; due to predisposition
Instinctive drift
difficulty in overcoming the instinctual behaviors for associative learning ex. training raccoons
Observational learning
learning after watching others
Bobo doll experiment
By Albert Bandura; kids who watched adults showing aggressive behaviors to the Bobo doll were more likely to show the same thing. Also used to avoid ceratin behaviors by showing them the adults get scolded.
Mirror neurons
located in the frontal and parietal lobes of the cerebral cortex.
fire both when one performs an action and that person observes someone else perform the same action
Modeling
how kids learn what to do from what their parents DO, not SAY
What is the difference between automatic processing and controlled processing?
automatic: information gathered without effort. normally involved with simple repetitive tasks
controlled: information gathered with effort, usually involved with new complex tasks
Encoding
putting new information into memory
Explain what: Visual encoding, Acoustic encoding, Semantic encoding
Visual encoding: memorizing in visual pictures
Acoustic encoding: memorizing how it sounds
Semantic encoding: put it into meaningful context
Self-reference effect
recalling information easily as we put it into the context of our own lives
Maintenance rehearsal
repeating a piece of information to either keep it within working memory or to store it in short-term and eventually long-term memory
chunking
grouping together
Method of loci
associating items to be memorized with a location
Peg-word
associating numbers with items that rhyme or resemble the numbers
Sensory memory
involves both Iconic(visual) memory and Echoic(Auditory) memory, that lasts very short time. Occipital lobe(visual) and Temporal lobe(hearing)
Whole report
listing all of the letters one sees
Partial-report
listing the letters of a particular row
Short-term memory
duration is short, with a limit of 7 +/- rule. housed primarily in hippocampus
Working memory
Integrate short-term memory, attention, and executive function to manipulate the information –> math questions
housed by hippocampus
Long-term memory
Short-term memory becomes long-term memory with enough rehearsal. primarily housed by hippocampus but memories move to cerebral cortex eventually
Elaborative rehearsal
assocaiting info to our stored knowledge –> effective in converting short-term memory to long-term memory
Implicit memory
part of long-term memory. memories that do not require conscious recall. includes procedural memory(skills)
Explicit memory
part of long-term memory. memories that require conscious recall(includes declarative memory)
Episodic memory
events, experiences
Semantic memory
facts, concepts
Retrieval
demonstrating something has been learned has been retained
Recall
retrieval and statement of previously learned information
Recognition
process of merely identifying a piece of information that was previously learned, easier than recall
Relearning
another way of demonstrating that info has been stored in long-term memory because relearning the same concept is easier
Spacing effect
longer the amount of time between sessions of relearning, the greater the retention of the info later on
Semantic network
concepts are linked together based on similar meaning
Spreading activation
process where activation of just one node of semantic network is enough to activate other linked concepts
ex) color red -> stop sign -> fire truck -> fire -> apple
Priming
retrieval cue where recall is aided by first being presented with a word or phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory
Context effects
tendency that info is better recalled in the same context as it was encoded
State-dependent memory
retrieval cue in which scoring better if one is in the same state as when he/she was learning
Serial position effect
retrieval cue that shows tendency of people remembering better of the beginning and the end of a list, and medium the worst
Primary effect
tendency to remember early items
Recency effect
tendency to remember later items
How is recency effect related to short-term memory?
after some time, people still remembered the beginning of the list but the recent items not. this is because later items were temporarily stored as short-term memory and fades with time
Alzheimer’s disease
degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of ACh in neurons that link to the hippocampus although its exact causes are not well understood. Dementia and memory loss with atrophy of the brain are the characteristics
Dementia
loss of cognitive function
Neurofibrillary tangles and Beta-amyloid plaques
microscopic findings of Alzheimers
Sundowning
increase in dysfunction in the late afternoon and evening
Korsachoff’s syndrome
memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in the brain; retrograde amnesia, anterograde amnesia, confabulation
retrograde amnesia
loss of previously formed memories
anterograde amnesia
inability to form new memories
Confabulation
process of creating vivid but fabricated memories in an attempt made by the brain to fill in the gaps of missing memories
Agnosia
loss of the ability to recognize objects, people, or sounds
Explain Ebbinghaus’ “curve of forgetting”
decay of memory occurs naturally too and not just from disorder; ability to recall information learned falls sharply in 1-2 days, but leveled off after that
Interference
retrieval error caused by the existence of other information(usually similar)
Proactive interference
old info interfering with new info
ex. keep remembering old house address instead of the new house address
Retroactive interference
new info causes forgetting of old information
ex. teacher learning new students every year and forgetting previous year students’ names
prospective memory
remembering to perform a task at some point in the future, is mostly intact with event but not time
Misinformation effect
depending on the outside information and/or use of words, information may be memorized differently
Source monitoring error
involves confusion between episodic and semantic memory
Neuroplasticity
Development of brain based on the external stimuli;
mice raised in normal social setting and just by itself has different brains, and when put in the normal social setting, the loner mice able to develop normal brain
Synaptic pruning
Weak neural connections are broken while strong ones are bolstered as we develop
long-term potentiation
strengthening neurons to make it more efficient to respond to a particular stimulus –> bais of long-term memory
Which phenomenon is shown in both fixed-interval and fixed-ratio schedules and a mouse is trained to press a lever to obtain food?
pressing the level slowly at first but with increasing frequency as the end of the interval approaches
What phenomenon is observed to the rat when reinforcement is given at variable-ratio schedule?
high freq of constant behavior(pushing lever)
what phenomenon is observed to the rat when reinforcement is given at variable interval?
low freq of seldom behavior(pushing lever)
Encoding specificity
belief that info is better retrieved when environmental cues during retrieval is the same as encoding
