Learning and memory Flashcards
Learning
way we acquire new behaviors
stimulus
anything to which an organism can respond
Habituation
repeated exposure to same stimulus may cause a decrease in response
Dishabituation
recovery of response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred
Associative learning
- Creation of a pairing or association between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response
- Classical and operant conditioning
Classical conditioning
- Ivan Pavlov
- Uses biological responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli
- Can cause innate or reflexive response
Unconditioned stimulus
event causes a reflexive response
Neutral stimuli
event that does not cause a reflexive response
Conditioned stimulus
normally neutral stimulus that now, through association, causes a reflexive response
Conditioned response
reflexive response caused by a conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
Process of taking advantage of a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
Extinction
may occur when a conditioned stimulus is presented without the
unconditioned stimulus enough times
Generalization
Effect where a similar stimulus to the conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response
Discrimination
organisms learns to distinguish between two similar stimuli.
Operant Conditioning
links voluntary behaviors with consequences. Attempts to alter the frequency of
those behaviors
Behaviorism theory
- B.F Skinner
- all behaviors are conditioned
Reinforcement
Process of increasing the likelihood that an individual will perform a behavior
Positive reinforcers
- increase a behavior by adding a positive consequence/ incentive after the behavior is shown
- Example: Money
Negative reinforcers
-increase the frequency of a behavior by removing
something unpleasant
-Example: taking medicine when sick to feel better
Escape Learning
-Type of negative reinforcer
-role of behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something
that already exists
Avoidance Learning
- Type of negative reinforcer
- meant to prevent the unpleasantness of something that has yet to happen
Primary reinforcer
something that the organism would respond to naturally
Conditioned or secondary reinforcer
stimulus that would not normally cause a reinforcement
Discriminative stimulus
indicates that the reward is potentially available
Punishment
Uses conditioning to reduce the occurrence of a behavior
Positive punishment
adds an unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior
Negative punishment
reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed
Reinforcement schedules
Rate at which desired behaviors are acquired is affected by the schedule being used to
affect the behaviors
Fixed Ratio (FR) Schedules
reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
Continuous reinforcement
FR schedule where behavior is rewarded every time it is performed
Variable-ratio (VR) Schedules
-reinforce a behavior after a varying number of
performances of that behavior
-average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant
Fixed-interval (FI) Schedules
reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed
Variable Interval (VI) Schedules
reinforce a behavior for the first time that the behavior is performed after a varying time interval
Shaping
Process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors
Latent Learning
learning that occurs without reward; However, learned behavior happens spontaneously when reward is introduced
Problem solving
trial and error approach in which behaviors are tested until reward is yielded
Preparedness
predisposition of learning certain behaviors more easily since its related to animal’s natural tendencies
Instinctive Drift
difficulty overcoming instinctual behaviors
Observational learning
learning new behavior or gaining info by watching others
Mirror neurons
- located in frontal and parietal lobes of cerebral cortex.
- Fire when action is preformed or when action is observed being performed
Modeling
- form of observational learning that determines an individual’s behavior throughout lifetime
- learn acceptable behaviors by watching others perform them
Encoding
putting new information into memory
Automatic processing
information gained without effort
Controlled (effortful) processing
active memorization that requires work to gain information
Visual encoding
visualize it
Acoustic encoding
store the way it sounds
Sematic encoding
put into meaningful context
Self-reference effect
information best recalled when put into context of one’s life
Maintenance rehearsal
repetition of a piece of information to keep in working memory or to store in short-term and eventually long-term
Method of loci
associating each item in a list with a location along the route of an already memorized building route
Peg Word System
associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers
Chunking (Clustering)
takes individual elements of a large list and groups them together into elements with the related meanings
Storage
Information from encoding must be stored if it needs to be remembered
Sensory Memory
- Consists of ionic (visual) and echoic (auditory) memory
- Lasts only a very short amount of time, but eyes take in a very detailed representation of surrounds
- forgotten unless it as attended to
Short-Term Memory
- Sensory information that is payed attention to
- Fades quickly
- limited by capacity of approximately seven items
Working Memory
- Enables us to keep a few pieces of information in our consciousness and simultaneously manipulate that information
- Integrates short-term memory, attention and executive function
Long-Term Memory
- Information moves from short-term to long-term memory with rehearsal
- limitless warehouse for knowledge that we are then able to recall on demand
Elaborative Rehearsal
association of the information to knowledge that is already stored in long-term memory
Implicit (non-declarative or procedural) memory
- type of long term memory
- skills and conditioned responses
Explicit (declarative) memory
- type of long term memory
- those memories that require conscious recall
Semantic Memory
facts that we know
Episodic Memory
experiences
Retrieval
Process of demonstrating that something that has been learned has been retained
Recognition
identifying a piece of information that was previously learned
recall
retrieval and statement of previously learned info
Relearning
Ability to rememorize information much more quickly than the first iteration
Spacing Effect
longer the amount between sessions of relearning, the greater the retention of information later on
semantic network
- Concepts are linked together based on similar meaning
- A way for the brain to organize information so that it can take advantage of environmental cues
Spreading Activation
when one node of a semantic network is activated, the other linked concepts around it are also unconsciously activated
Priming
spreading activation is the heart of this retrieval cue
Context Effects
memory is aided by being in the physical location where encoding took place
State-Dependent Memory (effect)
person’s mental state also affects recall
Serial position effect
retrieval cue that appears while learning lists
Primacy Effect
tendency to remember early items
Recency Effect
tendency to remember later items
Alzheimer’s disease
degenerative brain disorder thought to be linked to a loss of acetylcholine in neurons that are linked to the hippocampus
Sundowning
increase in dysfunction in the late afternoon and evening
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in the brain
Confabulation
process of creating vivid but fabricated memories
Agnosia
loss of the ability to recognize objects, people or sounds (usually only one)
Decay
Memories are simply lost naturally over time
Curve of Forgetting
a day or two after learning a list, the recall falls sharply but then levels off
Interference (interference effect)
Retrieval error that is caused by the existence of other, usually similar, information
Proactive Interference
old information is interfering with new learning
Retroactive Interference
new information causes forgetting of old information
Prospective Memory
remembering to perform a task at some point in the future
Misinformation Effect
of events or information can be heavily influenced by outside sources
Source-Monitoring error
confusion between semantic and episodic memory
Neuroplasticity
neural connection form rapidly in response to stimuli
Synaptic Pruning
Weak neural connections tend to degrade as one gets older, while the stronger connections are bolstered.
Long-Term potentiation
strengthening of memories through more efficient release of neurotransmitters from neurons.
