Learning & Memory Flashcards
Why do humans want to understand behavior?
- Inform on ways to improve quality of life and performance
- crucial for survival, learning what to fear/avoid and seek
- Learning promotes survival
How does learning apply to behavior?
The acquisition, modification and suppression of previous of behaviors
Give examples of the acquisition, modification and suppression of behavior
- Acquisition: Learning to walk / language
- Modification: Eat properly / Grammar
- Suppression: Not throw food / not say tbnk
How has intelligence been defined in the past?
An individual’s ability to learn
Which individual’s case was important in understanding learning?
Henry Molaison
What happened to Henry Molaison?
Lost ability to learn and form new memories, but procedural memory intact
Definition of learning
an enduring change in behavior that results from experience
Performance of a new behavior or suppression of a previous behavior
Is performance a direct demonstration of learning?
No, performance depends on
Motivation, fatigue, drugs…
Does the absence of a change in performance indicate absence of learning?
No, learning is done through observation and can occur without immediately affecting performance
How is learning often measured?
through performance
Explain how fatigue can affect behavior but not learning?
poorer performance, but doesn’t mean the person forgot how to do something
Explain how aging can change behavior but not affect learning?
Slower abilities but still there. Cant recall info as well but they know it when we say it
What is memory
ability to respond on the basis of information that was acquired earlier
What are the stages of information processing?
- Acquisition/Encoding
- Retention/Storage
- Retrieval
Which stage of information processing is failing when we can’t remember someone’s name?
Explain example for each stage
- Acquisition/Encoding: cant remember after a few minutes of meeting someone, probably never encoded
- Storage: Remembered name at initial encounter but not a couple of days late
- Retrieval, can still recognize the name in a list of names
What are some examples of conscious and intentional learning?
school, driving
What are some examples of automatic learning?
social rules, navigating campus
What type of learning involves training?
conditioning
What can be involved during learning?
environment, motor and emotional responses
Which type of learning happens without conscious awareness?
procedural learning
Which type of learning happens with conscious report, reasoning and introspection?
Declarative learning
How are different types of memory separated into categories?
memory
short-term long-term
explicit implicit
episodic sematic priming procedural
What was the view on human behavior before René Descartes?
behavior is entirely determined by conscious intent and free will
What was René Descartes’ view on human behavior?
people also respond automatically to external stimuli
What is the Cartesian Dualism theory?
Suggested there are some voluntary (doesnt require stimulus) and involuntary (reflexes) behaviors
How does learning happen based on principles from Aristotle?
learning derives from associations
What are the rules of association?
contiguity, similarity, frequency, similarity between past and present associations
What is contiguity and give an example
two events repeatedly occur together in space or time, they become linked or associated
Clouds and rain
What is similarity and give an example
two things will become associated if they are similar in some respect
Ella & Tom
What is frequency in relation to association and give and example
you will associate things together when they repeatedly happen together
Only associate clouds and rain if it rains where you live
Are reflexes innate?
Not all, they can be learnt/conditionned
What did Ivan Pavlov discover?
New reflexes to stimuli can be established through association
Stimulus–> Response relationships
What is the premise of modern behavior theory
behavior comes from s–>r relationships and association
Why are animal models used for learning research?
- Comparative cognition: understand evolution of the mind
- Functional neurology: Understanding structure and function of the nervous system
- Developing animal models: Studying learning and memory using experimental animal procedures (sketch for humans)
What is comparative cognition?
study of animal behavior that focuses on the mechanisms by which animals acquire, process, store, and act on information from the environment
tracing evolution of cognition and behavior
What was Charles Darwin’s view on human behavior?
our mental abilities had evolved from animals and non-human animals therefore possessed many of their precursors
Ivan Pavlov initiated which part of science in particular and how?
funcitonal neurology
Examining how the nervous system controlled many reflexes
What did Pavlov think about the nervous system in relation to learning?
studies of learning tell us a lot about functions of the nervous system
the nervous system has rules
what is neuroscience founded on?
all of behavior and mental life has its origins in the structure and function of the nervous system
advantages of animal models vs human
- simpler, cheaper and more easily controlled conditions
- can investigate problems that would be impossible to study in humans (emotional/aversive events: pain, pleasure)
- similarities between animal and features of human behavior
How have animal models contributed to our lives?
drug development: most drugs are tested on animal models to test for effect and secondary effects
machine learning/artificial intelligence: developing smart AI requires deep understanding of human and animal models of learning and memory
what is the general-process approach? examples
extract universal rules that apply across species (fundamental behaviors shared through evolution)
We want food, water, avoid pain
can the general-process approach be studied in any species?
Yes, rules can be seen using any species using certain conventional experimental paradigms
What are the goals of learning studies?
identify critical components of training/conditioning required to learn
How can we study learning?
with experimental approach, behavior is observed with and without causal factor
Design experiment to see if coffee improves learning
- 2 gr
- within gr experiment
- note if they normally have coffee or not
- give 1/2 coffee
- go to class
- note 3 things they remember after class and next day
What is within vs between subjects design?
within: compares subjects to themselves, exposed to +1 conditions
between: compares 2 separate groups, each only 1 condition
What are the advantages and disadvantages of within subjects design?
more reliable, better statistical power
issues of order
What are the advantages and disadvantages of between subjects design?
no order effects
possible group effects (variance), need more people
What are the 3 R’s of animal research?
Replacement: not use animals as much as possible
Reducing: nb of animals and reuse
Refining: experimental procedures to cause minimal suffering
