Section 3- memory and learning Flashcards
What was Plato’s metaphor of memory?
Writing as a metaphor of memory (inscribed of a wax tablet)
What was Aristotle’s metaphor of memory?
PICTURES as a metaphor of memory and remembering= reading this image
mental proesses involved in memory operated by assosication
repeated experiences become habitual patterns
What were Augistine and Lockes metaphor of memory?
memory as storerooms
what were aristotle’s 3 laws of assosciation?
similarity
dissimilarity
contiguity
what 2 kind of memory did William James introduce?
Primary and Secondary memory
What did Herman Ebbinghaus discover from his experimental approaches using ‘nonsense syllables’?
1- learning and forgetting curves
2- classified 3 types of memory= snensory, short-term and long-term
3- introduced the idea of memory retention
what was Donalds Hebb findings of synaptic strengthening?
- Learning involves strengthening of synaptic connections between neurons
- The repeated activation of two neurons leads to formation and strengthening
what was Barlett’s idea and his finding from his study of ‘war of the ghosts’
Barlett coined reconstructive memory (remembering
- in his serial reproduction study- war of the ghosts- he discovered 3 things about reconstructive memories
1) assimilation= story became more consistent when retold with each participants cultural expectations
2) levelling= story became shorter as people got rid of irrelevant information
3) sharpening= change the order of the story to better make sense to them culturally
What was Ribot’s science of forgetting (and Ribot’s law)?
Referred to amnesia
retrograde amesia= time gradient f which recent lost. remote (old) memories were retained
Ribot’s law= describes the functional decline of memory
What did Cajal’s drawings reveal?
that neural connections were contingual rather than continuous
thus, theorised that memories must be stored ACROSS SYNAPSES
What was the rare case of H.M?
HM had his hippocampus and amygdala removed which caused severe retrograde amnesia.
- able to form procedural memories
- unable to remember meeting people or seeing pictures
- able to learn new motor skills but couldn’t remember learning them
This demonstrated the distinction between procedural and declerative memories.
What was Karl Lashley’s distributed memory concept?
trained rats to perform tasks- lesions on different areas of rats cortex- see which areas affected performance of subsequent tasks
concluded that memories are NOT localised, rather widely distributed across cortex
what did Eric Kendals work on sea slugs identify?
-identified the molecular mechanisms of learning
and short and long term memory
- identified the most basic kind of learning = sensetisation and habituation
What is LTP (Long term potentiation)?
LTP refers to the electrical stimulation in the preforant pathway in the hippocampus which produces an increased response in the connecting synapse
( a way of strengthening the connecting neurons to improve memory and learning)
LTP underlines learning and memory
LTP occurs at most excitatory neurons
LTP perdominantly occurs in the hippocampus
where is memory formation localised?
In the glutamate synapse in the hippocampus
