Unit 3 - Decision Making

Question 1

The brain is a ____________ machine evolved to make decisions.

Answer 1

information-processing

Question 2

The ___________ of an animal is the output of the decision making process.

Answer 2

behavior

Question 3

What are the three decision making (action selection) systems?

Answer 3

Pavlovian system, habit-based system, and deliberative system

Question 4

In the __________ system, behavioral include “hard-wired” species’ specific actions such as freezing, approaching, and salivating.

Answer 4

Pavlovian

Question 5

For classical conditioning, we need a _________ in addition to an unconditional stimulus and unconditioned response.

Answer 5

neutral stimulus

Question 6

A ___________ stimulus does not elicit the unconditioned response.

Answer 6

neutral

Question 7

During classical conditioning training the neutral stimulus is paired with the ____________ stimulus.

Answer 7

unconditioned

Question 8

In the Pavlovian system, behaviors become associated with specific ___________. For example, auditory can become associated with bell and visual with light.

Answer 8

stimuli

Question 9

_____________ responses occur despite no relationship between responses and subsequent reward; there may not even be a reward.

Answer 9

Pavlovian

Question 10

learning that is unconnected to a consequence and remains undetected until explicitly demonstrated at a later stage.

Answer 10

latent learning

Question 11

an internal representation of the spatial layout of the external world

Answer 11

cognitive map

Question 12

The habit based system states that rats could learn an ___________ set of motor habits in a maze.

Answer 12

automatic

Question 13

The _________ system consists of a complex chain of actions/behaviors that result from associations between situations and actions.

Answer 13

habit-based

Question 14

To have a habit-based system, the subject must be able to correctly recognize the _________ and release correct chain of _________.

Answer 14

situation, actions

Question 15

The habit-based system is _______ to learn and _________ to change.

Answer 15

slow, hard

Question 16

According to the _________ system, behaviors result from complex process involving a search through the expected consequences of possible actions.

Answer 16

deliberative

Question 17

In the deliberative system, evaluations are made “_______”, and they take a current _______ and __________ state into account before acting.

Answer 17

online, goal, motivational

Question 18

Deliberative systems are highly ________, but computationally _______ and __________.

Answer 18

flexible, expensive, slow

Question 19

What are the 3 steps of deliberation?

Answer 19

1. Determine potential possibilities 2. Evaluate the likely outcomes of those actions and 3. select an action to take

Question 20

To determine potential possibilities for deliberation requires a _________ of how the world works. For Tolman, this was the “cognitive map”

Answer 20

schema

Question 21

For deliberation to occur, an action must be selected by deciding _______ is better than punishment.

Answer 21

reward

Question 22

In vicarious trial and error, rodent behavior where they pause and look at decision points and look back and forth at their options has the appearance of _____________.

Answer 22

deliberation

Question 23

How can we know if a rat is actually deliberating?

Answer 23

occur more for difficult choices, occur more for “important” choices, and occur less when actions become habitual

Question 24

Vicarious trial and error in a T-maze primarily occurs at the ______ choice point because it’s the most important decision.

Answer 24

final

Question 25

Vicarious trial and error in a T-maze decreases as the rat’s behavior becomes __________.

Answer 25

habitual

Question 26

process by which one imagines another time and place

Answer 26

mental time travel

Question 27

Mental time travel can refer to reconstructing events from one’s past, such as ____________.

Answer 27

episodic memory

Question 28

Mental time travel can refer to imagining possible scenarios in the future, known as ____________.

Answer 28

episodic future thinking

Question 29

To evaluate the likely outcomes of the possible actions for deliberation requires information/knowledge of the __________ to imagine potential and albeit currently unrealized futures.

Answer 29

past

Question 30

imagining possible future events activates similar representational systems to remembering ________ events.

Answer 30

past

Question 31

Deficits in _________ memory are related to deficits in imagining future events.

Answer 31

episodic

Question 32

_________ damage impacts both episodic memory and imagination of future events.

Answer 32

Hippocampal

Question 33

The same ____________ would be observed when an animal imagines a potential action as when it actually engaged in that behavior.

Answer 33

neural activity

Question 34

During __________, a replay of the sequences from the waking experience occur and information is rapidly sent to the cortex.

Answer 34

memory consolidation

Question 35

Low ACh leads to _________, while high ACh leads to __________.

Answer 35

consolidation, encoding

Question 36

Different place cells in the ___________ code different locations on the track.

Answer 36

hippocampus

Question 37

When an animal pauses before the choice point and looks back and forth during a VTE, ___________ toggles between two different possible options.

Answer 37

neural activity

Question 38

Once a behavior becomes habitual, neural look-ahead activity _________.

Answer 38

ceases

Question 39

VTE ___________ if hippocampal activity is disrupted, suggesting the hippocampus does not initiate VTE.

Answer 39

increases

Question 40

The __________ is theorized to request possible options from the hippocampus for deliberation.

Answer 40

Prefrontal Cortex

Question 41

To evaluate options, there must be _________ information. The ________ ramps up activity closer to reward.

Answer 41

value/reward, Ventral Striatum