Weekly Quizzes

Question 1

What was described as Dr. McGaugh’s first “big idea”?
A) The memories of rats and mice consolidate like those of subjects in Mueller and Pilecker’s experiments.
B) The stress hormones can affect memory.
C) That the amygdala is involved with declarative memory.
D) Two of the Above
E) None of the above

Answer 1

E) None of the above
The answer is that memories are malleable for some time after they are initially acquired not so that could be lost, but so that they could be enhanced when appropriate.

Question 2

The experimental approach McGaugh invented based on the realization that memories are malleable or change able for a period of time after they are initially acquired was to?
A) Administer drugs after rather than before learning
B) Use different ones of drugs in order to establish the “inverted u” dose response curve.
C) Administer ECS after learning to impair consolidation.
D) None of the above

Answer 2

A) A) Administer drugs after rather than before learning
This was based on Mcgaugh’s “first big idea”.
This helps address the learning performance dilemma.

Question 3

Which of the following is NOT among the evidence supporting the McGaugh model of memory modulation for emotional events in human subjects?
A) Studies using PET to measure norepinephrine release in the amygdala and relate it to memory for emotional events.
B) Studies of people receiving injections of stress hormone at physiological doses.
C) Studies of healthy people given beta-aderergic blocking drugs.
D) Studies of norepinephrine activation in response to emotional learning.
E) None of hte above (all of the above are among the evidence).

Answer 3

A) Studies using PET to measure norepinephrine release in the amygdala and relate it to memory for emotional events.
This type of study was not used to support Mcgaugh’s model of memory modulation for emotional events in human subjects. Instead it was done by measuring saliva.

Question 4

4) Which of the following should we expect to reduce the effect of an optimal memory enhancing dose of epinephrine on memory?
A) Injection of a second dose of epinephrine at the same time (effectively doubling the dose).
B) Elimination of glycogen stores in the liver
C) Cutting the vagus nerve
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 4

E) All of the above
A) Injection of a second dose of epinephrine is too high so it impairs memory.
B) Eliminating glycogen stores in the liver reduces memory because glucose breakdown is eliminated.
C) Cutting the vagus nerve blocks the effect of epinephrine on memory.

Question 5

5) Which of the following patients would you most expect to have some defect in priming memory?
A) HM
B) NA
C) IS
D) MS
E) None of the above (all of the above should have intact priming memory).

Answer 5

D) MS (missing sight)
Patient MS showed intact explicit memory but had a defect in perceptual priming and implicit memory process.
This patient lost half his visual cortex. Impaired priming

Question 6

6) I ask you to name something that relates to “forest” and you respond
“animals.” Later you are more likely to say “animals” when again prompted with the word “forest.” Brain imaging results suggest that?

A) This form of memory results from enhanced activity of the amygdala
B) This form of memory results from impaired activity in the hippocampus
and surrounding archicortex
C) This form of memory results from more efficient activity in the sensory
cortex of the brain
D) None of the above

Answer 6

D) None of the above
This form of memory results from less efficient activity in the sensory cortex of the brain.

Question 7

Evidence that priming can be dissociated from declarative memory has come from?
A) tests showing that priming and recognition memory are differently
affected by electro-convulsive shock (ECS)
B) human imaging studies using the “subtraction” approach
C) studies of patients with selective amygdala damage
D) studies manipulating “massed versus distributed” processing in
subjects learning words
E) three of the above

Answer 7

B) human imaging studies using the “subtraction” approach
Brain Imaging Experiment:
1) Scan people while doing word stem completion to words they had seen before.
2) Scan people again doing word stem completion to words they had not seen before.
3) Subtract 2 from 1

Question 8

A rat is given one week of daily trials in a T maze (moderate training). Up to to this point.
A) His hippocampus has been learning spatial arrangement of the maze and room.
B) His caudate has not been learning S-R relationships that lead to the food.
C) Two of the above
D) None of the above.

Answer 8

A) His hippocampus has been learning spatial arrangement of the maze and room.
This is true, during this phase the rat’s hippocampus is actively figuring out the spatial arrangement of the room.

Question 9

A rat is given two weeks of daily trials in a T maze to turn left to find food. Before a probe trial its caudate is inactivated. At the choice point during a probe trial the rat most likely will?
A) Turn left
B) Turn right
C) Both equally likely to turn left or right.

Answer 9

B) Turn right
Hull Rats (S-R rats)
This is because the rat has been trained to turn left to find food. During a probe trial the caudate is inactivated so it won’t rely on its S-R behavior and instead will turn the opposing direction??? (ASK ABOUT THIS ONE)

Question 10

A rat in placed in one arm of a maze in which it receives a very large amount of food. Next it is placed in another arm in which it receives no food. Inactivation of which structure with lidocaine before the learning trials would most likely disrupt learning of which place it prefers
A) The hippocampus
B) The caudate
C) The amygdala
D) None of the above

Answer 10

A) The amygdala
Because the rat was likely overwhelmed when it was given the conditions of either a surplus of food or too little food. Thus this is an emotionally loaded memory. Thus if the amygdala (emotion processing center of memory) was diruspted then the learning would also be disrupted.

Question 11

The finding from their experiments that Mueller and Pilzecker were trying to account for that led them to create the concept that memories “consolidate” was
A) Time dependent retrograde interference.
B) Time dependent retrograde enhancement
C) Massed vs. Distributed Practice.
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 11

A) Time dependent retrograde interference.
The learning of the 2nd list of syllables impaired memory for 1st set of syllables.

Question 12

The experiment of Duncan 1949 is important in that it?
A) Provided first evidence of Ribot’s Law
B) Demonstrated for the first time that electroconvulsive shock could cause retrograde amnesia.
C) Provided the first demonstration of a controlled retrograde amnesia gradient in a single experimental study.
D) Was performed at Northwestern University
E) Two of the above
D) All of the above

Answer 12

C) Provided the first demonstration of a controlled retrograde amnesia gradient in a single experimental study.
The other options are untrue and it is not important that this experiment was conducted in Northwestern University.

Question 13

A subject is given a PET scan once when they are learning a list of words, and again while resting. We subtract the activity in the second scan from the first scan. Where should we expect to see greater activity in the learning compared to rest condition?
A) Amgydala
B) Hippocampus
C) Archicortex around the hippocampus
D) Two of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 13

E) None of the above
In studies of declarative memory: hippocampus is not lighting up.
Method was too crude so they were not able to see the activation.
This is why the subtraction method failed and subsequent memory method worked.

Question 14

Which of the following suggested that the amygdala was not involved with declarative memory formation?
A) Studies of patient IS
B) Studies of monkeys using the delayed non-match to sample paradigm with trial unique objects.
C) Studies of rats learning to find 8 pieces of food in a Radial Arms Maze.
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 14

E) All of the above
A) Patient IS made it seem like amygdala didn’t have anything to do with memory.
B) Monkeys also seemed to have more of a focus on the caudate and hippocampus not amygdala
C) 8 pieces of food experiment was thought to be more S-R like
Triple Dissociation Experiment: Expect inactivation of amygdala and not the hippocampus or caudate.

Question 15

Which brain imaging data are compared in the Subsequent Memory method?
A) Brain activity during encoding vs. retrieval of correctly remembered information.
B) Brain activity during retrieval of correctly remembered vs incorrectly remembered information
C) Brain activity at encoding of material that was subsequently remembered vs subsequently forgotten
D) None of the above

Answer 15

C) Brain activity at encoding of material that was subsequently remembered vs subsequently forgotten
1) Scan subjects while they learn a list of items to be remembered, record responses to each item.
2) Delay (min, hours, days)
3) Test memory of items
4) Relate brain response during learning to subsequent memory success.
You can average brain responses to all the words that they went on to remember.
Measure brain responses to what they remember and what they forget.

Question 16

Which pattern of results is observed in the “odor cup” learning task after hippocampal damage?
A) Normal performance of the test of symmetry and simple association ability, but impaired performance of the test of transitivity.
B) Normal performance of the tests of transitivity and symmetry, but impaired performance of simple association ability.
C) Complete inability to perform any of the three tests because hippocampal damage impairs the ability to distinguish between odors.
D) Performance of tests of transitivity and symmetry are both impaired, but simple association ability is intact.
E) None of the above.

Answer 16

D) Performance of tests of transitivity and symmetry are both impaired, but simple association ability is intact.
(Graph in lecture 7)

Question 17

What control experiment was discussed as apparently missing in the “rat Hilton” experiment?
A) Using rats of different strains
B) Using electronmicroscopy to insure that new synapses had been formed in the neocortex of the complex environment group
C) Using rats with different degrees of complex environment to insure that the brain changes detected related specifically to the complexity of the environment
D) A condition with both male and female rats in a standard housing cage
E) None of the above

Answer 17

E) None of the above
Exercise may be a confounding variable here. It may be a factor that messes with results.
“Feyman Control”

Question 18

Which of the following pattern of results would constitute a “double dissociation?”
A) a lesion in brain region A disrupts learning of task 1 but not of task 2
B) stimulation of brain region A enhances learning in task 1 but not in task 2, while stimulation of brain region B enhances learning in task 2 but not in task 1
C) lesions of brain regions A and B disrupt learning in task 1, but not in task 2
D) stimulation of brain regions A and B enhance learning in task 1 but not in task 2
E) None of the above

Answer 18

B) stimulation of brain region A enhances learning in task 1 but not in task 2, while stimulation of brain region B enhances learning in task 2 but not in task 1.
Double Dissociation Definition

Question 19

The study providing evidence of short-term declarative memory storage in the neocortex involved
A) Pavlovian Conditioning
B) T-maze learning
C) Radial maze learning
D) Water maze learning
E) All of the above

Answer 19

A) Pavlovian Conditioning
Short Term Declarative Memory: Wineburger and Tuning Curve Shifts is Pavlovian Conditioning

Question 20

Which characteristics of LTP suggest that it is an electrophysiological correlate of memory?
A) The fact that LTP develops rapidly
B) The fact that LTP is optimally produced when the “zap” is given at the theta rhythm
C) The fact that LTP is enhanced or impaired by drugs that enhance or impair memory
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 20

E) All of the above
LTP does develop rapidly
happens instantaneously.
B and C are also true

Question 21

The main purpose of the probe trial, or “curve ball,” used by Tolman in his “starburst,” “road block,” and “T maze” experiments was to
A) Directly test the predictions of two different theories about what the rats had learned
B) Demonstrate that there is more than one kind of learning by using different mazes to force rats to learn different things
C) Prove that in the right circumstances rats could draw correct inferences
D) To prove that Hull was wrong

Answer 21

A) Directly test the predictions of two different theories about what the rats had learned

Question 22

Which of the following suggest that the thalamus plays a role in the formation of declarative memory?
A) Patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome
B) The performance of monkeys with damage to their thalamus in a delayed non match to sample task with trial unique objects
C) Amnesia seen in patients with thalamus damage
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 22

E) All of the above
All three apply to thalamus playing a role in declarative memory.

Question 23

In which of the following situations has the subtraction method been used to successfully relate a brain structure to memory?
A) In studies relating parts of the hippocampus to specific aspects of memory formation
B) In studies of the thalamus and memory
C) In studies of motor learning
D) None of the above

Answer 23

A) In studies relating parts of the hippocampus to specific aspects of memory formation

Question 24

Which of the following were among the possibilities, according to Mishkin, that scientists failed for 20 years to successfully recreate the classic amnesic syndrome in monkeys?

A) They were not using appropriate memory tasks
B) They were not studying anterograde amnesia, the largest memory deficit in HM
C) They were not lesioning enough of the hippocampus
D) They had not yet developed the life-saver task
E) Two of the above
F) All of the above

Answer 24

A) They were not using appropriate memory tasks

Question 25

Which of the following is/are NOT true of mechanisms of habituation in Aplysia?
A) They involve changes in the strength of the connection at key sensory-motor synapses
B) Critical learning changes occur pre-synaptically in short term habituation
C) The interneurons have been shown by process of elimination to play no role in the learning
D) Long-term habituation involves a different mechanism for changing the strength of the contact between two neurons than does short-term habituation
E) Two of the above

Answer 25

C) The interneurons have been shown by process of elimination to play no role in the learning

Question 26

Experiments that originally validated human brain imaging techniques (i.e. showed that they were capable of producing meaningful information about brain function)
A) Involved morphing brains of different subjects to a common template
B) Involved injections of radioactive glucose
C) Involved the visual system
D) All of the above

Answer 26

D) All of the above

Question 27

As shown in the video clip you were to watch, which of the following is not true of patient EP?
A) He used to work with computers
B) He had retrograde amnesia
C) He had a temporally graded anterograde amnesia
D) He showed signs of having some memory of experimenters he had interacted with hundreds of times
E) None of the above (i.e. all of the above are true)

Answer 27

C) He had a temporally graded anterograde amnesia

Question 28

Of the 3 synaptic connections in the hippocampal “trisynaptic circuit,” which have been experimentally connected to some form of behavior that we have discussed in class?
A)The perforant-path/dentate synapse
B) The dentate/CA3 synapse
C) The CA3/CA1 synapse
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 28

D) Two of the above

Question 29

What does it mean that LTP “shows associativity”
A) It can be associated with other electrophysiological phenomena like EPSPs
B) It was discovered by investigators trying to understand Pavlovian conditioning
C) It can be made or broken like true S-R associations
D) None of the above

Answer 29

D) None of the above

Question 30

Method(s) by which we can be certain that rats are acquiring a cognitive map of the environment during Morris water maze learning include
A) Obscuring the platform the rats are searching for so that they cannot see it
B) Moving visual cues outside the maze and seeing that the rat’s search for the platform changes accordingly
C) Standing at a different place each time the rat is tested
D) Two of the above
E) All of the above

Answer 30

D) Two of the above
A and B

Question 31

Which of the following is not characteristic of the “classic amnesic syndrome?”
A) Intact intelligence
B) Intact perception
C) Intact long term memory
D) Intact short term memory
E) None of the above (i.e. each of the above is characteristic of the classic amnesic syndrome)

Answer 31

E) None of the above (i.e. each of the above is characteristic of the classic amnesic syndrome)

Question 32

The data from HM’s performance on the mirror drawing task, seeing which Brenda Milner described as ‘the most exciting moment of my life,” was the experimental beginning for which of our 4 C’s?
A) Compartmentalization
B) Connection
C) Cognition
D) Consolidation
E) It cannot be stated with certainty

Answer 32

A) Compartmentalization

Question 33

Brenda Milner chose to test HM on the mirror drawing task
A) For a practical reason
B) For a theoretical reason
C) For both practical and theoretical
reasons
D) For no known reason

Answer 33

A) For a practical reason

Question 34

The key measure providing a quantification of memory in Ebbinghaus’ method was
A) Quantification of the number of repetitions of a list of items he needed to memorize the list perfectly for the first time
B) Quantification of the number of repetitions of a list of items he needed to memorize the list perfectly for the second time
C) The difference in the number of repetitions needed to learn a list the first time versus the second time
D) None of the above

Answer 34

C) The difference in the number of repetitions needed to learn a list the first time versus the second time

Question 35

The scientist who can be best credited with showing how individual S-R bonds could be linked together to explain more complex behaviors is

A) Pavlov with his studies of dogs
B) Thorndike with his studies of cats
C) Sherrington with his studies of dogs
D) Watson with his studies of babies
E) None of the above

Answer 35

Watson with his studies of babies and Sherrington with his studies of dogs.

Question 36

Which of the following is not true of Cajal?
A) He was able to correctly conclude that the brain contains separate cells because his improved Golgi-stain methodology allow him to visualize synapses for the first time.
B) He correctly inferred dynamic properties of neurons from his studies of Golgi stained brain tissue
C) He was the first to propose that memory formation may result from a change in the strength of the connections between neurons
D) He took selfies
E) None of the above (i.e. all of the above are true of Cajal)

Answer 36

A) He was able to correctly conclude that the brain contains separate cells because his improved Golgi-stain methodology allow him to visualize synapses for the first time.

Question 37

The phenomenon of habituation
A) is considered non-associative learning
B) can be defined as “the gradual decrease in a response to any repeatedly presented noxious stimulus”
C) can only be fully established as having occurred in a given situation once one has addressed the learning/performance distinction
D) occurs in a simpler form in simple organisms like Aplysia
E) Two of the above

Answer 37

E) Two of the above

Question 38

The reason LTP is “long term” relates to
A) The fact that memories made in the hippocampus often last a long time
B) The fact that is change in an EPSP to which it refers can last a long time
C) The fact that the shape of the EPSP is elongated, thereby allowing the potentiated neurons to remain depolarized for a longer time
D) Two of the above
E) None of the above

Answer 38

B) The fact that is change in an EPSP to which it refers can last a long time

Question 39

The key cellular difference between short term and long term memory in both habituation and sensitization involves
A) A structural change in the neurons
B) Ca++ ions
C) K+ ions
D) A change in the number of synaptic vesicles in key sensory-motor synapses
E) None of the above

Answer 39

A) A structural change in the neurons

Question 40

The study of memory in Aplysia as we have described it in class clearly relates to which of the 4 C’s?
A) Connection
B) Compartmentalization
C) Cognition
D) Consolidation
E) Two of the above

Answer 40

E) Two of the above

Question 41

The scientist who first proposed that the strength of a synapse might increase by repeated activation of the synapse was
A)Cajal
B) Tolman
C) Hebb
D) Bliss and Lomo

Answer 41

C) Hebb

Question 42

The example Dr. Cahill used in class to illustrate how good science
understands that scientists have biases, hence is built to reduce or
eliminate the effects of those biases, involved

A) The use of a microscope
B) drug injections
C) connection (one of the 4 C’s)
D) EEG
E) None of the above

Answer 42

B) drug injections

Question 43

The fact that van Leewenhoek, using his newly invented microscope,
thought he had discovered tiny little animals, not single-celled
organisms, that he called “animacules” illustrates

A) That techniques may be necessary, but not sufficient for new
scientific understanding

B) That reductionistic methods are more powerful than synthetic methods to
advance scientific understanding

C) That the brain does not work like a wax tablet, as Socrates said.

D) None of the above

Answer 43

A) That techniques may be necessary, but not sufficient for new
scientific understanding

Question 44

Among the methods, or “tools in the toolbox,” scientists can use to
learn about brain and memory, which is the most superior?

A) In general, the newer methods

B) In general, the more expensive methods

C) In general, the most technologically sophisticated methods

D) Methods currently referred to as “cutting edge”

E) Three of the above

F) None of the above

Answer 44

F) None of the above

Question 45

The fact that through his research Cajal believed that brains contain
separate cells, while Golgi through his research maintained the
“reticulum” concept of brain structure, best illustrates which concept?

A) The fact that the brain is not like a wax tablet, as Socrates claimed

B) That the organ of our mind is the brain, no matter whether we disagree
about how the brain works

C) That a technique may be necessary, but not sufficient for scientific
advancement

D) That reductionism is no more important than is synthesis to scientific
advancement

Answer 45

C) That a technique may be necessary, but not sufficient for scientific
advancement

Question 46

Which of the following were NOT among the insights generated by
Ebbinghaus from his 1885 paper “Uber das Gedachtnis?”

A) That memory can be quantified, hence studied scientifically

B) That massed practice creates better learning than does distributed
practice

C) That forgetting is not linear, but exponential

D) That sleep can enhance memory

E) None of the above (i.e. all of the above are among insights generated by Ebbinghaus’ paper)

Answer 46

B) That massed practice creates better learning than does distributed
practice

Question 47

All of the aboveThe key debate between Galvani and Volta concerned

A) Whether the heart or the brain was the organ of the mind

B) Whether the cortex or the ventricles were the key to brain function

C) Whether Galen’s or Vesalius’s view of brain anatomy was more accurate

D) Whether the frog leg preparation or the Voltaic pile were better methods
for understanding whether animals contained electricity

E) None of the above

Answer 47

E) None of the above

Question 48

Which of the following were methods used by Pavlov to control
variability in his experiments?

A) A building in which his experiments were conducted with very thick walls

B) Using dogs as his experimental subjects instead of cats as Thorndike
chose to do.

C) Having the testing rooms physically isolated as best he could from the
building housing them

D) Two of the above

E) All of the above

Answer 48

D) Two of the above