State Dependence

Question 1

What is this?
To influence performance, learned information must be remembered
Some memories survive long intervals
Some memories are short-lived

Answer 1

Facts

Question 2

What is this?
Trace decay theory of forgetting
Interference theory of forgetting

Answer 2

Theories

Question 3

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
First experimental investigations of memory
Desired to study formation of original associations
Nonsense syllables (CVC)
Sequence of them would not have pre-existing associations
Therefore, serial learning task
Used himself as a participant (n=1)

What is this called?

Answer 3

The forgetting curve

Question 4

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909) developed the method of what to remember what he had learned, and calculated how much savings he had a day before?

Answer 4

Method of savings: Ebbinghaus forgetting curve

Forgetting initially rapid
Then levels off

Question 5

This is known as which type of Forgetting conditioning in rats:

Conditioned suppression of licking procedure
Rat will stop drinking water when cs is presented as they think the shock will come after
Irrespective of US intensity, hardly any forgetting after 60 days

If rat continues to drink, then their fear is low towards anticipated shock

As shock became more intense, it became a larger suppression toward drinking

memory traces can last as long as 60 days post training, they remembered the tone was paired with the shock

Answer 5

Forgetting in rats – excitatory conditioning

Question 6

Forgetting can be reduced by a?

Answer 6

a reminder
We can jog memories and improve memories

Avoidance learning procedure (CS>shock)
Relatively high latencies show forgetting tested 3 days later
Memory performance improved by a reminder (apparatus and CS exposure) 24 hr or 10 min prior to test

When investigators gave a reminder of fear before testing the rats showed higher fear on the day of the test

Question 7

This is known as which type of Forgetting conditioning in rats:

Fear conditioning procedures with shock US: B is excitatory CS, X is the trained inhibitor (Hendersen, 1978)
NB different calculation of suppression level

So, in a more complex learning situation, some forgetting seen within 35 days

Answer 7

Forgetting in rats – inhibitory conditioning

Question 8

Which type of theory is this:

Information storage is reflected by physical changes in the brain, and in the absence of rehearsal these memory traces become weaker with the passage of time
Describes well the forgetting curve
It is simple
Assumes that forgetting is equal to memory erasure
If a trace “disappears” (or weakens), then the memory is not there
Fails to explain the effect of reminders

Answer 8

Trace decay theory

Question 9

Forgetting can be reduced by a reminder:

Krechevsky maze

Rapid learning seen by decrease in number of errors
- see how many errors the rat makes when entering new compartments
As training progresses, number of errors decreases
=Rapid learning seen by decrease in number of errors.

Forgetting when tested 25 days later

What did findings show when:
Also presented Extra-maze cues
(i.e., context, 10, 30, 90, or 300 secs of exposure to the reminder)?

Answer 9

Found:
Memory performance restored by a reminder of 90 secs prior to test
300 sec too long reminder without reinforcement = extinguishing memories did not show much improvement (optimal amount of exposure to retrieve the memory)

Question 10

In humans and other animals, retention wanes with the passage of time (and also with the administration of amnesics) and this can be alleviated with a reminder:

Answer 10

Forgotten memories are not gone or erased
Retrieval failure
Attenuated with a reminder

Question 11

Which theory fails to explain the effect of reminders?

Answer 11

Trace decay theory

Question 12

Which theory is this:

Answer 12

Interference theory

Other responses may have been learned before or after the target response (proactive and retroactive interference) and this interference should be a function of similarity

Question 13

Name some of the theoretical implications of experimental observations:

Answer 13

Memories can last a lot longer than you might think if trace decay were the cause of forgetting

The fact that reminders can jog memories suggests that memories can be forgotten without necessarily having decayed

Temporary retrieval problems point to the importance of interference as a cause of forgetting

Associative learning can explain how reminders work

Question 14

What is the principles of association?

Answer 14

Post learning 2 stimuli, it is the presentation of one of these that will remind the person of the other stimulus

Stimulus A + Stimulus B =====> Thought of B
(varnish) + (staircase to bed) (sad/rejected)
After learning
Stimulus A ============> Thought of B
(varnish) (sad/rejected)

Question 15

What design is this?

Answer 15

Cross-over design

-better learning when the context was thew same in encoding and retrieval

Question 16

Varieties of reminder: Environmental context

Answer 16

Dry vs wet
Music
Odours
Children’s toys

Question 17

While learning, you also encode other stimuli. This is known as?

Answer 17

Encoding specificity
-Encoding in context provides memory triggers

Category names (e.g., animal) for word lists (e.g., cow, rat, etc.)
Effective cues enable the retrieval of items that would not be retrieved under non-cued recall conditions

Question 18

Context-dependent memory expression:
Name 3 examples

Answer 18

Spatial environment (dry vs underwater)
Odours
Music

Question 19

More retention in condition with relaxed condition with lavender and retrieval

Answer 19

True for list of words which were freely recalled

so basically, matching conditions gives the best performance

Question 20

Internal states - Induction of Mood
Hypnotsis

Used hypnosis to induce either happy (H) or sad (S) moods in their participants.
Participants learned 2 lists one following H induction and one following S induction. They were tested on both lists after either H or S induction.

Findings:

Answer 20

89% recalled list 2

better than 43% for list 1

Regardless of which mood, having the same mood facilitated the list learnt under the same state

However, performance which ended on happy was always higher than sad

Question 21

What is the term used to describe a temporary but relatively sustained and pervasive affective state, often contrasted in psychology and psychiatry with a more specific and short-term emotion ?

Answer 21

Mood

Question 22

Which type of learning involves retrieval of info regaled by drug induced states?

Answer 22

State-dependent memory

Question 23

Which type of learning is this?

Answer 23

State-dependent learning

Rats trained to escape from unavoidable shock in a T-maze
Sodium pentobarbital produced ‘dissociated learning’ in rats
Seen when performance of tasks learned in the drug state does not transfer to the non-drug state
But learning can be reactivated if the drug is re-instated

Question 24

Context fear conditioning preparation (measured freezing)

Chlordiazepoxide (a benzodiazepine) was administered during extinction learning, as it happens during treatment of anxiety

Rats were conditioned and then experienced extinction (or not) drugged.

Rats were tested both sober and with the drug (on separate days)

This is an example of which type of training?

Answer 24

State dependent extinction

Drug alone does not extinguish fear

Question 25

State-dependent due to intracerebral inactivation
-state induced by intracranial manipulation

Nucleus reuniens (RE) is a midline thalamic nucleus that interconnects the mPFC with the hippocampus

Context fear conditioning in rats
Inactivation (Muscimol) of RE
Train (A) Test (A and B)
SAL SAL
SAL MUS
MUS SAL
MUS MUS

Train in Context A, and tested in Contexts A (target) and B (generalization)

some rats had inactivation while in training some didn’t
Findings showed:

Answer 25

Nucleus reuniens (RE) is where memory sits

Question 26

(non-alcoholic) subjects can’t remember, when sober, what happened when drunk. May remember when next drunk

marijuana produced a … effect when no (external) cues to recall were available

amphetamine ineffective (but paired associate task!)
amphetamine did result in … (free recall task, drawing geometric shapes)

These are examples of which type of memory studies?

Answer 26

State-dependent memory: Human studies

Question 27

Classic experiment: Eich et al (1975)
Effect of marijuana by task

Cued recall gives a higher performance outcome compared to …

Answer 27

Free recall

Question 28

Name varieties of reminders:

Answer 28

Barbiturate
Alcohol
Amphetamine
Marijuana
Antihistamine
Mood

Question 29

Is State-dependency unreliable?
Overshadowing effects

88% studies showing evidence for state-dependent effects used in which type of tasks but not in which type of tasks?

Answer 29

88% shown in free recall tasks

90% not shown in cued recall or recognition tests

Question 30

Overshadowing effects of State-dependency:

State-dependent effects are consistent and reproducible only when contextual cues are not?

Answer 30

Not overshadowed by more explicit reminders
(eg. cued or recognition recall).

-Suggests internal state more important cue in the absence of ‘observable’ retrieval cues

Question 31

Is State-dependency unreliable?
Overshadowing effects

Is State-dependency is present in which type of recall task?

Answer 31

Free recall

Question 32

Summary

Answer 32

Trace decay theory of forgetting can’t explain recovered memories
This has led some to argue that memory retrieval is important as is memory encoding (i.e., learning).

Experimental studies confirm that we can later remember something which we earlier seem to have forgotten

Learning doesn’t happen in a vacuum: Memories are embedded with cues during encoding which determine later retrieval

This is what context-dependent memory tells us about learning