b6.4

Question 1

1. What did the evolution of a larger brain do?

Answer 1

-it gave early humans a better chance of survival

Question 2

2. What is a mammal’s brain like and what can it do?

Answer 2

• a complex brain of billions of neurons

- allows learning by experience, including social behaviour

Question 3

3. What happens in the brain during development?

Answer 3

-the interaction between mammals and their environment results in neuron pathways forming in the brain

Question 4

4. What is learning the result of?

Answer 4

-experience
-certain (strengthened through repetition) pathways in the brain become more likely to transmit impulses than others
¬-new neuron pathways form and other neuron pathways are lost (most unused ones are lost at about 10)

Question 5

5. Why many some skills be learnt through repetition?

Answer 5

-because pathways the nerve impulse travels down become strengthened= become more likely to transmit impulses than others

Question 6

6. How easy is it for complex animals and simple animals to adapt to situations?

Answer 6

• complex= easier (more potential pathways in brain)

- simple= harder (less potential pathways in brain)

Question 7

6. Why can complex animals adapt to new situations?

Answer 7

-because of the variety of potential pathways in the brain

Question 8

7. What is the development of some skills suggested to be dependant on?

Answer 8

-age

Question 9

7. What is an example of a skill we think only develops at a certain age?

Answer 9

• talking is dependent on hearing people speak

- if haven’t learnt to talk by ten probably wont

Question 10

7. What is the evidence for some skills only developing at a certain age (like talking)?

Answer 10

• feral child of 12 couldn’t learn to speak

- feral child of 8 could learn a small range of vocabulary

Question 11

8. What is memory?

Answer 11

• the storage and retrieval of information

- (store= learn)

Question 12

9. What can memory be divided into?

Answer 12

-short-term memory and long-term memory

Question 13

9. What is short term memory?

Answer 13

-seconds to hours (and in the moment)

Question 14

9. What is long term memory?

Answer 14

-days months or years

Question 15

10. When are humans more likely to remember information?

Answer 15

• if they can see a pattern in it (or impose a pattern on it)
• if there is repetition of the information, especially over an extended period of time
• if there is a strong stimulus associated with it, including colour, light, smell, or sound

Question 16

11. What can be used to describe memory? What is an example of this?

Answer 16

-models, e.g. the multi-store model

Question 17

11. What does the multi-store model show?

Answer 17

• information paid attention to gets temperately stored in short term memory
• if this information is repeated, it goes into long term memory and is stored, if not it is forgotten
• information from long term memory can be retrieved back into short term memory and used

Question 18

12. Do we have any model that shows completely how memory works?

Answer 18

-no, models are limited in explaining how memory works