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***PSYCH 275- Brain & Behaviour > Chapter 9 - Learning > Flashcards

Chapter 9 - Learning Flashcards

1
Q

What is neuroplasticity?

A

Potential for physical or chemical change

Enhances our nervous systems adaptability

Brains change as we develop as we encounter things in our environments

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2
Q

What is learning?

What is memory?

A

Learning:
- enduring CHANGE in an organisms behaviour as a result of experience
- need to be able to OBSERVE changes to conclude learning has taken place

Memory:
- ability to RECALL or recognize PREVIOUS experience
- mental representation
- engram (memory trace): physical change in brain connected to that mental representation

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3
Q

How do we define behaviour?

Behaviourist VS cognitive psychologist…

A

Behaviourist:
- OVERT (external) actions
- “anything a person/animal does that can be measured” - Skinner

Cognitive psychologist:
- OVERT & COVERT (internal, hidden) actions
- thoughts and feelings

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4
Q

Why is it hard to study learning?

A

Complicated

Can include:
- making a response
- NOT making a response

Learning creates CHANGE in behaviour, but behaviour can CHANGE for other REASONS TOO

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5
Q

What “isn’t” learning?

A

Changes in bodily state (thirst, hunger, drugs etc)

Change in environment (temp, light levels)

Fatigue (slower, less strong, delayed)

Maturation (growing stronger, taller)

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6
Q

How can we study learning?

A

Experimentation (usually in lab)

Allows for CONTROL of the environmental stimuli

Compare behaviour b/w 2 groups (experimental & control groups)

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7
Q

Why have complicated experiments?

A

Many studies done w/ non-human animals

Allows us to COMPARE abilities and pathways b/w related species

When working w/ a species that can’t tell us what they know/remember, we need a different way (design experiment) - behave one way in one condition, diff way in the other

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8
Q

Define conditioning, association and acquisition…

A

Conditioning:
- learning
- conditioned = learned

Association:
- learned link b/w things

Acquisition:
- process of learning an association
- acquiring a link b/w things

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9
Q

What is Pavlovian conditioning?

A

Respondent conditioning, classical conditioning

Unlearned behaviours become ASSOCIATED w/ previously neutral stimuli

Learning relationships b/w events allows us to predict occurance of an event

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10
Q

What is the unconditioned stimulus (US)

A

Biologically significant stimulus that already has a RESPONSE w/ it

Ex) food, or pain

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11
Q

What is the unconditioned response (UR)?

A

Response NATURALLY associated w/ the unconditioned stimulus

Ex) salivation

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12
Q

What is the neutral stimulus (NS)?

A

A stimulus that does NOT elicit a response

Ex) tone, chime or bell

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13
Q

What is the conditioned stimulus (CS)?

A

Previously NEUTRAL stimulus that comes to ELICIT a CONDITIONED response

Ex) tone, chime or bell

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14
Q

What is the conditioned response (CR)?

A

LEARNED response to an ENVIRO stimulus

Ex) salivation, startle

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15
Q

What are fear conditioning mechanisms?

A

Neural circuits in the CEREBELLUM mediate most forms of stimulus-response learning

Fear is EMOTIONAL response —> produces activation in amygdala

Eyeblink/fear conditioning are Pavlovian conditioning processes, DIFFERENT BRAIN AREAS mediate learning

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16
Q

What is operant conditioning?

A

Instrumental conditioning

Learning controlled by the CONSEQUENCES of the organisms BEHAVIOUR (learn the association —> response —> spec consequence)

Learning that our actions can make a CERTAIN EVENT occur in the environment through experience

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17
Q

What is thorndike’s law of effect?

Give example

A

“If a response, in the presence of a stimulus, is followed by a satisfying state of affairs, the bond b/w stimulus and response will be strengthened”

SATISFACTION = stamping in

DISCOMFORT = stamping out

Ex) hungry cats and puzzle box
- incremental learning

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18
Q

What is the 3-term contingency?

A

Stimulus (green light)—> response(go)—> outcome(get to work)

Stimulus(red light)—> response(go)—> outcome(get ticket)

**STIMULUS USUALLY CALLED ANTECEDENT
**RESPONSE SOMETIMES CALLED BEHAVIOUR
***OUTCOME SOMETIMES CALLED CONSEQENCE

ABC

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19
Q

What are operant conditioning mechanisms?

Is operant learning localized?

A

Is NOT localized to any particular BRAIN CIRCUIT

Necessary circuits vary w/ TASK requirements

20
Q

What is implicit memory (procedural memory)?

A

UNCONCIOUS MEMORY

Unintentional demonstration of memory

Ex) display skill, conditioned response

4 types:
- procedural
- priming
- conditioning
- habituation

21
Q

What is explicit memory (declarative memory)?

A

CONCIOUS MEMORY

Intentional demonstration of knowledge

Ex) know a name, recite fact

2 types:
- semantic (knowledge of fact)
- episodic (“episode” remember the day you learned that fact)

22
Q

What does short-term memory include?

A

Info held in MEMORY only briefly, then discarded

Involves FRONTAL LOBE

Sensory, motor and cognitive

23
Q

What does long-term memory include?

A

Info held in MEMORY INDEFINITELY, perhaps for lifetime

Involves TEMPORAL LOBE

Still actively uses frontal lobe

Explicit (concious), implicit (unconcious), emotional (conscious & unconcious)

24
Q

What is anterograde amnesia?

A

Loss of ABILITY to assimilate and retain NEW knowledge

25
Q

What is retrograde amnesia?

A

LOSS of memory for events that have happened in the PAST

26
Q

What is priming?

Give an example

A

Using a stimulus to SENSITIZE the nervous system to a later presentation of the SAME/SIMILAR stimulus

UNCONCIOUS learning

Ex) goblin figure test
- fading in figures of dogs - how soon do you recognize the dog?
- different if you’ve already seen the dog image before
- amnesic subjects show improvement on this test

27
Q

What are learned actions?

A

Testing for IMPROVEMENTS in MOTOR actions

Ex) pursuit-rotor task

28
Q

How do we encode and process memories in the brain?

(Implicit VS explicit)

A

Implicit info:
- processed in a BOTTOM-UP or data-driven manner
- info is encoded in the SAME way it was perceived
Ex) seen fruit you’ve never seen before, particular colour and shape = may be this this kind of fruit

Explicit:
- processed in TOP-DOWN or conceptually-driven manner
- subject recognizes info BEFORE it is encoded
- don’t have to store every detail, just major details
- general ideas —> filling in gaps
- may have errors in recall ^
Ex) think about self in classroom, do you “see” yourself doing this task

29
Q

What did Jeffery Binder and colleagues say how memory are stored?

A

Meta-analysis of 120 fMRI semantic memory studies

Evidence for network of 7 diff left-hemisphere regions (parietal lobe, temporal lobe, prefrontal cortex, posterior cingulate cortex)

NOT ALL regions active at once when a semantic memory is stored

***SUBREGIONS SPECIALIZED for spec object characteristics/types of knowledge

30
Q

How are memories stored?

A

Identified network similar to “default network”

Issue b/c activity during REST is similar to activity during COGNITVE TASKS

Semantic processing constitutes large component of cognitive activity even during PASSIVE states

31
Q

What are episodic or autobiographical memory?

A

Memory for EVENTS/EPISODES we have experienced
- what we did, who was there, where we where etc…
- linked to spec place and time contexts
- not super spec —> broad contexts

Involves VENTROMEDIAL PREFRONTAL CORTEX (vmPFC) and HIPPOCAMPUS and pathways b/w them

32
Q

What happened to K.C (loss of personal memory)?

A

Suffered SEVERE TRAMATIC brain injury —> produced multiple cortical & subcortical lesions

Cognitive abilities and short-term memory was NOT affected

Episodic covering his entire life from birth was DAMAGED

***Could remember his date of birth just not any celebrations he had for it

Showed:
1. Our episodic and semantic memories are DIFFERENT systems
2. Explicit memories are DIFFERENT from our short-term memories
3. Loss of episodic memory DOES NOT MEAN loss of cognitive memory

33
Q

What happens when the hippocampus is damaged?

A

Hippocampus injury = associated with POOR EPISODIC memory

Reduced hippocampal activity during episodic memory VS controls (impaired episodic memory)

Increased vmPFC activity during memory retrieval as a result partial compensation for hippocampal dysfunction

34
Q

What is superior autobiographical memory?

A

HSAM

Show superior PERSONAL MEMORIES, but not superior cognitive fxn (still succeptable to false memories)

INCREASED grey matter in temporal/parietal lobes

INCREASED connectivity b/w temporal/frontal lobes

35
Q

What are dissociating memory circuits?

A

Karl Ashley searched unsuccessfully for the NEURAL CIRCUITS underlying memories

Severity of memory disturbance related to SIZE, not LOCATION OF INJURY

36
Q

What happened with H.M and his explicit memory?

A

After surgery he had severe amnesia lacking explicit memory

Could NOT recall anything after surgery

Despite this, he had ABOVE-AVERAGE IQ

Performed well on perceptual tests

Could recall events from childhood

Performance on implicit memory tests were intact

37
Q

What happened with J.K and implicit memory?

A

Impaired implicit memory w/ intact explicit memory

Developed Parkinson’s disease in mid-70s —> memory problems at 78 (damage basal ganglia)

Impaired ability to PERFORM TASKS that he had done all his life

Could still recall EXPLICIT events

38
Q

What are the primary structures for explicit memory?

A

Medial temporal region
- entrohinal cortex (integration, receives from parahippocampal/perirhinal cortices)
- parahippocampal cortex (visuospatial processing, connections from parietal cortex)
- perirhinal cortex (visual object memory, receives from ventral stream)

  • hippocampus
  • amygdala

Prefrontal cortex

***Move from hippocampus, entrohinal out to cortex etc….

39
Q

What is the hippocampus?

A

Organisms w/ good visuospatial memory have LARGER hippocampi

Lesions to hippocampus IMPAIRS ability to learn VISUOSPATIAL INFO

Ex) visual-recognition, object-position tasks

Ex) think of chickadees they have this high visuospatial memory if they are food-storing

40
Q

What are some spatial cells in hippocampal formation?

A
  1. Place cells:
    - discharge when rats are in a SPATIAL location, regardless of orientation
  2. Head direction cells:
    - ^^^ head POINTS in a PARTICULAR DIRECTION
  3. Grid cells:
    - ^^^ discharge at many locations, forming VIRTUAL GRID invariant to changes in a rates DIRECTION, MOVEMENT OR SPEED

***can track where they are based off this neural activity

41
Q

What are reciprocal connections?

A

Neocortex projects to entorhinal cortex, projects back to neocortex

Signals from medial temporal regions —> cortical brain regions =keep sensory experience ALIVE in the brain

Pathway back to neocortex means it is kept APPRAISED of the info processed in the medial temporal regions

Frontal lobes role in explicit memory is SUBTLER than the medial temporal lobe
***IMPORTANT CAUSE IT BRINGS THAT INFO FORWARD

42
Q

Do all sensory systems project to frontal lobes?

A

Yes

43
Q

What happens with the frontal lobe and short-term memory?

A

During tasks in which monkeys must keep info in short-term memory over a DELAY, certain cells in frontal cortex will FIRE throughout the DELAY

Animals who have NOT learned the task show NO such cell activity

44
Q

What is the neural circuit for explicit memories?

A

Sensory and motor neocortical areas CONNECT to medial temporal regions

Basal forebrain structures maintain appropriate activity levels in other forebrain structures

Temporal lobe CENTRAL to long-term explicit memory formation

Prefrontal cortex CENTRAL to maintaining temporary (short-term) explicit memories and memory for the recency (chronological order) of explicit events

***Starts sensory motor info—> rest of neocortex’s —> cortical —> medial thalamus —> activating systems —> prefrontal cortex

Double ended arrows EVERYWHERE

45
Q

What is consolidation of explicit memories?

A

“Stabilizing” a memory trace after learning

Memories move from HIPPOCAMPUS —> diffuse regions in NEOCORTEX (once these move hippocampus no longer needed)

When memory is replayed in MIND, it is open to further consolidation (reconsolidation)
- time goes on —> memories LESS reliable

46
Q

What is the unconcious nature of implicit memory?

What role does the basal ganglia have in this?

A

Mishkin believes IMPLICIT memories are UNCONCIOUS b/c connections b/w basal ganglia and neocortex are UNIDIRECTIONAL (does not project back)

For memories to be CONSCIOUS, there must be FEEDBACK to the CORTEX (medial temporal lobe projects back = explicit memories are conscious)
——————————————————————————————
Basal ganglia receive input from NEOCORTEX —> send projections to VENTRAL THALAMUS —> then to PREMOTOR CORTEX

Receives projections from dopamine-producing cells in SUBSTANTIAL NIGRA

***DOPAMINE APPEARS TO BE NEEDED FOR BASAL GANGLIA CIRCUITS TO FXN —> IMPLICIT MEMORY FORMATION?

47
Q

What is the neural circuit for emotional memory?

A

Memory for the AFFECTIVE properties of stimuli or events

Can be IMPLICIT/EXPLICIT

Amygdala is the KEY structure & sends projections to…
—> brainstem structures that control AUTONOMIC responses (blood pressure/heart rate)
—> hypothalamus (controls hormonal systems)
—> periaquedutal gray matter (pain perception) ex) bear attack
—> basal ganglia to tap into IMPLICIT memory system

***PSYCH 275- Brain & Behaviour (9 decks)

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