Cognition II Flashcards
1
Q
Intentional learning:
(part of encoding memory)
A
purposefully memorizing information, like a vocabulary list of medical terms or an anatomical atlas.
2
Q
Incidental learning:
(part of encoding memory)
A
learning that occurs unintentionally through everyday experience; e.g., early language learning; learning basic facts about the world (“the sky is blue”).
3
Q
Operant and classical conditioning differ in that classical conditioning:
A.can convert a neutral stimulus into a conditioned one.
B.involves rewarding unconditioned responses to increase the frequency that they are performed.
C.is a type of associative learning.
D.was pioneered by B. F. Skinner.
A
A. can convert a neutral stimulus into a conditioned one.
A is correct. Classical conditioning involves involuntary actions, while operant conditioning involves conscious, voluntary ones. Specifically, classical conditioning pairs a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned one, like pairing the ringing of a bell with the presentation of food. Over time, the neutral stimulus becomes “conditioned” and elicits the same response as the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., dogs begin salivating when the bell is rung).
B.involves rewarding unconditioned responses to increase the frequency that they are performed.
Operant, not classical, conditioning focuses on rewards and punishments. In addition, unconditioned responses occur naturally and would not need to be rewarded.
C.is a type of associative learning.
Both operant and classical conditioning are types of associative learning.
D.was pioneered by B. F. Skinner.
Operant, not classical, conditioning was introduced by B. F. Skinner, who performed experiments in his famed “Skinner boxes.”
4
Q
What type of conditioning is a type of associative learning?
A
Both operant and classical conditioning are types of associative learning!!!
5
Q
Which of the following type(s) of learning would NOT be categorized as associative?
I. Operant conditioning
II. Sensitization
III. Classical conditioning
IV. Extinction learning
A
A.II only
In associative learning, a connection is formed between multiple distinct stimuli or between a stimulus and a response. Operant and classical conditioning are classic examples of this form of learning. Sensitization is a phenomenon in which repeated exposures to the same stimulus provoke increased responses. Like its opposite, habituation, it is a type of non-associative learning (II).
B.
IV only
Extinction learning is not a type of learning at all (IV).
6
Q
information processing model of cognition
A
A model of cognition that equates the mind to a computer and emphasizes three major components.
Sensory registration: Incoming sensory information is received and salient information is selected and transferred to working memory for further processing.
Short-term memory or working memory: Salient sensory information is manipulated and combined with information stored in long-term memory in the service of solving a problem; information stored in working memory may be transferred to long-term memory or else it is discarded.
Long-term memory: Useful information may be transferred from working memory to long-term memory so that it can be retrieved and used again at a later date.
7
Q
Sensory registration
A
Sensory registration: Incoming sensory information is received and salient information is selected and transferred to working memory for further processing.
8
Q
Short-term memory or working memory
A
Salient sensory information is manipulated and combined with information stored in long-term memory in the service of solving a problem; information stored in working memory may be transferred to long-term memory or else it is discarded.
- like phoen number say to yourselve over and over again, have in mind working memory for a little while, or if important phone number hold onto longer and longer go into long term memory, versus wokrin gmemory doesnt stick beyond the moment
- sensory information is dealt with in an active way
9
Q
Long-term memory
A
Long-term memory: Useful information may be transferred from working memory to long-term memory so that it can be retrieved and used again at a later date.
10
Q
intelligence
A
General intelligence (g): associated with performance on a range of tasks (historical idea, credited to Charles Spearman).
Crystallized intelligence: knowledge accumulated over a lifetime.
Think Crystal RHOBH, related to confucious who believed in different lives…
Fluid intelligence: strategies for solving with novel problems.
Fluid aka novel idea for fluid gender, all novel things
11
Q
Measuring intelligence:
A
Intelligence quotient (IQ) = (mental age/chronological age) × 100.
Normalized so that mean = 100 and SD = 10.
Performance depends on some combination of verbal ability, processing speed, reasoning skills, and spatial processing, as well as cultural factors.
12
Q
Reliability—
A
Does testing and re-testing yield the same results?—tends to be relatively high for IQ tests.
if done again and again it works
13
Q
Validity
A
Does the test measure what it was designed to measure?; is more controversial due to influence of cultural factors, poverty, and other theories of intelligence.
Example: Wechlser Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS), normal distribution with a mean score of 100.
Other examples: Stanford-Binet Test, Raven’s Progressive Matrices.
14
Q
The Flynn Effect
A
IQ scores in all regions of the world have been steadily increasing since the 1940s, presumably due to better nutrition, health care, education, etc.
15
Q
Other forms of intelligence:
A
Practical intelligence: problem solving skills in the real world.
Tacit knowledge: practical skills learned through day-to-day experience.
Theory of multiple intelligences: linguistic, logical/mathematical, spatial, musical, kinetic, and personal (Howard Gardner).
–>there are 8 of them but whatever there are multiple intelligences*
Emotional intelligence: ability to understand emotions in oneself and in others; ability to control one’s own emotions and delay gratification.
16
Q
Habituation**
A
- A simple form of learning that occurs when repeated presentation of a stimulus elicits decreased responsiveness to that stimulus.
- E.g., a loud bang in a neighbor’s apartment may elicit a startle response, but with repeated banging, the individual will no longer startle (“someone must be working with a hammer”).
17
Q
Dishabituation
A
When a change in the environment elicits increased responsiveness to a stimulus.
You may not notice the humming sound of your air conditioner, until it suddenly starts making an unfamiliar, buzzing sound, and in response, you might check whether it’s broken.
18
Q
associative learning
A
The process of learning an association between two stimuli in the environment or between a stimulus and a behavioral response.
Includes classical conditioning and operant conditioning.
19
Q
Classical conditioning
A
Classical conditioning: learning an association between two stimuli.
Famous example: Pavlov’s dogs learned that a ringing bell was always followed by the presentation of food.
Initially, they salivated only in response to the food; after learning, they salivated in response to the bell, even in the absence of food.
20
Q
Definitions in Classical Conditioning!
A
An unconditioned stimulus (US) triggers an unconditioned response (UR) without any training; e.g., food (US) → salivation (UR).
A neutral stimulus (NS) does not trigger any response prior to training; e.g., bell (NS) → no response before training.
A conditioned stimulus (CS) triggers a conditioned response (CR) after training; e.g., bell (CS) → salivation (CR) after training.
21
Q
Learning processes in classical conditioning experiments:
A
- Acquisition
- Extinction
- Sponatenous recovery
- Discrimination
- Generalization
22
Q
Acquisition
(part of classical conditioning experiments)
A
refers to the period of the experiment when the animal is learning the CS-US association; e.g., at first, the bell (CS) elicits no salivation (CR) but over many learning trials, it begins to elicit more and more salivation until the animal salivates nearly every time it hears the bell.
23
Q
Extinction
part of classical conditioning experiments
A
If the experimenter stops giving the dog food after ringing the bell, the dog will learn that the bell is no longer associated with food and will stop salivating in response to the bell.
Extinction refers to this “unlearning” of the CS-US association.
24
Q
Spontaneous recovery
part of classical conditioning experiments.
A
Refers to the spontaneous re-appearance of the conditioned response that occurs over time after extinction learning. That is, if the experimenter returns the day after extinction learning, and re-tests the animal, the animal will usually salivate in response to the bell on some (but not all) trials.
25
Discrimination
part of classical conditioning experiments
An animal can learn to distinguish between two stimuli and respond differently to them; e.g., an animal can learn that a high-pitched bell, but not a low-pitched bell, is associated with food, and it will salivate only in response to the high-pitched bell.
26
Generalization
part of classical conditioning
A stimulus that is similar to the conditioned stimulus will tend to elicit the conditioned response; e.g., a bell-like tone might also elicit salivation.
27
Operant (or instrumental) conditioning
Learning an association between a novel behavior and a positive or negative outcome.
For example: A lab rat can learn to press a lever in a maze to receive a food reward.
Contrasts with classical conditioning.
28
definitions in operant conditioning
Operant: the behavioral response (e.g., pressing the lever).
Reinforcement: an action in response to an animal’s behavior that increases the likelihood of the behavior occurring in future trials (e.g., pressing the lever → receiving food).
Positive reinforcement: when a reward is delivered for performing the desired behavior.
Negative reinforcement: when a negative item is removed in response to the animal performing the desired behavior.
Positive punishment: a negative consequence for a behavior occurs (i.e., an electric shock).
Negative punishment: a desirable thing is withheld or taken away as a consequence of a behavior (i.e., the animal is not given a treat).
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Types of reinforcers:
Primary reinforcer: intrinsically rewarding; e.g., food, water.
Conditional reinforcer: not intrinsically rewarding but they are associated with something that is; e.g., money.
30
Punishment
part of operant conditioning
=an action in response to an animal’s behavior that is intended to decrease the likelihood of the behavior occurring in future trials.
**Positive punishment:** when an unpleasant stimulus is introduced in response to the undesired behavior.
+ INTRODUCING SOMETHING
**Negative punishment:** when a pleasant stimulus is taken away in response to the undesired behavior.
- TAKING AWAY SOMETHING
- teaches an animal to associate a good or bad outcome with its own behavior, good or bad positive punishment/ negative punishment
- is this a positive reinforcement is it a negative punishment etc
31
Shaping
**_operant conditioning learning responses_**
**Shaping= “encouraging” or “coaching” the lab rat to perform the behavior (e.g., lever pressing) by rewarding actions that are increasingly similar to the desired behavior.**
• For example, the rat could be rewarded for walking near the lever, then touching the lever, the gentling pressing on the lever, and finally fully pressing the lever.
32
Extinction
As with classical conditioning, if the experimenter stops rewarding the animal for pressing the lever, then over time, the animal will stop pressing the lever.
--\>learning processes in operant conditioning
33
Reinforcement schedules:
Fixed-interval
Rewards are delivered only after a fixed amount of time has elapsed; e.g., the animal is rewarded for pressing the lever once every five minutes (but not more frequently).
34
Variable-interval
Variable-interval: The precise timing is unpredictable, but on average, the animal is rewarded for pressing the lever once every five minutes.
35
Fixed-ratio
another reinforcement schedule for operant conditioning
A **fixed number of responses** is required to get the reward; e.g., food is delivered after every third lever press.
36
Variable-ratio
another kind of reinforcement schedule
Variable-ratio: **The number of responses required** to receive a reward changes from trial to trial; e.g., on average, an animal might be rewarded five times for every twenty lever presses, but the precise timing is unpredictable.
37
Escape and avoidance learning
**= when an animal is trained not to do something.**
• For example: a dog can be trained to avoid jumping on the bed by scolding the dog (a negative reinforcer) whenever it jumps on the bed.
38
Instinctual drift
Behaviors learned through conditioning can be replaced over time by instinctual behavior (i.e., instinctual behavior related to food).
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Cognitive factors that influence associative learning:
Cognitive factors that influence associative learning:
**• Expectations and surprise:** An animal may learn an association more quickly when there is a violation of expectations.
**• For example, extinction learning often occurs more quickly than acquisition learning because during extinction learning, the animal has already learned to expect a food reward after pressing a lever and is “surprised” when it does not receive one.**
40
Contingency:
part of cognitive factors that influence associative learning:
Contingency: **An animal will learn an association between a ringing bell (CS) and food (US) quickly because the bell provides useful information about the delivery of the food.**
**Contingency = the bell rings only when food is about to be delivered and food delivery is always preceded by the ringing bell.**
In contrast, even though there may be other odors in the room where the food is being delivered, the animal will not salivate in response to these odors because they occur when food is both present and absent → they do not provide useful information about the delivery of the food.
41
Behavioral contrast
part of cognitive factors that influence associative learning:
During learning, animals evaluate and respond to the relative value of a reward with respect to other rewards that were recently available.
For example, learning to press a lever to receive a food reward may occur more quickly when the animal is hungry because there was no food available all day.
However, even an animal that has recently eaten could be motivated to learn the task by increasing the value of the food reward.
42
Biological factors that influence associative learning:
1. Innate behaviors are biologically determined, do not require learning, and appear automatically at predictable times during development/maturation.
2. Simple reflex: a simple response (usually involving just one muscle group) to a specific stimulus; e.g., the knee jerk reflex.
3. Fixed action pattern: a sequence of instinctual behaviors that are performed in response to a specific stimulus (the releaser).
4. The behaviors are fixed in that they are carried out in exactly the same way and always to completion.
- Example: Ethologist Niko Tinbergen showed that when a goose encounters an egg or egg-like object next to their nest, it will instinctively roll the egg back to the nest using its beak.
- Nest building is another example.
43
Learned behaviors
Learned behaviors are modified based on experiences; in contrast to simple reflexes, fixed action patterns, and imprinting, associative learning is sensitive to reinforcement and will extinguish if the behavior is no longer rewarded.
44
Development of learned behaviors:
* **Imprinting:** a form of learning that is biologically programmed to occur at a specific developmental stage of life and does not require reinforcement (i.e., no reward necessary).
* Example: Ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed that ducklings learn to identify the first moving object they see after hatching as their mother and will follow that object around thereafter.
* **Critical period:** Imprinting can only occur during a specific window of time, e.g., shortly after birth; if the ducklings do not encounter a mother-like object within the first few hours after birth, imprinting will not occur.
* Other learned behaviors are not restricted to a critical period, but they depend on other developmental processes.
* Example: birds cannot learn to fly and babies cannot learn to walk until they reach a particular age, because prior to that age, the muscles and the nerves that innervate them are not sufficiently developed to enable flying or walking.
45
imprinting
Development of learned behaviors:
* Imprinting: a form of learning that is biologically programmed to occur at a specific developmental stage of life and does not require reinforcement (i.e., no reward necessary).
* Example: Ethologist Konrad Lorenz showed that ducklings learn to identify the first moving object they see after hatching as their mother and will follow that object around thereafter.
46
Critical period:
(part of development of learned behaviors)
**Critical period:** Imprinting can only occur during a specific window of time, e.g., shortly after birth; if the ducklings do not encounter a mother-like object within the first few hours after birth, imprinting will not occur.
- Other learned behaviors are not restricted to a critical period, but they depend on other developmental processes.
- Example: birds cannot learn to fly and babies cannot learn to walk until they reach a particular age, because prior to that age, the muscles and the nerves that innervate them are not sufficiently developed to enable flying or walking.
47
Observational learning
**Modeling:** observational learning occurs when a child observes a role model enact a behavior and then learns to imitate this behavior.
Unlike associative learning, NO reinforcement (reward/punishment).
However, the role model must be an authority figure deemed worthy of emulation.
Instead of learning by being rewarded or punished, the child learns by observing someone else being rewarded or punished for performing the behavior.
48
famous ex of observational learning with modeling
Famous example: Albert Bandura’s Bobo boll experiment:
In this experiment, 3- to 5-year-old children observed an adult role model playing with a doll.
Some children observed the adult playing aggressively with the doll (punching it, throwing it, striking it with a toy mallet) while others observed non-aggressive play.
When the children were allowed to play with the doll by themselves, those who had observed aggressive behavior were much more likely to behave similarly than those who had not.
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Underpinnings of observational learning:
Mirror neurons: These neurons fire action potentials when a monkey performs an action (e.g., reaching for a lever) and when the monkey observes another animal perform the same action.
* Similar “mirror” activity has been observed in human fMRI studies in the premotor cortex and supplementary motor area.
Because the activity of these neurons is thought to “mirror” the activity/behavior of another animal, cognitive psychologists have hypothesized that they may be critical for observation learning, modeling, and imitation.
* May also be important for theory of mind: the ability to infer another person’s mental state.
* Role of the brain in experiencing vicarious emotions:
Human fMRI studies show that activity in the amygdala, anterior cingulate cortex, orbitofrontal cortex, and insular cortex is altered in similar ways both when someone experiences an emotion and when they observe another person experiencing that emotion.
This “emotional mirroring” may be important for sympathy, vicarious emotional processing, and theory of mind.
50
mirror neurons definition:
Mirror neurons: These neurons fire action potentials when a monkey performs an action (e.g., reachingfor a lever) and when the monkey observes another animal perform the same action.
Similar “mirror” activity has been observed in human fMRI studies in the premotor cortex and supplementary motor area.
Because the activity of these neurons is thought to “mirror” the activity/behavior of another animal, cognitive psychologists have hypothesized that they may be critical for observation learning, modeling, and imitation.
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theory of mind
May also be important for theory of mind: the ability to infer another person’s mental state.
part of observational learning
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nativist theory of language acquisition
How do children learn so much about language in so little time?
**Nativist theory of language acquisition**: asserts that a specialized capacity for language learning is hard- wired into the brain and is present at birth.
Related evidence includes:
Universal grammar: the hypothesis that all languages have a common structural framework—a system of rules that governs what is an acceptable way to formulate an expression—suggesting that language- learning is hard-wired into the brain.
Creole languages: a “hybrid” language that results when speakers of different languages live together in a society and develop a new way of communicating with each other → first generation “native” creole speakers follow new grammar rules that they did not learn from their parents.
Critical period: There is a “window” in early childhood when children can learn new languages easily but after this window closes, language learning is much more difficult.
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social interactionist theory of language acquisition:
Social interactionist theory of language acquisition: emphasizes the importance of social interaction between children and adults who have mastered a language.
• Related evidence:
1. Children attend to nonverbal cues from their parents when learning new words: e.g., if a child hears his mother say the word “dog,” he is more likely to learn it if she is looking and pointing at the dog than if she is looking at something else.
2. So-called “wild children” who were raised by animals and children who were totally deprived of social interactions fail to learn any language after re-integrating into society later in life.
54
Language affects cognition:
Whorfian hypothesis: argues that language strongly influences what kinds of thoughts we think and how we perceive the world.
Whorfian hypothesis is also called linguistic relativity hypothesis.
Famous example: The Inuit language has 300 words for snow → this may enable Inuit people to think about snow in different terms.
On the other hand, some argue that different experiences may shape both language development and how we think, without language having any direct impact on thinking.
55
Lateralization of language processing
In most people, language processing occurs primarily in the left hemisphere, but in some (especially left-handed) people, it may occur in the right hemisphere or both hemispheres.
part of neuroanatomy of language
56
Broca’s area
Broca’s area: Located in the left frontal lobe, this area is critical for productive language, i.e., speaking and writing.
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Wernicke’s area
Wernicke’s area: Located in the left superior temporal lobe, this area is critical for receptive language, i.e., listening and reading.
part of neuroanatomy of language
58
Types of aphasia or language deficits
Types of aphasia or language deficits=
Broca’s aphasia: an inability to speak resulting from damage to Broca’s area; language comprehension is intact.
Wernicke’s aphasia: an inability to comprehend language and to produce meaningful speech; patients can produce sentences fluently but the sentences don’t make sense.
Global aphasia: a combination of Broca’s and Wernicke’s.
**language processing in left hemisphere\*\*\* what would happen to Broca’s asphaia, inability to speak, Wernicke’s inability to understand**
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memory invovles at least three distant processes
Involves at least three distinct processes—encoding, storage, and retrieval.
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encoding (part of memory)
We do not record sensory inputs like a camera or Dictaphone.
Rather, encoding involves engaging the sensory information and generating a record of salient features of that information.
1. **Intentional learning:** purposefully memorizing information, like a vocabulary list of medical terms or an anatomical atlas.
2. **Incidental learning:** learning that occurs unintentionally through everyday experience; e.g., early language learning; learning basic facts about the world (“the sky is blue”).
61
Active engagement:
Active engagement: We will not memorize a list of medical vocabulary by merely staring at it; memorization requires that we attend to the list and can be facilitated by relating it to information that we already know.
part of how to facilitate encoding memory
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Maintenance rehearsal
Maintenance rehearsal: holding information briefly in mind by repeating it over and over; e.g., looking up a phone number and then rehearsing it on your way to the phone.
part of encoding memory
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Shallow processin and Deep processing
(part of how to facilitate encoding:)
Shallow processing: memorization by attending to superficial qualities of the information, like the shape or sound of a word.
Deep processing: memorization by attending to the meaning of the information.
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Deep processing
(part of how to facilitate encoding info)
Deep processing: memorization by attending to the meaning of the information.
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source monitoring
Source monitoring: remembering the source of information that was put to memory.
1. External source monitoring: discriminates between external sources of information; e.g., did Matt or Jessica tell me about a movie that they saw together?
2. Internal source monitoring: discriminates between internal sources of information; e.g., did I say that out loud or was I merely thinking about it?
3. Reality testing: discriminates between internal and external sources of information; e.g., did I actually experience something or did I merely imagine it?
• Failures of reality testing can give rise to false memories, especially during hypnosis.
(how to facilitate encoding)
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storage
Formation of a memory trace
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Sensory memory:
very short-term memory for sensory information.
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Working memory
=short-term memory for information to which you are currently attending or “working with.”
- Is either transformed into long-term memory or forgotten.
- Unlike long-term memory, working memory has a limited bandwidth:
- Limited to about seven digits.
- Can be expanded through chunking.
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Long-term memory
1. Explicit memory: memory for information that can be described and that can be tested through direct questioning.
* Includes autobiographical/episodic memory and semantic memory.
* Autobiographical/episodic memory: what happened to me yesterday.
* Semantic memory: memory for facts, “book learning.”
2. Implicit memory: memory for information that may be unconscious and cannot be described but can be tested indirectly.
* Includes procedural memory: how to ride a bike, how to swim.
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1. Explicit memory
Explicit memory: memory for information that can be described and that can be tested through direct questioning.
Includes autobiographical/episodic memory and semantic memory.
Autobiographical/episodic memory: what happened to me yesterday.
Semantic memory: memory for facts, “book learning.”
- Think how did you learn abotu anti-semitism, books and history, so semantic memory is book learning!
A KIND OF LONG TERM MEMORY
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2. Implicit memory
=memory for information that may be unconscious and cannot be described but can be tested indirectly.
Includes procedural memory: how to ride a bike, how to swim.
a kind of long term memory\*
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Role of consolidation and re-consolidation 1
Consolidation: the process by which memories that have been encoded are stabilized for long-term storage.
Psychological consolidation: refers to the unconscious, mental process of transforming newly learned information and stabilizing it for long-term storage.
Neurobiological consolidation: refers to the biological process of establishing long-term memories through changes in synapses.
Reconsolidation: every time a memory is retrieved, it must be re-stabilized for long-term storage.
Memories are prone to being forgotten until reconsolidation is complete, which means that retrieving
a memory can make actually make you more likely to forget it (counterintuitive).
Some psychotherapies for PTSD, for example, rely on reconsolidation to help people diminish the strength of intrusive, traumatic memories.
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Consolidation
Consolidation: the process by which memories that have been encoded are stabilized for long-term storage.
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Psychological consolidation
Psychological consolidation: refers to the unconscious, mental process of transforming newly learned information and stabilizing it for long-term storage.
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Neurobiological consolidation
Neurobiological consolidation: refers to the biological process of establishing long-term memories through changes in synapses.
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Reconsolidation 2
Reconsolidation: every time a memory is retrieved, it must be re-stabilized for long-term storage.
* Memories are prone to being forgotten until reconsolidation is complete, which means that retrievinga memory can make actually make you more likely to forget it (counterintuitive).
* Some psychotherapies for PTSD, for example, rely on reconsolidation to help people diminish the strength of intrusive, traumatic memories.
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semantic networks
Also called associative networks.
A way of representing knowledge about the world in terms of connections between related concepts.
**Spreading activation:** one way of retrieving information from memory that relies on connections between concepts in a semantic network.
* Facilitates memory but can also cause errors (meaning you remember the wrong object from the network).
* Question: What do cats and bears have in common? Answer: they both have fur or they are both mammals.
* Question: What do cats, bears, and whales have in common? Answer: they are all mammals; they do not all have fur.
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Recall
Recall versus recognition: a distinction analogous to free response questions versus multiple choice questions.
Recall memory: a form of retrieval that requires you to reproduce an item from memory in response to a question.
• E.g., Memorize a list of 50 words, wait 10 minutes, then reproduce as many of the words as possible from memory.
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Recognition memory
Recognition memory: a form of retrieval that requires you to decide whether you have encountered something before; depends on familiarity.
• E.g., Memorize a list of 50 words, wait 10 minutes, then read a second list of 100 words and decide which of them appeared on the first list.
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Retrieval cue
Retrieval cue: a hint that assists with retrieval of a memory.
• E.g., Memorize a list of 10 words, then reproduce the list from memory, given the first two letters of each word.
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Primacy effect
Primacy effect: The first word on a list (or slide in a lecture) tends to be more easily remembered.
Factors 1 of 5 affecting retrieval:
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Recency effect
Factors 2 of 5 affecting retrieval:
Recency effect: The most recently studied word on a list (or slide in a lecture) tends to be more easily remembered.
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Serial positioning effect =
Factors 3 of 5 affecting retrieval:
Serial positioning effect = primacy effect + recency effect.
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Tip-of-the-tongue effect
Factors 4 of 5 affecting retrieval:
Tip-of-the-tongue effect: reflects partial retrieval and can be resolved by recognition.
• E.g., Although I cannot remember the name of that brain area, I know that it starts with the letter “B” and is comes from the scientist who studied it, and I would recognize it if you said it... “Broca’s Area!”
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Spacing effect
Recall tends to be more successful if the learning was spread over time.
Factor 5 of 5 affecting retrieval
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Mnemonic devices
=techniques that people use for memorizing information.
* Most mnemonics depend on forming connections between new information and existing memories.
* Example: First-letter mnemonics: “King Phillip Came Over For Good Sushi.”
* Example: Visualization: to memorize a list of words, imagine a picture of each item.
* Example: Method of loci: to memorize a list of words, picture each item in a specific place that is familiar to you, e.g., on my desk, under my bed, in my parents’ driveway, on the dashboard on my first car, etc.
* **Eidetic memory: photographic memory (highly detailed, does not require mnemonics).**
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Emotional arousal/stress can ........
**Emotional arousal/stress can facilitate the encoding of a memory: e.g., intrusive memories in PTSD.**
* However, chronic stress or a brief stressor immediately before testing can impair recall.
**Context reinstatement:** enhancing retrieval by re-creating the state-of-mind that was present when the information was encoded.
* People who are depressed tend to remember and ruminate on sad memories.
* Can also depend on non-emotional factors: e.g., I can’t remember where I left my keys, so I re-trace my steps upon entering the house yesterday after work.
**Flashbulb memory**: detailed memory of events taking place when emotional news was received.
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context reinstatement
Context reinstatement: enhancing retrieval by re-creating the state-of-mind that was present when the information was encoded.
People who are depressed tend to remember and ruminate on sad memories.
Can also depend on non-emotional factors: e.g., I can’t remember where I left my keys, so I re-trace my steps upon entering the house yesterday after work.
(part of emotional/arousal facilitating memory recall)
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Flashbulb memory
Flashbulb memory: detailed memory of events taking place when emotional news was received.
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Forgetting
Successful retrieval tends to decrease over time after learning (forgetting curve).
Interference: Learning new information can interfere with the storage and retrieval of previously learned material (intrusion errors).
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Anterograde amnesia
an inability to form new explicit memories
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Retrograde amnesia: an inability to recall previously learned explicit memories.
Retrograde amnesia: an inability to recall previously learned explicit memories.
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Alzheimer’s disease:
Alzheimer’s disease:
Associated with the accumulation of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the hippocampus and frontal cortex.
Caused in part by genetic factors and increasingly common in old age.
Features anterograde amnesia and attention deficits initially; later includes retrograde amnesia and many other cognitive deficits.
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Korsakoff ’s syndrome:
Associated with deterioration of mammillary bodies.
Caused by long-term thiamine deficiency/malnutrition, usually due to severe, chronic alcohol abuse.
Features dense anterograde and retrograde amnesia, as well as confabulation—a tendency to unintentionally fabricate memories or distort reality, usually in response to questioning.
• E.g., “Where did you leave your car keys?”... “Car keys? I don’t own a car.”
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Other dementias....
Vascular dementia: common in old age; due to cumulative effect of many small strokes.
Dementia with Lewy bodies: a mix of memory deficits and Parkinsonian symptoms (tremors, rigidity, etc.).
Frontotemporal dementia: memory deficits and personality changes.
Huntington’s disease: an autosomal dominant genetic disorder.
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: aka “mad cow disease”; rapidly progressive and caused by prions, which may be ingested in tainted meat.
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Engrams
Engrams, the neurobiological “record” of a memory—involve changes in synaptic connections between neurons after learning: neural plasticity.
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Long-term potentiation (LTP)
=many types of learning and memory depend on changes in the “strength” of a synapse:
LTP is a long-term increase in a neuron’s response to a given stimulus from a pre-synaptic partner → the “strength” of the synapse/connection increases.
Long-term depression (LTD) is the opposite: a long-term decrease in a neuron’s response to a stimulus from a pre-synaptic partner → “weakened” synapse.
LTP usually occurs when high-frequency activity in a pre-synaptic neuron repeatedly elicits action potentials in its post-synaptic partner, while LTD is usually the result of low-frequency activity in a pre-synaptic neuron that fails to elicit action potentials in its post-synaptic partner.
Nobel Prize Sidebar: to Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, and Eric Kandel (2000) “for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system,” including Kandel’s work on the role of LTP in learning and memory.
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• Other forms of plasticity linked to learning and memory:
Presynaptic facilitation: a change in the amount of neurotransmitter that is released into a synapse.
Structural plasticity: new synapses form and some existing synapses are eliminated.
- Many excitatory synapses occur on dendritic protrusions spines.
- Spine formation and spine elimination can be observed after learning.
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Cortical reorganization
=Areas of cortex that are devoted to processing one type of information can expand or contract.
The fingertip areas of primary motor cortex and primary sensory cortex expand in expert violinists.
Areas devoted to visual processing can be “re-assigned” to processing other forms of sensory information in blind people.
During recovery from brain damage due to a stroke, other areas of healthy brain tissue can be “recruited” to substitute for the damaged area.
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Neurogenesis
New neurons form in the hippocampus throughout life and are probably important for learning (though neurogenesis probably does not occur in most other brain areas in adults).
enhances our ability to learn
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Hippocampus:
Hippocampus: critical for encoding new memories.
Especially important for episodic memory and spatial memory.
Hippocampal lesions cause deficits in forming new memories (anterograde amnesia) and can erase recently acquired memories.
Hippocampal anatomy has been studied extensively:
Information flows from the entorhinal cortex through specific areas of the hippocampus and then loops back to the entorhinal cortex.
Entorhinal cortex → dentate gyrus → CA3 → CA1 → subiculum → back to entorhinal cortex.
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Association cortex
Association cortex: critical for storing memories; many types of memory are stored initially in the hippocampus but are gradually “transferred” to cortical association areas.
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Prefrontal cortex
Prefrontal cortex: critical for retrieving memories and for working memory.
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Amygdala
Amygdala: critical for emotional memory, e.g., fear-related memory.
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Passage 1 (Questions 1-5)
Researchers interested in the memory processes of Alzheimer patients conducted a study comparing Alzheimer patients to adults with normal memory. The participants were administered a list of 21 unrelated words, at the rate of one word every three seconds. Immediately after the presentation of the last word, the participants were asked to recall as many words as they could from the list. The Alzheimer patients were 60 to 80 years of age. Participants without memory impairments were divided into three age groups: 20–39, 40–59, and 60–80. After the recall task, the participants were given a recognition task. The results of the study are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1Number of words recalled and recognized
The list of words was presented in the same order to all groups. The researchers were also interested in the percentage of total recall for words from different parts of the list. More specifically, they analyzed the percentage of each group’s recall from the beginning, middle, and end of the list. The results are presented in Figure 2. The performances of 20–39 and 40–59 year-old groups did not differ significantly and are combined into one group.
A finding that emerged from the recall task was that the participants without memory impairments retrieved words that were related to the words on the list, but had not actually appeared.
Figure 2Percentage of words recalled as a function of position in the list
Question
The finding in the last paragraph regarding the retrieval of related words supports:
A.
spreading activation.
B.
depth of processing.
C.
the serial position effect.
D.
the existence of visuospatial sketchpad.
spreading activation, when retrieving words activating a semantic network, or semantic memory becuase we tend ot remember things in clusers\* called spread of activation Q2 in sample AAMC you will put them in a semantic network in mind with other cats you know, connect in long term memory to stuff you already know, when try to remember word jaguar down the road, activation is spreading through that network, think cheetah, jaguar, when you remember new information networked int ith other information
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Q. 5
Is proactive interference expected in Alzheimer patients for the word list used in the study?
A. Yes, because their memory is weaker than all other groups, making them most vulnerable to proactive interference
B.Yes, because their working memory appears to be functioning, and that is where proactive interference takes place
C. No, because proactive interference requires information, previously stored in long term memory, which can impede the learning of new information
D. No, because proactive interference requires an intact temporal cortex, and Alzheimer patients have damage to the temporal cortex
idea that sometimes if you learn something and then elarn something new can interfere with remembering old stuff
Solution: The correct answer is C.
Persons with intact memory are as vulnerable to interference effects as Alzheimer patients.
The study did not produce any working memory data for any group of participants.
Proactive interference involves the interference of information from long term memory with new information. Figure 2 suggests that Alzheimer patients are unable to commit information to long term memory, which makes proactive interference unlikely for this population. Alzheimer's patients are unlikely to retrieve information from LTM, due to their defective encoding of information.
Both statements (i.e., that proactive interference requires an intact temporal cortex and the statement that all Alzheimer's patients have damaged temporal cortex) in this option are false.
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Jay’s fear of confined spaces results from:
A. stimulus discrimination.
B. stimulus generalization.
C. second-order conditioning.
D. spontaneous recovery.
Q31 AAMC Sample
This is called stimulus generalization, becuase the anxiety associated becomes more generalized. there was a triggering event this thign happened, but after that it doesn;t just happen when on a crowded subway panics everywhere in confined spaces, so anxiety becomes enlarged adn generalized overtime
Solution: The correct answer is B.
A. Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of the situation described.
B. His fear of all confined spaces, rather than only the subway car, which was the conditioned stimulus (CS) where the original traumatic experience took place, is an example of stimulus generalization, the extension of a conditioned response (CR) to stimuli that resemble the original CS.
C. Second-order conditioning involves pairing a novel neutral stimulus with the CS, which takes the place of the original unconditioned stimulus (UCS). The resulting CR, emitted in response to the new CS, will not be as strong as the original CR. No pairing of a novel neutral stimulus (a new confined space) with the original CS (the subway car) has been described; nor has any pairing of any two confined spaced been described.
D. Spontaneous recovery, which is the return of a conditioned response (CR) after it has been extinguished, has not been described.
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Q35 AAMC Sample
Which procedure is being applied in the follow-up study of children who displayed high anxiety symptoms?
A. Extinction
B. Spontaneous recovery
C. Classical conditioning
D. Operant conditioning
operant is really about behavior! and my behavior causing a positive or negative outcome/consequence\*\*
Solution: The correct answer is D.
A. Extinction refers to the eventual disappearance of an acquired response following a series of trials in which a conditioned stimulus is no longer followed by the unconditioned stimulus or an operant response is no longer followed by reward. Extinction was not described in the passage.
B. Spontaneous recovery, which is the return of an extinguished conditioned response (CR) or of an extinguished operant, was not described in the passage.
C. Classical conditioning refers to associating a previously neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus (US), at which time the neutral stimulus automatically elicits the conditioned response (CR), which is very similar to the unconditioned response (UR). Classical conditioning has not been described in the passage.
D. In the follow-up study, the high-anxiety child participants received rewards for learned coping response. In operant conditioning, a behavioral response is shaped by presenting response-contingent consequences following the behavior, which either increases or decreases the frequency of the target behavior.
