Learning and Cognition - UNI Flashcards
(84 cards)
1
Q
What is cognition?
A
Cognition encompasses the activities
of “the mind”
* Involves the acquisition and use of
knowledge
* Includes mental processes such as:
* perception, attention, memory,
decision-making, reasoning,
problem-solving, imagining,
planning and executing actions
2
Q
What are cognitive capacities?
A
Capacities to learn about and
respond to environments in adaptive ways
3
Q
Describe the Perceptual - Cognitive Cycle
A
In any given moment, our current
experience is a product of integrating the
perceptual present and the cognitive past…..
* Implies an active, embodied, emotional
agent embedded in the physical and
socio-cultural world
* The sequential-cyclical process belies a
deeper embedding and inter-
dependence of brain, body, world and
mind
4
Q
What is an example of a cogniser mentally representing their world?
A
A cogniser may mentally
represent a goal to obtain an object
from a location that is not in its
immediate environment.
* Ollie salivates to the sound of his
treats being opened…..
* What kind of mental
representation does he have of
the food?
* How is Ollie’s mental
representation different or
similar to your representations?
5
Q
Define learning
A
Learning is the set of biological,
cognitive and social processes
through which organisms make
meaning from their
experiences, producing long-
lasting changes in their
behaviour, abilities, and
knowledge.
6
Q
What does learning help us do?
A
predict the
future from our past
experiences and use these
predictions to guide adaptive
behaviours.
7
Q
Describe sensitisation and habituation
A
Sensitisation is the temporary state of
heightened attention and responsivity that
accompanies sudden and surprising events.
The learner remains alert to potentially
threatening stimuli in the environment and
has an increased response to subsequent
stimuli.
* Habituation is the gradual diminishing of
attention and responsivity that occurs
when a stimulus persists
8
Q
What are biologically significant stimuli?
A
They relate to survival and can naturally cause defensive (flight, flight, freeze) or appetitive (approach) reflex responses
Stimuli that are inherently punishing (aversive) or rewarding
(appetitive) - their effects on our physiology are not learned.
* In the language of conditioning, these are called “unconditioned
stimuli
Unconditioned stimuli naturally produce an autonomic (involuntary)
response
9
Q
Describe the causal structure of the environment
A
if X (conditioned stimulus), then Y (unconditioned stimulus)
10
Q
Describe classical conditioning
A
In other words, a classically conditioned
response is a learned reflex response to a
stimulus that would not usually cause it.
11
Q
What does classical conditioning involve?
A
Learning a predictive relationship
between an originally neutral
environmental event and a biologically
significant event that itself naturally
causes an autonomic reflex response, so
that the previously neutral event
becomes a meaningful stimulus that
produces the autonomic reflex response
on its own
12
Q
Describe Pavlov’s conditioning with dogs
A
last year
13
Q
What is the ABC model for classical conditioning?
A
Antecedent
Behaviour
Consequence
14
Q
What is stimulus generalisation?
A
last year
15
Q
What is stimulus discrimination?
A
last year
16
Q
What is extinction?
A
last year
17
Q
What is spontaneous recovery?
A
last year
18
Q
Describe Little Albert Experiment
A
last year
19
Q
Describe the Skinner box
A
last year
20
Q
When is a behaviour reinforced?
A
whenever a
desirable outcome is the consequence
21
Q
Describe positive and negative reinforcement
A
last year
22
Q
What is partial reinforcement?
A
Partial reinforcement leads to more
persistent learning because the
learner becomes accustomed to
reinforcement occurring on some
occasions and not others
23
Q
What is continuous reinforcement?
A
Continuous reinforcement rarely
occurs in natural environments
Continuous reinforcement leads to
rapid extinction once the reinforcer
is withheld
24
Q
What is an extinction burst?
A
brief increase in responding followed by a decrease in trained behaviour
25
Describe positive and negative punishment
*last year*
26
When is punishment effective? (3 Cs)
Contingency – the relationship
between the behavior and the
punisher must be clear
Contiguity – the punisher must
follow the behavior swiftly
Consistency – the punisher needs
to occur for every occurrence of the behaviour
27
Drawbacks of punishment
Positive punishment rarely works for long-term behaviour
change.
* It tends to only suppress behaviour.
* It does not teach a more desirable behaviour.
* Produces negative feelings in the learner, which do not
promote new learning.
* Harsh punishment may teach the learner to use such
behaviour towards others (social learning).
28
Alternatives to punishment
Stop reinforcing the problem behaviour (extinction).
* Reinforce an alternative behaviour that is both
constructive and incompatible with the undesirable
behaviour.
* Reinforce the non-occurrence of the undesirable
behaviour.
* Generate your own examples for each of these.
29
What is an antecedent?
An antecedent is a ‘cue’ that signals the availability of a reinforcer.
* Note that the antecedent-reinforcer relationship is based on a
classically conditioned CS-UCS association.
* Classically conditioned associations become cues for operant
behaviours (Dwight conditioning)
30
How does an antecedent become a discriminative stimulus?
An antecedent becomes a discriminative stimulus when it
signals which of two or more behaviours will be rewarded
in a particular context.
* For example, swearing is punished in some contexts but
is associated with rewarding outcomes in others - the
context allows us to discriminate between situations
associated with rewards or punishments for a particular
behaviour
31
What is a cognitive map?
mental representation of the
spatial characteristics of a familiar environment.
* Tolman set out to test the idea that rats develop
‘spatial maps’ of their environment, rather than a
series of chained responses to external cues
32
How did Toleman challenge traditional behaviourist accounts of learning?
Tolman again challenged the traditional behaviorist
account with another classic experiment in which he
demonstrated that learning could occur in the absence of
rewards and punishments
33
Describe latent learning in the context of Toleman's rat experiment
Latent learning means “hidden” learning
* The Group C (green line) rats’ learning was not observable
until the gaol was provided.
* Tolman's research showed rewards affect whether the
learned behaviour will be demonstrated, not whether
learning has occurred.
* Learning can occur in the absence of directly experienced
rewards and punishments
34
What is Observational Learning and who first coined it? (Social-cognitive Learning Theory)
Observational learning provides another example of how
learning can occur indirectly, without direct reinforcement
or punishment.
* Learning takes place “socially” and “ vicariously” through
observing others (“models”).
* Albert Bandura is the psychologist most associated with
the study of observational learning.
* Observational learning takes place through active
judgement and constructive processes – that is, it involves
cognitive processes of mental representation
35
Describe the Bobo doll experiment
The film began with the model walking up to an adult-size Bobo doll and ordering him to
“clear the way”.
* After glaring at the doll, the model exhibited four novel aggressive responses, each
accompanied by a distinctive verbalization:
1. The model laid the Bobo doll on its side, sat on it, and punched it in the nose
while remarking, "Pow, right in the nose, boom, boom."
2. The model then raised the doll and pommelled it on the head with a mallet. Each
response was accompanied by the verbalization, "Sockeroo ...stay down."
3. The model then kicked the doll about the room, and these responses were
interspersed with the comment, "Fly away.”
4. The model threw rubber balls at the Bobo doll, each strike punctuated with
"Bang."
This sequence was repeated twice.
The rewarding and punishing consequences were introduced in the closing scene of the film
36
Describe the positive reinforcement in the Bobo doll experiment
In the model-rewarded condition, a
second adult appeared with a supply of
candies and soft drinks and informed the
model that he was a "strong champion" and
that his superb aggressive performance
clearly deserved a generous treat.
* He then poured him a large glass of 7-Up
and readily supplied additional energy-
building nourishment including chocolate
bars, Cracker Jack popcorn, and an
assortment of candies.
* While the model was rapidly consuming the
treats, his admirer symbolically reinstated
the modeled aggressive responses and
engaged in considerable positive social
reinforcement.”
37
Describe the Positive punishment in the Bobo doll experiment
“In the model-punished condition, the reinforcing
agent appeared on the scene shaking his finger
menacingly and commenting reprovingly, "Hey
there, you big bully. You quit picking on that
clown. I won't tolerate it."
* As the model drew back, he tripped and fell, the
other adult sat on the model and spanked him
with a rolled-up magazine while reminding him of
his aggressive behaviour.
* As the model ran off cowering, the agent
forewarned him, "If I catch you doing that again,
you big bully, I'll give you a hard spanking. You
quit acting that way.””
38
What did the results of the Bobo doll experiment show?
Bandura’s study demonstrated vicarious reinforcement and
vicarious punishment
that learning can occur socially through observation, in
the absence of directly experienced consequences.
Performance of aggressive acts is influenced by mental
representations of observed consequences.
Knowledge remained latent in the model-punished
group until a reward was introduced (make sure you understand the corresponding graph for these results too)
39
What is memory? (2 defs)
A set of storage systems and processes for encoding, storing,
and retrieving information acquired through our senses and
for relating this information to previously acquired knowledge
and experience.
* The mental representation of knowledge within memory
systems stored within neural networks of the brain (and body,
and in connection with the world).
40
Describe the multi-store model using image online
*use online image*
41
What does encoding involve?
Attending to and acquiring
information from experiences and mental processes
Registration of information in sensory regions of brain
* Attention to elements of an experience
* Interpretation and integration of experience with prior
knowledge
42
What does storage involve?
Encoded representations are consolidated in memory
traces and stored in networks of neurons throughout the
brain.
43
What is an example of memory storage?
neurons in the visual cortex store information about
the sights that were part of an experience;
* neurons in the amygdala store information about the
emotions that were experienced
44
Storage _______ and ______ differ between different memory systems
capacity, duration
45
Describe the 3 parts of retrival
“Remembering”, “knowing” and ”doing”
* personal reminiscence of past experiences
* recalling facts,
* executing practiced motor skills
* conditioned responses
46
What are the 2 types of retrival processes?
Explicit, implicit
47
Retrival is ________ reconstructive and sometimes ______ process that changes the memory trace through ______________ after retrival
reconstructive, error-rpone, reconsolidation
48
Retrival is also highly __________, and depends on the right _____ being present, either in the environment or generated internally (________________)
context dependent, cues, interoceptive cues
49
What is sensory memory?
A temporary, sensory-based representation of input
received through sensory channels.
* Provides a buffer (‘holding area’) between early
sensory processes and later cognitive processes.
* Only some of the information stored in sensory
memory will be retained
50
What are the 2 types of sensory memory?
Iconic (visual) and Echoic (auditory)
51
What is the duration and capacity of sensory memory?
Brief duration
Large capacity
52
Describe George Sperling's 1960 work into capacity and duration of iconic memory
Full report vs partial report
Full report: 12 letters shown, asked how many they could remember. Could only recall around 4, but felt like they had brief access to all letters but faded in the time it took them to articulate what they saw
Partial report: Same letters, but had a noise to signal whether to remember top, middle or bottom row. Because participants could recall all of the letters from any row, implies all 12 items were avaliable. Full report underestimated the capacity of ionic traces by confounding the reporting method with the duration of the iconic trace. Duration was measured by varying retention interval between turning off stimulus array and presenting the cue for the line to report. Found that memory performance reduced to 1 item after around half a second.
53
What is Short Term Memory?
Our conscious representation of
‘the present moment’.
* A temporary store in which we
integrate current sensory
experience with long-term
memory to achieve current goals
54
Is the capacity of short term memory limited?
yes
55
What is the duration of STM?
15-30 seconds
56
What did the original model of memory focus on?
maintenance rehearsal as the
primary encoding mechanism, resulting in transfer to
LTM
57
How has verbal Short Term Memory capacity been measured?
Immediate serial recall of verbally presented digits
(i.e., number names) in the order they were presented
* The length of sequence is increased by one item after
each successful attempt to determine the upper limit
or “span”.
* A participant’s span is reached when they fail on two
trials at a given series length.
* So, if you were unable to recall both trials for a series
of 8 items, then your digit span would be 7 items.
58
What is an average adult's Short Term Memory capacity?
7 (+ or - 2 items)
59
How has duration of STM been tested?
The Brown-Peterson task
* Recall the names of 3 consonants
* (e.g., “D-P-R”)
* Memory probed (tested) at 3-second retention
intervals.
* To prevent rehearsal, participants were required
to count backwards from a given number in 3’s
until told to stop
* i.e., a “filled retention interval”.
* For example: Participants hear “D-P-R – 306”
* Count backwards (aloud) from 306 until asked to recall
the sequence of letter names
60
What is a way to keep information active in STM and strengthen the trace to increase the chance it will be stored in LTM?
Verbal rehearsal
61
Describe the serial position effect, and how it effects transfer of info to LTM
Immediate free recall of lists of numbers or words is
affected by the position of items in the studied list
* Primacy effect provides evidence for transfer to long-
term memory for items that receive more rehearsal
* Recency effect reflects availability of information still
in short-term memory
* Recency effect is reduced by introducing a filled
retention interval before recall
* Primacy effects are eliminated if rehearsal is
prevented by introducing a concurrent task
(repetition of a word)
62
What is the purpose of a STM?
To encode information meaningfully
Meaningful, or “deep”, processing of
information during encoding will produce
long-term memory traces
* ‘Shallow’ processing is less effective for
long-term retention.
* Craik & Tulving (1975) test this hypothesis
with their study of Levels of Processing.
* Test the idea that LTM for words is
influenced by the ‘depth’ (level) of the
encoding process used in STM
Lowest retention: Case (upper or lower) Medium retention:Rhyme (or not) Highest retention: Sentence (put it into a sentence)
63
What do studies like Craik and Tulving's suggest?
The need for
a more detailed account of STM as a multi-
component system that supports meaningful
encoding and active reasoning and problem-solving
Rather than focusing on maintaining information for
immediate recall, the focus shifts to thinking about
STM as providing a mental work-space that helps us
to achieve our current goals and update our
understanding of the world
64
Using an image from online/the slides, describe Alan Baddeley's model of Working Memory
The PL and VSS
are
independent
but interacting
sub-systems,
one for visual-
spatial
information
and one for
auditory-verbal
information
PL and VSS
access and
update
language-based
and visual
representations
in long-term
memory
Central
executive
directs
attention to
and retrieves
information
from PL and
VSS for
integration in
the episodic
buffer.
Multi-modal
memory traces
formed in the
episodic buffer
and stored in
episodic long-
term memory
65
What is the phonological loop?
A mental workspace for manipulating auditory
and verbal information.
Digit-span backwards is considered a test of
phonological/verbal working memory because
you must actively manipulate the information in
memory, rather than just maintain the
sequence.
Important in language development and verbal
reasoning tasks.
66
What is the visuo-spatial sketchpad?
A temporary store for representations of visual and spatial
information such as faces, objects written words and
cognitive maps
* Enables the mental manipulation of visually and spatially
represented information.
* Mental rotation of objects
* Visual and spatial mnemonics
* Mental arithmetic
* “Cognitive maps” for navigation
67
What is the central executive?
Executive processes are used in planning and coordinating complex behavior:
* Goal orientation
* Focus attention
* Control of social behaviour
* Switching between tasks, updating memory, inhibition of distracting information
* Planning and problem solving
* Executive processes are governed by circuitry in the pre-frontal cortex, especially dorsa-
lateral prefrontal cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC)
68
Describe the neural basis of working memory
Executive processes are based within
networks in the pre-frontal cortex
* The phonological loop (PL) is a left-
hemisphere fronto-temporal lobe network.
* The visuo-spatial sketchpad (VSS) is a right
occipital-parietal network.
* The episodic buffer integrates multi-modal
information in an integrated ‘episodic trace’
within the parietal cortex (association
cortex)
69
Describe declarative memory (explicit)
“Knowing what, why, where, and when”
* Facts, events, locations, autobiographical knowledge
* Reminiscence of personally experienced events
* Hippocampal-dependent
70
Describe non-declarative memory (implicit)
“knowing how”
* Motor skills (e.g., riding a bike)
* Habits (proceduralised memories - driving the route to
work without thinking)
* Cognitive skills (e.g., reading)
* Non-hippocampal dependent
71
What did Endel Tulving propose regarding declarative memory and subdivisions?
That it can be divided into episodic and semantic memory systems
72
Describe Episodic memory
Vivid first-person recall of personally experienced events
* When/where memories
* Contextualised memory
* ‘Mental time travel'
73
Describe Semantic memory
General knowledge of facts about the world and yourself
* What/Why memories.
* Abstract knowledge (includes abstract self-knowledge)
74
Describe non-declarative memory
Non-declarative memory is revealed when previous experience
facilitates (improves) performance on a task
* The improvement in performance does not require conscious
recollection of the prior learning experiences.
* We get better at things with experience and practice.
* We learn associations between recurring stimuli in the
environment
75
Describe procedural memory + priming
Procedural memory:
* learning and performance of motor and cognitive skills
* Priming:
* demonstrated by a change in the ability to identify a stimulus
as the result of prior exposure to that stimulus, or a related
stimulus.
* E.g., Associative/semantic priming
* the prior presentation of the word “nurse” facilitates
subsequent identification of the word “doctor”
* More frequently encountered words are easier to perceive and
comprehend - the resting level of activation in memory is
higher (activated more quickly)
76
3 sub-divisions of non-declarative memory
Classical conditioning (associative learning):
* Learning to attend to a formerly neutral stimulus because it has
become associated with a meaningful stimulus.
* Operant conditioning (associative learning)
* Learning to produce/avoid a behaviour because it has become
associated with rewarding/punishing consequences
* Non-associative learning:
* Habituation: learning to ignore a stimulus because it is trivial
(e.g., screening out background noise).
* Sensitization: Learning to attend to a potentially threatening
stimulus.
77
What is amnesia?
Deficits in memory caused by brain damage, disease, drug abuse,
or psychological trauma.
* The selective deficits in memory processes seen in cases of
amnesia provide support for the proposed division between the
declarative and non-declarative memory systems.
78
What is retrograde amnesia?
An inability to remember episodes
acquired before the brain injury
* Usually temporally graded
79
What is anterograde amneisa?
An inability to recall any declarative
knowledge experienced after the time
of the brain injury
* Inability to learn and retain
(consolidate) new declarative
knowledge (episodic and semantic)
80
Describe the case of H.M.
Henry Gustav Molaison (1926-2008)
* Removal of the medial portion of both temporal
lobes, including the hippocampi, to treat epilepsy
pileptic seizures controlled But....
* Temporally-graded retrograde amnesia
* Memory worst for personally experienced events
from years just before the operation
* Severe anterograde amnesia
* Could not consolidate or retrieve new episodic
memories
* Severely impaired ability to learn new semantic
facts.
* For example, H.M. did not acquire new vocabulary
introduced since 1953 despite frequent exposure to
radio and TV.
* Normal sensory and working memory (STM)
* For example, normal digit span ability
Memory is the outcome of the
normal processes of perceiving and
comprehension
Craik, 2020
81
What is Brenda Miller's problem with Craik's 2020 definition of memory?
My amnesic patients have no trouble
perceiving and comprehending events, they
are clearly capable of processing to deep
semantic levels—yet they don’t remember
things.
* How does that fit with your theory?”
82
Describe the role of hippocampus in consolidation of
declarative memories
The severe anterograde amnesia that results from
removal of hippocampus bilaterally indicates that
these structures must be crucial for the
consolidation of new declarative information.
* Craik (2020) conceded that cases like H.M. forced
him to adjust his account of elaborative encoding to
include not just the process of interacting
meaningfully with information in working memory,
but also an additional process of consolidation,
mediated by the hippocampus.
83
Learning in Amnesia: Dissociation of declarative and non-declarative
memory
Anterograde amnesiacs are capable of
new procedural learning (learning a
new motor skill).
* For example, the mirror-tracing task
* Despite stating that they have never
performed the task before, they show
an improvement over time.
* This demonstrates that procedural
learning can proceed independently of
the brain systems required for
declarative memories.
84
Describe preserved non-
declarative memory in anterograde
amnesia
* Further studies show that patients with anterograde amnesia
show other types of preserved non-declarative memories
* Intact classical and operant conditioning
* Intact priming effects.
* Normal habituation and sensitisation
* Also, patients with Korsakoff’s syndrome, depressed patients
undergoing bilateral ECT, patients with anoxic encephalopathy,
who all suffer anterograde amnesia.
