Lectures 1&2

Question 1

Classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning)

Answer 1

A type of learning in which the organism comes to respond to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with a biologically significant stimulus

Question 2

Stimulus

Answer 2

An event that evokes a specific functional reaction in an organ or tissue - provides information about the outside world

Question 3

Response

Answer 3

The behavioral consequence of perception of a stimulus

Question 4

Learning curve

Answer 4

A graph showing learning performance as a function of training

Question 5

General trend of a learning curve

Answer 5

Large learning increments in early trials, less in later trials

Question 6

Extinction

Answer 6

The process of reducing a learned response to a stimulus by ceasing to pair that stimulus with a reward or punishment

Question 7

Generalization (Pavlov)

Answer 7

Transferring what is learned about one stimulus to similar stimuli

Question 8

Operant conditioning (Thorndike)

Answer 8

Organisms learn to make responses in order to obtain or avoid important consequences

Question 9

Law of effect

Answer 9

Probability of a particular behavioral response would increase or decrease depending on the consequences that follows

Question 10

Reflex arc

Answer 10

An automatic pathway from a sensory stimulus to a motor response

Question 11

Behaviorism (John Watson)

Answer 11

School of thought that says psychology should restrict itself to the study of observable behaviors and not seek to infer unobservable mental processes

Question 12

Empiricism states that…

Answer 12

All behavior is lerned and a product of our environments

Question 13

Evolution

Answer 13

Living species change over time, with new traits or characteristics emerging and being passed from one generation to the next

Question 14

Darwin proposed that species evolve when they possess a trait that meets which three conditions?

Answer 14

Inheritable, variable, relevant to survival

Question 15

Cognitive map (Edward Tolman)

Answer 15

An internal psychological representation of the spatial layout of the external world

Question 16

Latent learning

Answer 16

Learning that is unconnected to a positive or negative consequence and that remains undetected (latent) until explicitly demonstrated at a later stage

Question 17

Retention curve

Answer 17

Measures how much info is retained at each point in time following learning

Question 18

General trend of retention curve

Answer 18

Huge jump at the start then steady slow decrease until a point

Question 19

Subject bias

Answer 19

The influence a subject’s prior knowledge or expectations can have (consciously or unconsciously) on the outcome of an experiment

Question 20

Experimenter bias

Answer 20

The influence an experimenter’s prior knowledge or expectations can (consciously or unconsciously) on the outcome of an experiment

Question 21

Blind design

Answer 21

The participant does not know the hypothesis being tested or the variables being manipulated

Question 22

Double-blind design

Answer 22

Neither the participant nor the experimenter knows which participant is getting which treatment or intervention

Question 23

Connectionist model

Answer 23

Ideas and concepts in the external world are not presented as distinct and discrete symbols but rather as patterns of activity over populations of many nodes

Question 24

Distributed representation

Answer 24

A representation in which information is coded as a pattern of activation distributed across many different nodes

Question 25

4 essential fundamental questions and challenges about learning and memory

Answer 25

1. How do sensations or ideas become linked in the mind? 2. To what extent are behaviors and abilities determined by biological inheritance (nature) or life experiences (nurture)? 3. In what ways are human learning and memory similar to learning and memory in other animals, and in what ways do they differ? 4. Can the psychological study of the mind be rigorously scientific, uncovering universal principles of learning and memory?

Question 26

Central nervous system (CNS)

Answer 26

The part of the vertebrate nervous system consisting of the brain and the spinal cord

Question 27

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

Answer 27

The part of the nervous system that transmits signals from sensory receptors to the central nervous system and carries commands from the CNS to muscles

Question 28

Cerebral cortex is the brain tissue covering the ____ and ____ of the brain in most vertebrates

Answer 28

top; side

Question 29

Cerebellum is a brain region that lies ____ the ____ ____ in the back of the head

Answer 29

below; cerebral cortex

Question 30

Brainstem is a group of structures that connects the rest of the _____ to the ____

Answer 30

brain; spinal

Question 31

The ____ lobe is the part of cerebral cortex lying at the front of the human brain

Answer 31

Frontal

Question 32

The ____ lobe is the part of cerebral cortex lying at the top of the human brain

Answer 32

parietal

Question 33

The ____ lobe is the part of cerebral cortex lying at the sides of the human brain

Answer 33

temporal

Question 34

The ____ lobe is the part of cerebral cortex lying at the rear of the human brain

Answer 34

occipital

Question 35

Subcortical structures important for learning and memory include... (4)

Answer 35

- Basal ganglia - Thalamus - Hippocampus - Amygdala

Question 36

Nissl stain

Answer 36

Stains cell bodies -- darker = greater density

Question 37

Camillo Golgi supported the ____ theory that claimed...

Answer 37

Reticular; the nervous system was a single network

Question 38

Santiago Ramon y Cajal used ____ stain to claim that...

Answer 38

Golgi; nerve cells were not continuous

Question 39

Size of a soma is between ____ - ____ ____

Answer 39

5-100 micrometers

Question 40

Primary neuron type of cerebral cortex

Answer 40

Pyramidal cells

Question 41

The cerebral cortex typically has ____ layers, with differing ____ of neurons

Answer 41

six; density

Question 42

Circuitry stuff you need to draw in notes

Answer 42

Got it

Question 43

Dendritic spines are... and they are the contact location for single ____ ____.

Answer 43

Small protruding extension of dendritic membrane; axon terminal

Question 44

Neurotransmitters

Answer 44

Chemical substance that can cross a synapse to affect the activity of a postsynaptic neuron

Question 45

Receptors

Answer 45

Proteins embedded in the membrane of neurons that are specialized to bind with and respond to particular kinds of neurotransmitters

Question 46

Process of transmission across a synapse 1. ____ emerges with presynaptic membrane 2. Neurotransmitter is ____ in the ____ ____ 3. Neurotransmitter ____ across ____ ____ 4. Neurotransmitter binds to ____ on the postsynaptic membrane 5. Neurotransmitter ____ from receptors 6. Neurotransmitter is ____ down 7. Neurotransmitter is ____ ____ by the axon that ____ it (____)

Answer 46

vesicle; released; synaptic cleft; diffuses; synaptic cleft; receptors; unbinds; broken; taken up; released; reuptake

Question 47

What does the binding of neurotransmitter do to the postsynaptic cell?

Answer 47

Changes the membrane potential so that it become either closer or farther from action potential threshold

Question 48

Axon ____ is where action potential initiate

Answer 48

hillock

Question 49

Firing rate of a neuron

Answer 49

of spikes/duration of time (ex. 12 spikes in 2 seconds: 6Hz)

Question 50

Glutamate neuron causes ____, while GABA neurons causes ____

Answer 50

Exitation; inhibition

Question 51

In what ways can the brain change?

Answer 51

Structure (dendrites/axons/connections) Signal transduction (amount of neurotransmitters, vesicles, receptors and rate of breakdown/reuptake of neurotransmitters)

Question 52

Because structural neuroplasticity takes time, it can serve as a tool to investigate ____ ____ of an animal

Answer 52

life history (ex. the kind of environment it lives in -- enriched or not)

Question 53

Hebbian learning

Answer 53

Learning that involves strengthening connections between neurons "Neurons that fire together, wire together"

Question 54

Long-term potentiation (LTP)

Answer 54

A process in which synaptic transmission becomes more effective at eliciting a postsynaptic response as a result in recent activity

Question 55

Long-term depression (LTD)

Answer 55

Process in which synaptic transmission becomes less effective at eliciting a postsynaptic response as a result of recent activity

Question 56

Glia

Answer 56

Cells that provide functional or structural support to neurons

Question 57

Oligodendrocytes

Answer 57

Wrap the axons of nearby neurons in myelin, a fatty substance that insulates electrical signals transmitted by neurons

Question 58

Astrocytes

Answer 58

Glia that line the outer surface of blood vessels in the brain, also take up neurotransmitter after release from neurons; support the blood-brain barrier

Question 59

Microglia

Answer 59

Play a role in response to brain damage. (Deficits of microglia is observed in Alzheimer's Parkinson's and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS))