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PSY324 > week 10 > Flashcards

week 10 Flashcards

1
Q

What does “Learning” mean?

A

Learning: Process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behaviour

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2
Q

What are the 4 theories of learning?

A

Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Perceptual Learning
Relational Learning

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3
Q

Explain classical condition, before, during and after learning.

A

Classical Conditioning: Before Learning

  • Presented with food (unconditioned stimulus) ➡ automatic salivation(unconditioned response) ➡ involuntary to something that smells good
  • Ring the bell (conditioned stimulus) ➡ nothing happens with the dog

Classical Conditioning: During Learning
- If we pair food with the bell, can we eventually get the salivation response to bell

Classical Conditioning: After Learning
- Bell becomes CS and dog has a CR to the bell

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4
Q

Who is the father of Behaviourism? And what does he suggest about behaviours?

A

John B. Watson (Father of Behaviorism):
Behaviorists suggest that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning and conditioning occurs through interactions with the environment

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5
Q

What is the Little Albert Experiment, 1920?

A

Fear Response: Little Albert Experiment, 1920
Albert playing with white rat
Loud bang(US) → Crying (UR)
Rat (CS) → Bang (US) → Crying (UR)
Rat (CS) → Crying (CR)
Generalization → bunny, white fur coat, Santa mask

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6
Q

Once a behavior is conditioned, can it be de-conditioned? I.e., Extinction, Follow-up of Little Albert

A

Mary Cover Jones (Mother of Behavior Therapy)
Follow-up to Little Albert: A Laboratory Study of Fear: The Case ofPeter (1924)
Rabbit(US) → Fear (UR)
Rabbit (US) → tasty food(CS) → → fear reduction(CR)
Direct conditioning (a.k.a., desensitization)

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7
Q

Explain Operant Conditioning, using the B.F Skinner,1937 study. hint ; reinforce + punishment

A

B. F. Skinner, 1937
Noticed that the effects of a particular behaviour (i.e., the reinforcers) in a particular situation increase or decrease the probability of the behaviour in the future
Modification of voluntary (or “operant”) behaviour
Use of punishment (to decrease future behavior) or reinforcement (to increase future behavior)
Animal would press lever, depending on if the light flashes red, green or a voice
The reinforcer in this box is food pellets
The punishment would be the electrical grid to shock the rats paws
Say the experimenters want the rat to learn to press the lever when the light flashes green
Green light to pressing lever = food(reinforce)
Redlight to pressing lever = shock(punish)

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8
Q

In relation to operant conditioning, briefly explain the difference between positive/negative reinforcement and positive/negative punishment.

A

➕ Reinforcement = a consequence that causes a behaviour to occur with greater frequency
➕ Punishment = a consequence that causes a behaviour to occur with decreased frequency
➖ Reinforcement = removing something to increase behaviour
➖ Punishment = remove something to decrease behaviour

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9
Q

What is Continuous and Intermittent Reinforcement?

A

Continuous Reinforcement: The desired behavior is reinforced every single time it occurs.
Best used when first learning to create a strong association between the behavior and response.
E.g., training your dog to sit with biscuits

Intermittent Reinforcement: Once the response is established. The response is reinforced only part of the time.
Learned behaviors are acquired more slowly, but the response is more resistant to extinction.
Fixed-ratio or Variable ratio (# responses)
Fixed interval or Variable interval (amount of time)

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10
Q

What are the two main differences between Operant and Classical Conditioning?

A

The “type of behavior” behaviour
Responsive vs. voluntary behaviour
Presentation of the stimulus
CS presented first vs. after behaviour

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11
Q

What does Perceptual learning involve?

A

Perceptual Learning involves learning to recognize things;
it involves perceptual changes from practice or experience.
Differentiation(differentiating two things); unitization (perceiving individual units); stimulus imprinting(recognizing that perhaps you do not need to identify the units to understand); attentional weighting (learning through experience)

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12
Q

What is Relational Learning?

A

Most learning is more complex than simple S-R associations
Involves learning the temporal and spatial relationships among objects and events
Memory allows you to travel back in time (see a Fir tree, associate with presents, santa, cookies i.e., christmas)

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13
Q

What are 6 types of memory?

A

Short-term memory: memory of events that have just occurred
Long-term memory: memory of events from times further back
Working memory: manipulating information in ST
Explicit Memory/ Declarative: memory of facts and events
Episodic (personal) vs. Semantic (general, factual information)
Implicit Memory/ Procedural: motor memory

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14
Q

What are the differences in STM(short term memory) and LTM(long term memory)?

A

Short-term memory has a limited capacity; long-term memory does not
Short-term memory fades quickly without rehearsal; long-term memories persist
Long-term memory can be stimulated with a cue/ hint; retrieval of memories lost from STM do not benefit from the presence of a cue
STM usually described in more contextual detail than LTM

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15
Q

How is LTM understood through a physiological point of view?

A

Physiologically, it is thought that long term memories are formed through long-term potentiation (LTP)(long-term potentiation is a persistent strengthening of synapses based on recent patterns of activity)
The hippocampus seems to play a role in converting memories from STM to LTM
Emotionally significant information is more likely to be stored in LTM
Locus coeruleus (NE) and DA projection to the HC.
Flashbulb memories

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16
Q

What is an Engram?

A

physical representation of what has been learned

17
Q

How does pavlov explain Learning?

A

The UCS excites the UCS center in the brain which excites the UCR center. The CS excites the CS center, which elites no response of interest. After training, excitation int he CS flows to the UCS center, thus electing the same response as the UCS

18
Q

How did Karl Lashley study the idea that memories were connected to parts of the brain? Did his hypothesis work?

A

Reasoned that if memories were connections between brain areas, they could be severed with a knife along the cortex
Trained rats on mazes and tasks, then made cuts to the cortex to try to disrupt performance

Findings?
Knife cuts did not impair performance

19
Q

What were the two key principles Karl Lashely proposed about how the nervous system works ?

A

Equipotentiality: all parts of the cortex contribute equally to complex functioning behaviors (e.g., learning) and any part can substitute for any other
Mass action: the cortex works as a whole, and more cortex is better

20
Q

What are some critiques of Karl Lashleys work?

A

Lashley first faulty assumption is that memory is stored in the cortex, because we know that a lot of learning is dependent on the hippocampus
suggested that all learning is created equal by studying one type of learning so, for example, visual spatial learning that we can extend this to other forms of learning (not the case)

21
Q

Theories of memory, Thompson study (eye blink) ; deactivations to LIP, Red Nucleus. What happens when LIP and red nucleus are active again, results suggest learning occur in…?

A

Tone (CS)
Air-puff (UCS)
Eye-blink (UCR – CR)
Lateral interpositus nucleus (LIP) of the cerebellum

Playing the tone as well as the air puff ->
Rabbits learn to blink their eye when a tone is played

Lateral interpositus nucleus – in cerebellum (lesion LIP, learning to blink does not occur)

Performance (everytime there is a tone, they blink)

Red nucleus – midbrain motor area receiving input from cerebellum (Lesion red nucleus, learning to blink does not occur)
once Lip is active again, learning needs to occur from starch. They are learning as if learn was never experience between

one red nucleus is active agin, we see that they were learning the whole time, they could not express it.

Results suggest that learning occurs in LIP
Red nucleus is required to demonstrate the learning (i.e., execute the eye-blink)

22
Q

How is the Hippocampus relevant in memory?

A 
Vital for declarative/episodic memory
Active during:
Memory formation
Memory recall
Imagining future events
Important for visual spatial memory
Morris Water Maze (spatial memory)
23
Q

How are cells responsible for spatial memory?

A

Cells responsible for spatial memory
Place and Time cells located in the HC = fire in response to spatial locations and temporal information
Grid cells located in the ERC = hexagonal grid forming a coordinated system that allows for spatial navigation
Envisioning going down one road or the other

24
Q

How is he Basal Ganglia relavant in memory?

A

Basal ganglia involved in implicit learning of patterns and habits
Implicit learning
Striatum = caudate nucleus & putamen
Riding a bike… just getting back on the bike, you will remember how to peddle

25
Q

What happened when the Bilateral medial temporal lobe of the brain was removed from patient H.M, and what happened to their memories?

A

Bilateral medial temporal lobe removed;
Severe anterograde amnesia(anything that would occur after the surgery)
No new episodic memories
Some retrograde amnesia(anything that would occur before the surgery)
3+ years pre-surgery
Working memory intact
Inability to form new memories – explicit/episodic
Procedural learning intact

26
Q

How intact was Patient H.M’s basal Ganglia?

A

Star-tracing experiment in H.M for “motor memories”
Can’t see what you are drawing directly, but you look through your drawing through a mirror.
Objective; keep a steady line and outline a pre-printed star
We see performance from this task
Results showed the more they practiced the better they got at tracing
There is procedural memory

27
Q

What is Anterograde amnesia?

A

Damage to hippocampus and other areas (motorcycle accident). K.C was in an accident
Complete loss of episodic memory
Unable to identify people & places
Unable to identify events

Procedural memory ok
Post-injury learning
Dewey decimal system
A system to search books in a library
K.C was able to learn the system
28
Q

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome?

A

Caused by Thiamine deficiency (common in alcoholism)
Loss of neural activity throughout the brain, esp. dorsomedial thalamus
Hallmark: confabulation, innocent lying

29
Q

What are types of Dementia

A

occurs in later life
Semantic Dementia: anterior temporal cortex, inability to identify objects
Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD): Frontal and anterior temporal,
Alzheimer’s Disease: atrophy to HC

30
Q

What is Behest Rule? “Cells that fire together wire together!”

A

“Any two cells or systems of cells that are repeatedly active at the same time will tend to become ‘associated’, so that activity in one facilitates activity in the other.”
A basic mechanism for synaptic plasticity wherein an increase in synaptic efficacy arises from the presynaptic cell’s repeated and persistent stimulation of the postsynaptic cell.
“Cells that fire together wire together!”

31
Q

How can herbs Rule be applied to pavlov Dog? hint; synaptic efficiency

A

Hebbian Synapse; the repeated and persistent stimulation of B (sight of food) and A(bell sound) increases the synaptic efficiency between A and C (neural activation of salivation)

32
Q

What are the properties of LTP?

A

Specificity
- Only active synapses onto a cell grow stronger
Cooperativity
- 2+ axons produce stronger LTP within a dendrite than 1 axon
Associativity
- The effect of a weak input may be enhanced if repeatedly paired with a strong input

33
Q

What are the 3 ways to measure LTP?

A
  1. Measure baseline strength of synaptic connection
    Deliver single electrical pulse to perforant path
    Measure population EPSP in the dentate gyrus
  2. Apply high-intensity
    Deliver a tetanus: intense burst of stimulation
    (e.g., 30x/second) to the perforant pathway
  3. Measure post-tetanic population EPSP
    Deliver single electrical pulse to perforant path
    Measure population EPSP in the dentate gyrus
    If greater than baseline population EPSP: Synaptic connection has been strengthened!! Stimulate, learning has occured
34
Q

What are the 4 steps of LTP occurring?

A

Step 1: Inotropic Receptors
Step 2: Chemical Reactions
Step 3: Change in Post-synaptic cell
Step 4: Change in Pre-synaptic cell

35
Q

Explain Step 1: ionotrpic Recptors of LTP occurring.

A

Relies on two types of glutamate receptors:
AMPA receptor will open its channel to sodium if glutamate binds, ionotropic receptor
NMDA receptors at rest have a magnesium ion (Mg2+) block on their calcium (Ca2+) channels.
NMDA channel opens only if Mg2+ leaves, which occurs through depolarization of the cell

Glutamate first activates AMPA receptors, which control the influx of sodium (Na+) ions into the postsynaptic cell
NMDA receptors do not respond until enough AMPA receptors are stimulated and the neuron is partially depolarized
NMDA receptors at rest have a magnesium ion (Mg²+) block on their calcium (Ca2+) channels
After partial depolarization, the block is removed and the NMDA receptor allows Ca2+ to enter in response to glutamate
After which both Na+ and Ca2+ enter through the NMDA receptor

36
Q

Explain Step 2: Chemical Reactions of LTP occurring.

A

The large Ca2+ influx activates certain protein
CaMKII ➡ CREB ➡ Alters gene expression in nucleus
Without CaMKII learning cannot occur
(Amplified by BDNF)
These chemicals are important for LTP to occur

37
Q

Explain Step 3: Change in Post-synaptic cell of LTP occurring.

A

Changes in gene expression can create changes in postsynaptic neuron, including:
1. Building more AMPA receptors on the dendrite, or moving the existing AMPA receptors to better positions. Building more branches and spines, creating more synapses with the same axon
2 .Attaching phosphate groups to the AMPA receptors to make them more responsive
3. Building more NMDA receptors …overall product → AMPA receptors stay potentiated

38
Q

Explain Step 4: Change in Pre-synaptic cell of LTP occurring.

A

Strong stimulation of a postsynaptic cell releases a retrograde transmitter that:
travels across the synapse
alters function in the presynaptic neuron.
Usually NO(nitric oxide)
Alterations can include:
1. decreased threshold for action potential
2. increased neurotransmitter release
3. Expanded axon
4 .More transmitter release sites along the axon

39
Q

Based on Morris et al., 1986, what were the results that was evidence for LTP in learning?

A

Morris et al., 1986
All rats were given repeated trials on which they found a hidden platform (i.e. learn the location)
Control rats received saline into the brain
Test rats received AP5, an NMDA blocker
Results?
They walkaround where the platform is the most
NMDA blocker rats learned nothing and spent the same amount of time through all 4 parts of the maze

PSY324 (11 decks)

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