Learning And Memory

Front 1

Perceptual learning

Back 1

Learning to recognize a particular stimulus. The primary function is the ability to identify and categorize objects and situations.

Front 2

Learning

Back 2

The process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behavior. We refer to these changes as memories. The experiences change the way we perceive, perform, think, and plan.

Front 3

Learning can take at least four basic forms:

Back 3

perceptual learning, stimulus-reponse learning, motor learning, and relational learning

Front 4

Stimulus-response learning

Back 4

Is the ability to learn to perfrom a particular behavior when a particular stimulus is present. Learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus; inlcudes classical and instrumental conditioning. Connections between perceptual and motor systems

Front 5

Classical conditioning
(association between two stimuli)

Back 5

A learning procedure; when a stimulus that initially produces no particular response is followed several times by an unconditional stimulus that produces a defensive or appetitive response (the unconditional response), the first stimulus (now called the conditional stimulus) itself evokes the response (now called the conditional response).

Front 6

An example of classical conditioning: If we direct a brief puff of air toward a rabbit's eye, the eye will automatically blink

Back 6

The response is called an unconditional response because it occurs unconditionally, without any special training. The stimulus that produces it (the puff of air) is called an unconditional stimulus. We present a series of brief 1000HZ tones, each followed by a puff of air. After several trials the rabbit's eye begins to close even before the puff of air occurs. The conditional stimulus(1000HZ tone) now elicits the conditional response (The eye blink).

Front 7

Hebb rule

Back 7

Says that if a synapse repeatedly becomes active at about the same time that the postsynaptic neuron fires, changes will take place in the structure or chemistry of the synapse that will strengthen it. The act of firing then strengthen any synpase with the motor neuron that has just been active.

Front 8

Instrumental conditioning
(association between a response and a stimulus)

Back 8

A learning procedure whereby the effects of particular behavior in a particular situation increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish)the probability of the behavior; also call operant conditioning.

Front 9

Reinforcing stimuli

Back 9

An appetitive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior become more frequent.

Front 10

Punishing stimulus

Back 10

An aversive stimulus that follows a particular behavior and thus makes the behavior less frequent.

Front 11

Motor Learning

Back 11

Learning to make a new response. It primarily involves changes within neural circuits that control movement, is guided by sensory stimuli; thus, it is actually a form of stimulus-response learning.

Front 12

Relational learning

Back 12

A complex form of learning that involves the relations among individual stimuli; includes spatial learning, episodic learning, and observational learning.

Front 13

Episodic learning

Back 13

Remembering sequences of events

Front 14

Observational learning

Back 14

Learning by watching and imitating other people

Front 15

Long-term potentiation

Back 15

A long-term increase in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by repeated high frequency activity of that input.

Front 16

Hippocampal formation

Back 16

A forebrain structure of the temporal lobe, constituting an important part of the limbic system.

Front 17

Long-term depression

Back 17

A long-term decrease in the excitability of a neuron to a particular synaptic input caused by stimulation of the terminal button while the postsynaptic membrane is hyperpolarized or only slightly depolarized.

Front 18

Reinforcement

Back 18

When good things happen, reinforcement mechanisms in the brain become active, and the establishment of synaptic changes is facilitated. Electrical stimulation of many parts of the brain is reinforcing.

Front 19

Medial forebrain bundle

Back 19

Passes through lateral hypothalamus. Electrical stimulation of these axons is reinforcing.

Front 20

Ventral tegmental area

Back 20

dopaminergic neurons(pleasure) plays a critical role in reinforcement.

Front 21

Nucleus accumbens

Back 21

Involved in reinforcement and attention

Front 22

Anterograde amnesia

Back 22

Refers to difficuluty in learning new information. A person with pure anterograde amnesia can remember events that occured in the past, during the time before the brain damage occurred, but cannot retain information he or she encounters after the damage.

Front 23

Retrograde amnesia

Back 23

Refers to the inability to remember events that happened before the brain damage occurred. (ECT)

Front 24

Korakoff's syndrome

Back 24

Permanent anterograde amnesia caused by brain damage resulting from chronic alcoholism or malnutrition. Vitamin B deficiency, loss of myelin

Front 25

Short-term memory

Back 25

Immediate memory for events, which may or may not be consolidated into long-term memory. (20 minute segment)

Front 26

Long-term memory

Back 26

Relatively stable memory of events that occurred in the more distant past, as opposed to short-term memory.

Front 27

What is the hippocampus' job related to memory?

Back 27

The hippocampus is not the location of long-term memories; nor is it necessary for the retrieval of long-term memories. THe hippocampus is not the location of immediate short term memory. The hippocampus is involved in convertng immediate (short-term) memories into long-term memories.

Front 28

Consolidation

Back 28

The process by which short-term memories are converted into long-term memories.

Front 29

Declarative memory

Back 29

Memory that can be verbally expressed, such as memory for events in a person's past.

Front 30

Nondeclarative memory

Back 30

Memory whose formation does not depend on the hippocampal formation; a collective term for perceptual, stimulus-reponse, and motor memory. Operate automatically, they do not require deliberate attempts on the part of the learner to memorize something.

Front 31

Episodic memory

Back 31

Collection of perceptions of events organized in time and identifiedby a particular context.

Front 32

Perirhinal cortex and parahippocampal cortex

Back 32

Temporal lobes, receive information from the amydala, which may be responsible for the role that emotions play in memories.

Front 33

Place cell

Back 33

A neuron that becomes active when the animal is in a particular location in the environment; most typically found in the hippocampal formation.