Blue Book Exam

Step 1

1800s: Context of Psychology

People began to wonder how cognition works, including how learning and memory works.

• Theology

• Biological Systems

• Philosophy

Scientific method was yet to be applied to psychology.

Step 2

1879: William Vundt

• Structuralism

• Introspection

• Failed to apply the scientific method

Step 3

1900s

• Functionalism

• Gestalt Principle

• Good for sensation/perception

• Not applicable for all aspects of cognition

Step 4

1910s: Pavlov

• Classical Conditioning

• Study only what can be observed/measured

• Unconditioned stimulus/response

• Conditioned stimulus/response

• Neurobiological pathways connecting different brain regions responsible for different types of stimuli/responses

Step 5

John Watson

• Behaviorism

• Study only what can be observed/measured

• Environment is totally responsible for behavior

Step 6

1920s: Karl Lashley

• T-maze testing SR after brain lesions

• Bigger lesion > bigger deficit

• Equal Potentiality

• Mass Action

Step 7

1948: E.C. Tolman

• SR is not the only form of learning

• Spatial Learning/Cognitive maps

• Learning is due to more than one system

Step 8

1949: Donald Hebb

• Synaptic Activation Changes

• Mass action theory is wrong because there are multiple memory systems

• Lashley is wrong because he only tested lesioning on the cortex and may have been testing the wrong locations

Step 9

1960s: Henry M.

• Had severe epilepsy

• Had almost whole temporal lobes removed

• Could not form new factual/event memories

Step 10

1967: Brenda Miller

• Henry M. could not remember meeting her, but could get better at the “Tower of Hanoi” game

• He could not form new declarative memories

• He could still form new procedural memories

• Supported multiple memory systems

Step 11

1970s: R.B.

• Suffered a heart attack on the operating table and suffered neuron cell death

• Lost pyramidal neurons in his hippocampus

• Presented symptoms similar to Henry M.

• Connected hippocampal pyramidal neurons to declarative memory
  

Step 12

1971: Bliss, Lomos

• Long Term Potentiality

• Put an electrode in the axon connecting CA3 to CA1 in the hippocampus

• Put a recorder in the dendrites of CA1

• Recorded long-lasting increases in synaptic activity after a large stimulus

Step 13

1971: John O’Keefe

• Discovered hippocampal place cells

• They fire when someone is at a specific place in their cognitive map

• Research was widely dismissed
  

Step 14

1975: Phillip Best

• Managed to replicate O’Keefe’s data, lending it support

Step 15

Douglas Matthews

• Rats with a lesioned hippocampus did worse on spatial tasks and slightly better on non-spatial tasks

• Rats with a sham surgery did better on spatial tasks and slightly worse (in comparison) on non-spatial tasks

• Further proved hippocampus is necessary for declarative memory

Step 16

1989: John Packord

• Rats with a lesioned hippocampus did worse on spatial tasks and slightly better on non-spatial tasks

• Rats with a lesioned caudate did slightly better on spatial tasks and worse on non-spatial tasks

• Supported that the caudate is necessary for procedural memory

Step 17

1999: Douglas Matthews

• Sober rats used almost exclusively spatial memory/declarative memory to find food

• The more alcohol rats got, the more they relied on procedural memory/cues to find the food

• Argued that alcohol causes temporary symptoms that mimics a hippocampal lesion