Module 4: Learning & Memory

Girl, you got this.

Learning

• The ability to alter behavior on the basis of experience

Memory

• Acquisition, storage & retrieval of sensory information.

• Ability to recall past events at the conscious or unconscious level

Thought

• A thought result from a pattern of stimulation of many parts of the nervous system at the same time

• & in a definite sequence, probably involving the cerebral cortex, thalamus, limbic system, upper reticular formation of brain stem

• Reflex Learning

• Incidental Learning

Types of learning (2)

Reflex Learning

• Associated with immediate behavior change

Incidental Learning

• Behavior change not immediate

• But person gets information from sensory inputs and develop potential to behave differently

• Non-associative

• Associative

• Types of reflex learning (2)

Non-associative

• Person learns about properties of single stimulus when repeatedly exposed to same stimulus

Associative

• Person learns about relationship between two stimuli or a stimulus and behavior

• Habituation

• Sensitization

Non-associative (2)

Habituation

Non-associative

• Decrease in response to benign stimulus when stimulus presented repeatedly

Sensitization

Non-associative

• Increase in response to benign stimulus when stimulus presented repeatedly with an pleasant or unpleasant stimuli

Habituation

• If a stimulus is repeated many times

• First time it evokes a novel response (orientation response or what is it response)

• Evokes less & less responsive when repeated

• Subject becomes habituated to the stimulus and ignores it

Sensitization

• The type of sensory information which cause pleasure, pain, or interest are stored in brain by facilitation of synaptic pathway.

• Example = Spanking

• Classical Conditioning

• Operant Conditioning

Associative Learning (2)

Classical Conditioning

• Learning relationship between two stimuli

• Pavlovian Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• Learning relationship between special behavior with a reinforcement event

• Instrumental or trial & error conditioning

Conditional Stimulus

• no response

• neutral signal

• no emotional meaning

Unconditioned Stimulus

• reflex = salivation

• Trigger for hardwired emotions related to survival

• Reward Conditioning

• Aversive Conditioning

Operant Conditioning (2)

Reward Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• Naturally occurring response is strengthened by positive reinforcement (reward)

Aversive Conditioning

Operant Conditioning

• Naturally occurring response is weakened by negative reinforcement (Punishment)

• It is to avoid an unpleasant event

Thorndike and Law of Effect

• Law of effect

• Response is strengthened by a reward

• response would not occur in ways that bring punishment

Memory

• Acquisition, storage & retrieval of sensory information

• Physiologically on the basis of how information is stored & recalled

• Depending upon permanency of storage

Types of memory

Implicit Memory

Physiologically on the basis of how information is stored & recalled

• Unconscious and automatic

• Procedural

• Priming

Explicit memory

Physiologically on the basis of how information is stored & recalled

• Conscious and intentional

• Episodic

• Semantic

Depending upon permanency of storage

• Short term

• Intermediate long term

• Long term

• explicit memory

• implicit memory

Long term memory (2)

Explicit memory

• With conscious recall

Implicit memory

• Without conscious recall

• Semantic memory

• Episodic memory

Explicit memory (2)

Semantic Memory

• Facts and general knowledge

Episodic memory

• Personally experienced events

• Procedural memory

• Priming

Implicit memory (2)

Procedural memory

• motor and cognitive skills

Priming

• Enhanced identification of objects or words

• Associative Visual Agnosia

• Apperceptive Visual Agnosia

Damage to Cortical area - loss of specific information

Associative Visual Agnosia

Damage to Cortical area - loss of specific information

• Posterior parietal cortex damage - can identify but cannot name the objects

Apperceptive Visual Agnosia

Damage to Cortical area - loss of specific information

• Posterior occipital lobe damage

• Can name the objects but cannot draw

Episodic memory

• In association area of prefrontal cortex

• With other areas of neo-cortex for collection of information

• Damage - Amnesia

Working memory

• The ability to temporarily hold and manipulate information for cognitive tasks performed in daily life

• holds information for a few seconds. It is temporary

• Can hold only five to seven items at a time. It has a small capacity

• holds and manipulates information

• depends on control of attention and mental effort

• Anterograde

• Retrograde

Amnesia (2)

Anterograde

• Inability to establish new long term memories

• Mostly in lesions involving hippocampus

Retrograde

• Inability to recall past memories

• Amnesia greater for recent past than remote past

• Lesions involving temporal lobe (Temporal lobe syndrome)

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

• Senile Dementia

• Prototypical neurodegenerative disease

• Degeneration of pathways from septal region of the forebrain to the hippocampus

• Affecting 15-25% people over 65

• Cholinergic neurons cease functions

• Associative with decrease release of ach in some area of the brain

• Loss of postsynaptic neurons

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

___________ Characteristic Features

• Loss of recent memory

• Impairment in other areas of cognition:

• Language

• Problem solving

• Judgment

• Calculation

• Attention

• Psychiatric Symptoms

• Loss of spatial orientation

Intelligence

• The underlying ability to understand the world and cope with its challenges

• Tied to achievements such as academic performance and occupational status

• Spearman’s G Factor

• Thurstone’s Nine Specific Factor

Factor Theories of Intelligence

Spearman’s G Factor

• General Intelligence

• S Factor represents specific intelligence

Thurstone’s nine specific factors

• Primary mental abilities

Visual and spatial abilities

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Visualizing forms and spatial relationships

Perceptual speed

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Grasping perceptual details rapidly, perceiving similarities and differences between stimuli

Numerical ability

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Computing numbers

Verbal meaning

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Knowing the meanings of words

Memory

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Recalling information (words and sentences)

Word Fluency

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Thinking of words quickly (rhyming, and doing crossword puzzles)

Deductive reasoning

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Deriving examples from general rules

Inductive reasoning

Primary Mental Abilities, According to Thurstone

• Inferring general rules from examples

Howard Gardner

Theory of Multiple Intelligences

• Number of different intelligences

• Criticism - Do all represent intelligence or talent?

naturalist

• Understanding living things and reading nature

musical

• discerning sounds, their pitch, tone, rhythm, and timbre

Bodily Kinesthetic

• Coordinating your mind with your body

Logical mathematical

• Quantifying things, making hypotheses and proving them

Interpersonal

• sensing people’s feelings and motives

intrapersonal

• understanding yourself, what you feel

• and what you want

Linguistic

• Finding the right words to express what you mean

Spatial

• Visualizing the world in 3D

• naturalist

• musical

• bodily kinesthetic

• logical mathematical

• interpersonal

• intrapersonal

• linguistic

• spatial

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences (8)

• Analytical

• Creative

• Practical

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Robert Sternberg (3)

Analytical

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Robert Sternberg

• Academic ability

Creative

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Robert Sternberg

• Ability to cope with novel situations and generate multiple solutions to problems

Practical

Triarchic Theory of Intelligence: Robert Sternberg

• street smarts

emotional intelligence

• Intrapersonal and interpersonal skills

• self-insight and self-control

• allows for coping with stress, depression, and aggressive behavior

Convergent thinking

• Thought is limited to present facts

• Best used in intelligence testing

Divergent Thinking

• Freely associate to elements of problem

• Best used in measuring creativity

Divergent thinker

• Thinks of all possible ways to reach a solution

Convergent Thinker

• Thinks for a final solution