PSYC 2081 Final Exam (UNSW)

Wilhelm Wundt

First psychology lab established by

1879

Year first psych lab was established

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

First man to propose a mechanism for evolutionary change

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Theory: living species have an innate drive to protect itself, and acquired characteristics are HEREDITARY and can be passed on to progeny

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Giraffe growing neck theory

Voyage of the Beagle

Name of Darwin's ship

Thomas Malthus

Argued that in nature, plants and animals produce more offspring than can survive and that humans are also capable of overproducing

Charles Darwin

Theory: evolution by natural selection

The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

Name of Darwin's book

Thomas Huxley

Argued that humans were the product of evolution in his book, Evidence for Man's Place in Nature (1863)

Alfred Wallace

Argued that natural selection does NOT explain the human mind, rather divine intervention had created consciousness in higher animals

1. Sexual selection
2. Human intellect is not unique
3. Similar emotional expression across species
4. Human emotion is inherited

Darwin's 4 reasons that mental faculties in higher animals are explained by natural selection.

George Romanes

Found linear progress of evolution from "lower" to "higher" with humans as the highest form of evolved life

1. Nervous system
2. Evidence of learning and memory

Romanes 2 criteria for mind:

Morgan's Canon

Theory that simple psychological processes can interact with environment to produce highly complex behavior (i.e. natural selection)

Edward Thorndike

Trial-and-error learning in animals; originally found that satisfaction (reward) establishes connections while dissatisfaction (punishment) breaks them using puzzle boxes for cats and dogs

John Watson

Studied maze learning in rates and innate behavior of birds; instincts and learning connections. Also studied INFANTS: figured that stimuli elicit fear in "little Albert" because of Pavlovian conditioning of emotional responses

Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning; studied dogs and salivation

B.F. Skinner

Studied feeding in rats and realized he could study instrumental (operant) conditioned responses via presses of bar providing access to food

Operant conditioning

reinforcement increases likelihood of behavior

more

Occasionally reinforcing a response is (more/less) effective in maintaining that response than rewarding a response on each occurence

fixed ratio

A _____ _______ n is where n responses are required.

variable ratio

A _____ ______ n is where n responses on average are required

variable

Does fixed or variable ratio produce higher levels of responding?

fixed interval

A _____ _______ is where behavior is reinforced after a fixed period of time.

variable interval

A _____ _______ is where behavior is reinforced at different periods of time

fixed ratio

Type of reinforcement schedule: a fruit picker is paid by the number of baskets filled

variable ratio

Type of reinforcement schedule: when fishing, casting the line is reinforced by the fish intermittently biting the hook

fixed interval

Type of reinforcement schedule: doing well on an exam depends on studying (exams occur at regular times)

variable interval

Type of reinforcement schedule: poker machines pay off on a variable schedule

Matching law

Law that says that we allocate our behavior in proportion to the value derived from each activity (i.e. if the value of socializing is twice the value of studying, we allocate twice the amount of behavior to socializing than studying)

Classical conditioning

Pavlovian conditioning =

Instrumental conditioning

Operant conditioning =

Pavlovian/classical

Type of conditioning involving US, CS, US and UR

association by temporal contiguity

Two events are more likely to be associated when they occur together than when their presentations are separated in time

no

Is temporal contiguity sufficient for associative learning?

the blocking effect

An additional US causes no CR

better predictor of the US

Learning about the CS failed when it is accompanied by...

prediction error

the larger the _____, the more the learning

extinction

occurs when the positive contingency between a CS and US is broken by exposures to the CS in the absence of the US

cue exposure

Extinction is used to model _____ which is a component of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

cue exposure

In Cognitive Behavior Therapy, trauma related cues (CS) are presented in the ABSENCE of overt danger (US)

fear restoration phenomena

suggests that anxiety will return after cue exposure treatment with the elapse of time if trauma related cues are encountered outside context where cue exposure occured

action, outcome

animals and people are sensitive to the contingency between an ____ and an ____

Pavlovian conditioning

conditioning of predictive relations that exist between events

Instrumental conditioning

conditioning of causal relations that exists between actions and events

appetitive, aversive

What are the two main and opposing motivational systems?

appetitive

Motivational system: reward, food, drug

aversive

Motivational system: fear, frustration

Pavlovian

conditioning for predictive learning, often used to study how animals learn about environmental stimuli that reliably predict motivationally significant events

conditioned suppression

the ability of a feared CS to reduce an appetitive behavior (e.g. pressing a bar to obtain food)

freezing

the abscence of all non-respiratory movements

1. acquisition
2. consolidation
3. retrieval/expression

3 stages of memory formation

auditory thalamus, auditory cortex

two places in brain where auditory CS are processed (e.g. tone, clicker)

auditory thalamus

fast auditory processing occurs in the...

auditory cortext

slower but more detailed auditory processing occurs in the...

visual cortex

where in the braing is a visual CS processed (e.g. a light)

hippocampus

where in the brain is a context CS processed (e.g. a conditioning chamber)

spares

lesion of the hippocampus BEFORE training (spares/impairs) context conditioned fear

impairs

lesion of the hippocampus AFTER training (spares/impairs) context conditioned fear

1. context can be processed as independent set of features
2. unique representation of a context can be formed, where all other features are bound together

2 central assumptions of Dual-process theory of the hippocampus

cortex

that context can be processed as independent set of features (e.g. shape, odor) in the dual-process theory of the hippocampus is established in the....

hippocampus

that unique representation of a context can be formed, where all the other features are bound together in the dual-process theory of the hippocampus is established in the....

hippocampus is recruited when available, if not, the cortex compensates

why do the effects of hippocampal lesions depend on the timing of the procedure? (lesions before training spares conditioned fear, whereas lesions after training impairs conditioned fear)

somatosensory thalamus, somatosensory cortex

2 places aversive US stimulation are processed

amygdala (basolateral amygdala aka BLA)

site of the CS-US association

lateral (LA)

part of amygdala important for DISCRETE fear conditioning

basal (BL)

part of amygdala important for CONTEXT fear conditioning

muscimol

a GABAa agonist that allows temporary inactivation of the targeted brain region

acquisition, expression

the BLA is required for ____ and ____ of conditioned fear

long term potentiation (LTP)

form of synaptic plasticity that provides the first experimental support for the neural representation of memory

BLA, NMDA

LTP occurs in the ____ and is dependent of _____ receptor activation

acquisition, expression

activation of the NMDA in BLA is required for _____ but not ____ of conditioned fear

anisomycin

an inhibitor of protein synthesis that gets infused into the BLA

consolidation

synthesis of new proteins in the BLA is required for _____ of conditioned fear

acquisition, consolidation, expression

BLA is required for the _____, ____ and _____ of conditioned fear

central nucleus (CeA)

this part of the amygdala receives projection from the BLA and projects to brainstem structures mediating the various components of the fear response

H7

an inhibitor of PKC/PKA that is involved in the formation of fear memories

expression, acquisition, H7

the CeA seems to only be involved in _____ of conditioned fear and not in ____ of conditioned fear because ___ had no effect on formation of fear memory when administered in CEA

goal-directed learning

actions that we and other animals accomplish in order to satisfy our basic needs and desires

1. contingency (causal relationship)
2. goal (depend on value attributed to their consequence)

2 characteristics of goal-directed actions

habitual learning

habits that emerge after extensive training

habitual

(goal directed/habitual) responses are insensitive to the relationships and values of their consequences

habitual

this type of learning is stable, non-flexible, long lasting and the source of addiction

goal-directed

this type of learning is essential to survive, allows interactions with environment, flexible and cognitively demanding

goal-directed, habitual

two types of instrumental learning

goal-directed

contingency requirement --> contingency degradation = ____ learning

habitual

goal requirement --> outcome devaluation = ____ learing

contingency degradation

when behavior is goal directed, one action-outcome association directs choice towards another action-outcome association

little

when behavior is habitual, contingency manipulation has ______ effect on performance and choice

outcome devaluation

free access to an outcome or its pairing with an illness reduces the desirability or value of this outcome

parallel, independent

goal-directed and habitual learning are two ____ and _____ neural systems that compete to control beahvior

acquisition

the prelimbic cortex (PL) is necessary for ______ of goal-directed learning

contingency degradation, outcome devaluation

animals with prelimbic cortex (PL) lesion fail to show ____ and _____

acquisition, expression

the PL is necessary for ___ but not ___ of goal-directed learning

contingency degradation, outcome devaluation

animals with posterior dorsomedial striatum (pDMS), but not aDMS, lesion fail to show ____ and ____

acquisition, expression

the posterior dorsomedial striatum (pDMS) is necessary for ____ and ______ of goal-directed learning

NMDAr

activation of ______ in the pDMS is required for the acquisition of goal-directed learning

basolateral amygdala (BLA)

what part of the brain is essential for encoding information about the goal

habitual

overtraining produces ____ behavior