PS 234 Psychology of Learning Exam 1

Behaviorism

Environment shapes behavior through learned associations

Empiricism

Learning is shaped by experience; nurture

Associationism

Memories are formed through associations; contiguity, frequency, similarity

Nativism

Humans are primarily shaped by their biological inheritance

Cognitive

Brain as a computer; mental processes are important in learning (Tolman father)

Mathematical

We can quantitatively model the laws of learning and memory

Aristotle

Empiricism and associationism; Memories formed by associating two experiences that occur together in time/space (contiguity), that occur together more frequently, or are similar to one another

Plato

Nativism; People are born with innate differences in skills and talent

Descartes

Nativism; our minds and bodies work separately from each other; our bodies are like machines

Locke

Empiricism and associationism; We are born as blank slates (tabula rasa); we gain knowledge and skills through our experiences

James

Empiricism and associationism; Experiences link ideas in the mind, and these links are physically formed in the brain; “rules of the mind”

Darwin

Nativism; Learning is important for survival; organisms with greater innate capacity for learning and memory are more likely to breed and pass on their capacities

Ebbinghaus

Behaviorism; 1st to study memory empirically; Forgetting curve: rapid initial forgetting, but progressively less forgetting with time

Pavlov

Behaviorism, empiricism, associationism; father of classical conditioning; experimental way of testing associationism. Contiguity, frequency, and similarity

Watson

Behaviorism, empiricism, associationism; demonstrated classical conditioning in humans; could take “a dozen healthy infants” and train them to become any type of specialist

Thorndike

Behaviorism, empiricism, associationism; instrumental conditioning; law of effect: behaviors followed by satisfying condition are more likely to recur, and those followed by unsatisfying condition are less likely

Skinner

Behaviorism, empiricism, associationism; operant conditioning: rewards and punishments; behavior modification

Hull

Behaviorism, empiricism, mathematical; Drive reduction hypothesis: used mathematical model that posited that behaviors occur to satisfy innate drives; direct link between stimulus and learned response

Tolman

Behaviorism, cognitive; father of cognitive psychology; takes into account the purpose and plan of behavior (goal oriented); Tolman’s cognitive map: rats trained on a maze can find new ways to the goal when faced with obstacles

Bandura

Cognitive and behaviorist; observational learning; studied how latent learning happens; Bobo Doll Experiment; Attention (pay attention to model’s behavior) retention (remember what the model was doing) reproduction (be able to reproduce behavior) motivation (key to understanding latent learning)

Estes

Cognitive and mathematical; stimuli are complex; stimulus sampling theory: learning is random, and it is variable what elements of a stimulus are associated with a response (intervening stage); variation in learning yields variation in behavior

Bower

Mathematical and cognitive; one step learning: doesn’t occur gradually/incrementally, looking at a group average masks individual differences in learning acquisition and masks insight; reinterpreted the “learning curve” of behaviorists

Miller

Cognitive and mathematical; tested memory recall using digit-span test; capacity of 7 ± 2 items

Rumelhart

Cognitive; cognitive processing is a network of connections between simple processing units (nodes); connectionist model; ideas represented in the brain by patterns of activation; “distributed representation”

What is latent learning?

Learning that takes place even when there is no specific motivation to obtain or avoid a specific consequence, such as food or shock, and is subconsciously acquired; shows that learning doesn’t equal performance; ex. Bobo doll, rats in maze

What was psychology like before behaviorism?

Primarily Freudian psychoanalysis (human behavior as irrational and driven by subconscious forces); dream analysis, introspection, authority, only human subjects, ridiculed by “hard sciences” for a lack of objectivity and progress

Pons

Part of brainstem that carries nerve impulses from lower and higher brain areas; bridge between medulla and thalamus

Medulla

Vital body functions (heartbeat and breathing); point of decussation (left and right sensorimotor info cross over)

RAS (reticular formation)

“gatekeeper”; regulates incoming sensory info, conscious/unconscious states; attention; in charge of habituation, relays info to thalamus

Cerebellum

Muscular movement coordination (posture, anti-gravity movements, balance); '“unconscious” learning and memory (classical conditioning, procedural learning); contains 50% of neurons in brain

Thalamus

Sensory switchboard (bridal chamber); episodic memory, memory consolidation, reward learning, recognition

Anterior nucleus of the thalamus

Memory consolidation, spatial learning; anterograde amnesia

Dorsal medial group

In thalamus, episodic memory timeline, recognition, reward learning (feeds reward signals into prefrontal cortex); people with damage present impaired learning through reinforcement

Hypothalamus

Regulates drives (hunger, sleep); episodic memory

Mammillary bodies

Episodic memory timeline; Part of hypothalamus; memory consolidation, spatial; damage: Korsakoff’s - vitamin B1 deficiency (inability to remember when things happen in reference to other events/time; —> confabulate - honest lying;

Amygdala

Adds, processes, and encodes emotional context of memories; fear learning, picking up social cues from others

Hippocampus

Encoding of NEW memories (all types); also helps in retrieval; Alzheimer’s - hippocampus hit first but episodic memory lasts longer

Corpus Callosum

Exchange of info between R and L hemispheres; large white matter; ADHD - interhemispheric communication may be disrupted, possibly impacts motor control and attention

Basal ganglia

Planning/producing skilled movement; attention, reward learning, procedural learning; regulates voluntary movement; striatum, substantia nigra, subthalamic nucleus; ADHD - BG not inhibiting nonimportant info

Striatum (caudate, putamen, globus pallidus)

Motor command, procedural learning; caudate - 7% smaller in people with Terret’s; globus pallidus - parkinsonian’s (stiff, slow movement); caudate and putamen - Huntington’s/chorea (uncontrolled, jerky movement

Substantia nigra

Provides dopamine to striatum, modulating movement circuits

Subthalamic nucleus

Helps increase BG inhibition of unwanted movement

Cingulate cortex

Helps monitor emotional significance of environment (limbic system)

Papez circuit (5 steps)

Cingulate gyrus —> parahippocampal and entorhinal cortex (hippocampus forms memory “jello”) —> fornix (carries signals out of hippocampus) —> Mamillary bodies (hypothalamus, memory timeline), anterior nucleus of thalamus (memory consolidation)

Frontal lobe

Planning and performing complex functions, attention and working memory

Parietal lobe

Touch, feeling, sense of space; procedural learning

Occipital

Vision, observational learning, reading to learn

Temporal

Hearing and making/storing LTM of factual information

Acetylcholine

Converts info into LTM, attention; muscle activity; Alzheimer’s

Serotonin

Regulates mood and drives; learn from negative aversive experiences; lack of appetite, depression

Dopamine

Pleasure, reward cycle; reinforcement learning (operant), procedural learning; parkinson’s disease (loss of dopamine), schizophrenia (too much)

Norepinephrine

Fight or flight response; fear learning and memory; affects mood; ADHD medications

GABA

Slows down messages to brain coming through brainstem; LTP; released in antidepressants to create calming feeling

Glutamate

Speeds up messages to the brain (gas pedal), LTP

Franz Gall

Localization theory, differences in personality related to individual brain areas (phrenology)

Karl Lashley

Equipotentiality: all brain tissue is the same; mass action, brain mapping

Alexander Luria

Pluropotentiality: CNS has 3 units - Brainstem, posterior cortex, frontal regions