Learning + Mem (1)

What are the stages of memory (formation?)?

Encoding information → taking in info through the sensory system and converting it Consolidation of information → process of storing (the cortex) or processing info so that it becomes more stable Retrieval of information → recalling and pulling up stored info so that you can use the info later

How does reconsolidation make us vulnerable to distorted memories?

Memory retrieval re-activates the parts of your brain that encoded the various aspects of that memory and each time this happens is an opportunity for modification and loss of information

What are the types of long-term memory?

Declarative (semantic and episodic) and nondeclarative/procedural.

What are the two kinds of amnesia?

Retrograde amnesia (loss of memories formed before a trauma such as accident or surgery) and anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories after onset of a disorder)

What are the two fundamentally different categories of memory?

Long-term memory and short-term memory.

What is the evidence that a particular brain circuit is crucial for forming some types of memory?

Looking at different patients who had damage to said areas; HM, NA, KC, ML.

What are the two subtypes of declarative memories, and which can we describe to other people?

Episodic and semantic.

What is the definition of learning and memory?

Learning is the process of acquiring new information, and memory is the ability to store and retrieve information.

How can memory be classified?

Duration, sensory, and the type of information being stored.

What are the types of memory?

Short-term memory involves the storage of a limited amount of information temporarily (about a few minutes). It lasts only as long as the person rehearses the material or if it is a short amount of time and no distractors

Working memory a subtype of short term memory in which you hold information on line or in your head at the same time you are using that information

Intermediate-term memory → outlasts STM but not the same as long term (can last a few days) – (e.g. where you parked

Long-term memory → is storage of an unlimited amount of information that lasts for hours, days, weeks or permanently.

Sensory memory is modality specific: information is stored in the modality by which it entered,

Visual (iconic) stimuli-The type of memory that stores images

Auditory (echoic) stimuli -The type of sensory memory that briefly stores sounds, auditory information

Haptic - The type of sensory memory that briefly stores tactile sense of touch information

Olfactory memory – (Input related to the sense of smell) → evokes emotional memories

Gustatory memory- (Input related to the sense of taste) → evokes emotional memories

Declarative memory → (knowing that) encodes information about specific autobiographical events as well as the temporal and personal associations for those events → memory that can be stated or described.

Semantic Memory → generalized memory – knowing the meaning of a word, but not knowing how you know it.

Episodic memory → memory of a particular incident or a particular time and place.

Nondeclarative/procedural memory → (knowing how) encodes the knowing how to perform → memory that is shown by performance rather than by conscious recollection.

Why is long-term memory infallible?

There are several factors that can make memories hard to retrieve: Time since the event was stored Time since the last time you remembered it how well it was integrated it with your own knowledge or other memories Is it unique or similar to other events Memory retrieval re-activates the parts of your brain that encoded the various aspects of that memory and each time this happens is an opportunity for modification and loss of information

What happened to HM?

Suffered from severe epilepsy → surgery removed the amygdala, hippocampus, and surrounding cortex, which resulted in severe anterograde amnesia for episodic declarative memories H.M. could remember things for a very short time HM did not lose all memories: non-declarative memories were left intact (memory for skill and habit-type learning) → they can learn a skill, but when executing it, they don't remember when they actually learned the skill.

What is the Delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMS) task procedure?

Sample phase = present monkey with a single object they have to displace for a food reward Delay = screen comes down for a variable delay Choice/Test phase = two objects are presented: one like the object in the sample phase and a new object Monkey has to choose the new object in order to get the reward (non-match to the previous object). in order for the monkey to choose the new object, it has to remember which object it saw before the delay so it doesn’t choose the old one.

What are the results of the Delayed non-matching-to-sample (DNMS) task?

Removal of only the hippocampus caused a deficit, not a total loss; Adding the entorhinal and the parahippocampus (more surrounding cortex) increase the deficit; caused a more severe problem. Adding the perirhinal cortex made the deficit complete Removing the amygdala had little impact

What happened to NA?

Anterograde amnesia, very similar to H.M Damage was to the thalamus and hypothalamus, and both mammillary bodies Suggests that the medial temporal lobe and the midline diencephalic region are normally parts of a larger memory system

What is Korsakoff’s syndrome?

Anterograde amnesia for declarative memories caused by lack of thiamine (vitamin B1). Patients often confabulate—fill in a gap in memory with a falsification which they accept as true. Damage occurs in mammillary bodies and dorsomedial thalamus, similar to N.A., and to the basal frontal cortex.

What happened to KC?

Motorcycle accident. Suffered diffuse cortex damage and severe shrinkage of the hippocampus and parahippocampal cortex. Could not retrieve personal (episodic) memory semantic memory (generalized memory) was good.

What happened to ML?

Retrograde amnesia selective damage to the right ventral prefrontal cortex, underlying white matter, including the uncinate fasciculus

Damage to either the _____ or the ______ will prevent the formation of any new declarative memories without loss of previously formed memories.

“medial temporal lobe” and “medial diencephalon bodies”

What are the structures that are important for episodic memories?

The Papez circuit: Hippocampal, parahippocampus, dorsal thalamus, mammillary bodies, fornix, mammillothalamic tract

What are the types of learning?

Non-associative → involves a change in behavior in response to a given stimulus (aplysia) → when the organism is exposed once or repeatedly to a single type of stimulus

Habituation (ubiquitous of all forms of learning, first to emerge in infants): decrease/suppression in a behavioral response after repeated stimulus → habituation allows animals and humans learn to ignore stimuli that have lost novelty or meaning

Sensitization: enhancement of an animal's responses as a result of the presentation of a strong or noxious stimulus (more sensitive after a strong pain)

Associative → the pairing of either 2 stimuli wher one is “conditioned,” and one is unconditioned, or a pairing between a specific behavioral response and a reinforcer.

Classical: a form of learning in which an unimportant stimulus acquires the properties of an important one → pavlov’s dogs

Operant (adaptive): learning the relationship between a behavior (response) and a consequence of that behavior → Thorndike’s puzzle box (cats), operant chambers, reinforcing and punishing stimuli, shaping.

Procedural → skill learning (task performance, could be motor or cognitive)

Skill learning → sensorimotor skills

Perceptual → reverse mirror reading

Cognitive → Tower of Hanoi

Spatial → development of the spatial relationships of the elements in the environment (need hippocampus, essentially create cognitive maps of a space based on cues) → olton maze + marris water maze

Explain US-UR and CS-CR?

The reflex consists of an unconditioned stimulus and response - US-UR. in the beginning the food is the unconditioned stimulus (US) because it elicits the unconditioned response (UR; salivation) initially, the sound is NOT an unconditioned stimulus because it has nothing to do with the salivary reflex. After pairing the sound with the food the sound has acquired a relationship with the reflex. It now becomes conditioned – it is the conditioned stimulus – CS. The response – salivation – is also a bit different. It is no longer produced by any sensory information for the meat. It is now the conditioned response – CR – The pathway for the CR and UR are different even though the response is the same.

What is successive approximation?

Teaching an animal using operant conditioning first involves shaping the animal’s behavior using a procedure

What are the operant condition semantics?

Reinforcement: final outcome = good Punishment: final outcome = bad Positive: stimulus added to the intended response Negative: stimulus took away from the intended response

What are the reinforcement schedules?

Continuous: reinforcing desired behavior each and every time it occurs fixed interval: reinforcing a response only after a specific amount of time has lapsed variable interval: reinforcing a response after an unpredictable amount of time has lapsed. fixed ratio: reinforcing a response only after a specific number of responses have occurred variable ratio: reinforcing a response after an unpredictable number of responses are made by a variable interval sched