Chapter 6 - Lecture

Question 1

define taste aversion learning

Answer 1

after becoming sick due to a food item, the item itself becomes a warning stimulus for sickness

Question 2

what are the conditioning explanations for taste aversions?

Answer 2

• laws of classical conditioning
• law of effect

Question 3

what are the problems with classical conditioning (CC) explanations for taste aversion?

Answer 3

• one-trial acquisition (OTA) of taste aversion
• delayed conditioning of taste aversion (become sick later but still connect the cause)
• selectivity in taste aversion learning (more likely to stay away from something like a salad if you went to a buffet and decide the cause)

Question 4

contrast the # of associations required for classical conditioning vs one trial learning

Answer 4

CC
- responses take a number of associations
eg. multiple pairings of the bell & food for Pavlov’s dog
OTL (one slide ota)
- a change in behaviour occurs after one association

Question 5

contrast the time lapse between CS & CR in CC AND OTL

Answer 5

CC
- almost immediate
OTL
- often a large time lapse

Question 6

contrast the extinction between CS and OTL

Answer 6

CC
- can be extinguished relatively easily
OTL
- highly resistant, response is powerful

Question 7

contrast the generalisation, between cs and otl

Answer 7

CC
- cs can be easily generalised to other stimuli
OTL
- unlikely to be generalised

Question 8

describe the Rescoria-Wagner Model

Answer 8

• rats in group B first learn an association between noise (CS) and shock (US)
• they later fail to learn the association between light and shock due to the associative strength that has been used up by noise-shock pairing
  *also called blocking? can use this example to show exceptions to rule

Question 9

describe the pretraining, conditioning, testing and response examples for blocking

Answer 9

A group (control): pretraining (none), conditioning (noise+light+shock), testing (light), response (freezing -high fear)
B group (blocking): pretraining (noise>shock), conditioning (noise+light+shock), testing (light), response (bar pressing - no fear)

Question 10

what does the cerebral cortex do?

Answer 10

sensation, language, speech, thinking and motor activity

Question 11

what does the thalamus do?

Answer 11

relay center for sensory information

Question 12

what does the hypothalamus do?

Answer 12

regulation of endocrine gland activity relating to growth, sexual behaviour and other functions

Question 13

what does the pituitary do?

Answer 13

growth: regulation of other endocrine gland acticity

Question 14

what does the amygdala do?

Answer 14

emotion, aggression, memory

Question 15

what does the hippocampus do?

Answer 15

learning and memory

Question 16

what does the cerebellum do?

Answer 16

control of rapid and habitual movements, coordination of motor activity, balance

Question 17

what does the brain stem do

Answer 17

physiological functions such as breathing, heart functioning, digestion

Question 18

what does the reticular formation do?

Answer 18

arousal center, sleep-wake control

Question 19

describe the hindbrain

Answer 19

• the lower brain stem responsible for basic physiological functions such as respiration and hr
• the cerebellum is centrally involved in locomotion and balance

Question 20

describe the midbrain

Answer 20

• the upper brain stem responsible for regulating waking and sleeping adn for controlling general arousal
• nerve fibers associated with movement

Question 21

describe the forebrain

Answer 21

• the largest and most complex brain structure
• its most important structures include the hypothalamus, the thalamus, and other structures of the limbic system, as well as the cerebrum and cerebral cortex *limbic system important in emotional learning

Question 22

learning can take at least 4 basic forms:

Answer 22

perceptual learning, stimulus-response learning, motor learning, relational learning

Question 23

describe perceptual learning

Answer 23

• involves learning to recognize things, not what to do when they are present
• can involve learning to recognize entirely new stimuli, or it can involve learning to recognize changes or variations in familiar stimuli

Question 24

describe the streams involved in perceptual learning

Answer 24

The ventral stream
- Object recognition, continues ventrally into the
inferior temporal cortex
(WHAT the person is looking at)
The dorsal stream
- Perception of the location of objects, continues
dorsally into the posterior parietal cortex (WHERE item is in the environment)
*perceptual learning is happening everywhere in the brain and vision is everywhere in the brain

Question 25

describe stimulus-response learning

Answer 25

Learning to automatically make a particular response in the presence of a particular stimulus * Stimulus–response learning is the ability to learn to perform a particular behaviour when a particular stimulus is present * Involves the establishment of connections between circuits involved in perception and those involved in movement

Question 26

recall classical conditioning in terms of stimuli/responses

Answer 26

before conditioning: bell> no response food (us)> salivation (ur) during conditioning: bell (cs) followed by food (us)>ur (salivation) after conditioning: bell (cs)> salivation (cr)

Question 27

describe the hebb rule (neural model of classical conditioning)

Answer 27

Hebb Rule: If a synapse repeatedly becomes active at about the same time that the postsynaptic neuron fires, changes will take place in the structure + chemistry of the synapse that strengthen it

Question 28

describe the neural model of classical conditioning

Answer 28

- somatosensory neuron collecting info from senses, results in a motor response (blinking output) - neuron in auditory system weakly connected to blinking output but becomes active as the postsynaptic neuron fires + connection is strengthened

Question 29

describe the neural model for instrumental conditioning: a simple model for motor learning

Answer 29

stimulus>neural circuit that detects a particular stimulus>neural circuit that controls a particular behaviour>behaviour>reinforcing stimulus (eg. food)>reinforcement system>neural circuit that controls ...etc.

Question 30

define relational learning

Answer 30

Relational Learning establishes neuronal connections in systems that include memories that can be verbally expressed, such as memory for events in a person’s past (i.e., declarative memory) and memory whose formation does not depend on the hippocampal formation - A collective term for perceptual, stimulus-response, and motor memory (i.e., non declarative memory).

Question 31

what is the hippocampal formation?

Answer 31

* A forebrain structure of the temporal lobe, constituting an important part of the limbic system - Temporal Lobe - Characteristic appearance

Question 32

describe long-term potentiation

Answer 32

Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a persistent strengthening of the synapses, or connections, between neurons - It is one of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie learning and memory - LTP occurs when two neurons are activated at the same time, and it results in an increased ability of the postsynaptic neuron to transmit signals from the presynaptic neuron

Question 33

describe the appearance/structure of the hippocampal formation

Answer 33

axon in perforant path is always found in the same location - connects to neuron in the dentate gyrus

Question 34

how can we measure charge in the hippocampal formation?

Answer 34

- can measure and cause electrical changes - take electrode, stimulate axons in perforant path and record from dentate gyrus (recording changes in second neuron,what happens to the electrical charge?)

Question 35

how can long-term potentiation be applied to learning?

Answer 35

when you are thinking about a concept, activating specific circuits and then testing memory - the fact that you've studied that = takes less time to bring up the info *if a neuron has been stimulated enough, in the future it doesn't need a lot of stimulation to be active again

Question 36

how does amplitude relate to long term potentiation? *not on slides

Answer 36

referring to change that is happening in the charge - if the amplitude is fairly high, neuron doesn't need much stimulation to be put into action

Question 37

describe EPSP (long term potentiation)

Answer 37

An Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP) is a temporary change in the electric potential of the membrane of a postsynaptic neuron (the neuron that receives signals) that makes it more likely to generate an action potential - EPSPs are a result of the activation of excitatory synapses, which transmit signals from presynaptic neurons to postsynaptic neurons

Question 38

describe the excitatory nature of EPSPs

Answer 38

EPSPs are excitatory in nature, meaning that they increase the likelihood of the postsynaptic neuron firing an action potential

Question 39

describe associative long-term potentiation

Answer 39

- take a weak stimulus (ex. sound/bell) and strong stimulus (puff of air), if you activate at thesame time adn record EPSPs, because both have been stimulated together, the weak stimuli become stronger = learning takes place

Question 40

*learning can take the form of increased activity but also _

Answer 40

decreased activity (not in slides)

Question 41

describe long-term depression

Answer 41

Low-frequency stimulation of the synaptic inputs * Long-term depression (LTD) is a phenomenon that is the opposite of long-term potentiation (LTP) * While LTP involves the strengthening of synaptic connections, LTD involves the weakening or long- lasting decrease in the strength of synaptic connections between neurons *when synapses not activated, become weaker ex. when not paying attention to concept, have to spend more time jogging memory for test

Question 42

define retrograde amnesia

Answer 42

cannot remember events prior to brain damage

Question 43

define anterograde amnesia

Answer 43

cannot later remember events that occur after brain damage

Question 44

*how is alcohol use related to amnesia?

Answer 44

- can result in experience of retrograde amnesia with heavy use - can result in cell death - can result in memory issues

Question 45

what did the H.M. story tell us?

Answer 45

The hippcampus is not the location of long- term memories 2. The hippocampus is involved in converting immediate (short-term) memories into long- term memories

Question 46

describe the examples of broken drawings shown in class

Answer 46

- as each set progresses, the drawings become less broken - for most participants, when they have encountered the stimuli before, they are able to identify each item very quickly - also happened to H.M. - if h.m. saw elephant in umbrella and went back to set 1 in later trials, would be able to identify correctly (but wouldn't be able to say why he could do it) *we have diff kinds of memory

Question 47

define declarative memory (explicit)

Answer 47

Memory that can be verbally expressed, such as memory for events in a person’s past

Question 48

define nondeclarative memory (implicit)

Answer 48

Memory whose formation does not depend on the hippocampal formation; a collective term for perceptual, stimulus–response, and motor memory ex. the drawing identification task isa good example

Question 49

in the graphs on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, what was on the y and x axis?

Answer 49

x axis: time (days) y axis: relative activity

Question 50

what do the graphs on the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and hippocampus show?

Answer 50

- hippocampus deals with immediate handling of info and long term storage happens in the ventromedial cortex - hippocampus activity is increased at the beginning and it decreases over time - activity in the ventromedial cortex increases over time

Question 51

recalling information in the same order would be the responsibility of the_

Answer 51

hippocampus (not on slides)

Question 52

describe the simple model of the learning process

Answer 52

sensory information> short-term memory > long-term memory long-term memory can go to short-term memory

Question 53

moving from short-term memory to long-term memory is called

Answer 53

consolidation - has to do with putting things in context: how do you give it meaning?

Question 54

moving from long-term memory to short-term memory is called

Answer 54

rehearsal -there has to be a certain amount of rehearsal but repeating it won't necessarily bring theinfo up in the way you want to use it