Psychology

Forgetting

**3 ways for a healthy, physiologically normal adult to forget: 1.) Insufficient Repetition 2.) Reliance on Maintenance Rehearsal rather than Elaborative Rehearsal 3.) Interference

Aging and Memory

**If forgetting is associated w/ aging, it's most likely the result of age-related physiological changes, or disease

Sensory memory

**The shortest-term element of memory ~ Sensory memory is an ultra-short-term memory and decays or degrades very quickly - The ability to retain impressions of sensory info. after the original stimuli have ended (stimuli received through the 5 senses) - If the stimuli detected by our senses is perceived, it will be stored in sensory memory automatically - The sensory memory for visual stimuli is known as Iconic memory; the memory for aural stimuli is known as the Echoic memory; and that for touch as the Haptic memory **Smell may actually be even more closely linked to memory than the other senses (Ex.) The ability to look at something and remember what it looked like with just a second of observation.

Episodic Memory

- "Emotions" play a key role - The memory of autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions and other contextual knowledge) that can be explicitly stated (Ex.) Your roommate from your first year in college OR Fearing water because you were knocked over by a wave at the beach as a child"

Implicit Memory (aka Non-declarative OR Procedural)

- "Knowing how" - The unconscious memory of skills and how to do things, particularly the use of objects or movements of the body (Ex.) Tying a shoelace or riding a bike"

Explicit Memory (aka Declarative)

- "Knowing what" - Declarative memory, is the memory of facts and events and refers to those memories that can consciously be recalled (or "declared") - Further divided into 2 parts: 1. Episodic Memory 2. Semantic Memory"

Biological Processes and Observational Learning:

- **Mirror Neurons, fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so - (Ex.) A monkey's reward sys. (in his brain) lights up when a scientist walks in eating an ice cream cone. This is b/c he's picturing himself eating it.

Psychophysics

- A branch of psychology interested in using precise, quantitative measurment of physical stimuli to understand the relationships between external stimuli and the sensations and perceptions they elicit

Social-Cognitive Theory:

- A broad psychological perspective that attempts to explain behavior, learning, and other phenomena - (Ex.) Bobo Doll Experiment

Semantic Networks

- A graph structure for representing knowledge in patterns of interconnected nodes or arcs - A theory for explaining how our LTM stores concepts and the relationships among them

Classical Conditioning

- A learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus - Involves placing a neutral signal before a reflex - Focuses on involuntary, automatic behaviors ~ So when you see "Classical Conditioning" THINK: INSTINCTUAL RESPONSES! ~ (Ex.) Pavlov's dogs"

Peg-Word System

- A memory aid for remembering list; associate words with the numbers they represent

Interference Effects

- A new memory is similar to an older one, leading to a difficulty in recalling the original memory

Semantic Memory

- A structured record of facts, meanings, concepts, and knowledge about the external world that we have acquired - Semantic memories may once have had a personal context, but now stand alone as simple knowledge - **The semantic memory is generally derived from the episodic memory, in that we learn new facts or concepts from our experiences (Ex.) Types of food, capital cities, social customs, functions of objects, vocabulary, understanding of mathematics, etc.

CNS injury

- After a traumatic brain injury, the brain can reassign the injured portion's fxn(s) to other regions of the brain - (Ex.) Seizure px have hemispheres removed and lead normal, neurological lives (if done young enough)

Observational Learning

- Any learning that results from observation of the behavior of others - **Modeling

Primary reinforcer

- Are used to reward specific behavioral responses, but unlike other types of reinforcers they are of innate biological value to the organism (don't need to be learned) - (Ex.) Food, drink, and pleasure ~ You're trying to teach your dog to roll over. The first time they do you give them a god biscuit. Your repeat this until he associates rolling over w/ dog biscuits. The biscuit, which satisfies your dog's biological need for food, possess innate properties that make it automatically reinforcing.

Memory decay

- As the strength of the LTM traces increase, the rate of decay decreases * More semantic memories, which involve more neuronal interlacing, and have more interconnections w/ existing memories, decay less rapidly - The Curve of Forgetting

Auditory Processing

- Auditory Processing: 1) Hair cells of the inner ear 2) Vestibulocochlear nerve 3) Brain stem 4) Medial Geniculate Nucleus (MGN): Part of the thalamus 5) Auditory Cortex: Part of the temporal lobe

Automatic vs. Controlled Processing

- Automatic processing, doesn't require a conscious effort (Ex.) Walking while talking on the phone - Controlled processing, requires effort (Ex.) Studying for the MCAT **Overtime, controlled processing can become automatic processing

Vestibular Sense

- Balance and orientation, by responding to changes in linear and rotational acceleration detected by hair cells in the vestibule and the semicircular canals

Biological Process and Associative Learning:

- Biological predispositon, is when a subj (human, animal, plant) possesses some internal quality that gives them an increased likelihood of having a condition ~ Another (ex.) of the limits on the applicability of associative learning ~ (Ex.) If your identical twin had schizophrenia, you're chances of having it are as high as 48%. Pointing to an extremely high genetic component. - Instinctive Drift, the tendency of a subj. of operant conditioning to revert from a conditioned response to an instinctual response - often one similar ~ Another (ex.) of the limits on the applicability of associative learning ~ (Ex.) Any behavior similar to food-seeking behaviors are very difficult to replace w/ a conditoned response b/c the animal has strong food-related instincts.

Kinesthetic Sense

- Body position and the movement of body parts relative to one another

Bottom-up vs Top-down Processing

- Bottom-up processing involves taking individual elements and putting them together to make a whole. Top-down processing involves cognitive factors influencing the way in which components are processed. Issues related to sensation and perception provide excellent examples of the differences between these two types of processing

Korsakoff's Syndrome

- Brain disorder - Results from severe thiamine (Vitamin B1) deficiency **Most often resulting from chronic alcohol abuse - Alcohol inhibits the conversion of thiamine to its active form, thiamine pyrophosphate (TPP) - Chronic alcoholics.. (all things that contribute to Vit B1 Def.) * Vomit frequently * Have inflamed gastrointestinal linings * Far more likely to have poor eating habits **Wernicke's Encephalopathy (aka ""Wernickes-Korsakoff Syn."") - A mild version of the condition that comes before Korsakoff's - Tx: Vit B1 injections and cessation of alcohol use"

How is LTM stored and retrieved?

- By association (Ex.) You went upstairs to get something but forget what it was you needed. So you went back to the room where you first thought about it.

Taste

- Chemoreceptors on the tongue bind dissolved chemicals or ions, such as salt - Taste Pathways: 1.) Taste Buds 2.) Brain Stem 3.) Taste Center in the thalamus

Storage

- Concerns the nature of memory stores ~ Where the info. is stored ~ How long the memory lasts for (duration) ~ How much can be stored @ any time (capacity) ~ What kind of info. is held - The way we store info. affects the way we retrieve it

Habituation

- Decrease in response to a stimulus after repeated presentations ~ Due to a shift of attn away from the stimulus - It's a reduced response rate observed for an innate (unconscious) behavior; reduced response rate observed for a conditioned behavior is called extinction ~ Habituation allows one to ""tune out"" non-essential stimuli and focus on things that really demand attn - (Ex.) If you sprintz perfume on in the morning, shortly after you will no longer smell it like others will"

Punishment:

- Decreases the freq. of a behavior (WEAKEN resp.) ~ Do NOT think of punishment in terms of "good" or "bad," or "pleasant or unpleasant" - 2 Kinds of Punishment: 1.) Positive (+) punishment: - Presenting an unfavorable outcome or event following an undesirable behavior ~ In other words, when the subj performs an unwanted action, some type of negative outcome is purposefully applied - (Ex.) Whooping your child b/c he didn't clean his room 2.) Negative (-) punishment: - Taking something good or desirable away to reduce the occurrence of a particular behavior - (aka ""punishment by removal"") - (Ex.) Losing allowance b/c he didn't clean his room"

Long-Term Memory

- Encodes info. for storage semantically (also visually or acoustically) - Intended for storage of info. over a long period of time - Divided into 2 parts: 1. Explicit Memory (aka Declarative) 2. Implicit Memory (aka Non-Declarative or Procedural)

Confabulation

- Fabrication of false, but vivid and detailed memories to fill in the gaps of a story or memory - Observed in AD or Korsakoff's px

Insufficient Repetition

- Forgetting something that you once studied (combat this w/ spaced repetition) - - Long-term memory traces are fragile and constantly decay (must practive elaborative rehearsal to prevent decay)

Retrieval

- Getting info. out of storage - 3 forms: 1. Recall- retrieve learning info. 2. Recognition- identify old info. when presented 3. Relearning - refreshing or reinforcing old info.

Dementia

- Gradual, long-term decline in one's general mental fxn or capability that is severe enough to interfere w/ one's daily life - Can include loss of memory, but also othe mental fxn(s) associated w/ gradual decline or disease-based damage of the CNS

The Curve of Forgetting

- Hermann Ebbinghaus **When we learn new info and are immediately asked to recall it, we're likley to remember it - From that moment on, the likelihood that we'll remember decreases unless we recall or use the memory again

Spreading activation

- How semantic networks process recall events - The general elevation in availability of related concepts is called spreading activation **Speed of connection between nodes is NOT equivalent ~ Those more closely related and are more frequently used fire more rapidly

Misinformation Effect

- If presented w/ inaccurate info after an event, it can cause one to recall an accurate memory inaccurately

Somatosensation ("touch")

- Includes touch, texture, pain, pressure, stretching, temp, & vibration

Dishabituation

- Increase in response to a stimulus after habituation has already occured - Occurs after a long period of stimulation, when habituation is becoming significant, and a second stimulus is introduced ~ Disrupts the process of habituation - (Ex.) If you continue pulling down the blanket, playing peek-a-boo w/ an infant, it will responsd joyfully. If you continue then rxn thus decreases. If you pull down the blanket w/ a puppet, the baby's interest is renewed.

Retrieval cues and Testing Effects:

- Increase recall or verification rate 1. Priming Effect 2. Typicality Effect 3. Familiartiy Effect 4. True-False Effect 5. Category Effect 6. Serial-Position Effect 7. Interference Effect 8. Automatic Spreading Activation

Familiarity Effect

- Increase your level of familiarity w/ the example - This varies by person (what they're more familiar w/) (Ex.) "Biology is a branch of science" will be verified more quickly than "Neuropsych is a branch of science"

Reinforcement

- Increases the freq. of a behavior (STRENGTHEN resp.) - 2 kinds of reinforcement: 1.) Positive (+) reinforcers - Are favorable events or outcomes that are presented after the behavior - (Ex.) If the child cleans his room well and the mom increases his allowance 2.) Negative (-) reinforces - A response is strengthened by the removal of something considered unpleasant - (Ex.) If your child starts to scream in the middle of the grocery store, but stops once you hand him a treat, you will be more likely to hand him a treat the next time he starts to scream. Your action led to the removal of the unplesant condition (the child screaming), negatively reinforcing your behavior.

Development

- Infant brains have more synapses & fewer glial cells compared to adult brains - BOTH have ~ the same # of neurons

Variable-Ratio Schedules

- Involve reinforcing behavior after a varied # of responses stimulted a high resp. & a slow extinction rate

Variable-Interval Schedules

- Involves delivering reinforcement after a variable amt of time has elapsed, stimulating a fast response rate and slow extinction rate

Anterograde amnesia

- Is the inability to create new memories, occuring after an event that has caused amnesia - Long-term memories from before the event remain intact - (Ex.) A person who demonstrates a marked decrease in memory fxn following a car accident, w/ no apparent deficits in memories from before the accident.

Stimulus Generalization

- Is the tendency for the CS to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned - (Ex.) Feeling hungry in response to other smells

Extinction

- Is when the occurences of a conditioned response decreases or disappears ~ When a CS is no longer paired w/ a UCS - (Ex.) If the smell of food was no longer paired w/ the sound of the whistle, it would inhibit the feeling of hunger

The Spacing Effect

- Learning material spaced out over time rather than learning material in one single setting

Method of Loci

- Linking words with locations/route

Amnesia

- Loss of memory as a result of brain damage, injury, or psychological trauma - This differentiates it from "forgetting," which is the result of the normal loss of recall as a result of a fading memory trace - Additional repetition or improved encoding can prevent forgetting, but cannot prevent amnesia

The Role of Emotion in Memory

- Memories coded during heightened emotional states are usually remembered more easily * BUT heightened emotional states can cause a decrease in the strength of other memories occuring immediately before, or @ the same time as, the emotional event-- known as Emotional interference - & you're more likely to remember positive memories and forget negative memories * Depressed px remember positive and negative memories equally * Older adults tend to express recall bias - State-Dependent Learning, includes the mood or emotions present during encoding

Retrograde amnesia

- Memories created prior to the event cannot be remembered, but new memories can still be created

Mnemonics

- Memory aids, esp. those techniques that use vivid imagery and organizational devices

Memory vs. Learning

- Memory: think STORAGE and RETRIEVAL of info. - Learning: a relatively long-lasting change in BEHAVIOR resulting from experience

Operant Conditioning

- Method of learning that occurs through rewards & punishments for behavior ~ Make an association btw a behavior and a consequent for that behavior ~ So when you see ""Operant Conditioning"" THINK: REINFORCEMENT OR PUNISHMENT OF VOLUNTARY BEHAVIOR - Subj(s) voluntarily chose to perform or avoid a behavior b/c they associate it w/ a (+) or (-) consequence - (Ex.) When a child cleans his room he receives an allowance, but when he doesn't he'll receive a whooping. As a result, he learns to clean his room and to avoid getting a whooping."

Desirable Difficulties (aka "The Expensive Memory Principle")

- More effort is invested into understanding a concept - Involves deep processing and produces strong long-term memories with spaced rehearsals - Shallow vs. Deep Processing

Alzheimer's Disease (AD)

- Neurodegenerative disease - Characterized by: Memory loss, impaired cognition, and language deterioration - Onset: Age 65 or greater (usually, but not always) - Late Stage Symptoms: More severe and include loss of judgement, confusion, and drastic mood and personality changes - Biological markers of AD: * In between CNS neurons, β-amyloid peptides (portions of the amyloid precursor protein (APP)) aggregate to form β-amyloid plaques (OUTSIDE THE CELL) * In the cytosol, the Tau protein (associated w/ MT) undergoes hyperphosphorylation ~ This causes the modified Tau proteins to aggregate into insoluble neurofibrillary tangles (INSIDE THE CELL) * The overall size of the brain decreases ~ Esp the temporofrontal and frontal cortex * The size of the ventricles decreases and the size of the hippocampus decreases"

Interference

- New memories (esp emotional ones) can interfere w/ the recall of existing memories (esp if they're similar)

Retroactive interference

- New memories interfere w/ the recall of old ones (Ex.) Unable to memorize the first few words you learned after learning new ones

Smell (aka Olfaction)

- OLFACTORY CELLS: Called chemoreceptors because they are triggered by membrane receptors that directly bind specific gaseous/vaporized airborne chemicals. - PHEROMONES: Specialized odors released by one individual that elicit behavior in another individual. More well-established and/or common in animals than humans. - Olfactory Pathways: 1) Olfactory Sensory Neurons: Located in the olfactory epithelium of the upper nasal cavity 2) Olfactory Nerve (Cranial Nerve I) 3) Olfactory Bulb (forebrain) 4) Higher-Order Brain Centers (Various: Amygdala, hippocampus, orbitofrontal cortex, etc.)

Proactive interference

- Old memories interfere w/ the formation of new ones (Ex.) Difficulity remembering your new phone # b/c you keep remembering your old one

Chunking

- Organizing items into familiar, manageable units; often occurs automatically

The Ear

- Outer Ear: Includes the pinna (earlobe) & auditory canal - Middle Ear: Includes the tympanic membrane (eardrum), & the 3 middle ear bones (in this order outside to inside, lateral to medial): Malleus, Incus, & Stapes ~ The external auditory canal funnels sound waves into the ear and causes the tympanic membrane to vibrate. The three ossicles (malleus, incus, and stapes) move because of the vibration of the tympanic membrane. The stapes actually presses into the oval window of the cochlea. Inner hair cells along the basilar membrane of the fluid-filled cochlea are distended as a result. This change to their movement is transduced into neural impulses that travel to the brain for processing. - Inner Ear: Includes the cochlea, vestibule, semicircular canals, & the vestibulocochlear nerve

Perception

- REMEMBER: Sensation & Perception are NOT equivalent!! - Think of sensation as a physiological process (sensory receptor cells and action potentials) - Think of perception as a psychological process (making sense of the signal, influenced by experience, bias, etc.)

State-Dependent Learning

- Recall an encoded memory by associating it with the setting you were in when you encoded it or with a sight, sound, or smell used in conjunction with encoding it

Self-Reference Effect

- Recalling info. based off of "self" implication

Perceptual Organization

- Refers generally to our ability to use what info we do have about an incomplete stimulus, such as depth, form, motion, & constancy to "fill in the blanks" and thereby perceive a whole, continuous picture

Conditioned (Secondary) reinforcer

- Refers to a situation in which a behavior after it has been associated w/ a primary reinforcer - (Ex.) Money, grades in school, and tokens ~ When you give your dog a food treat and tell him "good boy," he's getting both the primary stimulus of the treat and the secondary reinforcement of the verbal praise

Neural Plasticity

- Refers to the ability of neurons to change in form and fxn in response to alterations in their environment - Synapses, dendrities, and glial cells all change

Elaborative Rehearsal (aka Semantic Rehearsal)

- Rehearsal of new info. w/ the intent to learn - Thinking about the meaning, purpose, and relationship to other concepts - **Still requires regular rehearsal at spaced intervals to avoid decay

Fixed-Interval Schedules

- Reinforcement occurs only after a certain interval of time has elapsed --> Resp. rates remain fairly steady and start to increase as the reinforcement tiem draws near, but slow immediately after the reinforcement has been delivered

Short-Term (Working) Memory

- Rely on acoustic(*) and visual code to store info. - Thought of as the ability to remember and process info. @ the same time - It holds a small amt. of info. in mind in an active, readily-available state for a short period of time - It's a necessary step towards the next stage of retention, long-term memory - Working memory is usually used interchangeably w/ short-term memory, but short-term memory is just one component of working memory (Ex.) "Carrying over" a number in a subtraction sum, OR remembering a persuasive argument until another person finishes talking * What is actually held in short-term memory are links or pointers (such as words) which the brain can flesh out from it's other accumulated knowledge.

Sensitization

- Repeated exposure to a stimulus results in the progressive amplification (increasing strength) of the rxn to the stimulus ~ The organism is becoming more sensitive to the stimulus as time progresses - **Sensitization is the conceptual opposite of havituation NOT dishabituation ~ & it's NOT used to refer to Associative Learning, b/c it's more frequently applied to the increasing strength of the response in a biological positive feedback system - **Also, sensitization is the conceptually opposite of tolerance in the context of drug effects - (Ex.) A dog normally loves to ride in the car, but after a few trips to the veterinarian the dog makes the association that the car that takes it to see the vet is responsible for hurting him. For this reason, a dog might start to resist riding in the car.

Maintenance Rehearsal

- Repetitively rehearsing new info. w/o the intent to learn; only w/ the intent to recall - Info. will be stored in working memory, or create a short-lived long-term memory - If the info. you rehearsed is no longer shown attention it will NEVER be stored in strong, long-term memory

Fixed-Ratio Schedules

- Responses are reinforced only after a specific # of responses have occured, stimulating a steady resp. rate

Memory Storage

- STM: Result from temp. chemical or electrical traces that fade quickly - LTM: ALWAYS the result of physical changes to the neuron itself - Long-Term Potentiation (LTP) * The persistent strengthening of a synapse based on increased activity @ that synapse * Increase in pre-synaptic NT bundles, and/or increased in post-synaptic ion channel receptors, and an increase in gene expression - Long-Term Depression (LDP) * The persistent weakening of a synapse based on decreased activity

Sensory Adaptation vs. Habituation

- Sensory adaptation, your senses adjust when you experience constant stimulation ~ Strictly a physiological response ~ (Ex.) Eventually you stop perceiving a peristent scent in a room - Sensory habituation, your perception of sensations is partially determined by how focused we are on them ~ A psychological phenomenon ~ (Ex.) No longer hearing traffic from the nearby freeway after having lived in a place for years **Both phenomena explain a scenario in which a person's sensitivity to a stimulus decreases over time

How is STM stored and retrieved?

- Sequentially (Ex.) Participants are given a list of words to remember, and then asked to recall the 4th word. They will go through the list in the order they heard it to retrieve the info.

Shallow vs. Deep Processing

- Shallow, structural or phonemic processing; involves maintenance rehearsal and produces weak, short-lived memories ~ Structural, encoding what things look like ~ Phonemic, encoding what things sound like - Deep, semantic processing; involves elaborative rehearsal and produces strong, long-term memories

Signal Detection Theory vs. Response Bias

- Signal Detection Theory, a model for predicting how and when a person will detect weak stimuli, partly based on context - Response Bias, refers to people's tendency to respond to tests or assessment items based on some factor other than the content

Category Size Effect

- Smaller categories are retrieved faster (Ex.) "A poodle is a dog" will be verified more quickly than "A poodle is a mammal"

Normal age-related memory loss

- Some decrease in cognitive fxn is expected w/ age * Max. brain size occurs in the 20s and decreases w/ age thereafter - **The most-noticeable decline is seen in Episodic Memory and Source Memory - Little to no decline is seen in Semantic Memory or Implicit Memory (aka Procedural)

Classical Conditioning Types:

- Stimulus Types: 1. Neutral 2. Conditioned 3. Unconditioned - Response Types: 1. Conditioned 2. Unconditioned Response - The process of Classical Conditioning happens in 3 phases

Gestalt Principles (GPS, GP)

- TAKE HOME MESSAGE: All Gestalt Principles explain some way in which our minds automatically: • Group individual parts of a stimulus together to make a more organized or pleasing form. • Organize individual parts of a stimulus into familiar patterns. • Fill-in missing parts to create a more logical whole. - 10 MOST-FREQUENTLY-CITED GPS: Familiarize yourself with two to three examples of each principle. 1) Closure 2) Continuation 3) Common Fate 4) Proximity 5) Similarity 6) Continuity 7) Good Gestalt 8) Symmetry 9) Past Experience 10) Convexity

The Testing Effect

- Testing during the learning phase -"Forced" active recall - (Ex.) While my study group and I were studying Psych 1, I tested them over memory right after they studied the concept

Synaptic pruning

- The # of synapses is decreased through selective destruction of some synapses and strengthening of others - The weakest, least-frequently-used synapses are pruned, while the strongest, most-frequently-used synapses are strengthened

Vision:

- The Eye - Visual Processing

Stimulus Discrimination

- The ability to differentiate btw a CS and other stimuli that have not been paired w/ an UCS - (Ex.) Being able to tell the diff. btw the sound of the whistle and similar sounds. This is so the subj. only responds when the CS is presented

Prospective memory

- The ability to remember to do something at some future time - (Ex.) A px remembering to take their medication, or a student remembering to return a library book

Memory construction

- The creation, fabrication, or recall of FALSE memories - Types: 1.) Confabulation 2.) Misinformation Effect 3.) Source Monitoring Effect

Sensation

- The detection of environmental stimuli by sensory receptors, conversion of those stimuli to an electrical impulse, and transmission of that impulse to the CNS

Visual Fields

- The image projected onto your retina can be cut down the middle, with the fovea defining the center - Now you have essentially two halves of the retina, a left half and a right half ~ Generally, the halves are referred to as a temporal half (next to your temple) and a nasal half (next to your nose) - Visual images are inverted as they pass through the lens ~ Therefore, in your right eye, the nasal retina sees the right half of the world, while the temporal retina sees the left half of the world ~ Notice also that the right nasal retina and the left temporal retina see pretty much the same thing. If you drew a line through the world at your nose, they would see everything to the right of that line * That field of view is called the right hemifield - So, what you see is divided into right and left hemifields ~ Each eye gets information from both hemifields ~ For every object that you can see, both eyes are actually seeing it - this is crucial for depth perception - but the image will be falling on one nasal retina and one temporal retina - To insure that the brain doesn't get extraneous information, the fibers from the retina sort themselves out to separate right hemifield from left hemifield ~ Specifically, fibers from the nasal retinas cross over at the optic chiasm - whereas the temporal retinas, already positioned to see the opposite side of the world, do not cross **The practical consequences of this crossing are that damaging the visual system before the chiasm will affect one eye, both hemifields - analogous to closing one eye. Damaging the pathway after the chiasm, though, will damage parts of both eyes, and only one hemifield.

Encoding

- The initial process of memory creation; changes info. into a form the system can work with to store it - Includes sensation and the transient storage of the info. in working memory - 3 types: 1. Visual (picture) 2. Acoustic (sound) - *Short-term memory 3. Semantic (meaning) - *Long-term memory

Acquistion

- The initial stage of learning when a response is first established and gradually strengthened ~ Neutral stimulus + UCS --> CS --> @ this point we can say the response has been "acquired" - (Ex.) The response was acquired when you started feeling hungry @ the sound of the whistle

**Weber's Law

- The min JND for a stimulus is directly proportional to the magnitude of the original stimulus - ΔI/I = K (ΔI/I, represents Weber's fraction) OR ΔI = IK (represent a linear relationship) ~ K = Constant ~ I = Intensity background ~ ΔI = JND; incremental threshold

Threshold

- The min. magnitude of a stimulus, of the min. differance in magnitude btw 2 stimuli, that can be perceived by the CNS - **Any stimulus that falls below the min value will fail to cross the threshold of conscious perception - Types: 1.) Absolute Threshold of Sensation - The min. stimulation needed to register a particular stimulus 50% of the time ~ It's the softest sound we can hear or the slightest touch we can feel --> anything less goes unnoticed ~ Therefore, the absolute threshold is the point @ which a stimuli goes from undetectable to detectable to our senses 2.) Difference Threshold - The amt of change needed for us to recognize that a change has occured ~ **The change is referred to as the Just Noticeable Difference (JND) ~ Diff is not absolute b/c it has to represent a percentage (referred to as Weber's Law)

Priming Effect

- The process of introducing info. beforehand to aid in retrieval - How you "jog your memory" (Ex.) Your friend telling you the exact joke you told him months earlier"

Modeling

- The process of learning a behavior by watching others and then mimicking their behavior (only ONE way) - Observing others may also result in us learning NOT to mdoel their behavior ~ (Ex.) If you watch someone touch a hot stove, you're more likely not to touch it either - Observing might also motivate us to engage in entirely unrelated behaviors ~ (Ex.) You see someone fail @ climbing a mountain, and then you see someone succeed. You decide it's not worth it and take up kayaking instead.

Serial-Position Effect

- The tendency for items @ the beginning and end of the list to be retrieved more readily - Primancy effect (@ the beginning) - Recency effect (the end)

True-False Effect

- True statements are verified more quickly than false statements

Typicality Effect

- Using a typical example of a concept (Ex.) "A dog is an animal" will be verified more quickly than "An insect is an animal""

Visual Pathway

- Vision is generated by photoreceptors in the retina, a layer of cells at the back of the eye. The information leaves the eye by way of the optic nerve, and there is a partial crossing of axons at the optic chiasm. After the chiasm, the axons are called the optic tract. The optic tract wraps around the midbrain to get to the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN), where all the axons must synapse. From there, the LGN axons fan out through the deep white matter of the brain as the optic radiations, which will ultimately travel to primary visual cortex, in the occipital love. ~ A diagram of the layers of the retina:

Cognitive Processes and Associative Learning

- Ways we can learn to associate 2 events: 1.) Automatic - Unconscious, unintentional, and stimulus-driven ~ Stimulus-driven, the association is determined by the event (stimulus) experienced 2.) Rule-Based Processing - Conscious, and intentional - Driven by BOTH the event (stimulus) experienced, AND by language, cogniton, or formal reasoning - It LIMITS the applicability of associative learning - Latent Learning, learning that exists w/o the presentation of a reward, but is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is presented ~ (Ex.) Mice have been shown to "learn" how to navigate a maze on there own, w/o reinforcement. When a food reward is offered on the other side of the maze they naviagate the maze to obtain the food. This is an ex. of limits on the applicability of associative learning. [This is b/c it shows that various cognitions, ABSENT conditioning, still result in learning]

Spontaneous Recovery

- When a learned response suddenly reemerges even after a period of extinction - (Ex.) After conditioning one to feel hungry from the sound of a whistle, you stop reinforcing the behavior. After a rest period you suddenly sound the whistle and the learned response is spontaneuosly recovered.

Source Monitoring Errors

- When a specific recalled experience is falsely attributed to be the source of a particular memory (aka source amnesia) - (Ex.) Incorrectly recalling a conversation that occured in a dream as reality * During recall, the individual makes one or two judgements to determine the source: 1.) Heuristic Judgements - Unconscious determination of source based on clues or short-cuts associated w/ memory 2.) Systematic Judgements - Conscious determination of source-based on intentional, logical evaluation of the details remembered

Automatic Spreading Activation

- When the primer is a category name and the target is an example within that category (Ex.) Fire engine --> red

The 3 stages of Memory

1. Encoding 2. Storage 3. Retrieval

2 Rxns to Negative Reinforcement:

1. Escape Learning = Subj adopts a behavior to reduce or end an uplesant stimulus 2. Avoidance Learning = Subj adopts a behavior to avoid an unpleasant stimulus in the future

Processes that aide in encoding memories

1. Mnemonic 2. Chunking 3. Peg-word system 4. Method of Loci 5. State-Dependent Learning 6. Self-Reference Effect 7. The Testing Effect 8. The Spacing Effect 9. Desirable Difficulities (aka "The Expensive Memory Principle") 9a.) Shallow processing 9b.) Deep processing

Types of Learning:

1. NON-ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING: (NO reward or punishment associated w/ the stimulus) 1.) Habituation 2.) Dishabituation 3.) Sensitization 2. ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING: 1.) Classical Conditioning 2.) Operant Conditioning 3. SOCIAL-COGNITIVE THEORY: 1.) Observational Learning 2.) Self-efficacy 3.) Situational influences 4.) Cognitive processes

Sensing the Environment

1. Sensation 2. Sensory Receptors 3. Vision 4. Hearing 5. Other Senses 6. Perception

Sensory Receptors:

1. Vision 2. Hearing 3. Somatosensation (touch+) 4. Taste 5. Smell 6. Kinesthetic Sense 7. Vestibular Sense

Key principles of Classical Conditioning:

1.) Acquistion 2.) Extinction 3.) Spontaneous Recovery 4.) Generalization 5.) Discrimination

Disease-related memory loss

1.) Alzheimer's Disease (AD) 2.) Korsakoff's Syndrome

PHASE 1 of Classical Conditioning:

1.) Before Conditioning: - The first part of the classical conditioning process requires a naturally occuring stimulus that will automatically elicit a response - **During this phase, the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) results in an unconditioned response (UCR) ~ unconditioned stimulus, one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers a response ~ unconditioned response, the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus - **There is a neutral stimulus that produces no effect- yet ~ Doesn't yield a response until paired w/ the UCS ~ (Ex.) A sound or a song - (Ex.) When you smell one of your favorite foods, you may immediately feel very hungry ~ The smell of the food is the UCS and the feeling of hunger in response to the smell of food is the UCR

3 events/processes associated w/ Physical Changes to Neuronal Synapses to Account for Learning & Memory

1.) Development 2.) Memory Storage 3.) CNS Injury

Reinforcement Schedules: (Types of Partial Reinforcements)

1.) Fixed-Ratio 2.) Variable-Ratio 3.) Fixed-Interval 4.) Variable-Interval

Types of Reinforcment or Punishment

1.) Positive 2.) Negative 3.) Primary 4.) Conditioned (Secondary)

The Eye

1.) Rods vs. Cones: - Cones = perceive color ~ Less sensitive than rods, fine resolution of detail, & contain 3 pigments (each of which show max light absorption @ a diff. wavelength) * The 3 "max absorption" wavelengths of the 3 cone pigments are roughly ~ to blue, green, & red ~ Located in the fovea ONLY ~ NOTE: Relative # of rods = X - Rods = perceive black & white ONLY ~ Highly sensitive, poor resolution of detail, & contain ONLY one pigment (rhodopsin) ~ NOTE: Relative # of rods = 20X 2.) Optics: - The lens of the human eye is a converging lens and produces a Positive, Real, Inverted (PRI) image - Light rays are bent primarily by the cornea, and only adjusted by the lens ~ **Lasik surgery reshapes the cornea, NOT the lens - A blind spot exists for each eye where the optic nerve passes through the retina

Operant Processes:

1.) Shaping - Used when you want something or someone to engage in a certain desirable behavior not expressed by them - (Ex.) To teach a child to write his or her first name, you initially give praise for writing the first letter correctly. After the child has mastered that first step, letter-by-letter you give praise until the entire name is correctly written 2.) Extinction - Occurs if the trained behavior is no longer reinforced or if the type of reinforcement used is no longer rewarding

Hearing

1.) The Ear 2.) Auditory Processing

Key characteristics of Habituation:

1.) The stimulus must persist in enough amt of time before being re-introduced; the response will reappear @ full-strength known as spontaneous recovery (i.e., banging noise starts than stops) 2.) The more a stimulus is presented, the faster habituation will occur (i.e., wear the same perfume everyday) 3.) Very intense stimuli result in slow habituation (i.e., car alarm) 4.) Changing the intensity or duration of the stimulus may result in a reoccurence of teh original response (i.e., banging noise gets louder)

PHASE 2 of Classical Conditioning:

2.) During Conditioning: - **During the 2nd phase, the previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired w/ the UCS - As a result, an associciation btw the previously neutral stimulus and the UCS is formed ~ @ this point the once neutral stimulus becomes known as the conditioned stimulus (CS) - The subj has now been conditioned to respond to the stimulus ~ conditioned stimulus, a previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated w/ the UCS, eventually comes to trigger a conditioned response - (Ex.) So suppose when you smelled your favorite food, you also heard the sound of a whistle. While the whistle is unrelated to the smell, if the sound of the whistle was paired multiple times w/ the smell, the sound would eventually trigger the conditioned response. The sound of the whistle is the CS.

PHASE 3 of Classical Conditioning:

3.) After Conditioning: - Once the association has been made btw the UCS and CS, presenting the conditioned stimulus alone will come to evoke a response even w/o the unconditioned stimulus - The resulting response is known as the conditioned response (CR) ~ conditioned response, the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus - (Ex.) The CR would be feeling hungry when you heard the sound of the whistle.

Q29. Classify the nerves involved in each response as efferent/afferent/interneuron, as somatic/autonomic, and as peripheral nervous system (PNS), CNS, or both: a) your olfactory nerve cells receive a stimulus and transmit an action potential toward your brain, b) you perceive the smell and consciously select a behavior in response, c) an action potential is carried to a skeletal motor unit causing you to move away from the unpleasant odor, d) a nociceptor in your finger is triggered when you touch a hot stove and a signal is sent toward your spinal cord, e) unconsciously, your nervous system sends an immediate action potential to a motor neuron causing you to remove your finger from the hot stove, f) a car is rapidly approaching you in your lane and a crash is imminent; rods and cones in your retina send signals along the optic nerve, d) your brain immediately sends action potentials toward various organs of your body, resulting in dilated pupils and increased heart rate.

A) The olfactory nerve is an afferent pathway of the somatic division of the PNS. B) Perception and decision making would occur in a variety of interneurons in the central nervous system. C) Motor neurons are efferent nerve fibers of the somatic division of the PNS. D) Nociceptors are afferent fibers in the somatic division of the peripheral nervous system. E) The pain signal would be sent to an interneuron of the spinal cord (CNS). F) The interneuron would synapse on an efferent motor neuron in the somatic division of the PNS. G) The optic nerve is an afferent pathway of the CNS. H) Pupil dilation and increased heart rate would result from information travelling in efferent fibers of the CNS to the autonomic division of the PNS.

Visual Processing

A. Visual Pathway B. Visual Fields

Q6. For the two examples that follow, identify the specific component of the example that illustrates each of following (if they apply): a) neutral, conditioned, or unconditioned stimulus, b) conditioned or unconditioned response, and c) acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, or discrimination.

Example 1: A physically abused child reflexively raises his hand to cover his face when his father is about to strike him. His father smokes heavily and the child knows his father is nearby when he smells cigarette smoke. At first, the child does not like the smell of cigarette smoke, but mostly ignores it. After some time, however, the child begins to flinch at the mere smell of cigarette smoke. The child moves away from home and lives with roommates who also smoke. Eventually he loses his fear of cigarette smoke. Many years later, the child revisits his childhood home, long after his father has passed away. Upon entering the house, he smells the strong odor of stale cigarette smoke. To his surprise, it makes him flinch. - Answer: ~ Neutral stimulus: Cigarette smoke ~ UCS: The abuse ~ UCR: Raising hand to cover face ~ CS: The smell of the cigarette smoke ~ CR: Flinching @ the smell of cig smoke (Acquistion) ~ Extinction: Loses fear of cigarette smoke ~ Stimulus Generalization: Flinching @ mere smell of cigarette smoke ~ Spontaneous Recovery: Returning home and flinching @ the familiar smell of cigarette smoke Example 2: An elderly man‚ wife begins a new habit of baking bread weekly. The man loves his wife‚ homemade bread and the smell of it cooking makes him salivate. His wife uses a wind-up oven timer to tell her when the bread is ready to remove from the oven. A few weeks later, his wife is using the same timer to keep track of her exercise on the treadmill. At the end of her exercise routine the man often tells his wife that he is hungry and asks for some homemade bread. A short-time later, the man realizes that the sound of his alarm clock also makes him salivate and crave homemade bread. However, because his wife never makes homemade bread in the mornings, this reaction eventually fades, until once again he only salivates to the sound of the oven timer. - Answer: ~ Neutral stimulus: Oven timer ~ UCS: Smell of wife's bread ~ UCR: Salivating @ the smell ~ CS: Hearing the oven timer ~ CR: Feeling hungry after over timer sounds (Acquistion) ~ Extinction: Rxn fades b/c she doesn't make it in the morning ~ Stimulus Generalization: Alarm clock --> Salivating and craving wife's bread ~ Spontaneous Recovery: Hearing oven timer after awhile

Q16. Describe the factors that determine when a person is near- or far-sighted. Where is the image formed in both cases? What type of lens is needed to correct each condition?

In normally-sighted individuals, images coming into the eye are focused directly on the retina (see the top panel in Figure 6). However, nearsightedness (myopia) is generally associated with either an elongation of the eye or severe curvature of the cornea such that the image tends to focus too early (see middle panel in the figure below). This results in people having more difficulty seeing things at a distance. Farsightedness, on the other hand, is associated with an eye that is too short or a cornea that doesn’t curve enough. In this case, people have more difficulty seeing things that are relatively close. In both cases, the problems with eye shape and/or curvature of the cornea can be corrected with eyeglasses, contact lenses, and/or surgery.

Q22. Describe the structure and function of the hair cells of the inner ear. Compare and contrast these hair cells (a.k.a., stereocilia) with the cilia found elsewhere in the body.

Inner hair cells are responsible for transducing the mechanical displacement caused by sound waves into neural impulses. The outer hair cells of the inner ear are involved in amplifying incoming sound waves. Stereocilia differ from other cilia because they do not have motor capability—in other words, the hair-like protrusion we call a stereocilia does not itself generate movement. Rather, it is moved by the mechanical displacement occurring in the inner ear. The cilia that sweep debris from the respiratory tract, or those that line the cerebrospinal cavity, have an actual motor function; the hair-like protrusion itself moves, and it is the surrounding fluids that get moved by that motion. This is almost the exact opposite of what is happening in the inner ear, where the movement of the surrounding fluid moves the stereocilia. Structurally, the two are NOT closely related. Cilia are constructed of fairly complex microtubule arrays, but stereocilia do NOT contain microtubules.

Q15. A student makes the proclamation “The cells of the retina appear to be arranged upside down!” Explain this observation and why it helps account for the existence of a blind spot.

The retina is arranged such that the photoreceptors face away from the light and then make connections with several layers of cells that are closer to the source of the incoming light. So, in a way, the retina is indeed arranged ‚"upside down." Because the retinal ganglion cells are actually on the layer of the retina that is closest to the source of incoming light, their axons actually have to project back through the retina in order to form the optic nerve which travels to the brain. The place at which all of the axons of the retinal ganglion cells project through the rear of the eye, therefore, have no photoreceptors. This area is known as the optic disc, or more colloquially, the blind spot.

Parallel Processing and Feature Definition

The visual system processes different aspects of the visual world in separate streams of information. This is referred to as parallel processing. For instance, motion and color are processed in different areas. More broadly speaking, several sensory systems process information about "what" a given stimulus is separate from information about "where" the stimulus is in the environment or "how" one might interact with the stimulus. Ultimately, these separate streams of information are tied together as a uniform sensory percept. Some cells in the visual system are described as feature detectors because they are sensitive to, and show the ability to discriminate among, very complex stimuli with only minute differences (such as faces).

Q17. What happens to the eye as you attempt to focus on a book very near your face? Do the ciliary muscles contract or relax? Does the curvature of the lens increase or decrease? Does the focal point move outward or inward (i.e., increase or decrease)? Does the power of the lens of the eye increase or decrease?

When looking at a something that is near, the ciliary muscles contract, which causes the lens to become more curved and more thick. This also shortens the eye’s focal length. As it does so, the lens’ refractive power is increased.

Fig. of bottom-up vs top-down processing

~ When you first look at this picture, you likely see a series of irregular dark spots. You are simply perceiving the visual stimulus (i.e. bottom-up processing). However, if you were told that this is actually an image of a Dalmatian with its head down and to the left, you may experience a completely different perception. Now, your higher-level expectations are providing organization to this stimulus, which allows you to perceive a dog (i.e. top-down processing). Schemas would be most closely related to issues related to top-down processing