Ch. 9: Conceptual Issues and Methods

Which of the following is a feature of the place-learning task? A) The platform remains in the same location in each trial. B) The platform is visible to the rodent. C) The rodent is always released from the same location. D) Both A and C E) All of the above

A

Which of the following statements about memories is true? A) Newly established memories are more resistant to disruption than older memories. B) Old memories have a shorter decay time than new memories. C) Old memories are more resistant to disruption than new memories. D) All of the above E) None of the above

C

Which of the following statements about inhibitory avoidance conditioning is true? A) Longer latencies reflect a stronger memory trace. B) Crossover latency is the dependent variable. C) As shock intensity increases, so does response latency. D) Both A and C E) All of the above

E

Which of the following statements about memory and the mind is true? A) An LTP inducing stimulus produces a memory. B) Memories result from behavioral experiences. C) Behavior is the window to the mind. D) Memories are directly observable. E) Both B and C

E

Which of the following statements about memory is false? A) Short-term memory traces are in the inactive state and easy to disrupt. B) Long-term memory traces are in the inactive state and hard to disrupt. C) Time limited retrograde amnesia is more likely to affect short-term memory. D) Time limited retrograde amnesia is more likely to affect long-term memory. E) Both A and D

E

Which of the following statements about opsins is true? A) Channelrhodopsin can excite neurons by depolarizing them. B) Channelrhodopsin can inhibit neurons by hyperpolarizing them. C) Halorhodopsin can inhibit neurons by hyperpolarizing them. D) Halorhodopsin can excite neurons by depolarizing them. E) Both A and C

E

T/F Intentionally damaging brain tissue can reveal valuable results about how the intact brain works.

False

T/F LTP is memory.

False

T/F The concept of consolidation is supported by the fact that old events are more vulnerable to disruption than new memories.

False

T/F Behavior is the product of many subcomponent systems.

True

T/F Limited retrograde amnesia produced by a concussion likely affects only memories in the active state.

True

T/F Memories in the active state are more vulnerable to disruption than memories in the inactive state.

True

T/F Memories in the active state decay more rapidly than memories in the inactive state.

True

Explain the floor effect.

When a treatment is hyperpolarized to impair the memory processes that produce avoidance behavior, but the performance measure was too low to be further reduced by the drug.

What is time-limited retrograde amnesia?

a failure to remember an experience that happened just prior to the occurrence of the disrupting event while remembering older experiences.

What is a transgenic animal?

an animal in which a replacement gene is substituted for the original gene.

Why is test behavior considered the window to the memory trace?

because without a measurable behavioral test response there would be no evidence that the training phase produced a memory trace.

What is the dependent variable in inhibitory avoidance conditioning?

crossover latency

The ECS methodology did not advance understanding of memory, because it was already known that brain trauma can _________.

disrupt recently established memories

Explain why genetic engineering is believed to be more precise than applying drugs in manipulating the molecules involved in memory?

drugs are said to be "dirty", meaning they are not highly selective to the intended target and it is hard to control for the spread of the drug to other regions. Moreover, by using biotechnology to directly influence the genome, it is possible to modify or delete the gene for a particular protein or to transfer new genes into the genome.

List three differences between a short-term memory trace and a long-term memory trace?

duration, state, and vulnerability to disruption/decay rate

What are the unconditioned stimulus, the conditioned stimulus, and the conditioned response in fear conditioning?

electrical shock, auditory stimulus, and freezing

The hippocampus is targeted because it is critical for _________ and the _________ is targeted because it is critically involved in the storage o emotional memories.

episodic memory, amygdala

What are the dependent variables in the water-escape task?

escape latency, path length, and percent time spent in the target quadrant on a probe trial.

What are three methods to influence brain function?

experimentally damaging a particular region of the brain, injecting drugs, and genetic engineering.

In fear conditioning, shocked rats display more _________ than rats that were not shocked.

freezing

How is the visible-platform task used to evaluate results observed in the place-learning task? Explain why.

if a treatment has no effect on performance on the visible-platform task then one would be more confident about concluding that the treatment influenced some aspect of memory. This is because the task makes no demand on spatial memory of the platform location.

Memories are the product of organisms _________ with their _________.

interacting, environments

What is the learning-performance distinction?

it recognizes the problem that the researcher has to be sure that the treatment exerted its effect by its influence on the memory component and not on some other component process that could also influence performance.

The spatial learning version of the water-escape task was developed to study how animals acquire _________ of their environments.

map-like representations

What concept is evoked to explain the change from vulnerable to less vulnerable memory state?

memory consolidation

_________ allows scientists to control one type of cell without altering other types.

optogenetics

In inhibitory avoidance conditioning, it is assumed that the strength of the memory trace is reflected in the _________.

response latency

Forgetting the location of a book or a coffee cup, only to remember it later, is an example of _________.

retrieval failure

A blow to the head that produces amnesia for events experienced prior to the blow is an example of _________.

retrograde amnesia

When investigating a drug or some other manipulation that is hypothesized to strengthen a memory trace, researchers should use lower intensity shock to avoid _________.

the ceiling effect

When the response measure is at its maximum, researchers should be weary of _________.

the ceiling effect

In fear conditioning, the duration of _________ is an indicator of the _________ of the memory.

the freezing response, strength

Give two reasons why the following statement is problematic. "We already know how memories are made".

the information acquired by studying LTP comes from a highly artificial preparation were an electrical event is used to induce LTP, which bypasses all sensory inputs and the tissue is revolved from the brain and gone through many steps to remain functional.

The existence of a memory trace is inferred when _________ influences behavior.

the training experience

In viral vector systems, the desired new genetic material is the _________ and the promoter sequence is _________ that control the _________.

the vector genome, the additional elements, expression of the gene

_________ is often used as a control task to evaluate alternative interpretations of the effect of some brain manipulation on performance in the place-learning task.

the visible-platform task

What is the function of channelrhodopsin and halorhodopsins?

when activated by blue light, channelrhodopsins (channel proteins) could be stimulated to open and close with millisecond precision and conduct positive ions with the result of depolarizing the neuron. Halorhodopsins, when stimulated with green light, conduct negatively charged chloride ions and thereby hyperpolarize the neuron.