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Understanding Learning and Memory Processes: From Acquisition to Retention

Dive into the world of learning and memory, exploring associative and nonassociative learning, memory storage and retrieval, transfer between short-term and long-term memory, and mechanisms of memory formation and forgetting.

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Understanding Learning and Memory Processes: From Acquisition to Retention

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  1. Section 7 Learning and Memory

  2. I Learning

  3. Learning: associative and nonassociative The acquisition of knowledge or skill; Associate and nonassociative learning

  4. Nonassociative • No paired stimulus/response • Habituation - becomes less responsive to repeated no-harmful stimuli • Sensitization - becomes more responsive – to repeated harmful stimulation

  5. Associative • Paired stimulus/response • Two basic types • classical conditioning (two stimuli are paired; when the light shines ----- get food) • operant conditioning (stimuli and response are paired; push lever = food

  6. Psychological aspects • Classical conditioning requires that the learning have predictive value • Conditioned stimuli (no overt response) and unconditioned stimuli (gives an overt response) • not simply timing of events relative to each other • blocking phenomena (tone and light experiment) • tone does not add anything so not learned • we can detect a positive correlation between two stimuli (efficiency of pairing) • Extinction can occur over time (unpaired)

  7. Psychological aspects • Operant conditioning (trial-and-error learning) • A predictive relationship between response and a stimulus • behaviors that are rewarded tend to be repeated; those that cause aversive consequences are not repeated • timing is important • must have predictive element

  8. Learning involves forming memories

  9. II Memory

  10. Memory • Memory is the storage and retrieval of information • The three principles of memory are: • Storage – occurs in stages and is continually changing • Processing – accomplished by the hippocampus and surrounding structures • Memory traces – chemical or structural changes that encode memory

  11. 1. Stages of Memory • The two stages of memory are short-term memory and long-term memory • Short-term memory (STM, or working memory) – a fleeting memory of the events that continually happen • STM lasts seconds to hours and is limited to 7 or 8 (not more than 12 items) pieces of information • Long-term memory (LTM) has limitless capacity

  12. Basics relationships Short term - limited capacity and duration (12 items, few minutes) Long term - more permanent; can be blocked by blocking protein synthesis

  13. Transfer from STM to LTM • Factors that affect transfer of memory from STM to LTM include: • Emotional state – we learn best when we are alert, motivated, and aroused • Rehearsal – repeating or rehearsing material enhances memory • Association – associating new information with old memories in LTM enhances memory • Automatic memory – subconscious information stored in LTM

  14. Declarative (Explicit) or Nondeclarative (Implicit) Memory

  15. 1. Declarative - Explicit a. Semantic - general knowledge of the world b. Episodic - knowledge of your own past experiences 2. Nondeclarative or Implicit • Procedural • learned skills or habitual responses, • classical conditioning

  16. Declarative (Fact) memory: • Entails learning explicit information • Is related to our conscious thoughts and our language ability • Is stored with the context in which it was learned

  17. Nondeclarative (Skill) Memory • Skill memory is less conscious than fact memory and involves motor activity • It is acquired through practice • Skill memories do not retain the context in which they were learned

  18. Structures Involved in Fact Memory • Fact memory involves the following brain areas: • Hippocampus and the amygdala, both limbic system structures • Specific areas of the thalamus and hypothalamus of the diencephalon • Ventromedial prefrontal cortex and the basal forebrain Figure 15.8a

  19. Major Structures Involved with Skill Memory • Skills memory involves: • Corpus striatum – mediates the automatic connections between a stimulus and a motor response • Portion of the brain receiving the stimulus (visual in this figure) • Premotor and motor cortex Figure 15.8b

  20. 3. Mechanisms of Memory • The engram, a hypothetical unit of memory, has never be elucidated • Changes that take place during memory include: • Neuronal RNA content is altered • Dendritic spines change shape • Unique extracellular proteins are deposited at synapses involved in LTM • Presynaptic terminals increase in number and size, and release more neurotransmitter

  21. 4. FORGETTING

  22. Forgetting as a result of decay?

  23. Simple passage of time after learning has minimal effect on retention

  24. Forgetting as a result of interference

  25. Retroactive Interference Current learning interferes with recall of previously learned material

  26. Retroactive Interference Learn Learn Memory A B Loss for A Time

  27. Proactive Interference Prior learning interferes with retention of new information

  28. Proactive Interference Learn Learn Memory A B Loss for B Time

  29. Retrograde and Anterograde Amnesia Time Retrograde Anterograde Head Trauma

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