Psychology of Learning Exam 3

Henry Molaison (H.M.)

Had medial temporal lobes removed, left with severe memory impairment; took part in studies that revolutionized scientific thinking about memory

Theodore Ribot

Noticed that individuals with head injuries often developed retrograde amnesia

Amnesia

Severe memory impairment

Anterograde Amnesia

A severe impairment in the ability to form new declarative memories

Association Cortex

Areas of the cerebral cortex involved in associating information within and across sensory modalities

Basal Forebrain

Group of subcortical structures that connect with the hippocampus via a fiber bundle called the fornix

Confabulation

When questioned about past events, patients may respond with highly detailed but false memories

Consolidation Period

A time window in which new memories are vulnerable and easily lost

Cued Recall

A memory test that involves some kind of prompt or cue to aid recall

Declarative Memory

A broad class of memories, both semantic and episodic, that can typically be verbalized (declared) or explicitly communicated in some way

Directed Forgetting

Occurs when we intentionally try to suppress memory

Electroconvulsive Shock

A brief pulse of electricity that is passed through the brain and can severely disrupt newly formed memories

Encoding Specificity Effect

States that retrieval is more likely to be successful if the conditions at recall are similar to those that occurred at encoding

Episodic Memory

Memory for personal experience of specific autobiographical events; it includes information about the spatial and temporal contexts in which the event occurred

Explicit Memory

A category of memory that includes semantic and episodic memory and that consists of memories of which the person is aware

False Memory

Memory for events that never actually happened

Fornix

A fiber bundle that connects subcortical structures, including the basal forebrain, to the hippocampus

Free Recall

A memory test that involves simply generating requested information from memory

Frontal Cortex

The regions of the cortex that lie within the frontal lobes

Functional Amnesia

A sudden, massive retrograde memory loss that seems to result from psychological causes rather than physical causes

Hippocampus

Complex brain structure embedded in the temporal lobe; important in memory storage

Implicit Memory

Memory that occurs without the learner’s awareness

Interference

Reduction in the strength of a memory due to the overlap with the content of other memories

Levels-of-Processing Effect

The finding that, in general, deeper processing (such as thinking about the semantic meaning of a word) leads to a better recall of the information than shallow processing (such as thinking about the spelling or pronunciation of a word)

Medial Temporal Lobes

The medial (or inner) surface of the temporal lobe that contains the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the other structures important for memory

Metamemory

Knowledge of, and ability to think about, our own memories, including both feeling of knowing and judgement of learning

Multiple Trace Theory

When an event is experienced, it can be stored as an episodic memory by an ensemble of neurons in the hippocampus and neocortex

Non-REM Sleep

A category of sleep that includes both light sleep and slow wave sleep (SWS)

Nondeclarative Memory

A broad class of memory that includes skill memory and other types of learning that do not fall under either the episodic or semantic memory categories and that are not always consciously accessible or easy to verbalize

Proactive Interference

Disruption of new learning by previously stored information

Rapid Eye Movement (REM) Sleep

A phase of sleep in which the eyes move rapidly under closed lids

Recognition

A memory test that involves picking out (or recognizing) a studied item from a set of objects

Reconsolidation

Each time an old (presumably consolidated) memory is recalled or reactivated, it may become vulnerable again

Retroactive Interference

Disruption of old information by more recent learning

Retrograde Amnesia

Loss of memories for events that occurred before the injury

Ribot Gradient

A pattern typically followed with retrograde amnesia, in which it is worse for events that occurred shortly before the injury than for events that occurred in the distant past

Semantic Memory

Memory for facts or general knowledge about the world, including general personal information

Sensory Cortex

Areas of the cerebral cortex involved in processing sensory information such as sight and sound

Slow-Wave Sleep (SWS)

A phase of sleep characterized by large, slow oscillations in the brain that are highly synchronized over wide brain areas

Source Monitoring Error

Occur when we remember information but are mistaken about the specific episode that is the source of that memory

Standard Consolidation Theory

Holds that the hippocampus and related medial temporal lobe structures are required for the initial storage and retrieval of an episodic memory but that their contribution diminishes over time until the cortex can retrieve the memory without hippocampal help

Transfer-Appropriate Processing Effect

States that memory will be best when the way in which information is processed at encoding matches the way it is processed at retrieval

Transient Global Amnesia (TGA)

Transient, or temporary, disruption memory not due to known causes such as head injury or epilepsy

Paul Fitts

Proposed that skill learning usually progresses through 3 stages (Cognitive, Associative, Autonomous)

Associative Stage

The second stage of Fitts’s model of skill learning, when glands begin to use stereotyped actions in performing a skill and rely less on actively recalled memories of rules

Autonomous Stage

The third stage in Fitts’s model of skill learning, when a skill or subcomponents of the skill become motor programs

Basal Ganglia

A collection of ganglia that lie at the base of the forebrain

Closed Skill

A skill that involves performing predefined movements that ideally, never vary

Cognitive Skill

A skill that requires problem solving or the application of strategies

Cognitive Stage

The first stage in Fitts’s model of skill learning, when an individual must actively think to encode and perform a skill

Constant Practice

Practice involving a constrained set of materials and skills

Deep Brain Stimulation

Has become the most effective neurosurgical technique for treating Parkinson’s, but scientists are still not sure why it works

Expert

A person who performs a skill better than most

Identical Elements Theory

The transfer of learned abilities to novel situations depends on the number of elements in the new situation that are identical to those in the situation in which the skills were encoded

Implicit Learning

Learning that happens accidentally, without awareness of what has been learned

Knowledge of Results

Feedback about performance; critical to the effectiveness of practice

Learning Set Formation

Acquiring the about to learn novel tasks rapidly based on frequent experiences with similar tasks

Massed Practice

Concentrated, continuous practice of a skill

Mirror Reading

An experimental task that requires individuals to read mirror-reversed text

Mirror Tracing

An experimental task that requires individuals to trace drawings by watching a mirror image of their hand and of the figure to be traced with the actual hand and figure concealed

Motor Program

Perceptual-motor skills that an organism can perform with minimal attention

Motor Prosthesis

Electromechanical devices that are being developed to help people recover lost abilities to learn and perform perceptual- motor skills

Open Skill

Skill in which movements are made on the basis of predictions about changing demands of the environment

Parkinson's Disease

A nervous system disease involving disruptions in the normal functions of the basal ganglia and progressive deterioration of motor control

Perceptual-Motor Skills

Learned movement patterns guided by sensory inputs

Power Law of Practice

A law stating that the degree to which each new practice session improves performance diminishes after a certain point, such that greater numbers of sessions are needed too further improve the skill

Rotary Pursuit Task

Frequently used in lab studies of perceptual motor skill learning

Serial Reaction Time Task

In which participants learn to press one of four keys as soon as a visual cue indicates which key to press

Skill

An ability that can improve over time through practice

Skill Decay

Loss of a skill through non-use

Spaced Practice

Practice of a skill that us spread out over several sessions

Talent

A person’s genetically endowed ability to perform a skill better than most

Transfer of Training

Skills that seem to transfer to novel situations

Transfer Specificity

The restricted applicability of some learned skills to specific situations

Variable Practice

Practice involving the performance of skills in a wide variety of contexts

Central Executive

Responsible for updating work memory by receiving & evaluating sensory information, moving items into & retrieving them from long-term memory, and deciding which memories are needed for which tasks

Cognitive Control

The manipulation and application of working memory for planning, task switching, attention paying, stimulus selection, and the inhibition of inappropriate reflexive behaviors; also known as executive control or executive function

Delayed Nonmatch-to-Sample (DNMS) Task

Another test of visual memory that involves remembering some object seen at the trial’s start

Dopamine

A neuromodulator that alters neuron-to-neuron communication

Dorsolateral Prefrontal Cortex (DLPFC)

Supports higher-order executive-control functions such as monitoring and manipulating of stored information thus sign the job of Baddeley’s central executive

Dysexecutive Syndrome

A disrupted ability to think and plan

Long-Term Memory

Permanent or near- permanent storage of memory that lasts beyond a period of conscious attention

Perseveration

Failing to learn a new rule and instead persisting using an old rule despite repeated feedback indicating that the old rule is no longer correct

Phonological Loop

The component of Baddeley’s model of working memory that maintains auditory memories by internal (subvocal) speech rehearsal

Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)

The most anterior (fathers forward) section of the frontal lobes

Sensory Memory

Brief, transient sensations of what you have just perceived when you have seen, heard, touched, smelled, or tasted something

Short-Term Memory

A temporary memory that is maintained through active rehearsal

Transient Memory

Nonpermanent memory that lasts seconds or minutes; the Atkinson- Shiffrin model describes 2 types: sensory and short-term memory

Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex (VLPFC)

Supports encoding and retrieval of information (including rehearsal for maintenance), performing as the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop proposed by Baddeley

Visual Sensory Memory

The temporary storage in sensory memory for information perceived by your visual system

Visuospatial Sketchpad

The component of Baddeley’s model of working memory that holds visual and spatial images for manipulation

Word-Length Effect

The tendency for a person to remember fewer words from a list as the length of the words decreases

Working Memory

The active and temporary representation of information that is maintained for the short term, available for manipulation