5 learning

- Learning: process that allows us to

adapt to the changing conditions of the
world around us
o Altering of actions to lead to survival
o Eliminating unsuccessful actions
from past
- Learning: any relatively permanent
change in behavior brought about by
experience/practice
o Relative permanent: when people
learn some part of brain is
physically changed to record what
theyve learned process of memory
- Not all change is accomplished through
learning Maturation
o Change controlled by a genetic
blueprint
o Due to biology, not experience
Classical Conditioning
It Makes Your Mouth Water
- Russian physiologist (person who
studies the workings of the body) Ivan
Pavlov pioneered the empirical study
of the basic principles of a particular
kind of study
o Studied the digestive system in his
dogs: device that would measure the
amount of saliva produced by the
dogs
o Normally, food placed in the mouth
of any animal = salivary glands
release saliva
Normal reflex: unlearned,
involuntary response that is not
under personal control or choice
o Stimulus: any object, event or
experiences that causes a response:
the reaction of an organism (Food
Salivation)
o Pavlov saw his dogs began salivating
when they werent supposed to
Start salivating when they saw
the lab assistant bringing their
food, others when they heard
clutter of the food bowl & some
at the time of the day they were
usually fed
- Classical Conditioning: learning to elicit
an involuntary reflect response to a
stimulus other than the original, natural
stimulus that normally produces the
reflex
- Elements that must be present:

o Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS):

original, naturally occurring stimulus;
unconditioned = unlearned
stimulus that ordinarily leads to the
response (ex. Food)
o Unconditioned Response (UCR):
response to the UCS; unlearned and
occurs because of genetic wiring in
the nervous system (ex. Salivation to
the food)
o Neutral Stimulus (NS)
Pavlov: almost any kind of
stimulus could become
associated with UCS if paired
with the UCS often enough
Ex. Sight of the food dish itself
became a stimulus for salivation
before the food was given to the
dogs
Neutral Stimulus: no effect on
the response (ex. The dish)
o Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
When previously NS, through
repeatedly paired with the UCS,
begins to cause the same kind of
reflexive response LEARNING
NS Conditional Stimulus
Conditioned = learned
o Conditioned Response (CR)
Response given to CS
Not quite as strong as original
UCS but essentially the same
response
- Pavlovs Canine Classic or Tick Tock Tick
Tock
o Pared the ticking sound of a
metronome with the presentation of
food to see if dogs would eventually
salivate at the sound
o Metronomes ticking = NS (did not
normally produce salivation)
o Repeated pairing of NS and UCS =
Acquisition (process of acquiring
learning)
o Salivation = UCR and CR
Differ not only in strength but
also in the stimulus which they
are the response (UCS: food and
CS: metronomes ticking)
- One of the simplest forms of learning
- Basic principles
o CS must come before UCS

o CS and UCS must come very close

together in time ideally, not more
than 5 seconds apart
Interstimulus interval (ISI): time
between CS and UCS
Can vary depending on the
nature of the conditioning task
and the organism being
conditioned
Shorter ISIs: ideal for
conditioning
o NS must be paired with UCS many
times
o CS usually some stimulus that is
distinctive or stands out from other
competing stimulus
- Stimulus Generalization and
Discrimination
o Familiar sounds would produce a
similar conditioned response but
strength is not as strong as the
original one
o Stimulus Generalization: tendency to
respond to a stimulus that is similar
to the original conditioned stimulus
o Stimulus Discrimination: occurs
when an organism learns to respond
to different stimulus in different ways
(stop responding to the fake
stimulus; when people learn to tell
the difference or discriminate
between the fake stimulus)
- Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery
o Extinction: process when CR dies
out when the CS is repeatedly
presented in the absence of the UCS
(salivation gets lost if the ticking is
not paired with the food)
One theory: presentation of the
CS alone leads to a new learning
UCS, which comes after the CSCR link = strengthener or
reinforce remove the reinforce
and the CR it strengthens will
weaken/disappear
Note: learning is any relative
permanent change in behavior
once people learn something,
its almost impossible to
unlearn it
o Spontaneous recover: reappearance
after extinction the CR can briefly
reappear when the original CS
returns, although response is usually
weak and short-lived

- Higher-Order Conditioning: when a

strong CS is paired with a NS the CS
can play the part of a UCS and the
previously NS becomes a second
conditioned stimulus (ex. Snap-tickingsalvation and then the snap would lead
to salvation)
- Conditioned Emotional Response:
emotional response that has become
classically conditioned to occur to
learned stimuli (ex. Fears/phobias)
- Vicarious Conditioning: classical
conditioning of a reflex response or
emotion by watching the reaction of
another person
- Conditioned taste aversion:
development of a nausea or aversive
response to a particular taste because
that taste was followed by a nausea
reaction, occurring after only one
association
o Biological preparedness: tendency of
animals to learn certain associations,
such as taste and nausea, with only
one or few pairings due to the
survival value of learning (no need
for several parings of CS with UCS &
for it to be timed very close)
- WHY DOES CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
WORK?
o Stimulus substitution: original theory
of Pavlov stated that classical
conditioning occurs because the CS
became a substitute for the UCS by
being paired closely together (why
would conditioning fail to happen
when CS is presented immediately
after the UCS?)
o Robert Rescorla CS has to provide
some kind of information about the
coming of the UCS (CS must predict
UCS is coming)
Rats receiving electric shocks
after a tones onset and while it
was still heard and the others
only after the tone stopped
got different kind of information
(first group: the shock is coming,
2nd group: no shock while tone is
on) expectancy
Cognitive perspective: modern
theory in which classical
conditioning is seen to occur
because the CS provides

information or an expectancy
about the coming of UCS
Operant Conditioning
Whats in It for Me?
- Two kinds of behavior:
o Involuntary (reflective) Classical
Cond.
o Voluntary Operant Conditioning
- Edward L. Thorndike: one of the first to
attempt to outline the laws of learning
voluntary responses
o Placed a hungry inside a puzzle
box: only escape was to press a
lever on the floor
o Placed a dish of food outside the
box: for motivation to go out
o Cat would move around and
eventually would accidentally push
the lever
o Lever stimulus, pushing of the
lever response, consequence
escape and food
o Cat did not learn right away
o The law of Effect: If an action is
followed by a pleasurable
consequence, it will tend to be
repeated. If unpleasant, not
repeated.
o Thorndikes work began the study of
what would eventually become
operant conditioning.
- B.F. Skinner: behaviorist (assumed
leadership after John Watson)
Operant Conditioning
o Voluntary behavior is what people
and animals do to operate the world
o Voluntary action to get something
you want or avoid something you
dont want
o Effect of consequences on behavior
learning depends on what happens
after the response (consequence)
As opposed to Classical where it
depends on what comes before
the response (the UCS and CS
are antecedent stimuli)
- The Concept of Reinforcement
o Reinforcement: to strengthen;
anything that, when following a
response, will cause the response to
be more likely to happen again
pleasurable consequence
o Primary vs. Secondary Reinforcers

Primary: fulfills a basic need (ex.

Hunger and touching a dog)
Secondary: gets its reinforcing
properties from being associated
with primary reinforcers in the
past (ex. money, praising a dog)
get the power from classical
conditioning
o Positive vs. Negative Reinforcement
Positive: addition or experience of
a pleasurable consequence
Negative: removal or escape from
something unpleasant
o Schedules of Reinforcement
Partial Reinforcement Effect:
tendency for a response that is
reinforced after some, but not all,
correct responses to be very
resistant to extinction
Continuous Reinforcement:
reinforcement for each and every
correct response
Fixed Interval Schedule of
Reinforcement: reinforce is
received after a certain, fixed
interval of time (ex. Paycheck or
scheduled test)
Variable Interval Schedule:
interval of time after which the
individual must respond in order
to receive a reinforcer changes
from one time to the next (ex. Pop
quiz & fishing)
Fixed Ratio Schedule of
Reinforcement: number of
responses required to receive
each reinforcer will always be the
same fast and little breaks (fixed
schedules both ratio and interval
are predictable and so allows
rest breaks) (ex. Having free
sandwich after 10 buys)
Variable Ratio: number of
responses changes from one trial
to the next (still fast but
unpredictable so no rests) (ex.
Slot machine and lottery)
o Additional factors that contribute to
making reinforcement effective:
Timing: reinforce should be given
as immediately as possible after
the desired behavior
Reinforce ONLY the desired
behavior should be obvious
- The Role of Punishment

o Punishment: opposite of
reinforcement; when following a
response, causes that response to be
less likely to happen again; weakens
responses
o Two Ways
Punishment by Application:
something unpleasant is added
or applied (ex. Spanking)
Punishment by removal: removal
of something pleasurable/desired
after the behavior occurs (ex.
Grounding)
o Problems with Punishment
Getting rid of a response that is
already well established is not
easy Many times punishment
only serves to temporarily
suppress or inhibit a behavior
Punishment by Application can be
quite sever (but stops behavior
immediately)
Severe punishment has too many
drawbacks to be really useful
has potential for leading to abuse
May cause child to avoid
punisher instead of
behavior
May encourage lying to
avoid
Creates fear and anxiety
Provides a successful
model for aggression
*Parents experience a kind of
negative reinforcement:
spanking removes unpleasant
behavior increase tendency
for aggression
*Punishment may become a
form of attention for children
Punishment by removal: less
objectionable but has drawbacks
also
Teaches what not to do but
not what should do
Both are only temporary in their
effect on behavior
o How to Make Punishment More
Effective
Should immediately follow the
behavior it is meant to punish.
Should be consistent (should
follow through and do what is
promised & should stay at the

same intensity or increase

slightly but never decrease)
Should be paired, whenever
possible, with reinforcement of
the right behavior
-- back to Operant Conditioning -- Stimulus Control
o Discriminative stimulus: any
stimulus that provides an organism
with a cue for making a certain
response in order to obtain
reinforcement (ex. red stoplight:
cue for stopping)
- Shaping: small steps toward some
ultimate goal are reinforced until the
goal is reached
o Goal is achieved by reinforcing each
successive approximation (small
steps)
- Extinction: removal of reinforcement
- Can also be generalized to stimuli that
are only similar to the original stimulus
(ex. Baby calling all men dada)
eventually will learn to discriminate
- Spontaneous recovery can also happen
**Instinctive drift: animals tend to revert
to instinctual behavior (genetically
determined)
- Behavior modification: application of
operant conditioning (and sometimes
classical) to bring about such changes
o Use of tokens = token economy
o Time-out: form of mild punishment
by removal
o Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA):
modern term for a form of behavior
modification that uses both analysis
of current behavior and behavioral
techniques to address a socially
relevant issue
**Prompts are used until the individual
can do it on their own
- Biofeedback: using feedback about
biological conditions to bring
involuntary response, such as blood
pressure and relaxation, under
voluntary control
- Neurofeedback: involves trying to
change brain-wave activity
Cognitive Learning Theory
- Latent Learning: Tolman
o Edward Tolman (Gestalt
psychologist) maze-running rats

 1st group: reinforced until

successful
2nd: no reinforcement until 10th
day
3rd:controlled, no reinforcement
at all
2nd group (after reinforcement)
began to solve the maze almost
immediately
Tolman concluded the 2nd group
learned while wandering in the
first 9 days and stored knowledge
away as a kind of mental map
or cognitive map
The cognitive map had remained
hidden, or latent, until they had a
reason to demonstrate their
knowledge latent learning
- Insight Learning: Kohler
o Wolfgang Kohler (Gestalt)
chimpanzees
Sultan the Chimp: how to get a
banana placed outside his cage
used a stick
Banana was placed farther but
there were two sticks present
Sultan tried the 1st and then the
2nd and then about an hour after,
pushed one stick out as far as it
would go toward the banana and
the other stick behind the one;
then tried to draw the sticks back
but only the one on his hand
came back the 2nd stick was
given back and Sultan then fit the
stick into the other and retrieved
his banana
Perception of relationships =
INSIGHT could not be gained
through trial and error learning
alone but requires a sudden
coming together of all the
elements
- Learned Helplessness: Seligman
o Martin Seligman (positive
psychology) classical conditioning
on dogs
Learned helplessness: tendency
to fail to act to escape from a
situation because of a history of
repeated failures in the past
Dogs were presented a tone
followed by a harmless but
painful electric shock

Instead of jumping over the fence

when the tone sounded, the
conditioned dogs just sat there;
showed distress but didnt jump
even when the shock itself began
Dogs learned that there was
nothing they can do to escape
the shock
o Steven F. Maier (co-researcher):
neuroscientific approach
ventromedial prefrontal cortex
(vmpfc) is able to help determine
what is controllable
Dogs did not actually learn to be
helpless but did not learn how to
relax and take control of the
situation (similar to depressed
people)
Observational Learning
- The learning of new behavior through
watching the actions of a model
- Bandura and the Bobo Doll
o Albert Bandura: involved preschool
children & a model interacted with
toys in front of the child (passive and
aggressive)
o Learning/Performance Distinction:
referring to the observation that
learning can take place without
actual performance of the learned
behavior
- Four Elements
o Attention:
o Memory
o Imitation: must be capable of
reproducing
o Motivation: must have desire to
perform

6 memory

- Brad Williams: Human Google

(hyperthymesia)
- Ability to learn: key to our survival
Three Processes of Memory
- Memory: active system that receives
information from the senses, puts the
information into a usable form,
organizes it as it stores it away,
retrieves the information from storage
- Putting It In: Encoding
o Get sensory information into a form
that the brain can use
o Encoding: set of mental operations
that people perform on sensory

information to convert that info into

a form that is usable in the brains
storage systems
o Example: sound ears turn
vibrations in the air to neural
messages from the auditory nerve
(transduction) makes it possible
for brain to interpret that sound
- Keeping It In: Storage
o Hold on to the information for some
period of time = Storage
o Different lengths, depending on the
system of memory being used
- Getting It Out: Retrieval
o Getting the information that is in
storage into a form that can be
used = retrieval
Models of Memory
- Information-Processing Model: focuses
on the way information is handled or
processed through three different
systems of memory; similar to the way
a computer processes (processes of
encoding, storage and retrieval are
seen as part of this model)
- Parallel Distributed Processing (PDP)
Model: a model of memory in which
memory processes are proposed to take
place at the same time over a large
network of neural connections;
connectionism
- Levels-of-Processing Model: assumes
info that is more deeply processed or
processed according to its meaning
rather than just the sound or physical
characteristic of the words will be
remembered more efficiently and for a
longer period of time

The Information-Processing Model: Three

Memory Systems
1 Sensory Memory: first stage of
memory, the point at which info enters
the nervous system through the sensory
systems
- Info encoded as neural messages
- double take can only be explained
by the presence of a memory
- Two kinds:

o Iconic (visual): Icon Greek for

image
Capacity
Sperling: partial report
method (grid of letters)
Everything that can be
seen at one time
Duration
Masking: info that has just
entered iconic memory will
be pushed out quickly by
new info (after a quarter of
a second)
Eidetic imagery: ability to
access a visual sensory
memory over a long period
of time
Functions
Helps visual system to
view surroundings as
continuous and stable in
spite of saccadic
movements
o Echoic (Hearing)
Capacity: limited to what can
be heard at any one moment
(smaller than capacity of
memory)
Duration: 2-4 seconds (longer)
Functions
Meaningful conversations
Allows people to hold on to
incoming auditory info long
enough for the lower brain
centers to determine
whether or not processing
by higher brain centers is
needed
2 Short-Term and Working Memory
- From sensory memory new stage
- Short-Term Memory (STM): the ability to
focus on only one stimulus from among
all sensory input (through process of
selective attention); info is held for brief
periods of time while being used
- Broadbents original filter theory, a kind
of bottleneck: only important stimulus
will be passed on to be analyzed for
meaning in STM
- Cocktail-party effect: recognition of
name
- Treisman: selective attention operates
in two-stage filtering process

o 1st Stage: incoming stimuli in

sensory memory are filtered on the
basis of simple physical
characteristics; not an all-ornothing event but a lessening
(attenuation) of the signal
strength
o 2nd stage: processing of only the
stimuli that meet a certain
threshold of importance
- When information pass through the
selective attention filter and into STM
STM tends to be encoded primarily in
auditory (sound) form
o People talk inside their own heads
o But some images stored in a kind of
visual sketchpad
- Working memory: active system that
processes the info present in short-term
memory Three interrelated Systems
o Central Executive: controls and
coordinates the other 2 systems;
interpreter for both
o Visual Sketchpad
o Auditory Recorder
- Capacity: The Magical Number Seven,
or Five, or Four
o George Miller: digit-span test (a
series of numbers is read and then
asked to recall in order; gets longer
until cannot be recalled anymore)
7 items or pieces of information
+/- 2 items (5-9 bits of info)
o Chunking: way to fool STM into
holding more info than is usual
bits of info are combined into
meaningful units or chunks = more
info can be held in STM; process of
recoding or reorganizing
information
- Duration: lasts from about 12-30
seconds without rehearsal
o Memory seems to rapidly decay
or disappear after that
o Study with mice: in order to form
new memories, old memories must
be erased by the formation of
newly formed neurons
o Maintenance rehearsal: practice of
saying some information to be
remembered over and over in ones
head in order to maintain it in shortterm memory
Info stays until rehearsal stops

When rehearsal stops rapidly

decays and is forgotten
If anything interferes:
memories are likely to be lost
Interference also happens if the
amount of info to be held in
STM exceeds its capacity (5-9
bits of info) info already in
STM may be pushed out to
make room for new
3 Long-Term Memory
- System into which all info is placed to
be kept more or less permanently
- Capacity: unlimited
- Duration:
o There is a relatively permanent
physical change in the brain itself
when a memory is formed
o Memories may be available bot not
accessible they are still there but
people cannot get to them
- Does not mean all memories are stored
forever; only store long-lasting
memories of events and concepts that
are meaningful to us
- Information that is rehearsed long
enough may find its way into long-term
memory
o Rote learning (Maintenance
rehearsal): rote: rotating the info
in ones head; NOT the most
efficient way of putting info into
long-term storage
- Many long-term memories are encoded
as images, sounds, smells or tastes BUT
in general, LTM I encoded in meaningful
form (a kidn of mental storehouse of
meanings of words, concepts, events)
o STM: working surface or desk
o LTM: huge series of filing cabinets
behind the desk, in which files are
stored according to meaning
- Elaborative Rehearsal: way of
transferring info from STM to LTM by
making the info meaningful in some
way
o Easiest way to do this: connect new
info with something it is already
well known
o Ex. French word maison means
house
Maintenance rehearsal: say it
over and over Maison means
house

Elaborative: more efficient if

person simply thought Maison
sounds like masons, and
masons build houses.
o Craik and Lockhart: theorized that
info that is more deeply
processed or processed according
to its meaning will be remembered
more efficiently
o Elaborative: deeper kind of
processing than maintenance
rehearsal
- Types of Long-Term Information
o Procedural (Nondeclarative)
Memory
Memory for skills (tying shoes
and riding a bicycle)
Include emotional associations,
habits and simple coordinated
reflexes
Amygdala: emotional
associations; cerebellum:
conditioned responses, skills,
habits
Damage to the hippocampus
area anterograde amnesia:
new long-term declarative
memories cannot be formed
(Lenny in Memento)
Study by Cohen: patients with
this disorder taught how to
solve a puzzle called the Tower
of Hanoi able to learn but
could not remember ever
having seen the puzzle or
examiner (each trial was like
the first one ever) but were
able to solve the puzzle
(procedural memories were
formed and stored in a part of
the brain separate from the
part controlling the memories
they could no longer form)
Alzheimers: affects
hippocampus and the frontal
cortex
Similar to concept of implicit
memory not easily retrieved
into conscious awareness (ex.
Could solve the puzzle but no
conscious knowledge of how to
do so)
Not all implicit memory are
necessarily procedural
o Declarative Memory

All the things that people can

know facts and information
that make up knowledge
Semantic: general knowledge
that anyone has the ability to
know; semantic = meaning
awareness of the meaning of
words, concepts and terms, as
well as names of objects, math,
etc; relatively permanent
Episodic: personal knowledge
that each person has of his
daily life and personal history,
a kind of autobiographical
memory; tend to be updated
and revised more or less
constantly (updating process:
kind of survival mechanism)
Explicit memory: easily made
conscious and brought from
long-term storage into shortterm memory; can be forgotten
but always have the potential
to be made conscious
- Long-Term Memory Organization
o Organized in terms of related
meanings and concepts Semantic
Network model
Information is stored in the
brain in a connected fashion,
with concepts that are related
to each other stored physically
closer to each other than
concepts that are not highly
related
Linked in a kind of hierarchy
o Parallel Distributed Processing
Model: speed at which different
points can be accessed different
concepts can be targeted at the
same time/simultaneously

Getting It Out: Retriever of Long-Term

Memories
Retrieval Cues
- Retrieval cue: a stimulus for
remembering (more cues stored with a
piece of info = easier retrieval of that
info)
- Encoding Specificity: the tendency for
memory of any kind of info to be
improved if the physical surroundings
available when the memory is first
formed are also available when the
memory is being retrieved

o Study: students learning scuba

diving remembered words better
on where they learned it (out or in
the pool)
- State-dependent Learning: memories
formed during a particular physiological
or psychological state will be easier to
remember while in a similar state
- Two kinds of retrieval of memories
o Recall: memories are retrieved with
few or no external cues (fill in the
blanks)
Retrieval Failure: tip of the
tongue phenomenon (to
overcome: forget about it)
Serial Position Effect: tendency
of info at the beginning and
end of a body of info to be
remembered more accurately
than the info in the middle
Primacy Effect: beginning
(LTM)
Recency Effect: end/last
(STM)
o Recognition: involves looking at or
hearing info and matching it to
what is already in memory (word
search puzzle or multiple choice,
matching and true or false)
Ability to match a piece of info
or stimulus to a stored
image/fact
Much easier than recall
False Positives: occurs wen a
person thinks that he or she
has recognized something or
someone but in fact does not
have that something or
someone in memory (there is
just enough similarity between
stimulus)
*Elizabeth Loftus and Eyewitnesses:
focus has been inaccuracies of memory
retrieval; experiment: 3 minute video clip
in which there are 8 demonstrators that
run into a classroom
Automatic Encoding: Flashbulb Memories
- Automatic encoding: tendency of
certain kinds of info to enter long-term
memory with little or no effortful
encoding
- Flashbulb memories: type of automatic
encoding that occurs because an
unexpected event has strong emotional

associations for the person

remembering it (ex. First date,
embarrassing moment, etc)
o Emotional reactions stimulate the
release of hormones that have been
shown to enhance the formation of
long-term memories
o Evidence of high degree of accuracy
but also, often convincingly real and
are subject to decay and alterations
over time
The Reconstructive Nature of LTM
Retrieval: How Reliable Are Memories?
- Memories are revised, edited and
altered on an almost continuous basis
Constructive Processing of Memories
- As new memories are created in LTM,
old memories can get lost but are
more likely to be changed or altered in
some way
- Memories are never quite accurate
(more time that passes = more
inaccuracies)
- Psychologist Kihlstrom: book on
constructive nature of memory by Sir
Bartlett remembering is more like
making up a story; every knowledge is
a blend of knowledge and inference
- Elizabeth Loftus Constructive
Processing view of memory retrieval
o Referring to the retrieval of
memories in which those memories
are altered, revised, or influenced
by newer info
o Memories are built or reconstructed
o Hindsight bias: the tendency to
falsely believe, through revision of
older memories to include newer
information, that one could have
correctly predicted the output of an
event (knew it all along)
Memory Retrieval Problems
- The Misinformation Effect: tendency of
misleading info presented after an
event to alter the memories of the
event itself
- False Memory Syndrome: creation of
inaccurate or false memories through
the suggestion of others (often under
hypnosis)
o Event must at least be plausible or
believable to become false
memories (Pezdek)

o But some implausible can be made

to seem plausible in order to
become false memories (Loftus)
Event must be made to seem
as plausible as possible.
Individuals are given info that
helps them believe that the
event could have happened to
them personally
Forgetting
- mnemonist: memory expert or someone
with exceptional memory ability (ex. Mr.
S)
Ebbinghaus and the Forgetting Curve
- Hermann Ebbinghaus: one of the first
researchers to study forgetting
- The Curve of Forgetting: a graph
showing a distinct pattern in which
forgetting is very fast within the first
hour after learning a list and then
tapers off gradually (forgetting is
greatest just after learning)
- Distributed Practice: spacing out ones
study sessions by including breaks will
produce far better retrieval of
information (as opposed to massed
practice)
Encoding Failure
- Some things never get encoded in the
first place
- Encoding failure: the failure to process
information into memory
- Researchers: images of pennies
Memory Trace Decay Theory
- Memory trace: some physical change in
the brain, perhaps in a neuron or in the
activity between neurons, which occurs
when a memory is formed
- If these traces are not used, they may
decay, fading into nothing
- Sensory memory and Short-term
memory: Information that is not brought
to attention in sensory memory or
continuously rehearsed in STM will fade
away.
- Long-Term Memory: decay theory is
usually called disuse: use it or lose it
Interference Theory
- Memories may not always be accessible
to attempted retrieval because other
info interferes
- Interference can come into two different
directions

o Proactive Interference: tendency for

older or previously learned material
to interfere with learning new
material
o Retroactive Interference: newer info
interferes with the retrieval of older
info
Neuroscience of Memory
- Specific areas of the brain may be the
places in which memories are physically
formed; these areas are different for
different types of memories (ex.
Procedural memories: cerebellum)
- PET scanning techniques suggest that
STM are stored in the prefrontal cortex
and temporal lobe
- Memories of fear: amygdala
- Semantic and episodic LTM: also stored
in frontal and temporal lobes but not in
exactly the same places or same
location as STM
Neural Activity, Structure and Proteins in
Memory Formation
- Memory is not one physical change but
many: changes in the number of
receptor sites, changes in the sensitivity
of the synapse through repeated
stimulation (long-term potentiation) and
changes in the dendrites, specifically in
the proteins within the neurons
- Specific protein in mammals: 4E-BP2
control the production of new nervoussystem proteins; the brain modifies this
in a certain way alteration and other
changes that take place as a memory is
forming = Consolidation (changes that
take place in the structure and
functioning of neurons when a memory
is formed)
The Hippocampus and Memory
- H.M.: evidence that hippocampus is for
LTM
o 16 when began to suffer severe
epileptic seizures
- Hippocampus and adjacent medial
temporal lobe structures were removed
- Last memory: being rolled on the
gurney to the operating room
- Ability to form new declarative
memories was profoundly impaired
- Consolidation had become impossible
- H.M. = Henry Gustav Molaison
donated brain for further scientific
study

When Memory Fails: Organic Amnesia

Retrograde Amnesia
- Hippocampus is temporarily
disconnected
- Ex. People in accidents are unable to
recall the accident itself and even the
last several hours or days before the
accident
- Loss of memory from the point of injury
backwards
- The consolidation process was busy
making the physical changes to allow
new memories to be stored gets
disrupted and loses everything that was
not already nearly finished
- All memories that were in the process of
being stored but are not yet
permanent are lost
- ECT or electroconvulsive therapy: one of
the therapies for severe depression;
causes seizures that make people
forget
Anterograde Amnesia
- Concussions
- Loss of memories from the point of
injury or illness forward
- Senile dementia: mental disorder in
which severe forgetfulness, mental

confusion and mood swings are primary

symptoms
Infantile Amnesia
- Involves the type of memory that exists
in the first few years of life, when a
child is still considered an infant
- Early memories tend to be implicit
difficult to bring to consciousness
- Explicit memory does not really develop
until after about age 2, when
hippocampus is more fully developed
and language skills blossom
- Katherine Nelson: gives credit to social
relationships that small children have
with others (As children are able to talk
about shared memories with adults, the
begin to develop their autobiographical
memory, or the memory for events and
facts related to ones personal life
story)
Alzheimers Disease
- Accounts for nearly 60 to 80 percent of
all cases of dementia
- Primary memory problem, at least in
the beginning, is anterograde amnesia
- Memory loss is rather mild at first but
becomes severe over time
- As it progresses, memories of the past
seem to begin erasing as retrograde
amnesia happens
- Treatment can slow but not halt or
reverse the course of the disease 5
drugs are currently approved for
treatment: slow down symptoms for an
average of 6-12 months
- Experimental therapies: human trials