Chapter 13 - Memory and Learning

• learning


  the process of acquiring new and relatively enduring information, behavior patterns, or abilities, characterized by modifications of behavior as a result of practice, study, or experience
• memory


  the ability to learn and neurally encode information, consolidate the information for longer-term storage, and retrieve or reactivate the the consolidated information at a later time
• amnesia


  severe impairment of memory
• retrograde amnesia


  difficulty in retrieving memories formed begore the onset of amnesia
• anterograde amnesia


  difficulty in forming new memories beginning with the onset of a disorder
• hippocampus


  a medial temporal lobe structure that is important for learning and memory
• declarative memory


  a memory that can be stated or described
• nondeclarative memory


  a memory that is shown by performance rather than by conscious recollection
• delayed non-matching-to-sample task


  a test in which the individual must respond to the unfamiliar stimulus in a pair of stimuli
• dorsomedial thalamus


  a limbic system structure that is connected to the hypothalamus
• mammillary body


  one of a pair of limbic system structures that are connected to the hippocampus
• Korsakoff's syndrome


  a memory disorder, caused by thiamine deficiency, that is generally associated with chronic alcoholism
• confabulate


  to fill in a gap in memory with a falsification
• episodic memory


  memory of a particular incident or a particular time and place
• semantic memory


  generalized declarative memory, such as knowing the meaning of a word
• skill learning


  the process of learning to perform a challenging task simply by repeating it over and over
• basal ganglia


  a group of forebrain nuclei, including the caudate nucleus, globus pallidus, and the putamen, found deep within the cerebral hemispheres
• priming


  the phenomenon by which exposure to a stimulus facilitates subsequent responses to the same or a similar stimulus
• associative learning


  a type of learning in which an association in formed between two stimuli or a stimulus and a response
• classical conditioning


  a type of associative learning in which an originally neutral stimulus acquires the power to elicit a conditioned response when presented alone
• cerebellum


  a structure located at the back of the brain, dorsal to the pons, that is involved in the central regulation of movement and in some forms of learning
• instrumental conditioning


  a form of associative learning in which the likelihood that an act will be performed depends on the consequences that follow it
• cognitive map


  a mental representation of the relative spatial organization of objects and information
• place cell


  a neuron in the hippocampus that selectively fires when the animal is in a particular location
• sensory buffer


  a very brief type of memory that stores the sensory impression of a scene
• short-term memory


  a form of memory that usually only lasts seconds, or as long as rehearsal continues
• long-term memory


  an enduring form of memory that lasts days, weeks, months, or years
• encoding


  the first process in the memory system in which the information entering sensory channels is passed into short-term memory
• consolidation


  the second process in the memory system, in which information in short-term memory is transferred to long-term memory
• retrieval


  the third process of the memory system in which a stored memory is used by an organism
• post-traumatic stress disorder


  a disorder in which memories of an unpleasant episode repeatedly plague the victim
• memory trace


  a persistent change in the brain that reflects the storage of memory
• reconsolidation


  the return of a memory trace to stable long-term storage after it has been temporarily made changeable during the process of recall
• neuroplasticity


  the ability of the nervous system to change in response to experiences or the environment
• impoverished condition


  an environment for laboratory rodents in which each animal is housed singly in a small cage without complex stimuli
• standard condition


  the usual environment for laboratory rodents with a few animals in a cage with adequate food and water, but no complex stimulation
• enriched condtion


  an environment for laboratory rodents in which animals are housed with a wide variety of stimulus objects
• habituation


  a form on nonassociative learning in which an organism becomes less responsive following repeated presentations of a stimulus
• Hebbian synampse


  a synapse that is strengthened when it successfully drives the postsynaptic cell
• tetanus


  a intense volley of action potentials