PSYC 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 17: Low Frequency, Implicit Learning, Perforant Path
Document Summary
Learning refers to the process by which experiences change our nervous system and hence our behavior. Throughout your life, you are always having experiences that are changing brain anatomy. We refer to these changes as memories (memory traces or memory engrams). Memories can be transient or durable, conscious or unconscious, personal or impersonal. They can appear briefly and go away (transient) or durable (they can stay) Memories traces can degrade or be corrupted, and thus be gone forever. They can also simply become inaccessible, either temporarily or permanently, but still exist somewhere in the brain. Habituation: present stimuli to the animal and they have a response. Over time, you keep presenting the stimuli and the response gets smaller and smaller. If the stimulus is harmless, the animal will stop reacting to it. Sensitization: animal becomes more responsive to the stimuli over time. If you hurt an animal a lot, they become sensitive to all stimuli.
