PSYCH 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Encephalitis, Beagle, Implicit Memory
Introduction to Memory Processes
From Learning to Memory:
0. 0. Learning and Social Adaptation Depend on our Memory Capacities
0. 0. When learning occurs, memories (specific types of knowledge seen
in different patterns of motor, emotional, and verbal behavior) are
established.
1. 1. When you learn you establish memories
0. 0. There is no learning without memory
0. 0. When memories are destroyed, what was learned is altered
fundamentally
Videoclip Segment from Zimbardo’s “Discovering Psychology” PBS
series:
0. 0. Physical reality of Memory: Memories make lasting alterations in structure
and function of Central Nervous System. Psychologists have called these
physical traces of memory “Engrams”.
1. 1.
0. 0. 3 Types of Engrams or memory traces :
0. 0. 1) Procedural Knowledge or Memory (what you know how to do in
behavior) ;
0. 0. 2) Semantic or Declarative Knowledge or Memory (what you know, as
verbally represented);
0. 0. 3) Episodic Memory (recollection of experiences, (stories, another type
of verbal or declarative knowledge process)
0. 0. Engrams determine your personal perspective on life.
Where exactly are our memories, our “engrams”?
0. 0. Karl Lashley trained rats to learn mazes, then removed increasingly large
areas of cortex. OG memory researcher
0. 0. His Conclusion: memory is not localized in any specific area of brain
0. 0. (implication: memories are distributed across areas of cortex).
0. 0. Zimbardo suggests perhaps Lashley was correct about the location of
complex memories but the conclusion may not apply to simple memories.
Experiment on specific location of one classically conditioned “memory”
0. 0. Richard Thompson’s work with rabbits suggests simple memories may be
localized rather precisely. He maps the electrical activity of nerve cells that
relate to an actual learned behavior as demonstrated in a particular classical
conditioning process:
0. 0. Unconditioned stimulus=unconditioned reaction natural
1. 1. Conditioned stimulus=conditioned response learned, trained. I’m trained when I put my
face next to that damn air puff test. Damn, I hate that thing. Im conditioned to blink
2. 2. Learned blinking response located in cerebellum. Some memories need certain tissues in
order to work.
0. 0. Diagram the classical conditioning (stimulus substitution) process in
Thompson’s experiment:
0. 0. What is the: UCS, UCR, CS, CR?
0. 0. UCS: Air
0. 0. UCR: Blink
0. 0. CS: Tone
0. 0. CR: Blink when hearing tone
0. 0. Where is the memory for this particular CR located in the brain?
0. 0. Thompson’s A: Interpositis nucleus, a cubic millimenter of tissue in the
cerebellum.
0. 0. After surgery, the memory for the learned response is completely
obliterated; all that is left is the reflex response (which is what?), the same
reponse shown before learning ; destroying that tissue permanently abolished
the memory for the learned response
0. 0. Could the animal learn that CR again?
0. 0. Why or why not? No, took out part of cerebellum
More on the “Engram”:
0. 0. Engram is the historical term for the elusive “physical trace” of memory
(LTM)
0. 0. Anatomy: In Thompson’s experiment the memory for the conditioned
response was located: Cerebellum, nucleus(where?)
0. 0. In human verbal/conscious learning, the hippocampus is central to
formation of EXPLICIT MEMORY; storage is in more distributed neural
networks
0. 0. Role of Synapses: Denser and more numerous with enriched
environments and opportunities for learning.
0. 0. Neurotransmitters: Unknown specific roles, but Ach, DA, 5-HT, NE all
involved (see past notes if abbreviations unfamiliar)
Brain Development, Learning and Memory: Videoclip
0. 0. Videoclip: William Greenough’s Lab at Univ. Illinois-Urbana
0. 0. Thesis: Brain Development Continues Through the Lifespan
0. 0. What does Dr. Greenough say was the old psychobiological assumption or
“conventional wisdom” about the development of the brain? Brain continues to
develop through life
0. 0. What has been learned more recently; what is the new view?
1. 1. That your brain can still develop
0. 0. Describe/explain Greenough’s first experiment
1. 1. Putting rats in enriched learned environment and an impoverished
environment. Animals in enriched developed nerve cells/enriched dendritic
development. More synapses
0. 0. What was the IV and its levels?
Document Summary
Learning and social adaptation depend on our memory capacities: 0. When learning occurs, memories (specific types of knowledge seen in different patterns of motor, emotional, and verbal behavior) are established: 1. When you learn you establish memories: 0. There is no learning without memory: 0. When memories are destroyed, what was learned is altered fundamentally. Videoclip segment from zimbardo"s discovering psychology pbs series: 0. Physical reality of memory: memories make lasting alterations in structure and function of central nervous system. Psychologists have called these physical traces of memory engrams : 0. 3 types of engrams or memory traces : 0. 1) procedural knowledge or memory (what you know how to do in behavior) : 0. 2) semantic or declarative knowledge or memory (what you know, as verbally represented): 0. 3) episodic memory (recollection of experiences, (stories, another type of verbal or declarative knowledge process: 0. Where exactly are our memories, our engrams : 0.
