PSYC 410 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Sensory System, Thalamus, Cerebellum
Document Summary
Skill memory: ability to perform a task honed through learning, distinct from declarative memories. Infrequent feedback works better for long term performance: practice, constant practice focused on a single skill, variable practice alternates between skill sets (often more effective, skill memories often formed unconsciously, explicit learning (studying for exam) Identical elements theory: training and new context share some elements, more shared elements, better skills will transfer, when memory fails, skill decay, use it or lose it, rapid decay when practice first stopos, slower decay as time progresses. Interference: skills can deteriorate from newly learned habit interference, basal ganglia and skill learning, sit at base of forebrain, collects input from cortex, outputs to thalamus, motor cortex, brainstem, regulates velocity, direction, amplitude of movement. Important in forming skill memory: damage impairs creation of procedural memories but not declarative, skill training produces task relevant coding of neural activity in basal ganglia.
