Learning and Memory: A Deep Dive PDF

Learning is influenced by many variables   - How difficult the task is   - How much attention the learner is playing to the task   - What sorts and levels of emotions are involved  - Whether any required precursors to learning are in place     What is Learning:   - **Learning is def...

Learning is influenced by many variables   - How difficult the task is   - How much attention the learner is playing to the task   - What sorts and levels of emotions are involved  - Whether any required precursors to learning are in place     What is Learning:   - **Learning is defined as a lasting change caused by Experience**  - It has to be inferred from behavior -- it cannot be directly observed   - For ex: You may recently memorized a complex speech but until you give the speech there is no outward sign of this learning. Therefore** to study learning scientists measure change in behavioral responses **  - Learning is complex and multidimensional     **Learning and memory are interrelated** and many biological mechanisms ( brain) underlie that learning is critical for memory.   They are two sides of the same coin.     - Traditionally animals ( dogs, monkeys, rats and mice) were focus of studies on learning   - Humans were the focus on the studies of memory      **Memory is the persistence of retrievable information over time. ** \   However this changed with neuroimaging technology.     Learning can be divided into two major categories:     1. Associative learning:  - Learning that involves forming associations between stimuli  - It is a change that occurs as the result of experiences that lead us to link two or more stimuli together.   - Ex: Cringing at the whining sound oof a dental drill because you associate the sound with the pain of the dill has caused you in past     2. Non Associative Learning:   - Learning that does not involve forming associations between stimuli    - It is the simpler of the two types of learning   - **Refers to learning following repeated exposure to a single stimulus** or event. This exposure causes a  relatively permanent  change in the strength of response.    - Since it does not require learning about an association between multiple stimuli, it Is  considered to be the simplest, most basic form of learning.     - Ex: first time you sleep in a new apartment, you may find yourself  awakened a number of times by unfamiliar sounds in the neighborhood or the apartment. But after a few nights you are able to ignore these now family sounds and are able to sleep without interruption. You have learned not to associate those sounds with anything of meaning      There are two major types of **non-associative learning**:     **Habituation: **  - A form of non-associative learning whereby repeated presentation of the stimulus leads to a **reduction in response **      - **It is Different from sensory adaptation **    **Sensory Adaptation: **    - We experience sensory adaptation when our senses begin to respond less strongly to repeated presentations of the same sensory cue.     - Ex: Baking cookies , smell would be very enticing to you but as time passes it would be normal if you bake them daily     Here your olfactory sense responds less and less strongly, through the same stimulus continues to stimulate the sensory receptor in your olfactory system.     HOWEVER, Habituation is different than the fatigue of neurons in the Sensory Adaptation.    \ **Habituation i**s a form of learning where the organism **decrease **response to stimulus after repeated stimulus presentation.     - Behavior is important in habituation: In habituation, an animal or person Ignores something that is unimportant -- freeing  our cognitive resources for more important activities. ( see bird stops flying at you if they realize you are not a threat to their nest)     **Dishabituation:**   Involves a full strength recovery of a habituated response in presence to a  novel  ( new) stimulus.     Text book definition: A form of non-associative learning whereby there is a recovery of attention to a novel stimulus following habituation.          Both habituation and dishabituation have an adaptive value     - Allows organisms to ignore stimuli that do not convey information of biological significance but to respond to stimuli that are important     **Learning theorists also study habituation by examining changes in patterns of neuronal activation in various regions of cortex**    Why Habituation important:   - Serves as intelligent firewall to the cognitive system as it prioritizes sensory information as actionable versus non -- actionable  - Meaning in typically developing individual\'s, this simple categorization process produces the ability to ignore that which is known or predictable so that individuals are able to free cognitive resources for more processing new information.   - It serves as a foundation for more complex cognitive processes.    - Not much is known about the physiological processes that underlie habituation    Abnormalities in Habituation:  - Present in diverse neuropsychiatric disorder including ASD ( Autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, Parkinson\'s disease, attention deficits hyperactivity disorder ( ADHD)