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Learning and Memory Chapter 19 Learning and Memory et me begin by telling a little story. because we practice–repeat something over When I was a graduate student we had and over. A further definition says, Lto take an exam that Cornell does in “[Learning is] either a case of differential an interesting way. They put you in a swivel- strengthening of one from a number of chair surrounded by your committee responses evoked by a situation of need, or composed of 4-5 faculty members. You are the formation of receptor-effector spun around, and a question comes from the connections de novo; the first occurs direction you face when you stop. One of the typically in simple selective learning and the questions I was asked was, “What will be second in conditioned reflex learning" (Hull, the most important accomplishment in the 1943). It is the strengthening of existing field of neuroscience in the next 10 years?” responses and the formation of new Knowing that knowledge usually advances responses to existing stimuli that make this in small steps, I said that we would definition unique. So what is learning? It gradually know more about most aspects of isn’t clear that we have an inclusive the field, but I didn’t expect any major definition. It appears that learning is the breakthroughs. To a man, the committee strengthening of existing responses or agreed that in 10 years we would have a formation of new responses to existing complete solution to the problem of learning stimuli that occurs because of practice or and memory. The word complete was their repetition. How much practice? Sometimes a term, presumably meaning that we would single practice session is sufficient as in know everything there was to know about avoidance of painful or noxious stimuli. learning and memory. Well, at the 10-year Sometimes a lot of practice is necessary as mark, I sent them all a letter saying, “I told in learning to drive a car. you so!” Their predicted event didn’t What then is memory? Again happen. However, we have made some according to Kandel (2000), ". memory is progress; that progress is what this chapter is the process by which that knowledge of the about. world is encoded, stored, and later retrieved." By this definition, memory is not Definitions a thing; it’s a process. Interesting! In another What is learning? According to Eric definition, "Memory is a phase of learning . Kandel (2000) “Learning is the process by . learning has three stages: 1. acquiring, which we acquire knowledge about the wherein one masters a new activity . or world.” While this definition is erudite, it memorizes verbal material . 2. retaining doesn’t help us much in knowing what to the new acquisition for a period of time; and study. Another definition (Kimble, 1961), 3. remembering, which enables one to "Learning refers to a more or less permanent reproduce the learned act or memorized change in behavior which occurs as a result material. In a narrower sense learning of practice," is a little better. It tells us that merely means acquiring skill . ." (Sargent learning is more or less permanent; it won’t & Stafford, 1965). From these definitions, always be there, but often will. It also tells we see that memory has to do with keeping us that this is something that happens “knowledge” someplace and then retrieving it when it is needed. What we don’t see here when given only the first few letters of the is that the “knowledge” doesn’t have to word. At the same time, they deny ever come into consciousness. I have two having learned the word previously. Implicit cars–one with an automatic transmission, memory is often further parceled as one with a stick shift. I don’t have to bring associative and non-associative. There are into consciousness the process for shifting two well-known types of non-associative gears when I get into the car that requires me learning: habituation and sensitization. to do that–I just do it! Habituation is a decrease in response to a benign stimulus when the stimulus is Types of Memory presented repeatedly. A dog will be aroused There are actually two basic kinds of when a strange tone is played. If the tone is learning and memory. One is declarative or played over and over, the dog will explicit; the other is non-declarative or eventually no longer be aroused by the tone. implicit. Knowledge of facts–what we know We say that it has habituated. This kind of about places, things and people–and the learning makes sense; it is not efficient for meaning of these facts is explicit memory. an organism to go on responding to a These things must be recalled into stimulus that has no meaning. The other consciousness to be used. Patients who have form of non-associative learning, bilateral medial temporal lobe lesions have sensitization, is an enhanced response to an inability to learn and remember items of many different stimuli after experiencing an factual knowledge. They can’t remember intense or noxious one. For example, an people that they met the day before. They animal responds more vigorously to a tone can’t remember what they did the day of lesser intensity once a painfully loud tone before. Some people will further parcel has been played. Here we say that the animal explicit memories as episodic (we remember is sensitized. events) or semantic (we remember facts). As These two forms of learning also Kandel (2000) points out, in either case the interact. Once a response has been content of all explicit memories can be habituated, it can be restored by expressed by declarative statements such as sensitization. In this case, we say that the “I was here yesterday” (episodic) and “The animal is dishabituated. As an example: a hippocampus has something to do with habituated startle response to a noise can be memory” (semantic). restored by strongly pinching the skin. Implicit memory involves In non-associative learning, it is not information about how to perform necessary that the animal learns to associate something; it’s recalled unconsciously. We the stimuli involved (thus the name). For use implicit memory in trained, reflexive example, the dishabituated animal does not motor or perceptual skills. I know how to learn to associate the noise with the pinch. drive my car; I know how to get to work. As we shall see shortly, this is the hallmark The same people with bilateral medial of associative learning. Not all forms of non- temporal lobe lesions can learn simple associative learning are as simple as reflexive skills–they habituate and are habituation and sensitization. For example, sensitized, they can be classically and we learn language by imitation of people operantly conditioned (see later). They can who already speak. This involves no learn certain perceptual tasks. For example, association of stimuli and is clearly more they can recall a word learned previously complicated than habituation. In associative learning, we “learn” conditioned stimulus (CS). The response to that two stimuli are associated with each it (again salivation) is called the conditioned other or that a response is associated with a response (CR). The UR and the CR are given event or has a given consequence. usually similar but often not identical in type Perhaps important in clinical considerations, or strength. a person can also learn that an outcome is Initially investigators thought that not associated with a response. So a person classical conditioning involved simply may learn that what happens to him is not learning that two stimuli were related to what he does. Two sorts of contiguous–that they occurred close together associative learning have been well studied: in time, one after the other. Now we think classical conditioning and operant that what the animals learn is conditioning. Classical conditioning is well contingencies–that existence of something demonstrated by Pavlov’s famous depends upon existence of something else. experiment in which he presented meat With this in mind, it is possible to see that powder to a dog, causing it to salivate. He simply learning that two stimuli were repeated the presentation, and each time the contiguous could often lead to behaviors that dog salivated. If he repeatedly rang a bell were maladaptive, with animals associating just before presenting the meat powder (they environmental events that had no real were paired), the animal came to associate relationship. On the other hand, the the bell with the presentation of the meat existence of superstitious behaviors, even in powder, and it would begin to salivate when humans, suggests that this does occur. the bell was rung. In fact, for a while it It is tempting to think of extinction would salivate if the bell was rung but no as an example of forgetting, but alas it is not. meat powder was presented (they were The difference is that something new is unpaired). After a while, the bell stopped learned during the process of extinction–the predicting the presentation of meat powder animal learns that the CS is no longer a for the dog, and it ceased salivating when it signal that the US is about to occur, rather it was rung. (This process is called extinction.) is a signal that the US will not occur. It should be noted that for classical In operant conditioning (sometimes conditioning to occur the ringing of the bell called trial-and-error learning), a person or must precede the presentation of the meat animal learns that it gets a reward if it does powder, often by a certain critical interval of something.
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