EXP3422C Study Guide 8 Professor Hammock Lectures 16 and 17 Topic Special features of learning and memory in the very young and the very old Associated new reading 1 Chapter 12 2 Journal article Human Foetuses Learn Odours from their Pregnant Mother s Diet Schaal Marlier and Soussignan Chem Senses 25 729 737 Objectives Students will be able to identify accurate definitions descriptions for key words and ideas Students will be able to make predictions about learning in different phases of development Students will be able to make inferences about imprinting and experience dependent developmental plasticity Students will be able to make predictions about learning in old age Students will become familiar with a journal article in the area of learning in utero Key words and ideas Imprinting Attachment Konrad Lorenz Animal s attachment to the first individual they see after being birthed Has a sensitive period The bond made between people early in life Specifically between a mother and child Henry Harlow s experiment with the cloth wire monkey mom Bowlby attachment o Lasting psychological connectedness between human beings o Early experiences in childhood have an important influence on development and behavior later in life o Aids in survival experience dependent developmental plasticity Individual differences in physiology someone had a bad experience and someone else had a good experience experience expectant development Requires experience to finish developing Examples o Binocular vision o Depth perception gestational age The gestational age is the time the fetus spends in the womb By 25 weeks in this age a fetus s brain and sense organs are sufficiently developed for the fetus to start perceiving and learning about these sounds 1 species typical behavior sensitive period A specific time window when certain kinds of learning are most effective Examples o The cats whose eyes were sewed shut were blind in the closed eye Even though there was no physical damage to their eye they could not see because they missed the sensitive period for vision development 3 weeks 60 days after birth Hubel Wisel o Male sparrows can only learn song during days 30 through 100 o Language learning ends 12 think of Genie Challenged by some Adults learn 2nd languages by the use of semantic memory Child learn by social imitation o Sensitive periods for humans are for language social attachment and sensory systems i e vision A limited time window during which learning was possible and irreversible Meaning requiring nourishment refers to a pattern of growth and development in organisms which are incapable of moving around on their own soon after hatching or being born Refers to species in which the young are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching Speech sounds human languages have about 25 40 phonetic discrimination r and l in English can not be discriminated by a Japanese speaker Children are better at this due to a critical period for perceptual learning that allows for phonetic discrimination The brain develops very quickly before birth 250 000 neurons are added to the brain each minute By 25 weeks after birth the majority of fetal neurons are in place Natural cell death due to neurons not being used This happens primarily in childhood a bunch of neurons are created and then they are killed off and the remaining neurons are fine tuned synaptic pruning Synapses that are not used are weakened or die they re pruned off 2 critical period altricial Precocial phoneme Neurogenesis Apoptosis 42 of all synapses in the cortex may be pruned during childhood and adolescence neurotrophic factors Neurotrophic factors help neurons grow and thrive Neurons obtain NFs from their neighbors if they a deprived of NFs they will die BDNF is a NF Myelination antagonistic pleiotropy Pleuriotrophy a thing that has many effects Antagonistic pleiotropy is when some of the many effects are beneficial or not Example o Huntington s Disease Highly fertile when young but when older the disease develops hospitalism anaclitic depression A type of depression that occurs primarily in infants who have been separated from or lost their mothers or primary caretakers If a child suffers from anaclitic depression there is a high risk of serious developmental problems both intellectually and physically Key names Konrad Lorenz Renee Spitz John Bowlby Henry Harlow Hubel and Wiesel 3 Lectures 18 and 19 Topic Emotional learning Associated new reading 1 Chapter 10 2 Journal article Happiness in rats Burgdorf and Panksepp Physiology and Behavior 2001 72 167 173 Objectives Students will be able to identify accurate definitions descriptions for key words and ideas Students will be able to make predictions about emotional learning Students will be able to make inferences about therapies for emotional learning Students will become familiar with a journal article in the area of emotional learning Key words and ideas Emotion Emotion is a cluster of 3 distinct but interrelated phenomena physiological responses process overt motor behaviors and conscious feelings cognitive appraisal o Physiological process i e butterflies changes in heart rate breathing changes o Motor behaviors i e facial expressions vocal tone physical posture Very culturally influenced and context dependent o Cognitive appraisal feeling assessing your own emotions and naming it for yourself your perspective Strong emotions can help strength a memory i e September 11th 2001 o Too much emotion can interfere with memories Paul Ekman suggests there is a small set of universal emotions hardwired in humans from birth o Happiness o Surprise o Fear o Sadness o Anger o Disgust Brain areas involved in emotion o Thalamus o Hypothalamus o Hippocampus o Cingulate cortex o Amygdala o Neocortex frontal cortex Flash bulb memories Vivid memories that are most often due to emotionally charges situations They last a long time are not very accurate due high emotions which interfere with memory fear response The cluster of these reactions cibstitutes a fear response 4 o Physiological Faster heart beat increased respiration piloerection goose bumps sweaty palms skin conductance response Galvanic skin response adrenaline rush epinephrine and more Activates fight flight response the whole organism is positioned to deal with the threat Regulated by the ANS o Fear activates the SNS fight or flight o Decreases activity in the parasympathetic nervous system rest digest breed feed o Motor o