Conditioning and Learning Lecture Notes Test 1 Part 1 5 14 15 Introductory Lecture The discovery of Human Psychology and an understanding of learning and adaptation was paramount in human history we are no longer relying on geniuses to make the change o This was a POWERFUL idea that has changed the world o Discovery that regular people could actually learn propelled humanity forward possessing a seemingly infinite capacity to learn we discovered something about ourselves and it is one of the greatest discoveries made o Ability to learn independent of biology lineage background CRAZY Maybe we can improve or optimize learning but we have to understand it first that s why this class o This allows us to know things like instances where our learning processes have turned against us or memory pathologies such as PTSD or Drug Addiction We can use behavior to infer that learning has occurred and a memory has formed learning and memory are NOT behavioral manifestations themselves focus of lecture vs focus of lab Conditioning and Learning Generally o Within your body your brain is not the only organ that learns and remembers other organ systems also capture past presents what happened then and brings them forward into the now the immune system and inoculations is a great example o A single principle underlies learning and memory in nearly all organ systems including the brain what is this principle Organisms are made up of organs are made up of cells and each level has distinct components so how do we get all of these different components to work together and do it at each level of integration Humans say this happens with Integration through Mechanical Linkage physical interaction between distinct parts like a clock and its cogs BUT nature pretty much never does this What we actually do is integration through Communication Integration Through Communication o Distinct parts are not physically connected so they work through signals sent between them which involves a sender and receiver o There are advantages to this The ability to dynamically adjust and adapt to change in the environment Mechanical integration would require an external agent to make the changes it can t do it alone Integration through communication is more resilient in the face of damage and structural change the only drawback is that every cell needs its own power source o In order to explain learning emotions etc we must understand how the cells of the brain communicate with each other and how the brain and other organs of the body communicate EXAMPLES OF THIS CONCEPT Memories change in the way cells communicate that is relatively permanent can be from weak to strong communication or vice versa for the most part we already have all the neural connections but they re weak Learning is the change process memory is the preserved change learning can happen in an instant so we don t have time to grow a completely new neural connection for he communication Depression some sort of abnormality in cell communication helped by drugs that alter strengthen weaken that communication Sex Differences in Brain and Behavior develop mostly through communication from gonads of information that stimulates particular sex steroidal release weakening and strengthening at different developmental periods it isn t enough that every cell has sex chromosomes How does the brain know to be bored or excited most cells don t really know a peripheral gland must communicate this important information to the brain by release of adrenal hormones This is related to the idea that exciting events are memorable and boring events are not a lot of this is happening by surprise which alerts the brain to change o Transmission by neurons is always unidirectional sender to receiver 3 steps in this process 1 Chemical signals are received synaptic potentials positive negative 2 Electrical Signal is sent AP s 3 Chemical Signals released There are only a few ways to connect these regions 1 1 Non Associative Learning nothing special more like a relay Many 1 Associative Learning 2 or more pieces of info get related Habituation can result from non associative learning 1 Many Non Associative Learning Most of our time in this class is spent on associative learning Pavlov being a classic example described below These individual connections are already there but some of them are weak usually occurs with a conditioned stimulus pairing them can make the weaker one stronger This can also be done with direct stimulation of the region with an electrode Correlated US CS UCR unconditioned stimulus conditioned stimulus unconditioned response All neurons can know is correlation which can be affected by spurious factors Why is associative learning important why focus on it o John Locke was an empiricist stating that experience is important and the dominant force in shaping our psychology thought biology was unimportant though o Associative Learning depends on experience o David Hume said that learning happens by association and experience can drive association also said that if we want to infer causation cause must precede the observed effect One word can have multiple meanings polysemy and the same is true of Neurotransmitters o They can mean learn as well as remember but this requires the receiving neuron to have ionotropic and metabotropic receptors the former is for learning and the latter is from memory 5 19 15 Intro Lecture Cont What is Psychology o Inferring memory from behavior is tricky business very difficult to independently measure a person s mental state o We don t actually know that much about overall behavior there is a wide array of influential factors underlying expressed behavior we CANNOT independently monitor mental states this is one of the most probabilistic disciplines You can learn without forming a memory or form a memory without learning for example episodic memory happens during the day to day and these memories form that may never affect our behavior may not remember until someone brings it up to you One of the more complex natural sciences Physics deals only with the interaction between energy and matter chemistry deals with the interactions between the 118 chemical elements biology deals with the interaction between roughly 9 million different species and the environment psychology deals with every person s different experience of every environment and event The DSM has been getting thicker and thicker and that s just an account of all the abnormal