Memory & Learning Cheat Sheet

Memory involves acquiring, storing, and retrieving information, utilizing distinct systems (declarative and nondeclarative) and brain regions. Learning is the process of acquiring this information, underpinned by neuroplasticity and synaptic changes.

Core Principles

• Learning is acquiring information; Memory is storing and retrieving it.
• Memory is not a single system but comprises multiple, distinct systems.
• Declarative memory is conscious ('what you know'); Nondeclarative is unconscious ('how you do').
• The hippocampus is crucial for forming new declarative memories.
• Neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to change, is the biological basis of learning and memory.
• Synaptic strengthening, like Long-Term Potentiation (LTP), underlies memory formation.
• Memory is reconstructive and not always perfect; it can be altered or even false.

Key Terms

• Declarative Memory: Conscious memory of facts and events, verbally described. Impaired in H.M.
• Nondeclarative Memory: Unconscious memory of skills, habits, and conditioning, expressed through performance. Intact in H.M.
• Anterograde Amnesia: Inability to form new long-term memories after an injury.
• Retrograde Amnesia: Loss of memories from before an injury.
• Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to change its structure and function in response to experience.
• Long-Term Potentiation (LTP): A long-lasting strengthening of synapses between neurons, considered a cellular basis for learning and memory.
• Hebbian Theory: The principle that 'cells that fire together wire together,' describing how synaptic connections are strengthened.

Real World Examples

• Learning to ride a bicycle: An example of nondeclarative (skill) memory, involving motor and cognitive skills processed in the basal ganglia, cerebellum, and motor cortex.
• Remembering a specific birthday party: An example of declarative (episodic) memory, involving personal experiences tied to a specific time and place.
• Knowing that Paris is the capital of France: An example of declarative (semantic) memory, representing facts and general knowledge not tied to personal experience.
• A dog salivating at the sound of a bell: Classical conditioning, a type of associative learning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a biologically relevant one.

People

• Henry Molaison (Patient H.M.): Patient with severe epilepsy whose medial temporal lobe was removed, leading to profound anterograde amnesia and providing crucial insights into memory systems.
• Ivan Pavlov: Russian physiologist known for his work on classical conditioning, demonstrating associative learning through experiments with dogs.