Learning & Memory

The Blocking effect, brought to light by Kamin's blocking paradigm, is one of the most exciting phenomena in a complex world of learning and conditioning. This phenomenon indicates that there is a competition between two cues for an outcome and they are connected to how we learn and how we perceive our surroundings. Picture a dog you're training to connect a bell's sound with getting a treat. Through the first stage a bell is being rung and then the dog is being given a treat. The dog soon learns the relationship between the bell and the treat. Now, take a whistle, add it alongside the bell you have already been ringing and give your treat. Surprisingly the dog doesn't learn the relationship between the whistle and the treat quickly as it did with the bell only. This is the very nature of the blocking approach by Kamin. In Kamin's experiment the animals were trained to respond to a cue (for instance a tone) by associating it with a reward (e.g. food). After that, tw...

Imagine if you had to navigate a new city without any map or GPS. Challenging, right? But now, imagine there are little pilots in your brain constantly fine-tuning their maps at every turn. That is exactly what happens in the case of rats. Let me explain how that actually works! Their tiny brain holds a fascinating secret,  which is like an internal GPS system known as place cells. These cells act like tiny beacons that light up whenever a rat crosses a certain location. The shocking part is that these cells get sharper the more they explore. Consider it similar to training a puppy. It retains the twists and turns better the more walks it takes on the same path.  In a similar fashion, rats' place cells become laser-focused during maze navigation, activating only when the rat reaches a specific spot. It appears that their mastery of the maze is directly related to this amazing "shrinking" of the place field. The rat can navigate more easily and adeptly the stronger the ...

When you hear a sudden loud noise, have you ever jerked tensely just to disregard it minutes after? The constant hum produced by the refrigerator would be something you ignored until someone explicitly mentions that? These apparently insignificant interactions highlight the two fascinating processes named as habituation and sensitization. However, how do these processes function? Let’s have a look at two important systems at play: the state system and the S-R (Stimulus-Response) system. Think about a simple reflex that you may have, like blinking in response to someone approaching you. This automatic, timely response is the result of the S-R system. It's essentially a "reflex arc" connecting muscle output, which is blinking, to sensory input, or the item approaching. The S-R system becomes more used to the stimuli with each repetition. This suggests that the brain's response lessens when it views a stimulus as non-threatening. The blinking decreases or even stops, dem...