Biological Psychology

Thirteenth Edition

Chapter 12 & 13
Learning, Memory and Cognitive
Functions

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Localized Representations of Memory
(1 of 2)
• Classical conditioning
– Pioneered by Ivan Pavlov
– Pairing two stimuli changes the response to one of them
 Conditioned stimulus
 Unconditioned stimulus
 Unconditioned response
 Conditioned response

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Localized Representations of Memory
(2 of 2)
• Instrumental conditioning
– Also known as operant conditioning
– Individual’s response followed by reinforcer or punishment
– Reinforcers
 Events that increase the probability that the response will
occur again
– Punishment
 Events that decrease the probability that the response will
occur again

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Classical Conditioning

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Instrumental Conditioning

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Pavlov’s Proposal to Explain Learning

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Lashley’s Search for the Engram (1 of 2)

• Engram
– A physical representation of what had been learned
– Example: a connection between two brain areas
– Hypothesis: a knife cut between the two brain areas
should abolish the newly learned response
 Hypothesis disproven

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Lashley’s Search for the Engram (2 of 2)

• Lashley’s experiments showed that learning and

memory do not rely on a single cortical area
• Lashley’s principles about the nervous system
– Equipotentiality: all parts of the cortex contribute equally to
complex functioning behaviors (e.g., learning)
– Mass action: the cortex works as a whole, and more
cortex is better

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

View of Rat Brain, Showing Lashley’s
Brain Cuts in Various Rats

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The Modern Search for the Engram (1 of 3)

• Richard F. Thompson and colleagues

– Suggested that the classical conditioning engram is
located in the cerebellum, not the cortex
• Lateral interpositus nucleus (LIP) identified as central for
learning
– Responses increase as learning proceeds
• However, a change in a brain area does not necessarily
mean that learning took place in that area

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The Modern Search for the Engram (2 of 3)

• Thomson concluded from experiments in rabbits that

learning occurred in the LIP
– Later research identified cells and neurotransmitters
responsible for changes in the LIP
• PET scans on young adults led to the discovery that the
cerebellum is critical for classical conditioning
– But only if the delay between onset of CS and UCS is
short

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The Modern Search for the Engram (3 of 3)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Types of Memory

• Hebb (1949) differentiated between two types of

memory:
– Short-term memory: memory of events that have just
occurred
– Long-term memory: memory of events from times further
back

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Differences Between Short- and Long-Term
Memory (1 of 2)
• Short-term memory has a limited capacity, but long-term
memory does not
• Short-term memory fades quickly without rehearsal,
while long-term memories persist
• Long-term memories can be stimulated with a cue/ hint
– Short-term memories cannot

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Differences Between Short- and Long-Term
Memory (2 of 2)
• Researchers propose all information enters short term
memory
– The brain consolidates it into long-term memory
• Later research weakened the distinction between short-
and long-term memory
– Not all rehearsed short-term memories become long-term
memories
– Time needed for consolidation varies

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Our Changing Views of Consolidation

• Emotionally significant memories form quickly

– Locus Coeruleus increases release of norepinephrine
– Emotion causes release of epinephrine & cortisol to
activate amygdala and hippocampus—enhances
consolidation of recent experiences
• Working memory
– Proposed by Baddeley & Hitch as an alternative to short-
term memory
– Emphasis on temporary storage of information to actively
attend to it and work on it for a period of time

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Working Memory

• Common test of working memory is the delayed

response task
– Requires responding to something you heard or saw a
short while ago
• Research points to the prefrontal cortex for the storage
of this information
– Damage impairs performance
– Manner of impairment can be very precise

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Amnesia

• Amnesia is simply defines as memory loss

• Different kinds of brain damage result in different types
of amnesia
• Two common types related to disorders:
– Korsakoff’s syndrome
– Alzheimer’s disease

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Korsakoff’s Syndrome

• Brain damage caused by prolonged thiamine (vitamin

B1) deficiency
– Impedes brain’s ability to metabolize glucose
– Leads to a loss of or shrinkage of neurons in the brain
• Often due to chronic alcoholism
• Distinctive symptom: confabulation (taking guesses to
fill in gaps in memory)
– Also apathy, confusion, and memory loss

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Alzheimer’s Disease

• Associated with a gradually progressive loss of memory,

often occurring in old age
– Affects 50 percent of people over 85 and 5 percent of
people 65–74
– Early onset seems to be influenced by genes
 99 percent of cases are late onset
– About half of all patients with late onset have no known
relative with the disease
• No drug is currently effective

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Brain Atrophy in Alzheimer’s Disease

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Alzheimer’s Disease and Proteins

• Alzheimer’s disease is associated with an accumulation

and clumping of the following brain proteins:
– Amyloid beta protein
 Creates plaques from damaged axons and dendrites
– An abnormal form of the tau protein
 Creates tangles
 Part of the intracellular support system of neurons

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Cerebral Cortex of an Alzheimer’s Patient

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 12.2 The Hippocampus and the Striatum

• Different areas of the hippocampus are active during

memory formation and later recall
• Damage results in amnesia—and much of what we have
learned about memory has been from patients with
localized brain damage

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Memory Loss After Damage to the
Hippocampus (1 of 2)
• Person called H.M. is a famous case study in
psychology
– Hippocampus was removed to prevent epileptic seizures
• Afterwards, H.M. had great difficulty forming new long-
term memories
– Short-term/working memory remained intact
• Suggested that the hippocampus is vital for the
formation of new long-term memories
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0Od5DrdPA4

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Anterograde and Retrograde Amnesia

• Two major types of amnesia

– Anterograde amnesia: loss of ability to form new memory
after the brain damage
– Retrograde amnesia: loss of memory of events prior to the
occurrence of the brain damage
• H.M. showed both types of amnesia after the surgery

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Intact Working Memory

• H.M.’s short-term or working memory remained intact

– Was able to remember a number after 15 minutes without
distraction
– When distracted, memory was gone in seconds

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Semantic and Episodic Memory

• Semantic memory
– Memories of factual information
– H.M. was able to form a few weak semantic memories
• Episodic memory
– Memories of personal events
– H.M. could not describe any event since his surgery
– H.M. had severely impaired episodic memory

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Better Implicit than Explicit Memory (1 of 2)

• Memory loss impacts a person’s ability to imagine the

future
• Explicit memory
– Deliberate recall of information that one recognizes as
a memory
– Also known as declarative memory

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Better Implicit than Explicit Memory (2 of 2)

• Implicit memory
– The influence of experience on behavior even if one does
not recognize that influence
– Another patient, not H.M., was tested with three nurses:
one friendly, one neutral, one stern. He preferred the
friendly nurse and avoided the stern nurse, but couldn’t
state why.

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Intact Procedural Memory

• Procedural memory
– Development of motor skills and habits
– Special kind of implicit memory
• Examples of amnesia patients with intact procedural
memory
– H.M. learned to read words written backward (as in a
mirror)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Theories of the Function of
the Hippocampus
• Research on hippocampus function suggests:
– Critical for declarative memory functioning (especially
episodic memory)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The Hippocampus and Declarative Memory

• Research with rats shows damage impairs abilities on

two types of tasks:
– Delayed matching-to-sample tasks
 Subject sees an object and must later choose the object that
matches
– Delayed nonmatching-to-sample tasks
 Subject sees an object and must later choose the object that
is different from the sample

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Hippocampus and Spatial Memory

• Navigation depends on your surroundings and your

spatial memory
• Damage to the hippocampus also impairs abilities on
spatial tasks such as:

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Striatum (1 of 3)

• Episodic memory, dependent on the hippocampus,

develops after a single experience.
– Many semantic memories also form after a single
experience.
• However, to learn habits or learning what will or will not
likely happen under a set of circumstances relies on part
of the basal ganglia
– The striatum is the caudate nucleus + putamen

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Striatum (2 of 3)

• “Will it Rain?” Example

– Multiple strategies for guessing yes or no with different
probabilities of being correct
– With more trials, you would likely get more accurate—
even if you couldn’t describe your “strategy”
– Gradual, probabilistic learning depends on the basal
ganglia

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The Striatum (3 of 3)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Hippocampus vs. Striatum

• Results suggest a division of labor between the striatum

and other brain areas that include the hippocampus and
cerebral cortex
• However, most tasks activate both systems
• Hippocampal learning at the beginning of a task, but
once the task becomes “habitual” or “automatic,” more
emphasis on striatum

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Brain Areas for Two Types of Learning

Table 12.1 Brain Areas for Two Types of Learning

Hippocampus Striatum

Speed of learning Can learn in a single trial Learns gradually over many trials

Type of behavior Flexible responses Habits

Based on what type of Sometimes connects information Generally requires prompt

feedback? over a delay feedback
Explicit or implicit Explicit Implicit
learning?
What happens after Impaired declarative memory, Impaired learning of skills and
damage? especially habits
episodic memory

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Other Brain Areas and Memory

• Most of the brain contributes to memory

– Amygdala associated with fear learning
– Parietal lobe associated with piecing information together
– Damage to the anterior temporal complex results in loss
of semantic memory
 Semantic dementia
– Prefrontal cortex involved in learned behavior and
decision-making

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Learning and the Hebbian Synapse

• Hebbian synapse
– A synapse that increases in effectiveness because of
simultaneous activity in the presynaptic and postsynaptic
neurons
– Such synapses may be critical for many kinds of
associative learning

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Single-Cell Mechanisms of Invertebrate
Behavior Change
• Studies of how physiology relates to learning often focus
on invertebrates and try to generalize to vertebrates
• The aplysia is a slug-like invertebrate that is often
studied due to its large neurons
• This allows researchers to study basic processes such
as:
– Habituation
– Sensitization

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Aplysia, a Marine Mollusk

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Touching an Aplysia Causes a Withdrawal
Response

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Habituation in Aplysia

• Decrease in response to a stimulus that is presented

repeatedly and accompanied by no change in other
stimuli
– Depends upon a change in the synapse between the
sensory neurons and the motor neurons
– Sensory neurons fail to excite motor neurons as they did
previously

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Habituation of the Gill-Withdrawal
Reflex in Aplysia

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Sensitization in Aplysia

• Increase in response to a mild stimulus as a result to

previous exposure to more intense stimuli
• Changes at identified synapses include:
– Serotonin released from a facilitating neuron blocks
potassium channels in the presynaptic neuron
– Prolonged release of transmitters from that neuron results
in prolonged sensitization

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Long-Term Potentiation in Vertebrates

• Long-term potentiation (LTP) occurs when one or more

axons bombard a dendrite with stimulation
– Leaves the synapse “potentiated” for a period of time and
the neuron is more responsive

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Hm08ksPtMo

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Long-Term Depression (LTD)

• A prolonged decrease in response at a synapse that

occurs when axons have been less active than others
– Compensatory process: as one synapse strengthens,
another weakens

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Biochemical Mechanisms

• Studied most in the hippocampus

• LTP depends on changes at glutamate synapses
– Also GABA synapses, to a lesser extent
• Two types of glutamate receptors
– AMPA receptors
– NMDA receptors

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

The AMPA and NMDA Receptors
During Long-Term Potentiation

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Presynaptic Changes

• Changes in the presynaptic neuron can also cause LTP

– Extensive stimulation of a postsynaptic cell causes the
release of a retrograde transmitter that travels back to
the presynaptic cell to cause the following changes:
 Decrease in action potential threshold
 Increase neurotransmitter release
 Expansion of the axons
 Transmitter release from additional sites

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Improving Memory—Drugs

• Understanding the mechanisms of changes that impact

LTP may lead to drugs that improve memory
• Caffeine, Ritalin, and Modafinil enhance learning by
increasing arousal
• Some herbs have doubtful effects
– Ginkgo biloba
– Bacopa monnieri

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 13.1 Lateralization and Language

• Much of nature is symmetrical

– The human brain is asymmetrical
 Divided into left and right hemispheres
 Each has different functions
 Each controls the opposite side of the body, with some
exceptions
• Division of labor between the two hemispheres is
known as lateralization

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Left and Right Hemispheres (1 of 2)

• Information is exchanged between hemispheres

through:
– The corpus callosum
– The anterior commissure
– The hippocampal commissure
– A few other small commissures
• The corpus callosum allows each hemisphere of the
brain access to information from both sides

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Left and Right Hemispheres (2 of 2)

• Left hemisphere connects to skin receptors and

muscles on the right side of the body and vice versa
– Exception: both control trunk and facial muscles
• In most humans, the left side is specialized for
language
– True for 95 percent of right-handers and 80 percent of
left-handers
– Functions of right hemisphere more difficult to summarize

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Two Views of the Corpus Callosum

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Visual Connections to the Hemispheres
(1 of 2)
• Each hemisphere of the brain gets input from the
opposite half of the visual world
• The visual field is what is visible at any moment
• Human vision
– Light from the right half of the visual field shines into the
left half of both retinas
– Light from the left half of the visual field shines onto the
right half of both retinas

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Visual Connections to the Hemispheres
(2 of 2)
• More about human vision
– The left half of each retina connects to the left
hemisphere
 Sees the right visual field
– The right half of each retina connects to the right
hemisphere
 Sees the left visual field
– Half of the axons from each eye cross to the opposite
side of the brain at the optic chiasm

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Connections from the Eyes to
the Human Brain

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Auditory Connections to the Hemispheres

• The auditory system is arranged differently

– Each ear sends the information to both sides of the brain
– Brain areas must compare input from both ears
• Each hemisphere does pay more attention to the ear on
the opposite side

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Corpus Callosum and the Split-Brain
Operation
• Damage to the corpus callosum prevents the
hemispheres from exchanging information
– Epilepsy: condition characterized by repeated episodes
of excessive synchronized neural activity (affects 1–2%
of people)
 Most people with epilepsy respond to anti-epileptic drugs
 However, if they don’t respond, doctors will attempt to
remove the focus (the point in the brain where the
seizures begin)

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Corpus Callosum and the Split-Brain
Operation
• Split-brain people have undergone surgery to the
corpus callosum
– Maintain normal intellect and motivation
– Still able to walk and talk
– But they tend to use hands independently in a way
others find difficult

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Effects of Damage to the
Corpus Callosum

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 More About the Split-Brain Operation

• Sperry (1974) revealed behavioral differences for spilt

brain people
– When stimuli were limited to one side of body
– Because the left side of the brain is dominant for
language in most people, most split brain people:
 Have difficulty naming objects briefly viewed in the left
visual field
– A small amount of information can still be transferred via
several smaller commissures

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Right Hemisphere

• Right hemisphere: more adept at comprehending

spatial relationships
– Helps see the “big picture”
– Helps relate what one hears to the overall context
• Damage to the right hemisphere causes difficulty
perceiving other’s emotions, failure to understand
humor and sarcasm, and a monotone voice

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Inactivated Left and Right Hemispheres

• Brain surgery patients with the left hemisphere

inactivated cannot speak
• With the right hemisphere inactivated, they can
describe traumatic or emotional experiences, but do not
remember feeling the emotion

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 People with Relatively Spared Language
but Low Overall Intelligence
• Williams syndrome characterized by intellectual
disability, but a skillful use of language
• Cause of Williams syndrome
– Deletion of several genes from chromosome 7
 Leads to decreased gray matter, especially in visual
processing areas

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

A Young Woman with Williams Syndrome
Draws and Describes an Elephant

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Brain Damage and Language

• Music is a pre-verbal form of language and

communication
• Most knowledge of brain mechanisms of language
come from the study of people with brain damage
• Broca’s area
– Part of the left frontal cortex
– Damage results in some language disability
• Aphasia: language impairment

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Two Areas Important for Language

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Broca’s Aphasia (Nonfluent Aphasia)

• Serious impairment in language production

– Regions in Broca’s area contribute to language in distinct
ways
– Damage limited to Broca’s area results in only minor or
brief language impairment
 Speaking activates much of the brain, not just Broca’s
area

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Impaired Language Production

• People with Broca’s aphasia are slow and awkward

with all forms of language communication
– Includes sign language of the deaf
• English speakers seldom use pronouns, prepositions,
helping verbs, and similar words
– Closed class of grammatical forms
– May omit grammatical words and endings because
speech is a struggle

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Wernicke’s Aphasia (Fluent Aphasia)
(1 of 2)
• Wernicke’s area
– Located near the auditory cortex
• Wernicke’s/fluent aphasia
– Characterized by impaired language comprehension and
ability to remember object names
– Also called “fluent aphasia” because the person can still
speak smoothly
• Recognition of items is often not impaired; ability to find
word is impaired

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Wernicke’s Aphasia (Fluent Aphasia)
(2 of 2)
• Typical characteristics
– Articulate/fluent speech, except with pauses to find the
right word
– Difficulty finding the right word: anomia refers to the
difficulty recalling the name of objects
– Poor language comprehension
 Difficulty understanding speech, writing, and sign
language

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

Broca’s Aphasia and Wernicke’s Aphasia

Type Pronunciation Content of Speech Comprehension

Broca`s aphasia Poor Mostly nouns and Impaired if the
verbs; omits meaning depends
prepositions and on complex
other grammatical grammar
connectives

Wernicke`s aphasia Unimpaired Grammatical but Seriously impaired

often nonsensical;
has trouble finding
the right word,
especially names of
objects

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Dyslexia

• Specific impairment of reading in a person with

adequate vision, motivation, and cognitive skills
– More common in boys
– Linked to several identified genes
– Occurs in all languages
 Most common in English

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Dyslexia—Causes

• People with dyslexia more likely to have abnormalities

in the left hemisphere
– Many also have parts of the right temporal cortex larger
than left
– Some have problems with poor auditory memory
– Some have impaired eye movements
• Different people have different kinds of reading
problems
– No one explanation works for all

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Dyslexia—General Characteristics

• Difficulty with the temporal order of sounds

• Difficulty trading the first consonants of two words
(Spoonerisms)
• Abnormalities in attention
– Can more easily identify letters slightly to the right of the
visual fixation point

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 13.2 Conscious and Unconscious
Processes
• Mind-brain problem: what is the relationship between
the mind and the brain?
• Dualism
– Belief that mind and body are different substances that
exist independently
• Descartes proposed that the mind and brain interact at
a single point in space
– Suggested it was the pineal gland

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Consciousness of a Stimulus

• Consciousness is a difficult concept to define

– Cannot be observed
• Operational definition used by researchers
– If a cooperative person reports the presence of a
stimulus but can not report the presence of a second, he
or she was conscious of the first and not the second

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Experiments Using Masking

• Some experiments with consciousness use masking: a

brief visual stimulus is preceded and followed by longer
interfering stimuli
• Backward masking: brief stimulus and final stimulus
presented
• Consciousness of a stimulus depends on the amount
and spread of brain activity

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Experiments Using Binocular Rivalry

• Binocular rivalry: slow and gradual shifts of the eye

sweeping from one side to another
• Stimulus seen by each eye evokes a brain response
measured by fMRI
• Research shows that switching to each stimulus is
accompanied by a shift in a pattern of activity over a
large portion of the brain

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCbgWNOZzYo

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 The Fate of an Unattended Stimulus

• Brain must identify a stimulus as meaningful before you

become conscious of it
• Much of brain activity is unconscious
• Even unconscious activity can influence behavior

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Attention

• Attention is closely aligned with consciousness

• Inattentional blindness (change blindness)
– If something in a complex scene changes slowly or
changes while you blink your eyes, you are unaware of it
unless you are paying particular attention to the object
that changes

– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu4P26bmz1E

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Brain Areas Controlling Attention (1 of 2)

• Bottom-up process of attention is a reaction to a

stimulus
– Example: A deer runs past you in the park, grabbing your
attention
• Top-down process is intentional
– Looking for someone you know in a group
• Stroop effect: ignores words “green, blue, and so on”
and instead, indicate their color of ink
– Increases activity in color-vision areas of the cortex

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Brain Areas Controlling Attention (2 of 2)

• Deliberate top-down processing depends on parts of

the prefrontal cortex and parietal cortex
• Ability to resist distraction varies among individuals
– Extensive playing of action video games can increase
top-down control
– Meditation also improves certain aspects of attention

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 13.3 Making Decisions and
Social Neuroscience
• Life is full of decisions and social interactions
• Brain activity during decision-making and social
behavior are two fairly new research areas in the field
of neuroscience

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Decisions Based on Values
• Other decisions are based on preferences
– Typically the basal ganglia learns which choice has the higher
payoff
– Cells in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex modify the
responses of the basal ganglia
 People with damage seem less sensitive to the possible rewards
at the moment
 Also seems to monitor confidence in one’s decisions
– Information is relayed to the orbitofrontal cortex which
compares expected rewards compares to other possible
choices
 Damage leads to poor or impulsive decision making

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.

 Oxytocin

• Oxytocin stimulates contractions of the uterus during

childbirth, stimulates breasts to produce milk, promotes
maternal behavior, social approach, and pair bonding in
many mammalian species.
• Both men and women release it during sexual activity.
– It has been called the “love hormone,” although a better
term might be love-enhancing or love-magnifying
hormone.

© 2019 Cengage. All rights reserved.