1Learning&Cognition

Question 1

Learning can be defined as: “an adaptive process where the tendency to perform a specific behaviour, emotion &/or thought is changed by…” what?;
What is experience?

Answer 1

…the experience”;

Any effects of the environment mediated by a sensory system; anything we perceive that has an effect on us

Question 2

Learning is: “a permanent change in behaviour potentiality which occurs as result of…” what?;
It’s also a subject’s behavioural change or potential change to a given situation brought about by what?

Answer 2

…repeated practice”;

The subject’s repeated experience in that situation

Question 3

What are some common features of Learning definitions?

Answer 3

There is a change (may be invisible; thus “behaviour potential”); change is lasting; experience & practice; learning situation is important

Question 4

What do Associative & Non-associative Learning have in common?;
What has the majority of research in these areas focused on?

Answer 4

Each involve cause & effect relationships between behaviour (or thoughts & emotions) & the environment;
Non-human animals

Question 5

Describe Habituation;

At first, a novel stimulus will lead to what?

Answer 5

Getting used to a novel stimulus; the simplest form of learning found in every animal;
An orienting response (i.e turn of the head, heart rate slows down, organism attends to stimulus, is alert to potential importance or danger)

Question 6

After prolonged exposure to a novel stimulus, what occurs?;

What does habituation not involve?

Answer 6

No longer an orienting response; organism has learned that the stimulus has no special significance; habituation has taken place;
Associative Learning

Question 7

Why is Habituation adaptive?;

What’s the opposite of habituation?

Answer 7

Allows us to learn not to waste cognitive resources if stimulus is not significant; prevents distraction by petty events;
Sensitisation (increased response or arousal to stimulus)

Question 8

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was the founding father of what?

Answer 8

All animal learning work (conditioning); he explored relationships between events & environment

Question 9

Who was the founding father of Behaviourism?;

What did he believe about humans & animals?

Answer 9

John Watson (1849-1936);
That they are complicated & we should only focus on observable behaviour

Question 10

Who, during his work with pigeons, founded the paradigm of Operant Conditioning?

Answer 10

B.F Skinner (1904-1990)

Question 11

According to Behaviourists, behaviour is caused by what?;
What other fundamentals are involved in the Behavioural approach to associative learning?;
What is the behavioural approach limited to?

Answer 11

The goals of the organism, environmental demands & internal states;
We measure behaviour to infer learning; small units of behaviour follow the same laws as complex behaviours;
Observable effects of learning

Question 12

Describe Associative Learning;

Give some examples:

Answer 12

Forming of new associations; connecting stimuli with each each other & with behaviour;
Avoid danger, find food, learn emotional responses to important situations & people/animals

Question 13

Effects of rewards & punishment, phobias & addictions are all parts of what kind of learning?

Answer 13

Associative - simple learning & behaviour disorders in people

Question 14

As well as simple associative learning in animals, associations are fundamental to what in humans?

Answer 14

Abstract conceptual learning & thinking

Question 15

List some changes in behaviour that are NOT due to associative learning

Answer 15

Habituation; innate response tendencies (reflexes, taxes, instincts); maturation (regular stages, unaffected by practice); fatigue (disappears after break); changes due to physiological/motivational state or evolution

Question 16

What does Cognito mean?

Answer 16

To know or to think

Question 17

What is Cognitive Psychology the study of?

Answer 17

Mental processes such as perceiving, attending, remembering & reasoning (psychology as science of the mind)

Question 18

Describe the 3 steps in the scientific approach to psychology

Answer 18

1) gathering data through experimentation & observation; 2) generating hypotheses through these data; 3) testing hypotheses to see if they can be disproved (falsifying)

Question 19

What was William Wundt’s (1879) main method?;

What are some problems with this approach?

Answer 19

Introspection (reporting own mental processes);

Can’t falsify; bias; circular (participants were aware of what they had to look at - self confirming)

Question 20

What empirical observation did Hermann Ebbinghaus make in 1885 which was the first of its kind?;
What was his approach?

Answer 20

Forgetting curve;

To study nonsense syllables & retrieve them in order at different intervals

Question 21

Who pioneered the principles of psychology in 1890 which are still used today?

Answer 21

William James

Question 22

Why did the method of introspection fail to progress?;

Which paradigm did this lead Watson to begin in 1913?

Answer 22

Couldn’t be measured objectively; theories should be as simple as possible;
Behaviourism - an objective study of behaviour, not the mind

Question 23

Explain the “black box” metaphor;

Which theory contradicted the idea of nativism?

Answer 23

Inner workings of the mind cannot be understood so contingencies in the environment shape our behaviour;
Tabula rasa - the mind as a blank slate when we are born

Question 24

The rise of Behaviourism led to 50 years of mindless psychology. What were some exceptions over this time?

Answer 24

Jean Piaget’s “cognitive development”; Wolfgang Köhler’s “insight & gestalt”; Frederick Bartlett’s “reconstructive memory”; Edward Tolman’s “goal directed behaviour”

Question 25

How did ethologists in the 1950’s respond to the idea of tabula rasa? ;
What evidence did Niko Timbergen find regarding this?;
What did Konrad Lorenz find?

Answer 25

They said it can’t be true as different species have different genetic predispositions that determine behaviour (animals are prepared to learn some things);
Fixed action patterns such as stereotyped mating behaviour, nest building, territory marking;
Critical periods for specific learning such as chicks learning who their mother is (imprinting)

Question 26

What were Chomsky’s views on Behaviourism?

Answer 26

The generativity of human language cannot be explained in behaviourist terms; psychology as science of behaviour is like defining physics as science of metre reading; theories of the mind are needed to explain behaviour (connects input with output)

Question 27

Explain the “computer” metaphor

Answer 27

An analogy for information processing in the “black box”; finding an understanding between input & output, & how information gets manipulated in the mind

Question 28

Describe the Information Processing Model;

How does the computational theory of mind work?

Answer 28

A computer uses symbols (series of 0 & 1) to represent something; programs specify rules for manipulating these symbols; software = mind, hardware = brain;
We perceive the world (through senses), transduce it, store it, process it

Question 29

What’s a more realistic approach to how we process, as opposed to box & arrow models?;
What paradigms did this concept give rise to?

Answer 29

Parallel distributed processing;

Cognitive neuroscience & evolutionary approaches

Question 30

Since the cognitive revolution, what experimental approach is commonly used to measure mental processing load?

Answer 30

Combining objective measure of reaction time with introspection

Question 31

What approaches are commonly used to study the mind through neuroscientific investigations?

Answer 31

Brain imaging & recording (with introspection or task performance); lesion studies (malfunctioning of the brain)

Question 32

How is the Modeling method used to study the mind?;

What about the Comparative approach?

Answer 32

Through computer simulations of human performance;

Performance comparison across age groups, clinical groups & species

Question 33

What areas are studied in the domain of cognitive psychology?

Answer 33

Cognitive neuroscience, perception, pattern recognition, attention, consciousness, memory, imagery, representation of knowledge, language, cognitive development, thinking, intelligence, comparative psychology, evolutionary psychology

Question 34

In regards to perception & cognition, what input requires low levels of cognitive processing?;
Give two examples

Answer 34

Input from senses; mental representations correspond to objects & events in the environment;
Attention & memory

Question 35

What requires high levels of cognitive processing?;

Give two examples

Answer 35

Abstract, conceptual, relational input; abstract mental representations; derived from many individual experiences (occurs even when there’s no direct stimuli)
Imagery & language

Question 36

What did cognitivists complain about behaviourism?

Answer 36

It ignored basic mental processes like memory, attention, imagery, etc; assumed equipotentiality & could not properly explain different learning within individuals across species

Question 37

What did behaviourists complain about cognitivism?

Answer 37

It made merely inferences about mental constructs; made no reference to physiology; ignored emotional & motivational valence

Question 38

In regards to past conflicts, what do modern learning theorists now appreciate & acknowledge?

Answer 38

Biological constraints & preparedness; the utility of cognitive constructs in theory & practice (e.g. cognitive behavioural therapy)

Question 39

What do modern cognitivists now appreciate & apply in their work?

Answer 39

The utility & power of learning principles; apply associationism in theories of the mind; research the relation between brain & cognition

Question 40

How are behaviour & cognition related?

Answer 40

Behaviour is mediated by cognition (e.g. perception, memory, etc); learning is one of the basic processes that contributes to cognition