3. Learning, Memory, and Behaviour

Question 1

What is non-associative learning? What are the two major forms?

Answer 1

non-associative learning is a form of implicit learning. It occurs when an organism is repeatedly exposed to one type of stimulus.

habituation and sensitization

Question 2

Non-associative learning: Explain habituation and dis-habituation.

Answer 2

Habituation occurs when you begin to attenuate a stimulus you constantly exposed to.
e.g. live by train, eventually you habituate to the train horn and no longer really hear it.

dishabituation –> when you are no longer accustomed to the stimulus and thus if its presented you react to it (sometimes even stronger than before habituation)

go on vacation, come home, train horn is even louder.

Question 3

Non-associative learning: Explain sensitization and desensitization.

Answer 3

Sensitization is essentially the opposite of habituation. After repeated stimulus, one becomes more sensitive to that stimulus (rather than tuning it out like in habituation). Similar stimuli may evoke a strong response because you are primed (sensitized)

• rock concert sensitizes your ears to loud noise, siren makes you cover your ears

Desensitization occurs when you are no longer sensitive towards a given stimuli. The next morning, the sirens don’t appear as loud, you don’t cover your ears.

Question 4

Classical conditioning, a form of associative learning, occurs when two stimuli are paired together so that they eventually elicit the same response. Explain NS, US, UR, CS, and CR.

Answer 4

NS –> something you don’t normally react too (bell)
US –> something you innately respond to (UR) (sight of food causes salivation)
CS –> pair the NS with the US (pair bell with food)
CR –> the UR provoked by the CS (bell causes salivation)

Question 5

In classical conditioning, explain acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination.

Answer 5

acquisition –> the process of learning the UR. Here the CS and US are paired.
extinction –> after some time, the CS alone will not evoke a CR
spontaneous recovery –> spontaneously, the CS alone evokes the CR

Generalization –> similar stimuli (doorbell) elicits the CR (salivation)
discrimination –> CS has been discriminated amongst other stimuli

Question 6

What requires very short acquisition with a very long extinction phase?

Answer 6

taste-aversion: we associate food with illness once experiencing food poisoning.

Question 7

What is operant conditioning? What was Skinner’s rats?

Answer 7

Operant conditioning is a form of associative learning that employs reinforcement and punishment.

B.F. Skinner tested this theory on rats, whereby when they push a lever they get food. (reinforcement)

Question 8

Explain positive and negative reinforcement.

Answer 8

Reinforcement = something encouraging (increasing the intended behavior)

Positive R = adding something desired (giving food)

Negative R = removing something undesired (removing a shock)

Question 9

Explain positive and negative punishment.

Answer 9

Punishment = something discouraging (decreasing the observed behavior)

Positive P = adding something undesired (shocking you)

Negative P = removing something desired (taking away food)

Question 10

What is the difference between primary and secondary reinforcers?

Answer 10

primary = something innately desirable (like food)
secondary = something that has been paired with the primary reinforcer to create a conditioned stiumulus.
- food token

Question 11

What is continuous and intermittent reinforcement?

Answer 11

continuous = the reward is giving after every occurence of the desired behavior

intermittent = the reward is giving after variably after the desired behavior.

continuous has faster acquisition and extinction
intermittent has slower of both

Question 12

There are 4 intermittent reinforcement schedules. Explain each one.

Answer 12

1. fixed-ration: reward is given after a set number of occurrences of behavior
2. variable-ratio: reward is given after a random number of occurrences of behavior (gambling)
3. fixed-interval: reward is given after a set amount of time
4. variable-interval: reward is given after a random amount of time

Question 13

reinforcement schedules: what is the best one to teach something new? To make the behavior persist?

Answer 13

teaching something new is best done with a continuous strategy (reward after every occurrence)
making behavior persist (i.e. no extinction) is best done with a variable-ratio schedule (i.e. gambling is addictive)

Question 14

Why is punishment worse than reinforcement?

Answer 14

1. it only instructs what not to do, not what to do.

2. its effects only last while the punishment is around.

Question 15

Operant learning: what is escape and avoidance?

Answer 15

escape = someone learns that an action will prevent / stop a stimulus. Child cries when it has to eat veggies.

avoidance = someone learns that performing a preemptive behavior will prevent a stimulus from occurring. Pretending to be allergic to broccoli.

Question 16

What is insight learning?

Answer 16

insight learning occurs when someone combines two previously learned behaviors into something unique. This is not learned behavior on its own and thus requires some cognition.

child can jump to get a ball in a tree
child can use a stick to knock it down

insight learning: child jumps while swinging the stick for a very high ball

Question 17

What is latent learning?

Answer 17

learning that occurs implicitly and the learned behavior is not used until necessary.

child travels in car to school and latently learns the route. Only manifests this knowledge when forced to walk to school one day.

Question 18

What is memory consolidation?

Answer 18

Transfer of information from short term memory to long-term memory.

Question 19

What is long-term potentiation?

Answer 19

Long term potentiation is the process of synaptic strength increasing between specific neural pathways that are involved in the processing of some stimuli.

LTP increases the synaptic sensitivity between neurons making them less resistant to firing (more easily activated). This is thought to be the process of how memory consolidation occurs.

Question 20

What is observational learning? What is modelling?

Answer 20

Also known as: social learning or vicarious learning. This is learning through watching and imitating others.

modelling is the most basic form of OL, where someone observes how someone else behaves and directly imitates them.

Question 21

Who was Albert Bandura?

Answer 21

He was a pioneer of observational learning. He showed that children will model observed behavior even if they don’t see the consequences of the observed behavior.

Question 22

What are mirror neurons?

Answer 22

neurons that fire both when we perform a task and when we observe someone else performing the same task.

Question 23

Persuasion: What is the elaboration likelihood model? What are its 3 factors of persuasion?

Answer 23

The elaboration likelihood model explains how someone will be persuaded based on the given circumstances.

1. message characteristics: this is the content of persuasion
2. source characteristics: this is superficial things, like the venue, the accent and look of the persuader, but also source credibility and knowledge
3. target characteristics: this is the audience. Mood, intelligence, etc.

Question 24

In the elaboration likelihood model of persuasion, what is the central and peripheral routes? When do they occur?

Answer 24

The central route = you will be persuaded by the content (message characteristics). This occurs if you are interested in what is being said and not distracted.

The peripheral route = you are persuaded by superficial things (source characteristics). This occurs if the above is not true.

The central route produces longer lasting change

Question 25

What is reciprocal determinism?

Answer 25

Reciprocal determinism states that social factors and the social environment influence and are influenced by a person behavior.

i.e. people both shape and are shaped by their social environment.

Question 26

What is temperament?

Answer 26

Temperament is a persons generalized behavior. It is their emotional excitability. People who have high temperament, get easily annoyed and vice versa.

Question 27

t or f, If you IQ is below 70, you are considered intellectually disabled.

Answer 27

true

Question 28

Primitive reflexes of infants: Explain
moro reflex
rooting 
sucking
babinski
tonic neck 
palmar grasp
walking

Answer 28

moro reflex –> startle reflex to noise or movement
rooting –> babies turns its head toward direction of touch (root for the nipple)
sucking –> suck anything in its mouth
babinski –> toes move when sole of foot is touched
tonic neck –> moves arms when neck is touched
palmar grasp –> grasps things when palm is touched
walking –> tries to walk when held over ground

Question 29

What are the 5 phases of motor development? Explain each briefly.

Answer 29

1. reflexive movement = the primitive, involuntary reflexes (moro reflex, palmer reflex, etc.)
2. rudimentrary movement = the first voluntary movement of a child (0-2). Things like rolling, crawling, etc.
3. fundamental movement (2-7) = children can perform larger scale actions like running, jumping, and throwing.
4. specialized movement
   a. transitional = combining fundamental movements (jumping and throwing)
   b. applicational = using cognition to apply a skill
5. life long application (14+).

Question 30

What is infantile amnesia?

Answer 30

people cannot remember things from when they were infants (usually cannot remember anything before 3.5 years old)

Question 31

Explain Harlow’s monkeys and attachment.

Answer 31

Harlow’s monkeys showed the importance of physical contact between the mother and offspring to develop attachment.
Monkeys were separated at birth and given a blanket for comfort. When blanket was taken away, the monkeys became very upset.

Question 32

Mary Ainsworth conducted the “strange experiments” on children to test for attachment. What is securely attached and insecurely attached?

Answer 32

A securely attached child will explore an unfamiliar room while the mother is around. If the mother leaves, the child will be distressed.

An insecurely attached child will not explore the environment. When the mother leaves the child will either be very upset or indifferent.

attentive mothers make securely attached children.

Question 33

Explain authoritarian, permissive, and authoritative parenting styles.

Answer 33

authoritarian - very demanding, very strict, non-responsive, less caring
permissive - very easy-going, lenient, consequences are not followed through, very loving
authoritative - in the middle. Kind and encouraging but also rule-enforcing with fair consequences.

Question 34

What is encoding?

Answer 34

encoding is the process of actively entering information into our memory. (consolidation is an unconscious event that occurs through long term potentiation).

Question 35

What is the serial position effect? What is the primacy and recency effect?

Answer 35

The serial position effect explains that when we try to remember a list of items, we tend to only remember the first items (had time to encode) and the last (still in the phonological loop).

primary effect = tendency to remember the first items heard
recency effect = tendency to remember the most recent items hear (i.e. last items)

Question 36

What is the dual-coding hypothesis of memory?

Answer 36

It is easier to remember something if we encode both the words and a visual representation of the idea (to this sense both the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad are being used).

Dual-coding creates more networks in our brain.

Question 37

What is the method of loci?

Answer 37

The method of loci is a memory strategy that employs the dual-coding hypothesis.

You assign things within a familiar environment with new information. You then use mental imagery of the environment to remember the topics you assigned.

Question 38

What is the self-reference effect?

Answer 38

We tend to better remember information that is relevant to ourselves

Question 39

Sensory memories: What is iconic and echoic memory?

Answer 39

iconic memory = transient photographic memory of things recently seen
echoic memory = transient auditory memory of things recently heard

Question 40

What is the major difference between working memory and short term memory?

Answer 40

short term memory is where information goes that has been recently learned. Here it either goes to LTM or decays.

working memory is a combination of STM and LTM. It incorporates new information with encoded information to solve problems.

Question 41

What is implicit memory? What is the key example?

Answer 41

implicit memory is memory that does not require conscious recall. Procedural memory is a form of this in which you remember how to carry out an activity (e.g. muscle memory).

Question 42

What is explicit / declarative memory?

Answer 42

memory of things that can be consciously recalled and declared.

Question 43

explicit memory has two forms, semantic and episodic. Explain them.

Answer 43

Semantic - active memory of logic and fact (academics)

episodic - active memory of things more personally experienced, such as buying your first car.

Question 44

Memory organization: larger ideas / concepts are synaptic nodes while axons and dendrites are associations between nodes. What is spreading activation?

Answer 44

Upon receiving some stimulus (e.g. being asked a Q), if enough input is reached one node will fire and all of its associations will be activated. These associations will fire APs to all the surrounding nodes until those nodes summate and fire. This cycle goes on until the information being looked for is found. This is spreading activation.

Question 45

What is prospective memory?

Answer 45

To remember to do things in the future

like remembering to take the food out the oven in 20 minutes

Question 46

t or f, the hippocampus is involved in encoding explicit memories while the cerebellum is involved in encoding implicit memories. The amygdala encodes emotion to memories.

Answer 46

true
cerebellum would encode a procedural memory
hypothalamus would encode a memory of your first kiss (episodic memory)

Question 47

What is anterograde and retrograde amnesia?

Answer 47

anterograde amnesia = inability to form new memories

retrograde amnesia = loss of old memories

Question 48

t or f, the forgetting curve is linear

Answer 48

false! both learning and forgetting occur in a log (learning) or inverse (forgetting) graph.

Question 49

memories can interfere with each other. Explain proactive interference, retroactive interference, and positive transfer.

Answer 49

proactive interference = when old information affects learning new information

retroactive interference = when new information affects remembering old information (new address affects remembering old address)

positive transfer = similar memory helps encode a new memory (opposite of proactive).

Question 50

What is the misinformation effect?

Answer 50

The misinformation effect is the tendency to mis-remember an event after receiving subtle mis-information.

for example, asking people how fast cars were moving after they smashed each other (instead of hit each other) encourages people to say increased speeds.

Post-event information effects ones memory of the actual event.

Question 51

What is source monitoring?

Answer 51

Source monitoring is an error in which, upon recalling information, an individual fails to remember the source of that information.

for example, explaining a memory that actually came from a movie and not a real experience.

The source of that memory is falsely attributed.

Question 52

t or f, neurogenesis is possible

Answer 52

true! neuroplasticity refers to the malleability of the brain.. certain parts can even proliferate neurons.