Anthropology - Learning, memory and cults

Question 1

Def - Operant conditioning

Answer 1

Operant conditioning (also known as instrumental conditioning) is a process by which humans and animals learn to behave in such a way as to obtain rewards and avoid punishments.

Question 2

Def - Response

Answer 2

A response is a clearly defined, measurable unit of behavior discussed in terms of its result (e.g., pressing a lever, indicating yes vs. no on a survey item) or its physical characteristics (e.g., raising an arm).

Question 3

Def - Reinforcement

Answer 3

Reinforcement is defined as a consequence that follows an operant response that increase (or attempts to increase) the likelihood of that response occurring in the future.

Question 4

Def - Latent learning

Answer 4

Latent learning is a type of learning which is not apparent in the learner’s behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear. This shows that learning can occur without any reinforcement of a behavior.

Question 5

Def - Mnemonics

Answer 5

any device or technique used to assist memory, usually by forging a link or association between the new information to be remembered and information previously encoded.

Question 6

Def - Law of vividness

Answer 6

Assuming the action of the other laws to remain constant, the deeper, the more intense, or the more vigorous the original impression, the more permanent is its retention, and the easier its reproduction.

Question 7

Def - cerebellum

Answer 7

The portion of the brain in the back of the head between the cerebrum and the brain stem. The cerebellum controls balance for walking and standing, and other complex motor functions.

Question 8

Def - Alzheimer’s disease

Answer 8

a brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks

Question 9

Def - Law of effect

Answer 9

The law of effect stated that those behavioral responses that were most closely followed by a satisfying result were most likely to become established patterns and to occur again in response to the same stimulus.

Question 10

Def - Classical conditioning

Answer 10

a type of learning that happens unconsciously. When you learn through classical conditioning, an automatic conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus. This creates a behavior.

Question 11

Def - Generalization

Answer 11

the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a tone of a particular pitch and loudness will also salivate with considerable regularity in response to tones of higher and lower pitch.

Question 12

Def - Brainwashing

Answer 12

brainwashing, also called Coercive Persuasion, systematic effort to persuade nonbelievers to accept a certain allegiance, command, or doctrine. A colloquial term, it is more generally applied to any technique designed to manipulate human thought or action against the desire, will, or knowledge of the individual.

Question 13

Def - Memory

Answer 13

the faculty of encoding, storing, and retrieving information (Squire, 2009). Psychologists have found that memory includes three important categories: sensory, short-term, and long-term.

Question 14

Def - Law of recency

Answer 14

a memory phenomenon in which the most recently presented facts, impressions, or items are learned or remembered better than material presented earlier.

Question 15

Def - Law of frequency

Answer 15

the more frequently two things are experienced together, the more likely it will be that the experience or recall of one will stimulate the recall of the second.

Question 16

Def - Cortex

Answer 16

the layer of gray matter that covers the outside of the cerebral hemispheres in the brain and is associated with higher cognitive functions, such as language, learning, perception, and planning.

Question 17

Def - Mind control

Answer 17

Mind control is the process by which individual or collective freedom of choice and action is compromised by agents or agencies that modify or distort perception, motivation, affect, cognition and/or behavioral outcomes.

Question 18

Def - Declarative memory

Answer 18

Declarative memory, also known as explicit memory, is distinct from other memory types as it is concerned with the intentional recollection of factual information, previous experiences and concepts (explicit memories).

Question 19

Def - Stimulus

Answer 19

A stimulus is anything that can trigger a physical or behavioral change. The plural of stimulus is stimuli. Stimuli can be external or internal. An example of external stimuli is your body responding to a medicine.

Question 20

Def - Extinction

Answer 20

Extinction in psychology refers to the fading and disappearance of behavior that was previously learned by association with another event. That means a conditioned response is weakened and the target behavior eventually stops and becomes extinct.

Question 21

Def - cult

Answer 21

a religious or quasi-religious group characterized by unusual or atypical beliefs, seclusion from the outside world, and an authoritarian structure.

Question 22

Def - Association

Answer 22

a connection or relationship between two items (e.g., ideas, events, feelings) with the result that experiencing the first item activates a representation of the second. Associations are fundamental to learning theory and behaviorism.

Question 23

Def - Hippocampus

Answer 23

Hippocampus is a complex brain structure embedded deep into temporal lobe. It has a major role in learning and memory. It is a plastic and vulnerable structure that gets damaged by a variety of stimuli. Studies have shown that it also gets affected in a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Question 24

Def - Temporarl lobe

Answer 24

The temporal lobes sit behind the ears and are the second largest lobe. They are most commonly associated with processing auditory information and with the encoding of memory.

Question 25

Def - Amnesia

Answer 25

the loss of memories, such as facts, information and experiences. Though forgetting your identity is a common plot device in movies and television, that’s not generally the case in real-life amnesia. Instead, people with amnesia — also called amnestic syndrome — usually know who they are.

Question 26

Def - Millennialism

Answer 26

Millennialism is the belief, based on an interpretation of Revelation 20, that there will be a distinctive one-thousand-year period (the millennium) before the Last Judgment. This belief was especially popular in America from the 1750s to the 1840s.

Question 27

Def - Undeclarative memory

Answer 27

Nondeclarative memory is an umbrella term, which covers our memory capacities that support skill. and habit learning, perceptual priming, and other forms of behavior, which are expressed through. performance rather than recollection.

Question 28

Breifly outline Pavlov’s experiment on dogs

Answer 28

Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food. First the dogs were presented with the food, they salivated. The food was the unconditioned stimulus and salivation was an unconditioned (innate) response.

Question 29

Describe B.F. Skinner’s original experiments and provide his conclusions

Answer 29

The Skinner box with rats. Skinner conducted research on shaping behavior through positive and negative reinforcement and demonstrated operant conditioning, a behavior modification technique which he developed in contrast with classical conditioning. His idea of the behavior modification technique was to put the subject on a program with steps.

Question 30

Provide a detailed explanation of the two phases of behavior modification

Answer 30

Preparation/Determination (Getting ready to change)
Action/Willpower (Changing behavior)

Question 31

Describe the differences between cults and traditional religions. What are the three purposes of any cult?

Answer 31

A religion belongs to the wider culture; its adherents come and go freely. A cult tends to be counter-cultural, restricting the social life of its adherents to other cult members. The key characteristic of a cult is the axis mundi, the shamanic leader at the center of the organization.

1. The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
2. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
3. The group is preoccupied with making money.

Question 32

Why would someone want to juoin a cult? How do cults actively secure membership?

Answer 32

1. They want to better themselves, either professionally or personally.
2. They want a greater sense of community.
3. They’re in a state of extreme vulnerability

Question 33

What are the shared characteristics between the Meade Ministries and the House of Yahweh?

Question 34

Why are cults usually so secretive and withdrawn from mainstream societies?

Question 35

What are the three main characteristics of cults (from video)?

Question 36

What are the three processes by which a cult leader convinces people to join a cult?

Question 37

Describe some of the ways in which long term and short term memory can be improved.

Question 38

Explain how memory by association and mnemonics works. Why do you think we need these features? What does “state dependent memory” mean?

Answer 38

Associative memory is defined as the ability to learn and remember the relationship between unrelated items. This would include, for example, remembering the name of someone or the aroma of a particular perfume.

Mnemonics are a way of remembering using association - associating easy to remember things with data. Like a catch phrase .. SuperMan Helps EverOne

A condition in which memory for a past event is improved when the person is in the same biological or psychological state as when the memory was initially formed.

Question 39

Describe B.F. Skinner’s original experiments and provide his conclusions

Answer 39

The Skinner box.

To show how reinforcement works in a controlled environment, Skinner placed a hungry rat into a box that contained a lever. As the rat scurried around inside the box, it would accidentally press the lever, causing a food pellet to drop into the box.