Basic Psychology Flashcards
Definition of Non-associative learning
Simple form of learning where only a single event is used
Types of non-associative learning
Habituation
Sensitization
Pseudo-conditioning
What is habituation?
Repeated stimulation leads to reduction in response over time
What is sensitization?
Increase in response to stimulus due to repeated presentations of that stimulus
What is pseudoconditiong/cross-sensitization?
Emergence of a response to a previously neutral stimulus due to exposure to a different but more powerful stimulus
What type of learning is cross-sensitization?
Non-associative learning
What is associative learning?
Learning through the association of two events
Types of associative learning
Classic conditioning
Operant conditioning
Social learning theory
What is classical conditioning?
Learning through repeated pairing of a neutral conditioned stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus which evokes an unconditioned response. Eventually, the neutral stimulus will evoke the desired response; the conditioned response.
What is operant conditioning?
Learning from the consequence of ones actions.
In which type of associative learning is the organism instrumental?
Operant conditioning
Social learning theory
What is social learning theory?
Combination of classic and operant conditioning, as well as cognitive processes and social interactions
What is the conditioned response in classical conditioning?
The desired response once it is evoked by the neutral stimulus.
What is the name of the association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response?
Acquisition
What is acquisition in classical conditioning?
The association between the conditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response.
What is trace conditioning?
When the conditioned stimulus is presented and removed before the unconditioned stimulus is presented.
What is the optimum delay for trace conditioning?
0.5ms
What is temporal contiguity in classical conditioning?
The time between stimulus and response.
What is counter conditioning?
When a previously conditioned response is replaced by a new, more desirable response.
What is latent inhibition in classical conditioning?
Where there is a delay in learning the association between the unconditioned stimulus and the conditioned stimulus due to previous exposure of an isolated presentation of the conditioned stimulus
What is Premack’s principle?
That high-frequency behaviour can be used to reinforce low-frequency behaviour.
What is aversive conditioning?
Where punishment is used to reduce the frequency of target behaviour
What type of conditioning is this:
The use of disulfram to reduce alcohol intake
Operant conditioning
Punishment
Aversive conditioning
What is covert reinforcement?
Using an imagined positive event to reinforce behaviour.
What is covert sensitization?
Using an imagined negative event to reduce the frequency of undesired behaviour.
What is reciprocal inhibition?
When a stimulus with a desired response and a stimulus with an undesired response are presented together repeatedly, this results in a reduction in the frequency of the undesired response.
What is Bandura’s social learning theory?
That people can learn behaviour by observing others behaviours and their outcomes.
What are the cognitive processes during social learning?
- Attention to observed behaviour
- Visual image and semantic encoding of observed behaviour memory
- Memory permanence via retention and rehearsal
- Motor copying of behaviour and imitative reproduction
- Motivation to act
What is Gagne’s hierarchy of learning?
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
- Chaining
- Verbal association
- Discrimination learning
- Concept learning
- Rule learning
- Problem learning
What does Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation include?
Proximity Closure Continuity Similarity Common fate
What does proximity mean in Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation?
Objects close to each other are perceived as one
What does closure mean in Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation?
Incompletely closed figures are perceived as fully closed
What does continuity mean in Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation?
Continuous items are perceived as one
What does similarity mean in Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation?
Similar items are grouped together based on shape, colour etc.
What does common fate mean in Gestalt’s law of perceptual organisation?
Things moving together are perceived as one
What type of cues does depth perception depend upon?
Pictorial
Non-pictorial
What are non-pictorial cues for depth perception?
Retinal image disparity
Stereopsis
Accommodation (monocular)
Convergence
What are pictorial cues for depth perception?
Size Brightness Superimposition Texture Linear perspective Aerial perspective Motion parallax
What is autokiniesis?
The phenomenon that if light is shown from a small, dim and fixed light source for an extended period of time in a dark room it will appear as if the light is moving.
What is the phi phenomenon?
When a false perception of motion is produced by a succession of still images shown with fixed time interval rapidly.
What type of theory is Gestalt’s theory?
Bottom-up theory
What do bottom-up theories in visual & auditory perception suggest?
That perception is purely data driven and directly starts with the optic array. Piercing together of basic elements of this data leads to more complex systems.
What does a top-down theory suggest?
That retinal images cannot explain complex and fully formed perceptions, and that perception is defined as a process of using information known already to formulate/test a hypothesis.
What is a perceptual set?
The readiness to perceive selected features as an object (related to motivation, hunger, emotion etc)
Define an illusion
When a physical object is perceived but appears different from what it really is
Define a hallucination
When an object is perceived in the absence of any corresponding object in the real world.
List some learnt visual processes
Size constancy
Shape constancy
Depth perception
Shape discrimination
List some innate visual processes
Visual scanning
Tracking
Fixating
Figure-ground discrimination
By what age is 6:6 acuity achieved?
6 months
By what age is accommodation and colour vision achieved?
4 months
By what age is depth perception achieved?
2-4 months
What is capacity/divided attention?
The upper limit of the amount of processing that can be performed on incoming information at any on time.
What is dichotic listening?
Feeding one message into the left ear and another into the right, and asking the person to repeat only one of the messages.
What does Broadbent’s early selection filter theory suggest?
- Our ability to process information is capacity limited
- A temporary buffer system receives all information and passes it to a selective filter.
- Selection is based on physical characteristics of information - one source is selected and others are rejected.
- Processing two different pieces of information will take longer and will be less efficient.
What does Triesman’s attenuation theory suggest?
That physical characteristics and semantic relevance and used to select one message for full processing while others are given partial processing.
What does Deutsch-Norman late selection filter model/pertinence model suggest?
That filtering only occurs once all inputs are analysed at a higher level.
What is pigeon-holding?
When filtering is done based on categorization rather than physical characteristics.
What is open loop control?
Process that is controlled by automatic motor processes.
What is closed loop control?
Learning a task under conscious attention.
What is the highest level of attention?
Divided attention
What is divided attention?
The ability to respond simultaneously to multiple tasks.
How long does iconic/visual memory last?
0.5 seconds
How long does echoic/auditory memory last?
2 seconds
What is the capacity of short-term memory?
7+/-2 items
How long does short-term memory last, unaided?
15-30 seconds
How is information lost from short-term memory?
Displacement
Decay
How do items move from short-term to long-term memory?
Elaborative encoding
Rehearsal
What is the main type of coding in short-term memory?
Visual
Acoustic
What is the main type of memory in long-term memory?
Semantic
What is elaborative rehearsal?
Where encoding is semantically elaborated or changed
How can rehearsal be processed?
Shallow (surface features only)
Phonemic (sound is rehearsed)
Semantic (meaning is processed)
What is remote memory?
Events in distant past (weeks to years)
What is Tulving’s multistore model?
Long-term memory is divided into declarative (explicit - semantic and episodic) and non-declarative memory.
What is implicit memory?
Procedural memory such as classical conditioning and non-associative learning
What is episodic memory?
Autobiographical, spatio-temporal
What is semantic memory?
Factual knowledge of the world.
Who proposed the working memory model?
Baddley & Hitch
What are the components of the working memory model?
One central executive and two arms - the phonological loop and visuospatial sketchpad.
One episodic buffer
What is the phonological loop in the working memory model?
It consists of auditory rehearsal loops
What does the visuospatial sketchpad in the working memory model consist of?
Pattern recognition and movement perception components.
What is the episodic buffer in the working memory model?
This integrates information from slave systems into long-term memory - important for chunking.
What is the serial position effect?
When recalling a list of words, the first word (due to LTM) and the last word (due to STM) will be remembered better.
Due to latency and primacy
In what type of amnesia are the last words recalled better than the first in a list?
Organic anterograde amnesia
What is the problem in organic anterograde amnesia?
Difficulty in transferring information from STM to LTM, and retrieval from LTM
What is reconstruction?
Recollection of past experiences based on certain cues
What is the decay theory?
That neural engrams breakdown with time, thereby disuse with time causes forgetting.
What is retrieval failure?
When we forget things due to lack of proper cues.
What is retroactive interference?
When newly learnt material interferes with old material leading to forgetting
What is the encoding specificity principle?
The more similar the retrieval situation is to the encoding situation, the better the retrieval.
Define amnesia
Marked impairment in episodic memory.
Define anterograde amnesia
Loss of the ability to form or retain new episodic memories after injury/event/lesion
What type of amnesia would hippocampal damage lead to?
Anterograde amnesia
Define retrograde amnesia
Loss of episodic memories that were stored before damage had occred.
What causes transient global amnesia?
Transient cerebral ischaemia which results in temporary lack of blood supply to regions of the brain concerned with memory functions.
Symptoms of transient global amnesia
Sudden onset of severe anterograde amnesia
Retrograde amnesia for preceding days or weeks
What is fugue?
Sudden loss of all autobiographical memories and period of wandering, with amnesic gap on recovery.
Type of memory loss in Korsakoff’s syndrome
Retrograde: autobiographical (sparing of distant memories)
Anterograde
Which types of memories are kept intact in Korsakoffs?
Working memory
Procedural memory
Define post-traumatic amnesia
The time between injury and recovery of normal continuous memory
Give an example of a test for anterograde memory
Three words learning task - apple, table, penny
What is the Rey-osterrieth complex figure test?
Non-verbal memory test:
participant is asked to copy a complex geometric figure and to redraw it from memory after 30 minutes.
Average age of earliest retrieved memory?
3.5 years
What is the mood-congruent effect?
The ability to more easily recall information if it is congruent with ones current mood.
What is it called when one is able to retrieve information easier if the emotional state at the time is the same as the state at the time of encoding?
Mood-state dependent retrieval
What is a schema?
Organized set of facts, to help elaborate and reconstruct memory at test.
What is inference?
When known, easily accessible information is used to piece together retrieval information, resulting in biased recall.
Which areas of the brain mediate STM?
Pre-frontal lobes
Which area of the brain mediates the phonological STM?
Left hemisphere regions of Broca’s area and prefrontal cortex