Chapter 5 Flashcards
Non-associative learning
When organism is repeatedly exposed to stimulus
Habitual or sensitization
Habit
Action performed repeatedly until it becomes automatic
Dishabituation
Previously habituated stimulus is removed
Sensitization
Increase in responsiveness due to repeated stimulus or particularly noxious stimulus
Desensitization
Stimulus that previously evoked strong response does not provoke such strong response anymore
Associative learning
One event, object, or action is directly connected with another
Classical or operative
Classical conditioning
Two stimuli are paired in such a way that a response to one of the stimuli changes
Pavlov’s dogs
Neutral stimulus
Does not initially elicit intrinsic response
Unconditioned stimulus
Stimulus that elicits unconditioned response
Conditioned stimulus
Originally neutral, but paired with unconditioned to produce conditioned response
Conditioned response
Learned response to the conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
Process of learning conditioned response
Extinction
Conditioned and unconditioned stimuli are no longer paired - conditional response eventually stops occuring
Spontaneous recovery
Extinct conditioned response occurs again when the conditioned stimuli is presented after some period of time
Generalization
When stimuli other than the original conditioned stimulus elicit the conditioned response
Discrimination
Opposite of generalization
When conditioned stimulus is differentiated from other stimulus
Taste-aversion
Long-lasting association in people and animals
Caused by nausea and vomiting
Operant conditioning
Reinforcement and punishment
Reinforcement
Anything that will increase the likelihood that preceding behaviour will be repeated
Positive reinforcement
Some sort of desirable stimulus occurs immediately following a behaviour
Negative reinforcement
Some sort of undesirable stimulus occurs immediately following a behaviour
Primary reinforcers
Reinforcers that are somehow innately satisfying or desirable
ie. food, avoiding pain
Secondary reinforcers
Things that are learned to be reinforcers
Neutral stimuli that are paired with primary reinforcers to make them conditioned
Reinforcement schedule
Operant conditioning requires a schedule
Continuous: actions are reinforced
Intermittent: actions are reinforced or not
Continuous reinforcement
Actions are reinforced quickly but quickly extinct
Intermittent reinforcement
Actions are either reinforced or not
But kept longer than continuous reinforcement
Fixed-interval, fixed-ratio, variable-interval, variable-ratio
Fixed-ratio schedule
Provides reinforcement after set number of instances of behaviour
Variable-ratio schedule
Provides reinforcement after unpredictable number of occurrences
Fixed-interval schedule
Provides reinforcement after set period of time that is constant
Variable-interval schedule
Provides reinforcement after an inconsistent amount of time
Positive punishment
Behaviour is followed by consequence
Negative punishment
Behaviour is followed by removal of desired stimulus
Escape
Individual learns to get away from averse stimulus by engaging in a particular behaviour
Avoidance
Person performs behaviour to ensure an averse stimulus is not presented
Behaviourism
All psychological phenomena are explained by describing the observable antecedents of behaviours and its consequences
Cognitive psychology
Focus on the brain, cognitions, and their effects on how we navigate the world
Insight learning
When previously learned behaviours are combined in unique ways
Latent learning
Something is learned but not expressed as an observable behaviour until it is required
Short-term memory
Lasts seconds to hours
Can be converted into long term memory through consolidation
Consolidation
Process of turning short-term memories into long term memories
Long-term potentiation
Following brief periods of stimulation, an increase in synaptic strength between two neurons leading to stronger electrochemical responses to a given stimuli
Increased chance of neuron firing after connection being stimulated
Innate behaviours
Things we know how to do instinctively
Observational learning
AKA social learning and vicarious learning
Learning through watching and imitating others
Modeling
An action performed (modelled) by another person
Albert Bandura
Used Bobo doll and adults to model behaviour for children
Mirror neurons
Located in premotor cortex, supplementary motor area, primary somatosensory cortex, and inferior parietal cortex
Fire when performing tasks and when observing other perform tasks
Help learn through imitation
Vicarious emotions
Mirror neurons could be responsible
Ie. empathy
Persuasion
One method of attitude and behaviour change
Elaborate likelihood model
Defines when/how people will be influenced - content vs. superficial
Three components of persuasiveness
- Message characteristics
- Source characteristics
- Target characteristics
Two cognitive routes of persuasion
- Central - content, lasting change
2. Peripheral - superficial, temporary change
Social cognitive theory
How we interpret and respond to external events, and how past situations have affects on our behaviour
Social factors, observational learning, and environmental factors have influences on person’s attitude change
Reciprocal determinism
Interaction between person’s behaviours, personal factors, and environment
Three ways person and environment interact
- Person chooses environment that shapes them
- Personality shapes how people interpret and respond to their environment
- Person’s personality influences the situation to which they then react
Behavioural genetics
Determine the role of inheritance on behavioural traits
IQ
Intelligence Quotient
Fluid intelligene (Gf)
Ability to think on your feet
Crystallized intelligence (Gc)
Ability to recall and apply already-learned information
Theory of multiple intelligences
8 different intelligence modalities
Logical, linguistic, spatial, musical, kinesthetic, naturalist, intrapersonal, interpersonal
Emotional intelligence
Being well attuned to own emotions
Intellectual disability
Those with IQ lower than 2 standdev from mean - less than 70
Also have difficulty adapting to demands of everyday life
Can sometimes be due to physical cause
Reflexes
Automatic behaviours
Used for survival, primitive
Originate in central nervous system
Moro reflex
Startle reflex due to loud sound or sudden movement
Rooting reflex
Response to touching or stroking baby cheek - baby begins to look for nipple
Sucking reflex
Anything touching roof of baby’s mouth - sucking
Babinski reflex
Response to sole of foot being stroked, big toe move upwards or towards top of foot and other toes fan upwards
Tonic neck reflex
In response to head being turned to the side, baby will stretch out its arm on that side and bend other at the elbow
Palmar grasp reflex
Stroking baby’s palm, baby will grasp
Walking/stepping reflex
When baby’s feet touch flat surface, they will try to walk
Reflexive movements
Primitive, involuntary movements to prime the neuromuscular system and form basis for more sophisticated movement to come
Rudimentary movements
First voluntary movements as child, occur in predictable stages between 0-2
Rolling, sitting, crawling, standing and walking
Foundation on which fundamental movements are built
Fundamental movements
2-7yo
Child is learning to manipulate body through running, jumping, throwing and catching
Highly influenced by environment
Specialized movement
Children learn to combine fundamental movements and apply them to specific tasks
Can be divided into transitional substage and application substage
Transitional substage
Stage when combinations of movements occur
ie. gasping, throwing, jumping - combined to shoot ball
Application substage
Conscious decisions to apply skills to specific types of activities
(ie. choosing baseball or basketball)
Maturation
Sequence of biological growth processes in human development
Lifelong application stage
Beginning in adolescence and progressing through adulthood
Movements are continuously refined and applied to normal daily activities
Infantile amnesia
Do not remember anything before age of 3.5 usually
Young children are still capable of learning and memory
Stranger anxiety
Crying and clinging to caregiver
Peaks around 13mo then gradually declines
Contact comfort
Baby monkey experiment
Contradicts that stranger anxiety is due to nourishment - actually about comfort
Securely attached infants
Will play when mother is in room, will become distressed when she leaves, but will be easily comforted
Responsive mothers
Insecurely attached infants
Less likely to explore in presence of mother (can even cling)
May cry or seem indifferent at mom’s departure and return
Unresponsive mothers
Parenting style categories (3)
- Authoritarian
- Permissive
- Authoritative
Authoritarian parents
Attempting to control children with strict rules that they are expected to follow unconditionally
Punishment instead of discipline and will not explain reasoning behind their rules
Children have difficulty - aggressive, shy, awkward
Permissive parents
Few rules and demands
Children tend to lack self-discipline, may be self involved and demanding, poor social skills
Authoritative parents
Listen to children, encourage independence, place limits on behaviour, consistently follow through with consequences
Tends to produce happier children, who have good emotional control and regulation
Adolescence
Transitional stage between childhood and adulthood
Starts with puberty and ends with achievement of independent adult status
Usually encompasses teenage years
Three major brain changes during adolescence
- Cell proliferation
- Synaptic pruning
- Myelination
Encoding
Process of transferring sensory information into our memory system
Serial position effect
Occurs when one is trying to learn a series, in immediate recall condition, individual is more likely to recall first and last items on the list
Primary effect
More likely to recall first thing on the list - more time to be transferred into long-term memory
Recency effect
More likely to recall last thing on the list - still in phonological loop
Mnemonic
Technique for improving retention and retrieval of information from memory
Rehearsal
Use of phonological loop through repeating
Chunking
Information to be remembered is organized in discrete groups of data
Hierarchies
For organization - into groups
Depth of processing
Information thought on a deeper level is more likely to be remembered
Dual coding hypothesis
Easier to remember words with associated images than either words or images alone
Methods of loci
Imagining your way through a familiar place and in each place, leaving a visual representation of topic to be remembered
Self-reference effect
It is easier to remember thing that are personally relevant
Sensory memory
Initial recording of sensory information in the memory system
Very brief snapshot that quickly decays
Iconic and echoic memory
Iconic memory
Brief photographic memory for visual information
Decays very quickly
Echoic memory
Memory for sound, which lasts 3-4 seconds
Short-term memory
Usually about 7 items
only retained for about 20 seconds unless actively processed
Long-term memory
Information that is retained and sometimes indefinitely - infinite capacity
Implicit (procedural) memory
Conditioned associations and knowledge of how to do something
Explicit (declarative memory)
Able to declare or voice what is known
Semantic memory
Memory for factual information
Episodic memory
Autobiographical memory for information of personal importance
Nodes
Sites on a map - how long-term memories are organized into a network
Association
Connection of nodes in long-term memory
Strength of association is reliant on how frequently and deeply this connection is made
Response threshold
Node does not become activated until it receives input signals from its neighbours
Effect of input signals is cumulative - summation of multiple nodes
Spreading activation
Nodes fire and send stimulus to its neighbours, activation of a few nodes leads to pattern of activation within the network
Retrieval
Process of finding information stored in memory
Recall
The ability to retrieve information
Free recall
Retrieving the item out of tin air
Cued recall
Retrieving the information when provided with a cue
Recognition
Identifying specific information from a set of information that is presented
Relearning
Proces of learning material that was originally learned
Interference
Can result in failure to retrieve information that is in storage
Passage of time can cause more opportunity for interference
Proactive interference
Information that is previously learned interferes with ability to recall information learned later
Retroactive interference
When newly learned information interferes with the recall of information learned previously
Positive transfer
Old information facilitates the learning of new information
Schema
Mental blueprint containing common aspects of some part of the world
Can lead to misremembering, especially with leading questions
Misinformation effect
When people are exposed to subtle misinformation, they are susceptible tot he misinformation effect, tendency to misremember
False memories
Occurs when repeatedly imagining nonexistent actions and events
Inaccurate recollections of an event and may be the result of implanting of ideas
Source monitoring
When individuals forget source of information
Neural plasticity
Refers to malleability of the brain’s pathways
Neurogenesis
Birth of new neurons
Small extent in hippocampus and cerebellum
