Chapter 6 Learning & Memory Flashcards by Kd Felipe

Any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or practice.

Learning

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When people learn anything, some part of their brain is physically _______ to record what they have learned.

Changed

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Any kind of change in the way an organism behaves is ________.

learning

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Russian physiologist who discovered classical conditioning through his work on digestion in dogs.

Ivan Pavlov

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Learning to make a reflex response to a stimulus other than the original, natural stimulus that normally produces the reflex.

Classical conditioning

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A naturally occurring stimulus that leads to an involuntary response.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

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An involuntary response to a naturally occurring unconditioned stimulus.

Unconditioned response (UCR)

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Stimulus that becomes able to produce a learned reflex response by being paired with the original unconditioned stimulus.

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

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Can become a conditioned stimulus when paired with an unconditioned stimulus.

Neutral stimulus (NS)

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Learned reflex response to a conditioned stimulus. Sometimes called conditioned reflex.

Conditioned response (CR)

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(classical conditioning concept)
Ice cream truck

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

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(classical conditioning concept)
Salivation when one hears ice cream truck bell

Conditioned response (CR)

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Repeated pairing of the NS and the UCS; the organism is in the process of acquiring learning.

Acquisition

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Basic principles of classical conditioning

• CS must be come before UCS
• CS and UCS must come very close together in time—ideally, only several seconds apart
• neutral stimulus must be paired with the UCS several times, often many times, before conditioning can take place.

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Tendency to respond to a stimulus that is only similar to the original conditioned stimulus with the conditioned response.

Stimulus generalization

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Tendency to stop making a generalized response to a stimulus that is similar to the original conditioned stimulus because the similar stimulus is never paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

Stimulus discrimination

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disappearance or weakening of a learned response following the removal or absence of the unconditioned stimulus (in classical conditioning) or the removal of a reinforcer (in operant conditioning)

Extinction

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Reappearance of a learned response after extinction has occurred.

Spontaneous recovery

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Strong conditioned stimulus is paired with a neutral stimulus
Neutral stimulus becomes a second conditioned stimulus

Higher-order conditioning

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Emotional response that has become classically conditioned to occur to learned stimuli

Conditioned emotional response (CER)

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____ may lead to phobias—irrational fear responses

CERs

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Classical conditioning of a reflex response or emotion by watching the reaction of another person

Vicarious conditioning

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Development of a nausea or aversive response to a particular taste because that taste was followed by a nausea reaction

Conditioned taste aversion

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The tendency of animals to learn certain associations such as taste and nausea, with only one or few pairings due to the survival value of the learning.

Biological preparedness

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original theory in which Pavlov stated that classical conditioning occurred because the conditioned stimulus became a substitute for the un conditioned stimulus by being paired closely together

Stimulus substitution

Modern theory in which classical conditioning is seen to occur because the conditioned stimulus provides information or an expectancy about the coming of the unconditioned stimulus

Cognitive perspective

The learning of voluntary behavior through the effects of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to responses

Operant conditioning

Law stating that if a response is followed by a pleasurable consequence, it will tend to be repeated, and if a response is followed by an unpleasant consequence, it will tend not to be repeated

Thorndike's law of effect

Was a behaviorist; he wanted to study only observable, measurable behavior. Gave "operant conditioning" its name.

B.F. Skinner

Any behavior that is voluntary

Operant

Any event or stimulus, that when following a response, increases the probability that the response will occur again.

Reinforcement

Any reinforcer that is naturally reinforcing by meeting a basic biological need, such as hunger, thirst, or touch

Primary reinforcer

Any reinforcer that becomes reinforcing after being paired with a primary reinforcer, such as praise, tokens, or gold stars

Secondary reinforcer

The reinforcement of a response by the addition or experience of a pleasurable stimulus

Positive reinforcement

The reinforcement of a response bythe removal, escape from, or avoidance of an unpleasant stimulus

Negative reinforcement

A response that is reinforced after some—but not at all—correct responses tends to be very resistant to extinction

Partial reinforcement effect

Reinforcement of each and every correct response

Continuous reinforcement

Interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is always the same

Fixed Interval

The interval of time that must pass before reinforcement becomes possible is different for each trial or event.

Variable interval

Number of responses required for reinforcement is always the same

Fixed ratio

Schedule of reinforcement in which the number of responses required for reinforcement is different for each trial or event.

Variable ratio

Any event or object that, when following a response, makes that response less likely to happen again

Punishment

The punishment of a response by the addition or experiencing of an unpleasant stimulus

Punishment by application

The punishment of a response by the removal of a pleasurable stimulus

Punishment by removal

• may cause avoidance of the punisher instead of the behavior being punished • may encourage lying to avoid punishment • creates fear and anxiety

Severe punishment

Any stimulus, such as a stop sign or a doorknob, that provides the organism with a cue for making a certain response in order to obtain reinforcement

Discriminative stimulus

Reinforcement of simple steps, leading to a desired complex behavior

Shaping

Small steps, one after another, that lead to a particular goal behavior

Successive approximation

Occurs if the behavior (response) is not reinforced.

Extinction

Reoccurance of a once-extinguished response

Spontaneous recovery

Tendency for an animal's behavior to revert to genetically controlled patterns

Instinctive drift

Use of operant conditioning techniques to bring about desired changes in behavior

Behavior modification

Type of behavior modification in which desired behavior is rewarded with tokens

Token economy

Form of mild punishment by removal in which a misbehaving animal, child, or adult is placed in a special area away from the attention of others

Time-out

Modern term for a form of behavior modification that uses shaping techniques to mold a desired behavior or response

Applied behavior analysis (ABA)

Use of biofeedback about biological conditions to bring involuntary responses such as blood pressure and relaxation under voluntary control

Biofeedback

Form of biofeedback using devices (EEG, fMRI) to provide feedback about brain activity in an effort to modify behavior

Neurofeedback

Early cognitive scientist. Best-known experiments in learning involved teaching three groups of rats the same maze, one at a time

Edward Tolman

Learning that remains hidden until its application becomes useful

Latent learning

The sudden perception of relationships among various parts of a problem, allowing the solution to the problem to come quickly. "Aha" moment

Insight

Tendency to fail to act to escape from a situation because of a history of repeated failures in the past

Learned helplessness

New way of looking at the entire concept of mental health and therapy that focuses on the adaptive, creative, and psychologically more fulfilling aspects of human experience rather than on mental disorders.

Positive psychology

Learning new behavior by watching a model perform that behavior

Observational learning

Learning can take place without actual performance of the learned behavior

Learning/performance distinction

Four Elements of Observational Learning

• Attention • Memory • Imitation • Motivation

To learn anything through observation, the learner must first pay attention to the model

Attention

The learner must also be able to retain the memory of what was done, such as remembering the steps in preparing a dish that were first seen on a cooking show.

Memory

The learner must be capable of reproducing, or imitating, the actions of the model

Imitation

The learner must have the desire to perform the action

Motivation

The process which makes abailable to the individual something he has learned previously

Memory

Three processes of memory

• encoding • storage • retrieval

The process by which information (new knowledge) is initially recorded in a form usable to memory.

Encoding (Fixation)

Information with an _________ significance will be encoded more effectively

Emotional

Enhanced memory performance for those items in the beginning of the sequence

Primacy effect

Enhanced memory performance for those items at the end of the sequence

Recency effect

It is the "storing process" of what was required.

Retention (storage)

New learning interferes with the recall of information learned earlier

Retroactive interference

Information learned earlier interferes with the recall of material learned later

Proactive interference

Meaningful units of information that may vary depending on the circumstances

Chunks

A learning technique that involves breaking down large pieces of content into smaller chunks that are easier to process and remember.

Chunking

The process by which material in memory storage is located, brought into awareness, and used.

Retrieval (remembering)

The process of drawing from memory a specific piece of information for a specific purpose.

Recall

The process of acknowledging prior exposure to a given stimulus

Recognition

The process wherein one remembers not only a specific event, but also all the details and circumstances of this event with its setting in time and place.

redintegration

Types of memory

Short-term memory (STM) Long-term memory (LTM)

Information is held while it is conscious and being used. It holds about three to five items of information and lasts about 30 seconds without rehearsal.

Short-term memory

The system in which memories that are to be kept more or less permanently are stored is unlimited in capacity and relatively permanent in duration.

Long-term memory

Are memories for skills, habits, and conditioned responses

Nondeclarative, or implicit memories

Are memories for general facts and personal experiences and include both semantic memories and episodic memories

Declarative, or explicit memories

are difficult to bring into conscious awareness

Implicit memories

are those that a person is aware of possessing

Explicit memories

incorporation of inaccurate information into actual memory

misinformation effect

the general term for loss of memory when it is unaccompanied by other mental difficulties.

amnesia

memory loss of occurrences prior to some event

retrograde amnesia

memory loss of events following an injury

anterograde amnesia

a loss of memory due to a psychological repression mechanism: we tend to forget things we want to forget.

psychogenic amnesia

Illness associated with aging that includes physical deterioration, loss of language abilities, and severe amnesia.

Alzheimer's disease

affected by serious memory impairment. although their intellectual abilities may be intact, they display a strange array of symptoms including repeating questions, even after being told the answer, and repeating the same story over and over again.

Long-term alcoholics