Chapters 5-9 Exam Flashcards
what is learning?
A relatively permanent change in how an organism responds or may respond resulting from experience.
what must happen before we know learning took place?
it must be demonstrated
what is latent learning?
Learning that happened but isn’t demonstrated/displayed until a later time.
what is a unconditioned response?
the body’s natural response to a stimulus
what is the unconditioned stimulus?
The stimulus that would normally trigger an automatic reflexive response in us
what is classical conditioning?
a procedure by which a previously neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after it is paired with an unconditoned stimulus that automatically elects that same response
what is the acquisition of a conditioned response?
When a neutral stimulus begins to pick up the properties of the unconditioned stimulus because the two are paired or associated
what is the conditioned stimulus?
Once neutral stimuli that elicit the same response as the unconditioned stimulus
what is the conditioned response?
The response to the condition stimuli, which is the same as the unconditioned response
what is the optimal timing of the UCS-CS pairing?
Optimal timing is to present the NS/CS about a half second before the UCS
what happens if UCS and CS are no longer paired?
Gradual extinction of the conditioned response
what is prepared learning?
the idea that humans are biologically “prepared” to make associations more readily to stuff from our evolutionary past (ex: easier to fear heights than guns/cars because we’re biologically primed to do so easier)
when do conditioned taste eversions happen?
when tastes are very strong and distinctive
what are conditioned taste eversions?
when one hates the taste of a specific food (neutral stimuli) because it’s taste got paired with an unconditoned stimulus such as nauseas, causing unconditioned response like throwing up
what can phobias be thought of in terms of conditioned responses?
Phobias can be thought of as conditioned emotional/fear responses
what 3 ways can a phobia be classically conditioned?
- direct personal experience
- vicarious conditioning
- direct modelling
what is vicarious conditioning? give an example.
when someone is classically conditioned by someone else’s actions
ex: little brother gets bit by a dog, so now you fear dogs
what is direct modelling in terms of classical conditioning and phobias?
Straight up mimicking of the phobic responses witnessed around them
what are fetishes? how do they relate to classical and operant conditioning?
An unusual sexual attraction to things, rituals, clothing, and other non-human objects.
May start with accidental CC and then be reinforced and entrenched via repeated masturbatory fantasy (operant condoning)
what is stimulus generalization?
When things similar to the condioned stimulus elicit the condioned response too
what is stimulus discrimination?
When only the conditioned stimulus, not other things, elicit the conditioned response
why is John Watson an asshole?
he classically condoned an innocent toddler to be afraid of fluffy white toys
what is the idea behind operant conditioning?
whether a behaviour will occur again or not depends on its outcome
what is Skinner and Thorndyke’s “law of effect”?
the idea that behaviours that are rewarded or “reinforced” are more likely to be repeated, those that are punished are less likely to be repeated.
According of Skinner and Thorndyke, behaviour is shaped by _________.
consequences
what are discriminative stimuli?
These are cues in the situation that alert us as to what the consequences of certain behaviours might be
what is positive reinforcement?
when something rewarding is added, making us more likely to repeat the action that warranted the reward
what is negative reinforcement?
when something adverse or unpleasant is taken away, making us more likely to repeat the action to get rid of the adverse stimulus
both positive and negative reinforcement make the behaviours more likely to ________.
re-occur
what are escape responses? are the positive or negative?
responses that work to stop an aversive stimulus, making them more likely to happen again
they’re negative
what are avoidance responses?
what happens when we simply avoid actions that may have unpleasant outcomes
______ responses are how phobias become even more entrenched through operant conditioning.
avoidance
what is positive punishment?
The classic kind of punishment means applying (adding) an aversive stimulus so your response brings a negative, hurtful outcome, making you less likely to repeat what you did wrong.
what is negative punishment?
you lose something valued, something is taken away, making you less likely to repeat what you did wrong
what is the goal of punishment, regardless if it’s negative or positive?
to reduce the frequency of the behaviour or response
what is shaping?
when you reward “baby-steps” to gradually teach a new behaviour
what is chaining?
a process of learning where a sequence of already established behaviours are reinforced step by step. used to teach more complex behaviours
what are the three distinct pathways, identified by Jeffrey Gray, that are linked to learning?
the behavioural approach system (BAS), the behaviour inhibition system (BIS), and the fight/flight system
what system gets triggered when there’s positive reinforcement?
BAS
What is BIS associated with in terms of punishment and responses?
the avoidance and esacpe responses fround in negative reinforcement and punishment
what do we focus on when the BIS system is tripped?
potential threats and how we can avoid them.
_____ plays a role in immediate alarm/escape panic responses to already occurring punishing stimuli
fight/flight
what do you believe if you have an external locus of control?
you believe that fate, luck, destiny, and powerful others control your life outcomes
who is more likely to give up, someone with and internal locus of control or external locus of control?
external
what do you believe if you have an internal locus of control?
you believe that your own actions control your life outcomes
what is learned hopelessness? when is it developed?
Learned helplessness is the belief that you cannot escape so why try?
Developed in situations in situations where you have no control over bad things or just expecting that you have no control over situations.
what type of people develop learned hopelessness normally?
child or spousal abuse, being a P.O.W., Sex slavery
what is social/observational learning?
Social/observational learning is when we learn, not just by modelling, but due to an action’s’ consequences to others (vicarious conditioning)
why is modelling and social/observational learning important to us as humans?
So we don’t have to go and make the same kinds of mistakes that others made and learn everything through direct trial and error.
what is the difference between direct modelling and vicarious conditioning?
direct modelling involves mimicking other’s actions/responses, whereas vicarious learning involves you to see the consequences of such actions and you do the actions depending on whether or not the consequences were good (more likely to do it too) or bad (less likely to do it)
what is continuous reinforcement?
Reinforce after every response
when does continuous reinforcement work best?
when you’re first teaching a behaviour
what is partial reinforcement?
when a payoff/reward/reinforcement is not given every time, but intermittently
when does partial reinforcement work best?
Works best for KEEPING a conditioned behaviour going
what is fixed ratio schedule? example?
Would mean that the pay off is “set” to be delivered after a certain NUMBER of responses.
ex: by 9 coffees get the 10th one free
what is variable ratio schedule? example?
Would mean that the payoff is set to be delivered after an unpredictable number of responses
ex: gambling
what is fixed interval schedule? example?
there are set rewards: pay off after a certain amount of TIME
ex: paychecks every 2 weeks
what is variable interval schedule? example?
Pay off comes after a unpredictable interval of time
ex: pop quiz
what is memory?
the ability to acquire, retain and retrieve information skills & knowledge
what does retrospective memory refer to?
Memories of things past
what does prospective memories refer to?
Our “memory” for what is to come
what are the 3 basic steps to memory processing?
- encoding
- storage
- retrieval
what does encoding refer to?
making the stimulus compatible with the circuitry of our brains; making mental representations of the stimulus
why is there more room for error in the human memory than with a computer?
unlike computers, which record information exactly as it is shown, the human brain is selective on what it stores
what are the 3 levels of memory that are always interacting simultaneously?
- sensory memory
- short term memory
- long term memory
In terms of memories, which is our brain more like; a computer or a parallel processor?
parallel processor
what does sensory memory serve to do and why?
Sensory memory serves to prolong a brief stimulus long enough to allow our brains to do some encoding and further processing, and to string our second by second experiences together giving us a sense of cohesion and continuity
what are the 2 types of sensory memory?
iconic memory, and echoic memory
what does iconic sensory memory do and why?
Preserves visual information for a few seconds after the stimulation has stopped so we can make sense of written text, tv, and movies
what does echoic memory do and why?
Preserves auditory information for a few seconds so we can understand spoken language and music
what is the other name for short term memory?
working memory
what is short term memory?
our second-by-second awareness and attention; what we have “in our mind” at any given moment
what is the purpose of short term memory?
temporary storage and processing of information
where does short term emory require information from?
sensory and long term memory
what portion of our brains is most involved in short term memory?
prefrontal and frontal lobes
what is the typical capacity of short term memory?
+/- 7 chunks
what is the typical duration of short term memory without rehearsal?
1-30 seconds
what is the typically duration of short term memory when distracted?
2 seconds
what is long term memory?
Long term memory is a vast portion of our memory that can hold the bits and pieces of all of the things we know, learned, saw, heard, touched, did, everything that was encoded & stored.
what comprises long term memory?
the material that we are not currently thinking about or conscious of
what are the 3 ways information can be encoded into long term memory? give examples.
- Effortful encoding
ex: like studying for a test - Automatic
Ex: The memory of a traumatic or emotional event. - Unconscious, or “implicit”, with no involvement of conscious working memory at all.
ex: Things we learned very young, before we had language or things we “learn” in “priming” experiments
what is the serial positioning effect?
where we remember thing that come at the beginning and end at a list better than in the middle
what is the primacy effect?
when we’re much better at recalling words early in a list because we tend to sub-vocally rehearse the words or names, so the ones at the beginning obviously get more rehearsal time
what is the recency effect?
when we remember stuff from the end of the list bette than the middle. This is because the stuff at the end of the list is still in our short term memory
what are the 2 types of rehearsal?
maintenance and elaborative rehearsal
what is the difference between reinforcement and punishment?
reinforcement make you repeat the behaviours/responses, punishment makes you avoid repeating the behaviour/punishment
what is maintenance rehearsal?
just repeating the things over and over
why isn’t maintenance rehearsal good for studying?
because it attached no meaning, and meaning is what is going to help you recall the information better
what is elaborative rehearsal?
where we make a deliberate effort to understand what we’re trying to remember
what kind of effortful encoding (rehearsal) activates left temporal lobes and creates much stronger memory traces?
elaborative rehearsal
what is dual coding theory?
Using more than one mode of encoding to have stronger memories
What leads to better recall? Verbal sounds, written words, or pictures? why?
Pictures because they utilize more than one mode of encoding the memory/mental representation.
They elicit both, visual modes of representation and verbal, words, “semantic” representations too (The “story of the picture”), which gives us more memory “hooks”/neural pathways/inroads/cues for later retrieval
deliberate memory tricks are called _____. what area of the brain do they activate?
“mnemonic devices” activate the prefrontal cortex
Related concepts are “linked up” in ________.
neural nodes (networks)
what is “spreading activation theory”?
the idea that activating one node may trigger activity in related neural nodes (ex: brainstorming)
What’s more important? Retrieval skills or encoding skills? Why?
Both are important, but most of it leads back to good encoding and strong initial memory traces.
This is because when we encode new information well, we’re creating a physical change in our brains
what neurotransmitters activate to enhance memory formation?
acetylcholine and glutamate
where are long term memories stored?
Bits & pieces are stored in the various association areas & emotion centres of the brain, which are all interconnected
cognitive _____ can help fill in the blanks of old memories.
schemas
Can cognitive schemas lead to false memories?
hells yeah
is photographic memory a real thing?
sort of. indeed there are people out there with remarkable memory recall such as autistic savants
what is the closest thing “normal people” have to photographic memory?
eidetic memory
what does it mean to have an eidetic memory?
This involves seeing a vivid afterimage of a scene/page that can be kept in the mind’s eye in detail for up to a few minutes (much longer than STD)
Eidetic memory is more prevalent in ______, and wears off when they _______.
children (2-15%), become adults
What may seem like photographic memory, may be a combo of good memory _____ and effortful/ ease of ______.
biology, encoding
what are the 2 types of long term memory?
declarative and procedural memory
what are the 2 types of declarative memories
episodic and semantic memory
what are episodic memories?
The memories for the autobiographical events we’ve experienced. These appear to be processed, & dated in the prefrontal lobes
what are semantic memories?
Verbal mental representations of generalized knowledge about the world (A.K.A. “Generic memory”)
This includes: facts, words, symbols, concepts including the various rules for how to use them, grammar, syntax etc
Includes general knowledge of how things look, sound, smell, behave, feel, work
These kinds of declarative memory usually involve what we call “explicit memory”.
what is explicit memory?
We’re consciously aware of this information, these memories and can, with effort, draw upon it if we have to
what type of memories do explicit memories tend to be?
verbal
what part of the brain is activated when you recall explicit memories?
Recalling these activates left frontal & deep temporal lobes.
The __________ plays a key role in laying down these new explicit long term memories & later retrieving them
hippocampus
what are procedural memories?
This is the type of memory that allows us to remember how to do things
Sometimes ________ are residue of things, skills, strategies we learned consciously & effortfully, but after a while they become automatized
procedural memories
what side of the brain do procedural memories involve.
Procedural memory involves the right hemisphere
what are implicit memories?
These are actions we perform unintentionally, without effort, without consciously putting it into words and “trying” to remember it.
what are the types of memory that “pop into your head”?
implicit memories
do implicit memories involve the hippocampus?
nawh guy
We come to “prefer” faces, odd geometric shapes or, Chinese letters, that were previously flashed to us subliminally (too fast to be consciously picked up), over other faces and shapes (mere exposure effect) so, clearly _____ memories can influence our overt behaviour.
implicit
what is infantile amnesia?
the absence of memory of the first 2-3 years of life
What might be the cause of infantile amnesia?
- increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus
- An inability to encode verbal information because haven’t mastered language yet
- no episodic memory because your sense of self isn’t developed yet
what is the reminiscence bump?
The sharp rise in recall of events from age 6 to early 20’s, then a tapering off, and another rise for the last few years noticed in older people
What might be some causes of the reminiscence bump?
We tend to remember best recent events and also novel, exciting events and this is the traditional period of growth, change, new loves, first jobs, leaving home
Smells, tastes, sounds can evoke instant memories & associated feelings. What type of memory is this?
implicit
what are “flash-bulb” memories?
slow motion, detailed, vivid recall of where we were, what we were doing when a traumatic event happened; Things that seem “burned” into our memory
what might be the reason we have flash-bulb memories?
survival values: Remembering the details of a dangerous event may help us to avoid such events in the future.
Stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol can ______ memory formation.
enhance
What are the significance of beta blockers in terms of memory formation?
they can prevent us from forming enhanced memories, thus making them a good pill for PTSD sufferers
what is the idea behind state-dependant memory? example?
the idea that we tend to remember better things that match the mood or bodily state we’re presently in
ex: Depressed people typically remember sad childhood memories than happy ones, compared to non-depressed people
When you take a blow to the head, lose consciousness and then can’t recall anything after getting up that morning, you’re experiencing mild ________.
Organic retrograde amnesia
why does organic retrograde amnesia happen?
During this time the memory is fresh, it’s stimulating specific neural pathways, the neural path is just being forged, but it hasn’t solidified into a permanent memory trace, thus we forget