Chapters 6 & 7: Learning and Memory Flashcards
Learning
a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience
Why do psychologists who study learning usually stick with the behaviorist perspective?
the behaviorist tradition of establishing cause and effect enables relationships to be found between stimuli and behavior
Non-associative learning
not forming associations between stimuli during learning
How does learning occur?
it is a result of repeated exposure of a stimulus
Habituation
after being repeatedly exposed to a stimulus you begin to decrease your response to it
What distinguishes habituation from sensory adaptation?
sensory adaptation occurs at the level of the sensory organs, and habituation occurs in the Central Nervous System (CNS)
Dishabituation
introducing a novel stimulus to decrease habituation to former stimulus
Sensitization
increased response to a stimulus after repeated exposure
When you become sensitized to something, is the response more localized or a full-body effect?
Full-body effect
Classical conditioning
forming an association between a stimulus and a response in the environment
Reflex
involuntary response to a particular stimulus
What are the two types of reflexes?
conditioned and unconditioned
Unconditioned Stimulus
any stimulus that causes us to respond a certain way without learning
Unconditioned Response
automatic response to unconditioned stimulus
Neutral stimulus
does not elicit any type of responding
Conditioned stimulus
a previously neutral stimulus (NS) that, after repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US) becomes associated with it and elicits a conditioned response
Conditioned response
learned response to a conditioned stimulus (CS)
Classical conditioning
presenting a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned, unlearned stimulus, and through those pairings that neutral stimulus becomes what we call a conditioned stimulus
Acquisition
development of a conditioned response as a result of pairing the conditioned stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus
Contingency
you will generally condition faster if a stimulus is more intense
Contiguity
the conditioned stimulus has to appear close in time to the unconditioned stimulus
What did Pavlov believe had to happen for an association to be formed with a stimulus?
that there had to be some kind of temporal contiguity
Short delayed procedure
if the conditioned stimulus proceeds the unconditioned stimulus by less than 30 seconds
When the US is absent the ____ is absent
CS
Excitatory conditioning
the CS is exciting or getting you ready for the US
Test trial
present CS without the UCS and measure the magnitude of the CR
Conditioning trials
where we’re learning the relationship between the CS and the US and presenting the conditioned stimulus
Extinction
present CS without the UCS repeatedly
What does extinction decrease?
the strength of the conditioned response
Unconditioned stimulus association is eliminated by extinction (true/false)
false
Spontaneous recovery
after following extinction, waiting at least 24 hours after extinction occurs and reintroducing CS to get a renewed response to it
Renewal effect
changing an aspect of the initial trial to get a stronger renewed response to the CS
Generalization
conditioning to a trained CS generalizes to similar stimuli
How would you perform a test trial for generalization?
present CS (no UCS), see how large of a CR occurs to them
Generalization gradient
a graphic description of the strength of responding in the presence of stimuli that are similar to the original condition or training stimulus, the CS
As you move ______ from training stimulus the response rate starts to _______
further away, decline
Discrimination
conditioning a person or non-human animal to respond only following the training stimulus
High-order or Second-order conditioning
using more than one conditioned stimulus to pair a conditioned and unconditioned stimulus through a series of trials
Sensory Pre-Conditioning
begins with two stimuli that are already associated potentially in our environment
Biological Preparedness
the presence of certain conditioned stimuli incites an unconditioned response
A conditioned taste aversion often occurs due to feeling sick after consuming a specific food or drink you’ve just had for the first time
True
Classical Conditioning can increase our immunity
True
What is the nature of a classical conditioning response?
involuntary (reflexive)
What is the nature of an operant conditioning response?
usually voluntary, but can be both voluntary and involuntary
What is the significance of E.L. Thorndike’s puzzle boxes?
they showed that the connection between stimuli in the box and the escape response was strengthened by reinforcement
Law of Effect
a response that’s followed by a pleasant consequence, which is a reward, will tend to be repeated
Operant Conditioning
consequences influence future probability of behavior
What is shaping?
occurs when you reinforce successive approximations, which are gradual steps to the required response
What are the two main types of operant consequences?
reinforcer and punisher
Reinforcer
an event that follows a behavior and results in an increase in the future probability of that behavior
What is a primary reinforcer?
satisfies one of your biological needs
What is a secondary reinforcer?
acquires its value through conditioning, through learning
Punisher
an event that follows a behavior and results in a decrease in the future probability of that behavior
What is a primary punisher?
innately punishing
What is a secondary punisher?
becomes a learned punisher
Positive Reinforcement
presenting a pleasant stimulus
Negative Reinforcement
removing an unpleasant stimulus
Positive Punishment
presenting an unpleasant stimulus
Negative Punishment
removing a pleasant stimulus
What is three-term contingency?
Antecedent- Behavior- Consequence
Antecedent
cues that can tell you whether the consequence for your behavior will occur
What are the two types of behaviors?
desired and undesired
What are the types of consequences?
positive and negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction, escape/avoidance
What is the schedule of reinforcement?
pattern of delivering the reinforcement during a behavioral trial
Continuous reinforcement
every behavior is reinforced
Intermittent reinforcement
only reinforcing behaviors some of the time
Ratio schedules
number of responses
Interval schedules
based on time; how much time has elapsed since last reinforcement
Fixed ratio (FR)
giving the reinforcer on a fixed basis after # of times desired behavior occurred
Variable ratio (VR)
occurs based on an average ratio; desired outcome will not occur every trial
Fixed interval (FI)
occurring regularly but only after a certain amount of time has elapsed
Variable interval (VI)
based on an average; it’s irregular, but it’s also based on time
Extinction
reinforcement no longer follows behavior
Generalization
operant response occurs to a new stimulus that is similar to the stimulus present during original learning
Discrimination
operant response is made to one stimulus but not to another
Stimulus generalization
the tendency for a behavioral response that has been reinforced (or punished) in the presence of one stimulus to occur (or be suppressed) in the presence of a similar stimulus
Stimulus discrimination
the tendency of responses to occur in the presence of one stimulus but not another that differs from it on some dimension
Latent learning
learning can occur in the absence of an immediate reward
Observational learning
learning that occurs by watching someone else
Social learning
when we see changes in behavior that are brought about by interactions with others/observing others
Sensory memory
a brief storage memory for all of our senses
Attention
a type of control process that helps to shift information from one memory store to another
Encoding
where sensory and perceptual information is transformed into memory traces
Sensory buffer
brief information about raw stimulus held for fractions of a second to a few seconds
Iconic memory
brief impression or afterimage that you got from a sensory stimulus that fades away very quickly unless it’s attended to
What did Sperling’s study show?
that when showed a 3 by 4 array of letters within a fraction of a second, participants only remembered approximately 4-5 letters (whole report), and when participants were shown a similar array after each row had been associated with a sound, they reported remembering approximately 10-12 letters (partial report)
Is delay time longer between iconic memory or echoic memory?
echoic memory
What is the purpose of the serial position curve?
it defines the distinction between long-term and short-term memory
Primacy effect
being better able to recall the first few words in the list
Recency effect
being better able to recall the last few words in the list
Central executive
coordinates attention and the exchange of information among the other memory components
Phonological loop
has to do with the rehearsal of sounds and uses an auditory or phonological code
Visuospatial sketchpad
maintains visual images and also spatial layouts in a visual spatial code
Episodic buffer
integrating the elements from the other memory stores that are getting activated
Information from working memory is lost after ______ seconds.
18-20
As determined by George Miller, the number of items that can be stored in auditory memory is________.
7 + or - 2
As determined by Nelson Cohen, how many chunks of information can be stored in auditory memory?
4
What is the word length effect?
more information can be held in shorter words
Long-term memory storage is finite (True/False)
false
What are the two types of long-term memory?
declarative/explicit and nondeclarative/implicit
What distinguishes declarative/explicit memory?
memories can be verbalized
Semantic memory
knowing things; often factual information most people know
Episodic memory
your memories of past experiences
Nondeclarative/implicit memory
memories you have that produce behaviors that you can perform without awareness
Procedural memory
your skills and your habits
Emotional responses
classical conditioning involving the reflex arc or even evolving to involve emotional responses to stimuli
Priming
when you’re given a prime word, and that word causes activation to spread in your brain to related words
Visual analysis
shallow, produces fairly poor memory
Acoustic/rhyme analysis
moderate level of processing that produces better memory
Conceptual or semantic analysis
causes a deep level of processing and produces the best memory
Semantic encoding
processing the concept’s meaning
The Generation Effect
requires you to produce information rather than just read it
Paired Associations
forming pairs to link information together
Hierarchies
structured outline of concepts
Self-Referent Encoding
use your own examples of concepts
Mnemonic devices
techniques to improve memory for specific information
Acronyms
series of letters that stand for something
Acrostics
sentence composed to help you remember specific concepts
Narratives
writing a story to remember information
Rhymes
creating a rhyme to remember something, a moderate level of processing
Linking
images that contain the information
Alan Paveo
dual code theory
Dual code theory
both visual and verbal information used to represent concepts
Method of Loci
locations along a path or narrative
Pegword method
taking a familiar rhyme, each line of which is a peg, and associating a specific concept with each peg
Encoding specificity
retrieval is most effective when it occurs in the same contexts as encoding
Flashbulb memories
extremely vivid and detailed memories about an event
Is it better to study over multiple sessions or to cram the night before an exam?
study over multiple sessions
Encoding failure
information never transferred into long-term memory in the first place
Storage decay
information in long-term memory disappears with the passage of time
Retrieval failure
information is supposedly in long-term memory but it is unable to be retrieved back into short-term memory
Proactive interference
old information is better recalled than newer information
Retroactive interference
new information is better recalled than older information
What is the significance of Herman Von Ebbinghaus?
he is the founder of psychological memory research, and he discovered that most memory is lost within the first few hours
Amnesias are usually a result of what?
injury or disease
Amnesia
profound loss of memory ability
Retrograde amnesia
memory for past is lost; most severe for recent events
Anterograde amnesia
inability or limited ability to form new memories after onset of amnesia
Schemas
organized clusters of memories that contain your knowledge about events and objects and ideas
Accommodation
constantly adding to and changing our schemas
False memory
remembering an event that did not occur
Misinformation effect
information occurring after an event alters memory for that event
Source monitoring and source misattribution
misidentifying where information came from or who gave it to you
Confabulation
confusing events that happened to someone else with one that happened to you
