EXAM 2 Flashcards
What are B.F. Skinner’s 3 Questions
- How can we more carefully measure the effect of consequences on chosen behavior?
- What else can creatures be taught to do by controlling consequences?
- What happens when we change the timing of reinforcement?
Reward successive approximations
Rewarding behaviors even closer to what you want
Positive reinforcement
Adding a desirable stimulus
(pet a dog that comes when you call it; pay someone for work done)
Negative reinforcement
Remove an aversive stimulus
(take painkillers to end the pain; fasten seatbelt to stop loud beeping)
Fixed ratio
Every so many; reinforcement after every nth behavior
(Rat gets food every 3rd time it pressed the lever)
(Buy 8 pizzas, get the next one free)
(Getting paid for every 10 boxes you make)
Variable ratio
Reinforcement after a random number of behaviors
(Hitting a jackpot sometimes on the slot machine)
(Kid has tantrum, parents sometimes give in)
Fixed interval
Every so often; reinforcement for behavior after a fixed time
(Getting paid weekly no matter how much work is done)
(Repeatedly checking mail until paycheck arrivals)
Variable interval
Unpredictably often; reinforcement for behavior after a random amount of time
(Checking cell phone all day; sometimes getting a text)
(Winning sometimes on the lottery you play once a day)
When are response rates most consistent?
Variable
When are response rates highest?
Ratio
Positive punishment
Administer an aversive stimulus
(Spray water on a barking dog; give a traffic ticket for speeding)
Negative punishment
Withdraw a rewarding stimulus
(Take away a misbehaving teen’s driving privileges; revoke a rude person’s chat room access)
What type of punishment is more effective than threats of severe punishment?
Swift and sure
What are some examples of operant conditioning?
School: Online quizzes
Sports: Reinforcing small wins and then making the challenger harder / Start learning to shoot a basketball very close to hoop and slowly move back
Work: Rewards for a job well done
Parenting: Reinforce good behavior, explain bad behavior and redirect
How do you change your behavior?
- State a realistic goal in measurable terms & announce it
- Decide how, when, and where
- Monitor how often you will engage
- Reinforce the desired behavior
- Reduce the rewards gradually
What are some examples of aversion?
When you eat bad food (more likely to develop aversion to bad food you ate in general, not the place you ate it from)
Instead of killing wolves, it works to feed the lamb laced with poison so the wolves develop aversion to sheep
Expectancy
The likeliness something will occur
What is observational learning (social learning)?
Modeling
Bobo Doll experiment
Children are able to learn social behavior such as aggression through the process of observation learning
Imitation
Children will over-imitate irrelevant actions
(stroking jar with feather before opening)
Prosocial behaviors
Viewing prosocial TV, movies, and video games boosts behavior
Morality can be modeled
Recall
Measure of memory
(fill in the blanks)
Recognition
Measure of memory
(multiple choice)
What are the 2 measures of memory?
Recall and recognition
Relearning
Time saved when learning something again
(we remember more than we can recall)
Encoding
Getting info INTO brain
Storage
Memory stays OVER TIME
Retrieval
Getting info OUT of brain
What is the order of memory retrieval?
- Sensory input
- Sensory memory
- Encoding
- Working/short term memory
- Encoding
- Long-term memory storage
Chunking
Familiar manageable units (automatic)
(the way we memories phone number)
Mnemonics
Way to remember (PEMDAS)
Hierarchies
Dividing info based on topic and getting increasingly more specific
(like a chart/tree)
Level of Processing: Shallow
Encoding on a basic level based on structure or appearance
Level of Processing: Deep
Encoding semantically based on meaning (yields better retentions)
What are the levels of processing?
- Structural (shallow): What does the word look like?
- Phonetic: What does the word sound like?
- Semantic (deep): What does the word mean?
Karl Spencer Lashley
Studied rat learning via mazes
Learned that only large lesions produced deficits
Deficits were similar no matter where the lesion occurred
How do we retrieve memories?
Brain regions send info to PFC (working memory)
What lobe is used to recall a password?
Left frontal lobe
What lobe is used to recall a visual party scene
Right frontal lobe
What is included in the EXPLICIT memory system?
Frontal lobes and hippocampus
Semantic or episodic
Memory consolidation
Memory consolidation
Neural storage of long term memories
Happens during sleep
Spacing studying
More chances for sleep to consolidate memories
What is included in the IMPLICIT memory system?
Cerebellum (forms and stores, conditioned reflexes)
Basal ganglia (procedural memories, receives info but doesn’t send)
Skills and newly conditioned associations
Synaptic changes
Experiences and learning increases the number of synapses (cell connections) in the brain
Long term potentiation
Physical basis for memory
An increase in cell firing potential after brief and rapid stimulation
You can wipe out current memories, but not old ones
Encoding Specificity Principle
Cues specific to event or person will most effectively trigger your memory
State-Dependent Memory
Mood impacts WHAT and HOW we remember
Encoding failure
What you don’t notice
Storage Decay
Memory durability
Happens rapidly then levels off over time
Retrieval failure
Tip of the tongue
Stems from interference
Source amnesia
Faulty memory for where, how, when, or who (specifics)
Thinking a buzz feed article is from a scientist
True vs. false memories
We more easily remember the gist of things rather than the specifics
False memories are socially contagious through storytelling
How can you improve memory?
- Rehearse (spacing & testing)
- Make it meaningful (associations)
- Retrieval cues activate (context & state dependent)
- Mnemonic devices
- Minimize interferences
- SLEEP MORE
- Test yourself (spacing and testing)
Prototype model
Instances of a concept are understood/stored as a variation of a prototype (ideal example) of that concept
Look for a “family resemblance”
Prototypes can be misleading when applied to people
Fixation
Using a prior strategy only
Functional fixedness
Fixated on usual functions
(the inability to realize that something known to have a particular use may also be used to perform other functions)
Culture bias in testing
Raven Progressive Matrices Test
(bias reduced rather than bias free)
Genetic influences of intelligence
Possibly 1000+ intelligence genes (alleles)
Heritability (group statistic)
Environmental influences on intelligence
Omega 3 fatty acids
Early childhood education
Reading w/ parents
Sternberg’s Triarchic Theory
- Analytical
- Creative
- Practical
Analytical intelligence
Analyze, judge, evaluate, compare, contrast
Creative intelligence
Create, design, invent, originate, imagine
Practical intelligence
Use, apply, implement, put ideas into practice
Infinite generativity
The ability to produce an endless number of meaningful sentences
Semantic memory
Facts, knowledge, concepts
(Paris is the capital of France)
Episodic
Memory for specific events
(I graduated high school in 2022)
Implicit memory
Unconscious retrieval
Explicit memory
Conscious retrieval
In shaping behavior, first…
build on natural already existing behaviors
Operant conditioning
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher
A reinforcer or punisher is given AFTER a behavior
Repressed memories are…
highly debated
Many convicted people based on witnesses have been cleared with
DNA
Classical conditioning
A signal is placed BEFORE a reflex
