exam 3 Flashcards
Behaviorists
stimulus-response association focus. large use of animals in studies.
non-associative learning
habituation
sensitization
habituation
reduced responding to stimulus (ex. living in a house by train tracks, you stop waking up to the train eventually)
sensitization
increased responding to a stimulus (opposite of habituation)
Classical conditioning
- unconditioned stimulus ––> unconditioned response
- neutral stimulus ––> U.S. ––> U.R.
- conditioned stimulus ––> conditioned response
pavlov
identified classical conditioning: dog
cellular changes in learning
neurotransmitters are binding to receptors and trigger action potential and this created more receptors
long term potentiation (LTP)
strengthening of neural connections. temporary, could last for several weeks.
AMPA receptors
responsible for action potential
standard pairing
CS paired with US and then they overlap = learning
simultaneous conditioning
CS and US are given at the same time = no learning
backward conditioning
US then CS = no learning
delay conditioning
CS precedes US then US happens (no overlap) = learning, not as strong as standard
trace conditioning
CS, wait, then US = learning but not as strongly and takes longer
temporal conditioning
no CS but regular intervals of US = learning
continuity
CS and US close in time (Not needed for learning, but can make learning faster)
contingency
CS is predictive, apart from constant or intermittent events (Needed for learning!)
stimulus-response association
US/CS––> response
stimulus-stimulus associations
CS––>mental representation of US––>response
acquisition (classical conditioning)
learning curve. takes time for learning to occur –– CR increases with CS-US pairings
extinction (classical conditioning)
once US stops being presented, CR goes away –– CR decreases as CS and US aren’t paired
spontaneous recovery (classical conditioning)
after extinction, bring back CS and CR will occur –– after extinction CS spontaneously prompts CR
savings (classical conditioning)
after extinction if you retrain learning is faster –– CS-US pairings begin again and CR returns
generalization (classical conditioning)
behavior will be generalized to over similar stimuli
discrimination (classical conditioning)
only responding to exact stimuli
high order conditioning (classical conditioning)
(aka second order conditioning) stack up things with conditioned stimuli and the further from original the weaker response gets
CS1––> US ––> UR
CS1––> CR
CS2––>CS1––CR
CS2––CR
blocking (classical conditioning)
after association is learned, present another CS at the same time as original and learning won’t occur with the new stimulus
CS1––> US ––> UR
CS1––> CR
CS2 + CS1 ––> CR
CS2 ––> ……
Phases of classical conditioning
acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, savings
Little Albert
John Watson and Rosalie. Albert was scared of loud noises. Associated the noises w/ outside things and associated fear with them. white bunny all white fluffy things lalalala etc etc etc
shows us where some of our fears come from, provides evidence suggesting fears can be learned + unlearned
systematic desensitization
slowly introducing phobia until they’re no longer afraid (ex. pics of spiders, toy spider, dead spider, live spider)
learned helplessness
if you learn something as impossible to avoid, once it does become possible to avoid you wont avoid it because there is no point in trying (and it’s even better/safer to do nothing)
-puppies on electric shock floor w door vs no door vs door introduced
conditioned drug tolerance
survival rate for drugs taken in setting they usually are taken is higher then that of in new settings. this is true for both hard drugs but the same principles apply to drugs like caffeine as well.
Operant Conditioning
learning from action–> consequences and rewards
thorndike’s puzzle box
cat in box, needs to step on lever to access food. behavior that gives reward is reinforced
The Law of Effect
response consequences strengthen or weaken actions. positive effects are strengthened, negative or neutral are weakened.
reinforcement
outcomes that increase a behavior. governed by reward pathways in the brain.
reward pathways
in the medial forebrain: midbrain–> hypothalamus–> nucleus accumbens–> dopamine
dopamine
reward expectation
discriminative stimulus
setting that indicates when it’s appropriate for a response to be made. basically when to do things.
positive reinforcement
adding something desired. increase in behavior. ex. candy each time you put your toys away
negative reinforcement
remove something unpleasant. increase in behavior. ex. get rid of dirty diapers if you go on the potty
positive punishment
adding something unpleasant. decreases behavior. ex. behaving badly means standing in a corner
negative punishment
remove something pleasant. decrease in behavior. ex. no more desert if you don’t eat your vegetables
Primary Reinforcer
a biological need or desire
conditioned reinforcer
an acquired need or desire (ex. money) (aka secondary reinforcer)
token economies
control undesirable behaviors. acceptable behaviors are rewarded with tokens. tokens are exchanged for commodities. ex. classroom with points for prizes or our own economy. effective in the short term but not necessarily long term
premack principle
more preferred activities reinforce less preferred activities. doing something less desired in order to do what’s most desired. first work, then play.
temporal discounting
discounting a larger delayed gain for an immediate smaller gain–– $5 now instead of $50 later
acquisition (operant conditioning)
takes some time to learning (learning curve) needs repetition
extinction (operant conditioning)
stop reinforcing then the behavior will eventually go away
generalization (operant conditioning)
generalize behavior to similar circumstances
discrimination (operant conditioning)
engage behavior under some circumstances but not others
shaping (operant conditioning)
successive approximations rewarded until desired behavior is achieved. ex. training a dog, or gaining superstitious behavior
episodic buffer
information bound together, from working and long term memory, creates episodic memory
central executive
control center. manipulates contents and allocates resources. most complex and active part of working memory.
dysexecutive syndrome
damage to frontal lobe, loss of executive control. two major deficiencies––> distraction, preservation (doing something even when no longer relevant)
working memory training
working memory capacity is correlated with intelligence. some evidence says we can make people smarter by increasing it however it doesn’t generalize to all areas of intelligence.
learning to play a musical instrument could help
people who play video games may have better visuo spatial abilities which could spill over into related tasks (effect is minimal)
declarative / explicit LTM
facts and things you can say. consciously retrieved.
procedural / implicit LTM
how to physically do things and things you implicitly know like language. responses, actions, reactions. procedural is skills and habits.
transience
memories are often temporary, you forget things
absent-mindedness
didn’t learn something bcs you weren’t paying attention
blocking (memory)
similar memories block others so you can’t remember them fully
misattribution
trying to remember where you learned something but not being able to (ex. in class or in the book)
suggestability
memories can be altered by new information coming in
bias
memories are affected by what you now know
persistence
if you learn something incorrectly you’ll have trouble forgetting it and learning it properly. or, you won’t be able to forget a bad memory.
shallow processing
rogue rehearsal (repetition.. etc.)
deep processing
elaborative rehearsal
this equates to remembering things better
chunking and LTM
organizing and structuring in a meaningful way will help you store and remember things
imagery
helps you remember more, integrates information. requires effort (deep processing). dual encoding (verbal + image)
von Restorff Effect
distinctive items are remembered better.. ex. a list of words and one stands out
generation effect
remember what you generate yourself better
survival effect
people remember survival information better
schemas
general world knowledge of common events/things. people remember more when using them but this also causes misremembering because of your bias to expect what is expected in that set schema. ex. doctor’s office.
hindsight bias
distort memory to conform to current knowledge/views
massed practice
one long session (worse)
distributed practice
across several short sessions (better)
retrieval practice
memory is better if study is followed by a test, then more studying.
encoding specificity bias
memory is better when retrieval and encoding contexts match.
mood congruent memory
think happy things when happy (etc.)
mood dependent memory
learn it when happy, easier to remember when happy (etc.)
state dependent memory
things you learn when hungry are easier to remember when hungry (etc.)
priming
increased availability for related info. below conscious awareness, form of implicit memory
electrical stimulation (penfield)
reports of everyday events when brain is electrically stimulated suggesting memory is like a video camera except this is difficult to verify and only 5% of cases reported it. most were without the full experience and it wasn’t convincing data.
permastore
memory ceases to decline after a time
flashbulb memories
very detailed memories for surprising events. they must be: unexpected, novel, intense, personally meaningful, and rehearsed. (ex. 9/11, pearl harbor) (false memories can appear as flashbulb memories too, though)
ebbinghaus’ forgetting curve
first to systemically study memory. used nonsense syllables. tested himself over many years––> the curve shows transience and that you forget a lot really fast but then it levels out.
forgetting+sleep
don’t form new memories during sleep so there’s nothing to interfere with condensing processes.
proactive interference
prior information interferes with new (ex. keep saying your old address instead of your new)
retroactive interference
new information interferes with old (ex. can’t remember old locker number only the new one)
retrieval induced forgetting
memories that are sources of interference are suppressed during retrieval and later they’re harder to remember (similar to blocking)
Rescorla-Wagner Model
a cognitive model of classical conditioning; learning is determined by the extent to which an US is unexpected or surprising
positive prediction error
either the presence of an unexpected event or a stronger version of the expected stimulus than anticipated
negative prediction error
an event does not happen and this weakens the CS-CR relationship
skinner box
skinner tested animals––two levers one connected to food and the other connected to water and the rats/animals had to go through a maze to get to each one. this showed learning
continuous reinforcement
reinforcing a behavior each time it occurs
partial reinforcement
reinforcing behavior intermittently
ratio schedule
based on the number of times the behavior occurs, as when a behavior is reinforced on every third or tenth occurrence for example
interval schedule
based on a specific unit of time, as when a behavior is reinforced when it is performed every minute or hour.
fixed schedule
happening consistently and regularly
variable schedule
reinforcement comes at different times
fixed interval schedule
occurs when reinforcement is given after a certain amount of time has passed.
variable interval schedule
occurs when reinforcement is given after a passage of time, but the time is not regular.
fixed ratio schedule
occurs when reinforcement is provided after a certain number of responses have been made.
variable ratio schedule
occurs when reinforcement is provided after an unpredictable number of responses.
partial reinforcement extinction effect
the greater persistence of a behavior under partial reinforcement than when under continuous reinforcement
equipotentiality
the theory that any US paired with a CS should result in learning. however challenges to this have arisen and some things are definitely more likely to produce learning than others
taste aversion
after just one bad experience with food you can be conditioned to not want it anymore.
phobia
an acquired fear that is out of proportion to the real threat
fear conditioning
a type of classical conditioning that turns neutral stimuli into threatening stimuli : little albert
Bandura’s Bobo Dolls Experiment
displays the principles of social/observational learning. children watched adults beat up a bobo doll or be nice to it, and whatever they saw they replicated that behavior
modeling
the imitation of observed behavior
vicarious learning
learning about an actions consequences by witnessing others being rewarded or punished for the action
instructed learning
learning behaviors through being told about them
amnesia
a deficit in long term memory in which the individual loses the ability to retrieve vast quantities of information. due to brain damage.
retrograde amnesia
people lose past memories for events facts people or even personal info
anterograde amnesia
losing the ability to form new memories
patient H.M.
famous case study: removed part of frontal lobe including hippocampus and this resulted in intense anterograde amnesia
episodic memory
memory for one’s past experiences that are identified by a time and place
semantic memory
memory for facts independent of personal experience
Stages of Memory
Encoding –> Storage –> Retrieval
encoding
perception of a stimulus or event gets transformed into a memory
maintenance rehearsal
repeating something over and over
elaborative rehearsal
encoding the information in more meaningful ways
mnemonics
learning age or strategies to improve memory (mind palace)
sensory memory
temporary memory system tied closely to the sensory systems. lasts only a fraction of a second.
iconic memory
visual
echoic memory
auditory
working memory
a limited capacity cognitive system that temporarily stores and manipulates information for current use. 20-30 seconds
long term memory
unlimited capacity and can last from a few minutes to forever.
serial position effect
you can recall the beginning and ending of items in a list better than things in the middle
primacy effect
remembering things that come first in a list (reflects LTM)
recency effect
remembering things that come last in a list (reflects working memory)
consolidation
the gradual process of memory storage in the brain
reconsolidation
the act of re-storing memories after they’re retrieved
retrieval cues
any stimulus that promotes a memory recall
prospective memory
remembering to do something at a future time
cryptomnesia
people think they have come up with a new idea. Instead, they have retrieved an old idea from memory and failed to attribute the idea to its proper source
capacity of short term memory
7+/-2 chunks (more like 4+/-1)
effects of expertise
if you have enough knowledge you can use it to your advantage to remember more
parallel retrieval theory (STM)
everything is accessible at once/in parallel
serial self-terminating (STM)
one at a time, stop when you’ve found what you need
serial exhaustive (STM)
one at a time, go through everything. data is most similar to this.
phonological loop
repetition. inner ear (phonological short term store) and inner voice (subvocal rehearsal).
visuo-spatial sketchpad
influence of visual and spacial factors. mental scanning, mental rotation, boundary extension, dynamic memory.
mental scanning
time to mentally scan increases with length
mental rotation
time to recognize an object is a function of degree of rotation
boundary extension
memory beyond the field of vision is filled in
dynamic memory
representational momentum and representational gravity. you judge movement and gravity in memory.
place cells
in hippocampus, fire when in a specific location
grid cells
entorhinal cortex. location in space
border cells
entorhinal cortex. sensitive to presence of borders
episodic future thinking
imagining the future is like imagining the past
internal source monitoring
did you do something or just think about doing it
external source monitoring
knowing where information came from
reality monitoring
knowing if something is real or a dream
autobiographical memory
memory for personal life events
infantile amnesia
can’t remember life events before ages 2-3. freud says it’s because of sexual repression. biologically it’s because: hippocampus isn’t developed, language isn’t developed, we haven’t learned social schemas or what’s important, and there hasn’t been development of the self.
reminiscence bump
you remember more of your past from your 20s because: (cognitive) you remember doing things for the first time the best, identity formation, cultural schema devloping
