Exam 3 Terms and Names To Know Flashcards
the size of object remains constant (perceived) although is enlarged in the retinal image
Size constancy
the smallest difference between two sensations that allows them to be discriminated.
Just noticeable difference (JND)
what things are
Pattern recognition
was watching American cats trying to escape from puzzle boxes. He reported his observations and inferences about the kind of learning he believed were taking place in his subjects. According to his analysis, learning was an association between stimuli in the situation and a response that an animal learned to make: a “stimulus-response (S-R) connection”
Edward L. Thorndike
the learning theory that stresses the role of observation and the imitation of behaviors observed in others.
Social learning theory
this type of eater puts constant limits on the amount of food they will let themselves eat; are chronically on diets; constantly worry about food
Restrained eaters
the stage in a classical conditioning experiment during which the conditioned response is first elicited by the conditioned stimulus.
Acquisition
an eating disorder characterized by binge eating followed by measures to purge the body of excess calories.
Bulimia nervosa
a schedule of reinforcement in which a reinforcer is delivered for the first response made after a variable period of time whose average is predetermined.
Variable interval (VI) schedule
basic needs such as hunger and thirst; at the bottom of Maslow’s hierarchy
Biological needs/motivation
Researcher who believed that avoidance learning is a combination of classical and operant conditioning at work; explained that calamity automatically leads to distress
Mowrer
an increase in behavioral response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly.
Sensitization
an unlearned response elicited by specific stimuli that have biological relevance for an organism.
Reflex
the tendency for learned behavior to drift toward instinctual behavior over time.
Instinctual drift
the study of the correspondence between physical simulation and psychological experience.
Psychophysics
specialized cell that converts physical signals into cellular signals that are processed by the nervous system.
Sensory receptor
a decrease in a behavioral response when a stimulus is presented repeatedly.
Habituation
in operant conditioning, a pattern of delivering and withholding reinforcement.
Schedules of reinforcement
Eyes aim inward to see object nearby
Convergence
the minimum amount of physical energy needed to produce a reliable sensory experience; operationally defined as the stimulus level at which a sensory signal is detected half the time.
Absolute threshold
intense fears to stimuli.
Phobias
a schedule of reinforcement in which a reinforcer is delivered for the first response made after a variable number of responses whose average is predetermined.
Variable ratio (VR) schedule
theorist who most fully developed the theory that much important behavior is motivated by internal drives. In his view, drives are internal states that arise in response to an animal’s physiological needs.
Clark Hull
2 eyes see different angles
Retinal disparity
innate, unlearned, biological reinforcement (i.e. food, water, sex)
Primary reinforcement
receptor cell in the retina that is sensitive to light.
Photoreceptor
the means by which organisms learn that, in the presence of some stimuli but not others, their behavior is likely to have a particular effect on the environment.
Three-term contingency
a hormone that acts to inhibit eating
Leptin
Maslow’s view that basic human motives form a hierarchy and that the needs at each level of the hierarchy must be satisfied before the next level can be achieved; these needs progress from basic biological needs to the need for self-actualization.
Hierarchy of needs
discussed the importance of expectations in motivating behavior in his social learning theory. For him, the probability that you will engage in a given behavior is determined by your expectation of attaining a goal that follows the activity and by the personal value of that goal.
Julian Rotter
the automatic extension of conditioned responding to similar stimuli that have never been paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
Stimulus generalization
the gradual improvement of the eyes’ sensitivity after a shift in illumination from light to near darkness.
Dark adaptation
predictability
Contingency
in classical conditioning, a formerly neutral stimulus that has become a reinforcer.
Conditioned reinforcer
the difference between what has been learned and what is expressed in overt behavior.
Learning-performance distinction.
a biological constraint on learning in which an organism learns in one trial to avoid a food whose ingestion is followed by illness
Taste-aversion learning
the behavioral principle that states that responses acquired under intermittent reinforcement are more difficult to extinguish than those acquired with continuous reinforcement.
Partial reinforcement effect
a form of learning in which animals acquire a response that will allow them to escape from an aversive stimulus.
Escape conditioning
biologically determined reinforcer, such as food and water.
Primary reinforcer
when a behavior no longer produces predictable consequences, its return to the level of occurrence it had before operant conditioning.
Operant extinction
in classical conditioning, a previously neutral stimulus that comes to elicit a conditioned response.
Conditioned stimulus (CS)
conducted a very telling experiment using dogs as subjects. Designed an experiment using a tone (the CS) and a shock (the UCS).
Robert Rescorla
the fullest development of potential according to Maslow’s theory; a person who has achieved this is self-aware, self-accepting, socially responsive, creative, spontaneous, and open to novelty and challenge.
Self-actualization
proposed that the critical dimension that underlies the psychology of eating behaviors is restrained versus unrestrained eating.
Janet Polivy
a basic law of learning that states that the power of a stimulus to evoke a response is strengthened when the response is followed by a reward and weakened when it is not followed by a reward.
Law of effect
transformation of one form of energy into another; for example, light is transformed into neutral impulses.
Transduction
the region of the retina where the optic nerve leaves the back of the eye; no receptor cells are present in this region.
Blind spot
a conditioning process in which an organism learns to respond differently to stimuli that differ from the conditioned stimulus on some dimension.
Stimulus discrimination
a projective test in which pictures of ambiguous scenes are presented to an individual, who is encouraged to generate stories about them.
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
The researcher who supported the ecological view of perception.
Gibson
He believed that scientific psychology should focus on consciousness and therefore centralizes on structuralism. He analyzed the constituents of the mind by using a method called introspection, which involves the subjective observation of one’s own experience
Wundt
pattern of proximal stimulation changes, but perception of distal stimulus remains constant–the object is perceived as getting closer, but perceived size stays the same
Perceptual constancies
This type of learning occurs without reward, indicative of cognition/Tolman’s view
Latent learning
thought to be the “satiety center”
Ventromedial hypothalamus (VMH)
the processes that put sensory information together to give the perception of a coherent scene over the whole visual field
Perceptual organization
the observer must store a representation of model’s behavior in memory.
Retention
a type of learning in which a behavior (conditioned response) comes to be elicited by a stimulus (conditioned stimulus) that has acquired its power through an association with a biologically significant stimulus (unconditioned stimulus).
Classical conditioning
His main contribution to the discipline was in the development of cognitive psychology, in particular that of “Perception as hypotheses”, an approach which had its origin in the work of Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–1894) and his student Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920). Between them, the two Germans laid the basis of investigating how the senses work, especially sight and hearing.
Gregory
a phenomenon in which receptor cells lose their power to respond after a period of unchanged stimulation; allows a more rapid reaction to new sources of information.
Sensory adaptation
a form of learning in which animals acquire responses that allow them to avoid aversive stimuli before they begin.
Avoidance conditioning
