Learning 1 Flashcards
What is interference in transience?
When other memories get in the way of new memories
What is retroactive interference?
New information inhibits our ability to remember old information
What is an example of retroactive interference?
Hearing different song lyrics when someone points out alternatives to what it sounds like. Ex: I’m blue dabadee daba daai sounding like im in need of a guy
What is proactive interference?
Old information inhibits the ability to remember new information
What is an example of proactive interference?
When you updated your password for a website but you think it’s still the old password. OR when on the first few days of the new year you write the wrong date
What is learning?
The acquisition, from experience, of new knowledge, skills, or responses that result in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.
What do behaviourists think about learning?
To learn from something you need to directly experience it.
Who believe that some behaviours are born, innate and unlearned?
nativists
What are the 2 types of behaviours that are unlearned?
instincts and reflexes
What do we mean when we say that reflexes and instincts serve an evolutionary purpose?
They help species survive.
What is an example of an instinct?
when you see the salmon run each year in the spring, at some point in their life when they start getting old they will swim against stream until they get back to the place that they were born. Nothing taught salmon to do this. These instincts help species survive (evolutionary perspective)
What is an example of a reflex? Definition?
when you go to put hand on hot surface, your hand pulls away. A reflex. A reflex doesn’t go up to your brain they are controlled by nerve bundles/sensory neurons send signal to spinal cord, it receives this and then tell the motor neurons to tighten the muscle. Doesn’t go up to the cortex. Reflexes aren’t learned. They also serve an evolutionary purpose.
What is a large similarity between instincts, reflexes and learning?
They all help you to adapt to your environment
In which ways are instincts and reflexes the same
(a) They help an organism adapt to the environment.
(b) they are unlearned
What are instincts?
complex behaviours, triggered by a range of broad events. They involve a lot of the brain.
What are reflexes?
relatively simple motor/neural responses that are localized. They are relatively simple communications between sensory and motor neurons.
What is learning most commonly based on?
experience