Learning and Memory Flashcards
Learning
A relatively permanent change in behaviour caused by experience
Incidental learning
Casual, unintentional acquisition of knowledge
Classical conditioning
Occurs when a stimulus that elicits a response is paired with another stimulus that initially does not elicit a response on its own. Over time, the second stimulus causes a similar response
Repetition
Repetition increase learning; repeated exposures to the association increases the strength of the associations
Stimulus Generalisation
Tendency for stimuli similar to conditioned stimulus to evoke similar, conditioned responses
E.g. Family branding, product line extentions, look-alike packaging
Stimulus Discrimination
Consumers are able to discriminate the new stimulus from the existing one and, subsequently, donot exhibit the same behavioural response.
Instrumental conditioning
The individual learns to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and to avoid those yield negative outcomes
Positive reinforcement
A stimulus is added to increase a behaviour
Negative reinforcement
A stimulus is removed to increase a behaviour
Punishment
A stimulus is added or removed to decrease a behaviour
Reinforcement Schedules in Instrumental Conditioning
Fixed-interval
Variable-interval
Fixed-ratio
Variable-ratio
Fixed vs Variable
Fixed: the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements is set
Variable: the number of responses or amount of time between reinforcements varies
Interval vs Ratio
Interval: the schedule is based on the time between reinforcements
Ratio: the schedule is based on the number of responses between reinforcements
Fixed-interval
When a behaviour is rewarded after a set amount of time. You tend to respond slowly right after you get reinforced but your responses get faster as the time for the next reinforcement approaches
E.g. Salary, seasonal or monthly sales
Variable-interval
The subject gets the reinforcement based on varying and unpredictable amounts of time. You tend to respond at a consistent rate.
E.g. fishing (you don’t know when the next fish will come, but you wait anyway because there will be a fish eventually)
Fixed-ratio
There are a set number of responses that must occur before the behaviour is rewarded. You continue performing the same behaviour over and over.
E.g. coffee shop rewards card
Variable-ratio
The number of responses needed for a reward varies. You tend to respond at very high and steady rates. This behaviour is difficult to extinguish
E.g. lottery
Observation Learning
Occurs as a result of vicarious rather than direct experience
Modelling
The process of imitating the behaviour of others
Social cognitive theory
Developed by Albert Bandura, indiviudals acquire knowledge by observing others within the context of social interactions and experiences
Consumer socialisation
Process to which children acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes relevant to their functioning in the marketplace
Child Consumers: make up three distinct markets…
Primary market: kids spend their own money
Influence market: parents buy what their kids tell them to buy (parental yielding)
Future market: kids grow up and become adults and stay loyal to the brands they loved when they were young
Authoritarian parents
Hostile, restrictive, and emotionally uninvolved; censor the types of media children see
Neglecting/uninvolved parents:
Detatched from children; don’t exercise much control over what children do
Indulgent/permissive parents
Communicate more with children about consumption, less restrictive; believe kids should learn about marketplace withou much interference
Authoritative parents
Firm and consistent control, encouraging independence and autonomy, attentive, forgiving, offering democratic climate
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Children pass through distinct stages of cognitive development at the same time
Sensorimotor
(0-2 years) The infant explores the world through direct sensory and motor contact. Object permanence and seperation anxiety develop
Preoperational
(2-6 years) The child uses symbols to represent objects but does not reason logically. The child has the ability to pretend. The child is egocentric (everyone sees the same as them)
Concrete operational
(7-12 years) The child can think logically about concrete objects and thus can add and subtract. The child also understands conservation (the quantity of things remain the same even if you change the container)
Formal Operational
(12 years - adult) The adolescent can reason abstractly and think in hypothetical terms
An Alternative View on Developmental Stages
- Limited: below age 6, children do not use storage and retrieval strategies.
- Cued: between ages 6 and 12, children use these strategies but only when prompted to do so
- Strategic: children ages 12 and older spontaneously employ storage and retrieval strategies
