midterm 1 Flashcards
what is behaviour?
A change in time and space. An observable movement or action, or sequence of movements and actions by an animal (including humans)
Neuroscience likes to explain how behaviour changes over time, quantifiable
what is learning?
The process by which changes in behaviour arise as a result of an organism’s experience interacting with the world
what is motivation?
the proximal or proximate causes or “why” of behaviour
what is memory?
The organism’s internal record of past experiences, acquired through learning
what processes are involved in memory?
acquisition (encoding), storage (retention), and retrieval of information
what is acquisition of memory?
encoding of new information or, learning
what is storage of memory?
Retention and the “Engram”
what is retrieval of memory?
Ecphoric processes
what is explicit memory?
Recognition, recall, cued recall.
what is implicit memory?
Priming
what is maturation?
Persistent change in behaviour… but not through experience or learning processes per se. Biological development (driven mostly by heredity). Can be maturational processes at all levels of the phenotype: Getting bigger, taller, stronger, but also maturational changes in the brain.
what is performance?
An activity or behaviour that leads to a (measurable) result.
* Often the dependent variable of learning
is learning a behaviour?
Yes according to behaviourists, but no to others because memory is not a behaviour
learning is…
an enduring change in the mechanisms of behaviour involving specific stimuli and/or responses that results from prior experience with those or similar stimuli and responses
what plays a role in learning?
Experience plays a role in learning and the adjustment of behaviour
what can be easy to misconstrue with learning?
Easy to misconstrue learning with maturation.
Maturation = nervous system will gain precision, part of the developmental process to start chaotic and then refine. Even motor learning beyond maturation can be find tuned through learning if you give the right feedback
what were watson and skinner?
behaviourists
what did watson and skinner (or all behaviourists) believe?
believed that behaviour is something that can be seen, they did not believe in mentalistic processes (problem solving, attention, motivation) — they were against cognitive psych. If you can’t see it, it is not part of behaviourism and they believed not part of psychology
when did the cognitive revolution occur and what did it change?
In the 60s the cognitive revolution occurred following behaviourism, where cognitive processes were recognized as being fundamental
how did behaviourists attempt to explain motivation – how do you explain how reinforcement works?
A series of concepts were developed (originally called drive; however that still can’t be seen) that ended up as being motivation. Behaviourists acknowledged that a hypothetical construct is necessary
what are hypothetical constructs?
something we don’t know if it actually exists, but the knowledge of the term is important,
eg. Gravity can’t be seen but it is clearly important in other behaviours
what is cognitive psychology full of?
Cognitive psychology is full of hypothetical constructs and intervening variables
what are intervening variables?
variables used to define hypothetical constructs, how do you quantify motivation?
eg. Attention can be used for example, a way of measuring something that is abstract
how did behaviourists attempt to explain motivation (after hypothetical constructs)?
At the time, behaviourists explained things with metabolic data (still can’t be seen; but they recognized the importance of physiology — behaviourists did not see the brain as being relevant)
what is the behaviourist example for metabolic reasoning behind motivation?
Metabolism for example could explain hunger as a method for motivation — food leads to drive
what is motivation?
mentalistic, you may see the consequences but not motivation itself.
what did the “why of behaviour” aspect of the definition of motivation spark?
so important that functionalists thought psychology should be called motivology (science of motivation) — very contrasting point of view that behaviourists
what was wrong with the definition of learning as the acquisition/encoding of behaviour?
the problem is that learning is not just encoding (neural theorem network however suggests it is pruning, keep the connections that work and get rid of what is in the way/not giving reinforcement)
what is the bias to define learning as?
acquisition only, the problem is how long is it staying there? And what is the process of recalling learned information?
what did behaviourists think about the acquisition aspect of memory?
Behaviourists did not believe the acquisition aspect was important — didn’t see memory as being relevant. But then how does that work? Behaviourists said learned behaviours somehow stick but did not explain why?
how many stages is memory seen as?
three stages
storage of memory - are all memories stored?
No. There are different types of memory: iconic, sensory, conscious/unconscious
what kind of process is retrieval of memory?
euphoric processes — big difference between explicit/implicit memories
what is priming of memory?
you have information in your brain that you may not be aware of, priming can be tested in cognitive psychology. Priming can be explained by old learning theories, eg. Classical conditioning
example of implicit memory?
French clinical neuropsychologist had a patient with dementia that was not recalling info. He would have to keep reintroducing himself. One day, he had the idea to prick her palm every time he introduced and shook her hand, causing her to pull away. He had a suspicion that maybe some memories (amygdala) are encoded and will be there no matter. He found that eventually she would pull back from the handshake, despite saying she doesn’t recognize him. Implicit memory emerged in the 80s. William James had published work on conscious/unconscious memory previously
what kind of memory is classical conditioning?
implict
what kind of memory is operant conditioning?
explicit
how are most phobias acquired?
through classical conditioning - people do not remember how they acquired a phobia for something
what needs to happen for operant conditioning to work?
need to be aware of the contingency - very explicit/conscious
what does amygdala do?
very good at encoding information that cannot be put into words — amygdala detects potentially dangerous stimuli, that is why it can pick up on these, this is paired on context
what kind of memory does the amygdala hold?
implicit memory
what is classical conditioning behind?
a lot of unconscious behaviours
how does the school system assess intelligence?
through grades (performance) = merit based system (however, it is ableist)
how is motivation studied in psychology?
through performance, since learning and motivation are so intimately correlated we assume that the same measured can be used
what is motivation correlated with?
performance/learning
what is one of the problems with behaviourism?
that there was often an assumption there was little individual variability — data can be modelled by learning curves
why are simple systems used in science?
to reduce variability - thats why zebrafish are often used
what are idiographic studies?
the study of the individual, who is seen as a unique agent with a unique life history
what are nomoethic studies?
the study of groups of people or cases for the purpose of discovering those general and universally valid laws
what kind of measure is performance?
dependent measure - complicated to study
is learning translated into performance?
not always, but you measure learning by measuring performance
what is piagets definition of intelligence?
“what you do when you don’t know what to do” - very biological definition
what does piagets definition of intelligence tap into?
Very biological definition of intelligence — taps into individual adaptation and novelty
what is adaptation in intelligence?
intelligence organizes the world by organizing itself
what was Thorndike’s idea of intelligence?
trial and error idea, he opened the door to learning theory/operant conditioning as it is today
what were Cattell’s theories of intelligence?
fluid (in the moment) vs. Crystallized (already in place) intelligence
what is Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence?
All kinds of different sociocognitive domains of intelligence — relevant because must of the learning we discuss is instrumental, but there is also social learning theory which is social-affective
s factor vs. g factor?
The “g” factor is linked to the general ability, while the “s” factor is linked to the specific ability
instrumental vs. social affective intelligence
?
when you try to teach individuals something (training w animals) is it a sign of intelligence if they can learn?
learning is one thing, but not everything about intelligence
What is the stanley coren list?
ranked dogs based on trainability and not intelligence or problem-solving ability
- He made a clear point in the book, some breeds are highly trainable and learn quickly, the problem is that other breeds are good at problem solving — this is also a part of intelligence (Piaget quote)
what is knowledge?
cognition and metacognition
what is cognition?
what you know - what you gain through experience and learning and retain for future use)
what is metacognition
what you know or think you know/don’t know what you know
humans are bad at this
how did the ancient greek divide the mind?
into 3 parts
Cognitive part (intellectual), motivation part (conative), emotional part (affective)
are the three parts of the brain interconnected?
yes - for example, emotions can interfere with or improve learning
what do you have to do when conceptualizing the three parts of the brain?
put it into context - the physical and social environment
what can you do with the 3 domains of the brain?
divide them into the disciplines they concern, a;; are massively interconnected
what does the nature/nurture debate have to do with?
how we see the interaction between genes (biology) and the environment
who revolutionized the nature/nurture debate?
Kuo – brought up the idea of traditional epigenetics, not one or the other but the complex interaction between btoh
kuo’s equation?
G + E + (G x E)
G = genes
E = environment (can include culture)
This means that you can never separate genes from environment or nature vs nurture, it is a fallacy to think you can do so
example of the complexity of nature/nurture?
Complexity stems from the fact that for any given behaviour, there are components that may be more genetic or more environmental
One of the most genetically determined thing is height, but that is always in relation to the kind of environment youre in (Traditional example is the plant and the type of soil it is in) — highly inherited, but you can still have stunted growth even if your parents are super tall, eg. nutrition
what is imprinting?
innate instinct, a baby gosling when they hatch find their mom and follow their mom
what was the debate of imprinting?
Biologists said that following instinct was innate, then psychologies said that they thought learning processes were actually going on
Debate as to whether imprinting is learned or innate? It is both. It is a reversible process thanks to learning, but the initial response is in fact innate, the following response. What happens later is foggy and a combination of the two.
when did biologists/psychologists agree that nature/nurture is a combo?
by the 70s
what behaviours are more innate than others?
- newborns swimming
- grooming patterns in rodents
what is the grooming pattern in rodents an example of?
In 1973 he published a paper. Experimental group had their front limbs amputated (this would impede the normal grooming sequence). At the age that the control group started grooming themselves, the rodents were given prosthetics. If this was innate, they would do it the same way with the prosthetics. They immediately got into a perfectly normal grooming sequence. This means that there are some innate behaviours — grooming.
what disciplines have a strong nurture bias
The social sciences and “humanistic” psychology still have a strong nurture bias — they believe this removes the component of free will (I decided to do this, not biology — this can still be partially true)
Exception of evolutionary psychology and biological anthropology
what was the very first part of psychology?
association
what was the first school of psychology?
structuralism - Vundt, germany 1879
what was after strucutralism?
Soon after that we got functionalism (William James, thorndike)
what happened at roughly the same time as functionalism?
behaviourists started (Watson came in within the last century to create behaviourism — was inspired by the Russian physiologist Pavlov)
what did pavlov propose?
Pavlov was talking about classical conditioning (Pavlovian conditioning) proposed that most behaviours could be learned through classical conditioning — this had good momentum from 20s-80s
when did cognitivism gain prevalance?
60s-70s
what did behaviourism suggest?
Behaviourism suggests that it explains everything, also they do not like that psychology would talk about anything other than behaviour — thought the only thing that matters is what you can see (don’t talk about cognitions, emotions, motivations — none of the three circles of psychology and this is because they are mentalistic)
in what issues are behaviourism important?
autism, PTSD
what is antiquity?
at some point in conditioning/learning theory you have to talk about mentalistic processes (learning, anticipation) — lots of classical conditioning revolves around these
what processes do you see classical conditioning in?
gambling
how did aristotle suggest associations were made?
made through acquisition (learning), Aristotle thought there was a huge difference between acquisition in animals and humans but that there must be some rules
what did behaviourists try to do?
come up with rules (like physics) for behaviours, this is why they thought it had to revolve around what you can see
what discipline are mostly dualists?
Lots of psychologists are dualists, lots of neuroscientists are monoists
what does dualism refer to?
Separation between the mind and brain in dualism — psychologyy
who pushed dualism in the western culture?
In western culture we have been influenced by Descartes who suggested they were different things — interactionist dualism
Not supported in the east or sciences
what did behaviourists think about neuroscience?
Behaviourists seemed to think that you don’t need neuroscience to explain behaviour, except fundamentally this doesn’t make sense — behaviour is produced from the brain (this is why behaviourism is not accepted in neuroscience now)
what did descartes beleive?
- believed a lot of things were in place at birth and couldn’t be changed later
- believed that animals had no mind/soul — has affected the ethics used in neuro as compared to humans, this is slowly changing now. A lot of the ethics we have now is based on agency, consciousness and self awareness
- Descartes was the origin of the idea that animals lack consciousness/awareness/emotions
lots of psychology is still…
cartesian (dualist)
what has empiricism from the UK done?
involved the extremely scientific approach to science at the time
Locke — knowledge is from experience
Hume — association
who suggested relativism?
kant
