Psch/Soc Chapter 3

Question 1

Conditioned stimulus

Answer 1

A normally neutral stimulus that, through association, now causes a reflexive response

Question 2

Unconditioned response

Answer 2

Innate and reflexive response

Question 3

Conditioned response

Answer 3

Reflexive response to a conditioned stimulus

Question 4

Dishabituation

Answer 4

Recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred

Question 5

Associative learning

Answer 5

Creation of pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response

Question 6

What are 2 examples of associative learning?

Answer 6

Classical and Operant Conditioning

Question 7

Classical conditioning

Answer 7

Uses biological, instinctual responses to create associations between 2 unrelated stimuli

Question 8

Escape learning

Answer 8

The role of the behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists

Question 9

Negative Reinforcement vs. Positive Punishment

Answer 9

Neg Reinforcement = removal of a negative stimulus to encourage a behavior
Pos Punishment = addition of a negative stimulus to reduce a behavior

Question 10

Avoidance learning

Answer 10

Prevents the unpleasantness of something that is about to happen

Question 11

Negative punishment

Answer 11

Reduction of a behavior when a stimulus is removed (ex. parent forbids child from watching TV as a consequence for bad behavior, with the goal of preventing the behavior from happening again)

Question 12

Fixed-Ratio Schedule

Answer 12

Reinforces a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior (i.e reward rat with a food pellet every 3rd time it pushes the button)
Continuous reinforcement is a type of FR that rewards every time the activity is performed

Question 13

Variable Ratio Schedule

Answer 13

Reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that an average number of performances to receive a reward is relatively constant (i.e. reward the rat first after 2 button presses then 8, 4, and 6)

Question 14

Fixed-Interval Schedules

Answer 14

Reinforce the first instance of behavior after a specified period of time has elapsed

Question 15

Shaping

Answer 15

Process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors

Question 16

Latent learning

Answer 16

Learning that occurs without the presence of a reward but is randomly demonstrated once a reward is introduced

Question 17

Instinctive drift

Answer 17

Inability to overcome instinctual behaviors when learning something new

Question 18

Which neurological factors effect observational learning the most?

Answer 18

Mirror neurons: located in the frontal and parietal lobes of the cerebral cortex and fire when the individual performs an action and when observing someone else performing it

Question 19

Method of Loci

Answer 19

Involved associating each item of a list with a segment if a path that was already memorized

Question 20

Peg-word System

Answer 20

Associates numbers with items that resemble or rhyme with those numbers

Question 21

Chunking/Clustering

Answer 21

Taking a large list of info and breaking into groups that have similar meaning

Question 22

What is the 7+/-2 rule? What type of memory does this describe?

Answer 22

Short term memory = limited in capacity to about 7 items that can be stored at a time

Question 23

What is the main region of the brain in which short term memory is housed and is consolidated into long-term memory?

Answer 23

Hippocampus

Question 24

How does maintainence rehearsal differ from elaborative rehearsal?

Answer 24

Maintainence reh: repitition of a piece of info to keep it in working memory
Elaborative reh: consolidates info into long-term memory by associating knowledge already stored in long-term memory

Question 25

What are the 2 types of long term memory?

Answer 25

Implicit (nondeclarative or procedural): skills and conditioned responses
Explicit (declarative memory): memories that require conscious recall

Question 26

Spacing effect

Answer 26

Longer the time between learning and relearning the greater the info retention was later on

Question 27

Semantic network

Answer 27

Concepts are linked together based on a similar meaning

Question 28

Spreading activation

Answer 28

When one node of the semantic network is activated, others around it become activated as well

Question 29

Priming

Answer 29

Recall is aided by first being presented with a word or phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory

Question 30

Korsakoff’s Syndrome

Answer 30

Form of memory loss characterized by thiamine deficiency in the brain (retrograde and anterograde amnesia and confabulation)

Question 31

Agnosia

Answer 31

Loss of ability to recognize objects, people or sounds

Question 32

Proactive interference

Answer 32

Old info is interfering with new learning

Question 33

Retroactive interference

Answer 33

New info causes forgetting of old info

Question 34

Prospective Memory

Answer 34

Remembering to perform a task at some point in the future remains mostly intact when it is event based (primed by a trigger of events) Ex. remembering to buy milk when passing by a grocery store

Question 35

Misinformation Effect

Answer 35

When visually presented with information and then prompted with incorrect written explanations. Mismatch occurs where subject recalls misinformation

Question 36

Source-Monitoring Error

Answer 36

Involves confusion between semantic and episodic memory: a person remembers the the details of an event but the context under which those details were gained is confused

Question 37

Long term potentiation

Answer 37

1) Over time, stimulated neurons become more efficient at releasing their neurotransmitters
2) Receptor sites on the other side of the synapse increase (increasing the receptor density)