Psch/Soc Chapter 3 Flashcards
Conditioned stimulus
A normally neutral stimulus that, through association, now causes a reflexive response
Unconditioned response
Innate and reflexive response
Conditioned response
Reflexive response to a conditioned stimulus
Dishabituation
Recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occurred
Associative learning
Creation of pairing, or association, either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response
What are 2 examples of associative learning?
Classical and Operant Conditioning
Classical conditioning
Uses biological, instinctual responses to create associations between 2 unrelated stimuli
Escape learning
The role of the behavior is to reduce the unpleasantness of something that already exists
Negative Reinforcement vs. Positive Punishment
Neg Reinforcement = removal of a negative stimulus to encourage a behavior
Pos Punishment = addition of a negative stimulus to reduce a behavior
Avoidance learning
Prevents the unpleasantness of something that is about to happen
Negative punishment
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)
Fixed-Ratio Schedule
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
Variable Ratio Schedule
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)
Fixed-Interval Schedules
Reinforce the first instance of behavior after a specified period of time has elapsed
Shaping
Process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors
Latent learning
Learning that occurs without the presence of a reward but is randomly demonstrated once a reward is introduced
Instinctive drift
Inability to overcome instinctual behaviors when learning something new
Which neurological factors effect observational learning the most?
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
Method of Loci
Involved associating each item of a list with a segment if a path that was already memorized
Peg-word System
Associates numbers with items that resemble or rhyme with those numbers
Chunking/Clustering
Taking a large list of info and breaking into groups that have similar meaning
What is the 7+/-2 rule? What type of memory does this describe?
Short term memory = limited in capacity to about 7 items that can be stored at a time
What is the main region of the brain in which short term memory is housed and is consolidated into long-term memory?
Hippocampus
How does maintainence rehearsal differ from elaborative rehearsal?
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
What are the 2 types of long term memory?
Implicit (nondeclarative or procedural): skills and conditioned responses
Explicit (declarative memory): memories that require conscious recall
Spacing effect
Longer the time between learning and relearning the greater the info retention was later on
Semantic network
Concepts are linked together based on a similar meaning
Spreading activation
When one node of the semantic network is activated, others around it become activated as well
Priming
Recall is aided by first being presented with a word or phrase that is close to the desired semantic memory
Korsakoff’s Syndrome
Form of memory loss characterized by thiamine deficiency in the brain (retrograde and anterograde amnesia and confabulation)
Agnosia
Loss of ability to recognize objects, people or sounds
Proactive interference
Old info is interfering with new learning
Retroactive interference
New info causes forgetting of old info
Prospective Memory
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
Misinformation Effect
When visually presented with information and then prompted with incorrect written explanations. Mismatch occurs where subject recalls misinformation
Source-Monitoring Error
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
Long term potentiation
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)
