Psy 201 Test 3 Flashcards
learning
refers to a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge due to experience
conditioning
learning associations between events that occur in an organism’s environment
classical conditioning
a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus; reflexes, automatic behavior (e.g. tone associated w/ hammer to knee reflex > tone only > knee still responds)
classical conditioning is sometimes called ? conditioning in honor of ?, a Russian psychologist - “psychic secretions”
Pavlovian; Ivan Pavlov (dog salivation stimulus experiment - tone associated w/ meat powder so salivates when presented the tone)
unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
a stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning (e.g. meat powder)
unconditioned response (UCR)
an unlearned reaction to the UCS that occurs without previous conditioning (e.g. salivating)
conditioned stimulus (CS)
a previously neutral stimulus that has, through conditioning, acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response (e.g. tone + powder)
conditioned response (CR)
a learned reaction to a CS that occurs because of previous conditioning (e.g. tone > salivation)
what are the stages of classical conditioning?
acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recover, second spontaneous recovery
acquisition
initial stage of learning
extinction
gradual weakening and disappearance of the response tendency; occurs when reinforcement of the response is no longer present
spontaneous recovery
reappearance of extinguished response after a period of non-exposure to CS
an unconditioned response (can be/cannot be) extinguished
cannot be
stimulus generalization
broadening of CS to include similar stimuli (e.g. John Watson’s Little Albert demo > induced a phobia; white rat + loud noise)
stimulus discrimination
can learn to respond to one stimulus and not another if they are not too similar
renewal effect
if a response is extinguished in a different environment from where it was acquired, it will reappear when entering the original environment
evaluative conditioning
change likes and dislikes by pairing with positive or negative stimuli
operant conditioning
a type of conditioning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences
fundamental principle of operant conditioning
organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by favorable consequences
?, building upon the work of ? and other, came up with the notion of reinforcement
BF Skinner; Edward Thorndike
reinforcement
occurs when an event following a response increases the organism’s tendency to make that response (note that what is reinforcing for one person may not be for others; harsh words may be more reinforcing than nothing at all)
operant chamber
created by Skinner; often called “Skinner box”; a lot of early research on OC made use of
reinforcement contingencies
the circumstances or rules that determine how responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers
acquisition of response
the formation of a new response tendency; may have to shape the response - reinforcement of closer and closer approximations to the desired response; used by many animal trainers to get animals to perform complex tasks
discrimination
can make a stimulus a “signal” for when reinforcement is available
primary reinforcers
events that are inherently reinforcing due to satisfying biological needs (food, water, sex, etc.)
secondary reinforcers
those that are conditioned by being associated with primary reinforcements (money, attention, good grades, flattery, etc.)
schedule of reinforcement
a specific pattern of presentation of reinforcers over time
continuous reinforcement
occurs when every instance of a designated response is reinforced; not very resistant to extinction
intermittent reinforcement
occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time
BF Skinner and others spent a great deal of time working out characteristic response to various schedules - there are four main types:
- Fixed-Ratio (FR)
- Variable-Ratio (VR)
- Fixed-Interval (FI)
- Variable-Interval (VI)
fixed-ratio
lower resistance to extinction; only gets reinforced after responds x times; overall rapidly responding with pauses
variable-ratio
higher resistance to extinction; unpredictable when reinforcement occurs, but general idea; don’t pause much (e.g. slot machine)
fixed-interval
lower resistance to extinction; dead period, first response after dead period gives reinforcement, then dead again; long pauses because learn schedule; scalloping effect (e.g. studying for a test)
variable-interval
higher resistance to extinction; unpredictable when reinforcement is coming, so responds frequently but not rapidly; slow, steady rate (e.g. studying because teacher uses pop quizzes)
reinforcement (always/never) causes a response tendency to be STRENGTHENED
ALWAYS
positive reinforcement
the presentation of a “rewarding” stimulus after a response
negative reinforcement
the removal of a noxious or aversive stimulus after a response
negative reinforcement plays a role in
both escape learning (response that ends or decreases an aversive situation) and avoidance learning (response that prevents some aversive stimulation from happening)
punishment
not the same as negative reinforcement; decreases the likelihood that the behavior will occur; can either be the presentation of a negative stimulus following a behavior (e.g. spanking) or the removal of something positive (e.g. grounding/taking away phone)
apply punishment swiftly because
waiting weakens the association between the response and the outcome
use punishment just severe enough to be effective because
too stringent can lead to an emotional response
explain the punishment because
this is more effective than the punishment alone
minimize dependence on physical punishment because
it is more effective to withhold positive things
instinctive drift
animals will drift away from a conditioned response that interferes with an instinctive behavior (e.g. raccoons manipulate or “wash” coins instead of putting them in a box to get food because they hoard shiny things naturally)
conditioned taste aversion
e.g. if you are sick after eating something, you develop an aversion for it; seems to be a clear case of CC, but problems: a long delay b/w eating food and becoming nauseous, one-trial learning, why the food and not anything in between?; exception to normal conditioning
explanation for conditioned taste aversion
found by John Garcia and colleagues; very strong biological behavior that overrides everything else - throw up poison, so connect throwing up to last food you ate
preparedness
involves species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in certain ways and not others (e.g. are you more afraid of snakes or stoves? snakes, even tho you’ve had more negative experiences with stoves); thought that evolutionary forces influence this predisposition
Edward Tolman
early learning theorist who went against the grain of thinking during his time; latent learning and “cognitive maps”
latent learning
e.g. rate in maze learns the way to goal box with food reward; animal who got time to explore the maze first with no goal will solve the maze in fewer tries
“cognitive maps”
e.g. teach animal the turns to get to a goal box, but when put animal in box with many new possible paths, it knows which one to take because it has a sense of direction to where the goal box is - made a mental map
observational learning
investigated extensively by Albert Bandura; occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by watching others; conditioning takes place vicariously by watching others; important in controversy about whether media violence results in more aggression
attention is important because
you have to pay attention in order to remember
memory
the process by which info is retained for later use
3 key processes in memory (describe each)
- encoding (forming a memory code - attention is very important in this)
- storage (maintaining encoded info in memory over time)
- retrieval (recovering info from memory stores)
encoding
attention involves focusing awareness on a narrowed range of stimuli or events; divided attention causes deficits in memory encoding; humans do not truly “multitask” but rather switch attention back and forth, but encoding can differ due to differences in attention level
what are the levels of processing?
shallow, intermediate, and deep
shallow processing encoding type
structural: emphasizes the physical structure of the stimulus
shallow processing question example
is the word written in capital letters?
intermediate processing encoding type
phonemic: emphasizes what a word sounds like
intermediate processing question example
does the word rhyme with weight?
deep processing encoding type
semantic: emphasizes the meaning of verbal input
deep processing question example
would the word fit in the sentence: “he met a ___ on the street”?
elaboration
linking the stimulus to other information (relate to your own experiences)
other influences on encoding
elaboration, visual imagery, motivation to remember
visual imagery
try to visualize connections of different words (e.g. remember the words “cat” and “gold” by imagining a golden cat); harder to do with word pairs like “truth” and “peace,” which are lower in imagery value
information processing theories of memory postulate 3 memory stores
sensory memory, short-term memory, long-term memory
sensory memory
preserves information in its original sensory form for a brief time, usually only a fraction of a second; allows the sensation to linger for a brief time; often considered an afterimage for vision (e.g. glowstick moving in dark)
Atkinson and Shiffrin model
sensory input > sensory memory > attention > short term memory (rehearsal) > storage > long term memory > retrieval > short term memory
short-term memory
a limited capacity store that can maintain unrehearsed information for up to about 20 seconds; can keep it in short term memory for longer with rehearsal (repeating the info over and over - e.g. trying to remember a phone number)
what is the capacity of short-term memory?
classically thought of as 5-9; more current estimate is 3-5; chunking allows you to group similar things to make it count as 1 item
working memory
more recent theories have envisioned STM as a kind of “working memory”; it is a modular area of memory for temporary storage and also manipulation of information; Baddeley’s model
long-term memory
an unlimited capacity store that can hold information over lengthy periods of time
are memories stored in LTM forever?
once thought that they were because of flashbulb memories (e.g. 9-11, though not as accurate as we thought); many memories not lost, we just have a difficult time retrieving them
consolidation
a hypothetical process involving the gradual conversion of new, unstable memories into stable, durable memory codes stored in LTM (essentially STM > LTM); probs ~20min process
how is knowledge in the LTM represnted?
people tend to remember a list of items in organizes groups - a conceptual hierarchy is a multilevel classification system based on common properties among items; schemas; semantic networks
schemas
organized cluster of knowledge about a particular object or even abstracted from previous experience with the object or experience (e.g. picture of a professor’s office with weird things in it)
semantic networks
consist of nodes representing concepts, joined together by pathways that link related concepts (thinking of apple is tied to tree, fruit, red, green, etc.)
retrieval
encoding and storage are not worthwhile if memories cannot be retrieved; we do not pull up “video tapes” of past events though, the memories are reconstructions of the events and can be altered by misleading post-event information (which is problematic for the legal system as the recollection of events can be manipulated by subtle differences in how a question is worded)
Loftis research
the recollection of events can be manipulated by subtle differences in how a question is worded (e.g. watch a video of a two-car collision, “hit” vs “smashed into”)
source monitoring
the process of making inferences about the origins of a memory; a source-monitoring error occurs when a memory derived from one source is misattributed to another source (e.g. attribute something to the Atlantic Monthly when it really came from the National Enquirer)
forgetting
obviously related to retrieval; although frustrating, it would not be good to never forget anything
first to scientifically study forgetting was ? around 1885; was criticized by scientists like ?
Hermann Ebbinghaus; Wundt
Hermann Ebbinghouse in forgetting experiment
used himself as the test subject; learned lists of nonsense syllables and then tested himself on how many he could remember; after mastery, plotted the percentage of retention after different periods of time; “forgetting curve”
recall
have to reproduce the info (e.g. essay tests)
recognition
just have to be able to recognize the information; less forgetting (e.g. multiple choice tests)
relearning
some savings if material was previously learned
why do we forget?
ineffective encoding; “pseudo-forgetting”; due to lack of attention - never really learned
decay
assumes that there is slow deterioration in the physiological processes involved in LTM; difficult to prove; passage of time seems less important that what happens during the time
interference
competition from other information
retroactive interference
new learning interferes with old (e.g. study for econ then psych, psych will interfere will econ)
proactive interference
old learning interferes with new (e.g. study for econ then psych, econ will interfere with psych)
motivated forgetting
became a popular concept due to Freud’s defense mechanism of repression (repression refers to keeping distressing thoughts and feelings buried in the unconscious); difficult area for psychologists b/c one doesn’t want something like sexual abuse to go unpunished, but false memories can and have been planted by overly zealous therapists
engram
a term that has been used by psychologists to be the physiological representation of a memory
McConnell’s work with planaria
small flatworms that live in water that don’t have much of a brain; McConnell wanted to see if they could learn - paired light with shock to water (scrunch up), and eventually light led to them scrunching; he then blended up the educated planaria, extracted their RNA, and injected that RNA into naive planaria, who then scrunched in response to light (has not been replicated)
? stimulated areas that supposedly activated past memories - may not have been real memories
Wilder Penfield
retrograde amnesia
memory for events that occurred prior to the onset of amnesia is lost
anterograde amnesia
memory for events that occur subsequent to the onset of amnesia is lost or compromised
famous case of H.M.
amnesia: H.M. had damage in the entire hippocampal region after surgery to alleviate severe seizures (medial temporal lobe memory system); disrupted consolidation process, so very few new memories could be made
reconsolidation
evidence indicates that when memories are retrieved, they have to be reactivated which can lead to modifications in the memory; very flexible system, but distortions can be introduced into the memories
neurogenesis
new cells may be produced in the hippocampal area; old view was that no new neurons were produced after a certain time
long term potentiation
the ease of synaptic transmission may change with repeated use (in thinking about retrieving memories)
memory systems
more than one; likely operating in different parts of the brain
declarative memory system
factual info, explicit memories
two subsets of declarative memory system
semantic and episodic
semantic memory system
general knowledge, stored undated
episodic memory system
dated recollections of personal experiences
nondeclarative/procedural memory system
actions, perceptual motor skills, conditioned reflexeds, implicit memories
implicit memories
memories we make without conscious knowledge of making them - could be the source of dejavu
retrospective memory
involves remembering events from the past or previously learned information
prospective memory
involves remembering to perform actions in the future (“remember to remember”); an important aspect of memory that is only now being studied extensively; people deficient in this are referred to as “absentminded”
operational definition of intelligence
the score that one achieves on an intelligence test
reification
giving an abstract concept a name and then treating it as if it is a real, tangible object
first serious attempts to try to measure intelligence were done by ? in the mid 1800s and he thought that intelligence was related to ?
Sir Francis Galton; sensory acuity (how well/quickly we perceive things)
Sir Francis Galton believed
in eugenics and that it was a waste to try to educate the masses
first useful intelligence test devised by ? around 1905
Alfred Binet, who believed that intelligence was not a unitary entity but rather was made up of a number of abilities; came to be the Binet-Simon scale
Binet’s test was translated by ? at Stanford University and renamed ?
Louis Terman; “Stanford-Binet Test”
the idea of a single number, the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was suggested by German ?; your IQ is your ? divided by your ?
William Stern; mental age divided by your chronological age (100 = most common score, above 100 = better intelligence)
? introduced a new test for adults that was based not on mental age but rather on the normal distribution; there were verbal and nonverbal scores and he later developed tests for older children and preschoolers
David Wechsler (WAIS - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Score)
