Psych chapter 3: memory and learning Flashcards
habituation
- decrease in response to the same stimulus over time
subthreshold stimulus
- too weak to elicit a response
Dishabituation
- recovery of a response to a stimulus after habituation has occured
Associative learning
- creation of pairing, (association) either between two stimuli or between a behavior and a response
classical conditioning
- associative learning
- takes advantage of biological, instinctual responses to create associations between two unrelated stimuli
- ivan pavlov’s dog
Unconditioned stimulus
- any stimulus that brings about a reflexive response
unconditioned response
- innate or reflexive response
describe pavlov’s dog
- unconditioned stimulus: meat
- would cause dogs to salivate
- neutral stimulus: ringing the bell
would ringbell before placing meat in the dogs mouth. at first not much reaction, over time dogs began to salivate at the ring of the bell
conditioned stimulus
- normally neutral stimulus, through association, causes a reflexive response called a conditioned response
acquisition
- process of using a reflexive, unconditioned stimulus to turn a neutral stimulus into a conditioned stimulus
extinction
loss of a conditioned response
generalization
broadening effect by which a stimulus similar enough to conditioned stimulus can also produce the conditioned response
(little albert and the white mouse)
stimuli discrimination
- organism learns to distinguish between similar stimuli
operant conditioning
- consequences of voluntary behaviors change the frequency of those behaviors
behaviorism
- BF skinner
- all behaviors are conditioned
stimulus added behavior continues: positive reinforcement
stimulus removed behavior continues: negative reinforcement
stimulus added behavior stops: positive punishment
stimulus removed behavior stops: negative punishment
positive reinforcement
- increases the frequency of a behavior by adding a positive consequence or incentive following the desired behavior
(ex: being paid to work)
negative reinforcement
- increases the frequency of a behavior by removing something unpleasant
(ex: taking an aspirin for a headache) - escape learning and avoidance learning
escape learning
- animal experiences the unpleasant stimulus and in response displays the desired behavior in order to trigger the removal of the stimulus
avoidance learning
- animal displays the desired behavior in anticipation of the unpleasant stimulus, so they can avoid the unpleasant stimulus
punishment
- uses conditioning to reduce the occurence of a behavior
positive punishment
adds unpleasant consequence in response to a behavior to reduce the behavior
ex: jail for stealing
negative punishment
- removing a stimulus in order to cause reduction of behavior
ex: not ringing the bell, dogs wont salivate
reinforcement schedule
rate at which desired behaviors are acquired is affected by the resinforcement schedule being used to delicer the sitmuli
fixed ratio schedules
- reinforce a behavior after a specific number of performances of that behavior
( rewarding rat with food after it touches a button 3 times)
variable ratio schedules
- reinforce a behavior after a varying number of performances of the behavior, but such that the average number of performances to receive reward is constant
(ex: reward a rat first after 2 button presses, then eight, then four then six
fixed interval schedules
- reinforce the first instance of a behavior after a specified time period has elapsed
ex: rat has to wait 60 seconds between pellets
variable interval schedules
- reinforce a behavior for the first time that behavior is performed after a varying interval of time
rat has to wait different intervals of time between food
shaping
- process of rewarding increasingly specific behaviors that become closer to a desired response
latent learning
- learning that occurs without a reward but that is spontaneously demonstrated once a reward is introduced
ex: rats in a maze
problem solving
trial and error approach
preparedness
predisposition to a behavior
instinctive drift
- when animal revert to an instinctive behavior after learning a new behavior that is similar
observational learning
- process of learning a new behavior or gaining info by watching ptjers
mirror neurons
- located in frontal and parietal lobes or cerebral cortex
- ## fire when an individual performs an action when that individual observed someone performing that action
encoding
- process of putting new information into memory
- automatic processing
- info gained without any effort
controlled processing
- actively work to gain information
method of loci
associating each item in a list with a location along a route through a building that has already been memorized
peg-word
- associates numbers with items that rhyme with or resemble the numbers
chunking
- take individual elements of a large list and grouping them together into groups of elements with related meaning
sensory memory
- preserves information in its original sensory form eith high accuracy, lasts only a bery short time
iconic memory
- fast decaying memory of visual stimuli
echoic memory
- fast decaying memory of auditory stimuli
short term memory
- fades quickly, over about 30 seconds without rehearsal
memory capacity
- number of items we can hold in our short term memory at any given time ( 7 +- 2)
working memory
- supported by hippocampus
- keep a few pieces of information in our consciousness simultaneously to manipulate that information
0 short term, attention, executive function
long term memory
- limitless warehouse for knowledge, recall on demand for the rest of our lives
elaborative rehearsal
- way to consolidate long term memory
- association of the information to knowledge already stored in long term memory
- relate information to our lives
explicit vs. implicit memory
- sections of long term memory
- explicit: encoding of facts
- implicit: procedure, involving skills and conditioned responses
implicit memory
- skills habits, conditioned responses
- procedural memory
- priming, presentation of one stimulus affecting perception of a second
positive priming
- exposure to the first stimulus improves processing of the second stimulus
negative priming
- first stimulus interferes with the processing of the second stimulus, resulting in slower response times and more errors
explicit memory
- require conscious recall
- episodic and semantic memory
episodic memory
- recollection of life experiences
semantic memory
- ideas, concepts, facts not tied to specific life experiences
retrieval
- something that has been learned has been retained
recognition
- identifying a piece of information that was previously learned…
relearning
- memorizing is easier the second time around
spacing effect
- longer amount of time between relearning, greater retention of the info later
semantic network
- concepts are linked together based on similar meaning
context effect
- memory is aided by being in the physical location where encoding took place
source monitoring
- retrieval process that involves determing origin of memories and whether they are factual or fictional
state-dependent memory
- retrieval cue based on performing better when in the same mental state as when the information was learned
serial position effect
- items position in the list affected the ability to recall
primacy and recency effect
- tendency to remember early and late items in the list
amnesia
- significant loss of memorized information
- source amnesia
alzheimers disease
- degenerative brain disorder
- loss of acetycholine in neurons that link to hippocampus
- dementia (loss of cognitive function), memory loss, retrograde fashion (recent before long term)
sundowning
- increase in dysfunction in the late afternoon and evening
Karsakoff’s syndrome
- memory loss caused by thiamine deficiency in brain
- retrograde maneasia
- anterograde amnesia (inability to form new memories)
- confabulation, process of creating vivid but fabricated memories, thought to be an attempt made by the brain to fill in the gaps of missing memories
agnosia
- loss of the ability to recognize objects, people or sounds
decay
- memories simply lost naturally over time
retention function
- curve of forgetting
interference
retrieval error caused by the existance of other, usually similar information
proactive interference
- old information is interfering with new learning
retroactive interference
- when new information causes forgetting of old information
prospective memory
- remembering to perform a task at some point in the future
reproductive memory
- accurate recall of past events
reconstructive memory
- theory of memory recall in which cognitive processes such as imagination, semantic memory and perception affect the act of remembering
misinformation effect
- recall of an event becomes less accurate due to injection of outside info into the memory
intrusion errors
- false memories that have included a false detail into a particular memory
Source monitoring error
- confusion between semantic and episodic memory: remembers details of an event, confuses the context
neuroplasticity
neural connections that form rapidly in response to stimuli
synaptic pruning
- weak neural connections are broken while strong ones are bolstered, increasing our ability to process information
synaptic cleft
- gap between neuron and target cell
long term potentiation
strengthening of neural connections through repeated use
basis of long term memory
